Reasonable idea or more along the lines of surfing hippie lLast Sea Druids? Feel free to hit me but I liked the idea of Psionic created living constructs in a post Prism Pentad world created by the order or perhapds the Mindlords as an idea for a new body should they decide to "ressurect" themselves via new immortal bodies.
While I'm not a fan of Eberrons Warforged I do like the idea of living constructs. Do you think there is any room on Athas for varient living constructs? I was thinking of human look alike contsructs but with crystal eyes (red, green, blue, violet, yellow etc) with hair the same colour to match. Call them Psi Forged or something and have them created by the epic life seed.
Reasonable idea or more along the lines of surfing hippie lLast Sea Druids? Feel free to hit me but I liked the idea of Psionic created living constructs in a post Prism Pentad world created by the order or perhapds the Mindlords as an idea for a new body should they decide to "ressurect" themselves via new immortal bodies.
Weren't the elan a created psi race ????
Granted - not quite a construct.
Psyforged (Also feel free to suggest a better name than Psyforged.)
Perhaps created by an unknown Psion of vast power the Psiforged are almost unknown in the Tyr region- any such PC would be the 1st and even then may not be selected as a PC race until Free Year 11. In an advanced Athas timeline (FY300-1000) they arrive in the Tyr region although they form no communities of their own. Unless an NPC knows better most people assume they're a mutant race from the depths of the desert or from the Pristine Tower.
The Psyforged appear as attractive humans who are perfectly formed and almost look as if they have been sculpted. They have no body hair however and their facial hair matches their crystal eyes which appear like brightly coloured cut glass. Most commen eye colours are ruby, emerald, topaz, amethyst, although a rare few have metallic coloured eyes and hair. Their skeliton appears to be human but is made out of living crystal with living flesh growing on it. Although they have no biological need to eat, sleep,breathe or have sex they can perform any biological function a normal human can. Psyforged are very emotional and tend to form intense bonds of love or hate towards an individual.
Psyforged have no memories of who created them although they seem to vaguely remember a yellow coloured sun and ethereal beings. Such memories may be some form of psychic amnesia regarding their creation or left over memories from another time on Athas. Some sages speculate they are created by some green age self-aware artifact that has recently become active after a long period or dormancy. A starting Psiforged character may not however start as a member of an arcane casting class but may multiclass normally into such a class.
Psyforged have the following racial traits.
-+2 Strength,+2 Dexterity +2 Cha
- Psyforged base land speed is 30 feet.
-Secial Qualities: Living Construct Traits (see Monster Manual 3/Eberron Campaign Setting),
- Darkvision 60 feet
- Bonus Endurance Feat
- Endure Elements (ex) This ability mirrors the ability of the spell of the same name. Psyforged are largely unaffected by the extreme heat of Athas.
-Immortal. Psyforged do not age, nor do they modify their ability scores due to a long lifespan.
Level Adjustment +1 (maybe 2 but seems weak compared to other ECL +2 races).
Perhaps needs a little tweak in a couple of areas but I like the concept very much.
The psychic amnesia aspect is not new, however you may have intended it to be that way.
The character Mahtra in the Pavek / Uric novels - Cinnabar Shadows and RaFoaDK - also has these kind of vague memories also of her creators.
If I could make another couple of suggestions....
I would go the other way with their emotions (to make a difference from the maenads). Have the psiforged cool and calm most of the time, making them seem withdrawn on first appearance.
Also their appearance, I like the crystaline elements of both skeleton and eyes but I would have it extend to their external physical appearance too.
Their skin could be slightly crystaline, both in texture and look.
This would also go some way to explaining there resistance to the athasian temperature extremes.
I would give them a slightly unearthly (or it that unathasian ;) ) appearance.
f.
The concept of living constructs on Athas bothers me slightly. I feel that it steps on the niche life shaping fills in the setting. Can't give you a specific reason why feel that way though. I'll mull it over and comment further later.
To me seems to be the next logical step up from Psi Crystals and intelligent Psionic Constructs. Its also why I put them in a post PP game so I don't have to try and convince ppl to run them. I want them to appear very humanlike though. The Life seed for example can be used to create new races or ressurrect an ancient (extinct??) race.
I'd spin it in that the living construct was once a psicyrstal that had several personality types implanted into it (ala improved psicrystal feat) that either broke away from its master or whose master has passed away.
You could also go the route that a dying group of Green Age psions transferred there life essence into their psicrystal as a last ditch effort in avoiding an unknown fate. Admittedly, thats a bit "Mind Lordish" but it could be tweaked to be less so.
It wouldn't necessarily have to be linked back the green age however.
I know there is a big thread on green age psionics at the moment but could these things not just evolve and first show themselves in the present (post PP).
- Mid level psionicist uses the improved psicrystal feat and finds his psicrystal wandering off at in increasing speed.
- Tasked by the order to investigate several of these reports.
- Tracks psicrystal (somehow) to remote location where more psicrystals seem to be drawn to.
- Discovers an enclave of new beings - psiforged.
- Witnesses firsthand the psicrystal morph into a psiforged.
Adventure oportunities aplenty :D
Just some random thoughts. :P
IMO, if you want to go this route I'd base the living construct on a Rhulisti life-shaped creature that either managed to survive the myriad of changes over the millenia since the Blue Age and actually evolved/adapted into a self-replicating race of some sort. I think you could justify this with a creative enough background.
I- Discovers an enclave of new beings - psiforged.
- Witnesses firsthand the psicrystal morph into a psiforged.
Adventure oportunities aplenty :D
Just some random thoughts. :P
It could be that they morph into a weaker, but intelleigent, form of the Psion-Killer (aka crystal golems) from the XPH.
Warforged were soldiers created and used during the cleansing wars by both sides for a whole variety of reasons. The key to Athasian warforged are the obsidian orbs impregnated with that are placed within the hollowed out abdomen of a warforged body.
The orb then animates and controls the body sort of like krang and the body that shredder built for him. Just follow all the normal rules for warforged.
The Green Age had Psionic Obsidian Orbs, but I think the magical trends on Athas steer more towards the transmutative. A mechanical construction, even in bone and leather seems somehow un-athasian to me.
disguising who they are. (comes in handy when you are as long lived as a SK but have far less power).I'm leaning a lot towards the psicrystal tranformation, but I'd prefer that variant be after a psions death, just to sever any ties to a PC or in game play. Perhaps this could be tied to the banshee transformation of dwarves with their unfulfilled focus?? dwarf psion dies, goes banshee, his old psicrystal leaves and forms a new life drawing on energies of the psichic 'trauma' of the dying dwarf psion.. or something :P
Would you rank the Obsidian Man of Urik as a living construct or something else?
Just an intelligent construct. In 3.5 either an advanced intelligent Stone Golem,or unique construct with CR 16-20 or maybe epic if you need it to challenge Hamanu. My next DS game will probably be set in Free Year 1000 or so. I own alot of D&D and FR sourcebooks so if I can mine them for information I will. Even I'm not suggesting this race for a classic DS game as my idea would be focusing on the recovery of Athas. Are the followng traits to powerful/weak for the LA?
Psyforged have the following racial traits.
-+2 Strength,+2 Dexterity +2 Cha
- Psyforged base land speed is 30 feet.
-Secial Qualities: Living Construct Traits (see Monster Manual 3/Eberron Campaign Setting),
- Darkvision 60 feet
- Bonus Endurance Feat
- Endure Elements (ex) This ability mirrors the ability of the spell of the same name. Psyforged are largely unaffected by the extreme heat of Athas.
-Immortal. Psyforged do not age, nor do they modify their ability scores due to a long lifespan.
These Psiforge lay on the bottem of the Silt Sea inactive and can't be played as a PC. This would stop people from asking "Is there Warforged?" I'd say "Yes"
should they ask can I play one? "No, Warforged were never activated and now lay at the bottom of the Silt Sea." :D
If they are living, why would they be immortal? Just wondering.
Outsiders and elementals are alive and usually immortal. More of a storyline for my post pentad game involving the Mindlords deciding to create new bodies- bodies that won't age requiring them to reenter obsidian orbs. I don't think age is that much of an issue in most games I've ever played in so its not exactly unbalencing.
I think that using the wraforged stats but changing some of the description would work. Obsidian is already described as being used in their creation. All that would need to be stated is that it is a major component in their creation. Personally, I would keep the warforged stats with these adjustments:
=> changing the name is optional as warforged works, but it may not be DS enough. Psiforged or Psyforged (already presented by others) are both interesting and would make good choices.
=> and additional +2 to Constitution. Much like dwarves and other races having their prime stat getting the additional boost, I think the warforged deserves the same consideration.
=> the races all gain an inborn power, the warforged could gain one as well. Being a creature built for war I would suggest either crystal shard or hammer. I would even go so far as giving them the choice to choose between the two of them. So, this choice with 3 extra power points to start and all the rest of the mechanics that go with inborn powers.
=> LA would increase to +1.
Beyond that, they could have been created by implanting personalities in the obsidian bodies.
Something else I thought of is an additional feat that would allow the warforged to use his body to hold an additional psionic focus much like the Psicrystal Containment feat allows a psion to store an additional psionic focus in his psicrystal. I might even go so far as to make that an inherent ability if it doesn't seem to unbalance the build.
Just some thoughts.
If it is a NPC, then I would use the rules for Gaurdians with the following additions. (This is something I was working on for my Bastion region)
1) The Obsidian orbs are in the chest or are the "head" of a medium or large animated object (pick your type, stone statue makes the most sense). They follow all the rules for animated objects as far as attacks and special features.
2) Any power that has a range of "self" can be used on the animated object as if it were the orb. They are one creature in that sense. For attack bonus use the higher of the two scores. Add the hitpoints together. The AC would stack together, modified for size changes.
This would make for some interesting creatures, and I do plan on writing them up at some point. Of course, I do many many evil things with Guardians. My PC's are going to face that this weekend
