Constructivus

As detailed in the last article, there's a lot of fun to be had with minor creation, especially when it's available at level 1, if you're a shaper. I decided to quickly throw together a character to showcase how to make use of the power's versatility, without being a one-trick pony. That said, of course, even focusing completely on minor creation means you're never short on options.

Here, then, as proof of concept, is Constructivus, the warforged shaper.


Constructivus, NG warforged psion (shaper)

(24 point buy)
Str 10, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 6

7 HP, 18 AC, DR 2/-
Speed 20 feet
Fort +3, Ref +0, Will +2

Slam +0 melee (1d4 bludgeoning) or Shortspear +0 melee (1d6 piercing) or Light crossbow +0 ranged (1d8 piercing, 19-20)

Feats: Adamantine Body, Psicrystal Affinity - artiste
Skills: Concentration +7, Craft (alchemy) +7, Craft (armorsmithing) +7, Craft (bowmaking) +7, Craft (poisonmaking) +10, Craft (weaponsmithing) +7, Craft (woodworking) +8, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) +4, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +4, Knowledge (history) +4, Knowledge (nature) +4, Knowledge (psionics), Knowledge (the planes) +4
Special Qualities: living construct (immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, being sickened, and energy drain), light fortification

Powers: Matter Agitation, Psionic Minor Creation, Vigor. 3 PP

Equipment: light crossbow, 20 bolts, shortspear, artisan's tools, mule, pack saddle, bit and bridle, five days' feed, three vials, shovel, hemp rope, two empty sacks, four belt pouches, ten-foot pole, ten flasks, flint and steel, backpack, caltrops, crowbar, three torches, 2 copper pieces

6'3", 280 lbs. Languages: Common, Draconic, Sylvan, Undercommon



Constructivus is a stubborn old man.
There's more to it than that, but we should get that out of the way first. He's been around for a long time, he's seen and done a lot, and he's basically an absent-minded, friendly-but-not-warm, old man.

Like every other warforged (apparently?) he was made for the purpose of war, long ago. He was young then and, while perhaps not naive, his mind was still undeveloped. He did what he was made to do, silently and straightforwardly. Eventually the conflict came to an inevitable finish, and like so many others, Constructivus Epsilon VIII, rear infantry of the 47th regiment of Strike Team Beta, found himself without purpose. Left directionless, his thoughts turned to what he knew: and at this point, all he knew was warfare. The biggest thing that had stuck with him was the difference between warforged and the other 'common' races. There was something different about them, and while either died if you chopped 'em up, they didn't react quite the same and they certainly didn't look the same on the inside.

While the observational experiences he could draw on were limited, Constructivus was (and is) in fact highly intelligent. He knew that he was a living construct, and to better understand the difference between him and the simply living, he would need to experiment. At first, he bought animals as pseudo-test subjects. Not for dissection or anything so morbid, simply to watch something live, breathe, sleep, eat... and eventually die. As decades and the lives of animals went by, he grew more and more refined, civilized and empathic. He no longer took in test subjects but rather pets, which he genuinely cared for. The nature of life and what made it up held no dark secrets. While he did not take life for granted, he understood that the body was simply a vessel for the mind, and like any vessel it was built up of component parts. He was just like anyone else, "he" being a consciousness: his vessel was simply different, made of wood and adamantine.

It was when he was enlightened on how the body was 'built' that Constructivus unlocked his latent psionic potential. Rudimentary manifestations that were hitherto unexplained had been the vestiges of something powerful, lying dormant: the power to build and create, purely with the power of his mind. Christened what most would call a 'shaper,' Constructivus could create organic matter out of thin air - and from his decades of study and research into what made up materials both living and unliving, he had plenty of experience shaping it into items as needed. Now he is eager to apply his abilities, curious to see what other powers he can unlock and wonders he can create - physically or otherwise. Part psion, part alchemist and part walking tank, he's certain to make a mark on the world.

Constructivus travels with his current pet, an apathetic mule that serves as a pack animal for the sundry items he collects almost compulsively. Various pouches, flasks and vials are for storing materials either found or made through minor creation. He's trying to get into the world of adventuring, but finds it to generally be a young person's domain - every adventuring party seems to be a glorified pack of hooligans, waving swords around and playing that awful lute music so loud. While not senile by any stretch, he mutters about uppity youngsters to his psicrystal, his pet mule or even himself.


Minium

Among Constructivus's most involved undertakings was creating a psicrystal, or a miniature vessel to be inhabited by a fragment of his consciousness. Named after a crystalline lead oxide, Minium manifested as an artiste personality, proving that there was a creative, even pretentious streak underneath the Warforged's stubborn utilitarianism. Single-minded by necessity and something of a diva, Minium is something of a foil to Constructivus. It constantly urges him to make things better and more beautiful, and to make the most of the art in anything - even the art of combat.

In terms of game statistics, its artiste personality give Constructivus a +3 bonus to all Craft checks, figured into the statistics above. Since it shares his ranks in Craft, it also always makes an Aid Another attempt on his Craft checks, styling itself as a muse or mentor even if it's just a fragment of his own personality. Thus, even at level 1, Constructivus is able to hit the DCs for just about anything he wants when made with psionic minor creation.


How to Play

I suppose there's no sense getting too much depth into roleplaying, since that's not really what this article (or entire blog!) is about. With this being a proof of concept, I didn't really need more than a paragraph pointing out that you can hit most Craft DCs for minor creation at level 1, but here we are. I'll throw in a few tips and tricks for piloting this clockwork curmudgeon.

• You've got 18 AC and even DR 2/-. Especially when you consider the price of full plate, that's basically unaittanable at level 1 by any character that isn't a warforged. Stacking temporary hit points from vigor on top of that should leave you basically invulnerable, and your impressive list of immunities makes it hard to get around having to make traditional attacks. Survivability shouldn't be a big worry.
• That said, the front lines are not your place. You still have 7 hp, 10 Str and a +0 BAB. Support your frontline fighters with matter agitation, or crossbow bolts if necessary. While you can shield the squishier classes, you don't exactly relish being forced to make concentration checks.
• I opted for Adamantine Body for that early-game survivability, but if you wanted a more offensive investment, Psiforged Body gets you more power points. If your DM allows retraining, this would be a weird trade to make down the line.
• You are completely immune to poison of all kind, meaning you can douse your weapons, your enemies and yourself in contact poisons from minor creation without any fear. You might not be a good grappler, but you will be a deadly one.
• Flasks can hold poisons or alchemical substances made with minor creation, serving as makeshift bombs.
• Darkwood shields, something you can trivially make with minor creation, have no armor check penalty. Hint, hint.
• You don't need to eat, but minor creation can make food for your fleshy companions, or - more importantly - your pet mule!
• Don't forget that your psicrystal can Aid Another on all of your craft checks, including checks to manually repair yourself overnight. With aid and a warforged repair kit, you should be able to heal 6 damage overnight by taking 10. That's enough to bring you up to full from any amount over 0.
• Pick up masterwork artisan tools as soon as you can. If I'm reading the entry right, a single set provides a +2 bonus to every and all craft checks. You should be able to afford one (and a warforged repair kit, while you're at it) long before level 2. Even if you need one set for each kind of Craft, they'll still be worth it. I mean, roleplaying, man.

Advancement

Constructivus's choice of discipline, especially combined with his race, makes for the beginnings of an ideal Constructor... though that could get confusing with his name. Sacrificing manifester levels is a steep cost indeed, but buffing astral construct to high heaven may just be worth the price of admission. Nonetheless, all shapers should make heavy use of astral construct, an ideal power to take at level 2. Your other power of choice should be ecto protection if you're going for a Constructor down the line, or entangling ectoplasm if you're sticking with straight Shaper. Since he's not particularly powerful on the physical side of things, filling the battlefield with astral consructs and lending support with ranged attacks and powers should suit him fine.

At level 3, you unlock level 2 powers and another feat. At this point share pain allows for the vigor/share pain combo with Minium, which when combined with Constructivus's AC and DR, should make him virtually invulnerable against level-appropriate threats. If you really want to compound the fact, psionic repair damage is an extremely powerful and PP-efficient source of healing that only Warforged get to enjoy - and again, it's a prerequisite for Constructors. Plus, he can even cast it on himself and share it with Minium, making for incredible survivability. It's probably overkill (antikill?), though, and I'd likely delay picking up psionic repair damage until level 4 in favour of control sound or amethyst burst.

For feat choices, Boost Construct is worthwhile for any shaper and is again a prerequisite for Constructor. Overchannel is probably worth using on any psion, especially on a character who can resist and repair damage so easily.

Down the line, Linked Power helps you abuse the action economy and is especially nice with psionic minor creation - now you can can create anything you want in one round instead of ten! Linking ecto protection and battlefield control powers with manifestations of astral construct will make for very powerful and versatile high-level tactics. Also you "only pay the pp cost" of the Linked Power... meaning you don't pay XP costs. But that's only if you're feeling a little silly.

Eventually, Expanded Knowledge is worth it to learn a power like metamorphosis. Since Constructivus is a construct, you can turn into one, unlike most manifesters. The fact that you and your psicrystal are both the same type is a rare privilege, so being able to turn both of you into Psion-Killers with one power should make for a good time. For real cheese, throw in manifestations of synchronisity. Stand next to your metamorphosed psicrystal, share synchronisity with it - you use your prepared action to manifest synchronisity again, and it uses its action to attack. Repeat as necessary or until you run out of power points, but at one attack per, you'll probably run out of foes first.

If You Build It, They Will Die

That about sums things up. Again, this guide wasn't meant to be an end-all, be-all "play this build or else." Heaven help you if you even suggest "roleplay this character or else." If you have the right chassis in place, a character can be workably built around minor creation even from creation. Most level 1 tricks that aren't "hit it with a sharpened stick" won't level very gracefully, but this spell (er, power) is one that will only get more versatile and applicable with each level.