Special Conversion Thread: Sheens

[demiurge1138]

The advancement sounds good. As for weight... 150 pounds? They are made out of metals, after all, although probably lightweight ones. Sheens should speak their own language, and the basic ones shouldn't speak anything else.

 

[freyar]

That all sounds pretty good to me. These seem basically done, then.

 

[Shade]

Updated (with flavor text, too).

Shall we work on the ore-recovery walker sidebar now?

 

[demiurge1138]

Sure!

 

[Shade]

Yes. I also think we could give it the ability to find metals and minerals, like a rod of metal and mineral detection.

Before we move on, I forgot this, which has merit.

How's this?

Detect Resources (Ex): A walker's technology allows it to continuously locate the largest mass of metal within 30 feet. As a full-round action, the walker can concentrate on a specific metal or mineral. If the specific mineral is within 30 feet, the walker knows the exact location and approximate quantity. If more than one deposit of the specified metal or mineral is within range, the walker senses the largest cache first.

 

[demiurge1138]

Well, I think the ore-recovery walker only should have that ability.

 

[Shade]

Ahh, in that case we can move on.

I agree that miners should get a better Dexterity score. Plasma shovel based on flame blade, but typeless and ignores up to 10 points of hardness?

Sure! And 30 ft long...

Dex 12?

Oh, I missed that it's a line. In that case, no need for a high Dex--its more of a breath weapon than a ranged attack.

The fact that it narrows is kind of weird. The "skilled touch" bit would indicate a higher Dex, I think, but you're right that it works more like a breat weapon. Well, I'm fairly happy either way; maybe it doesn't need much control to get the minerals out.

What's the hardness of minerals? 8 and higher, right? Perhaps it only affects creatures and materials with a hardness less than 8.

demiurge, do you mean lower than hardness 8 for the plasma shovel? That seems fair to me.

 

[freyar]

I like the ability, but maybe all walkers can have it -- that way the regular ones (of which there are presumably more) can tell the ore-recovery ones where to go. That's not a big point, though.

 

[demiurge1138]

Did we mean to keep minerals in the detection, or just metals? From the original text, it seems that they're more interested in the metals.

freyar raises a very good point.

 

[Shade]

I'd be happy to give it to all walkers.

As for whether to include minerals, it seems it is open to interpretation. I'm inclinded to say "yes":

...their single goal is their own expansion—at the expense of local resources.

Cysts require a specialized mix of resources, which walkers are suited to locate. When a walker finds the appropriate mineral and environmental conditions, it returns to its cyst with the report.

Additionally, walkers specialized for ore recovery (called miners) are common in areas rich in the mineral resources sought by a growing cyst.