>Anything you can do, I can do better.
I've run into a bit of a dead-end problem regarding a player who is a sapient, free-willed construct. They're all but indestructible.
Most forms of elemental magic do jack shit, and physical attacks are just liable to chip at them at worst. They -can- be damaged, but it takes some serious firepower to do it- either huge fall damage, a very powerful caster, or some monstrously huge beasty that chews boulders for breakfast.
The other characters involved are regular Joe Schmoes, so if I conjured up the kind of world-splitting mega-wizards needed to crack that egg, the others would be incinerated in an instant if they paid attention to the squishies in the group.
What sorts of threats can I conjure up that are actually threatening to said construct, short of tossing them in the large body of water or pulling out the magic "Would You Kindly" remote control? Them having their free will and not being chained to some megalomaniac caster is kinda important to how their story has developed thus far.
>>44115618
Why did you let them play something so OP to begin with without giving the other players some things to compensate?
>>44115618
Oh, forgot to note that I'm also reluctant to blast them to smithereens at any given moment because the possibility for proper repair is rare at best- they're from a lost age and there's only really one place they can get a tune-up.
I want the danger to be there without just going "yeah you've been chipped to death over the course of several adventures".
>>44115618
anti-cyborg martial arts using oscillatory waves to destroy hardened objects
Stone Dragon manuevers (Mountain hammer and the like)
Basically, I just got done reading battle angel alita last order, and you should read that.
>>44115642
Because I'm a dumb person who does dumb things. Also because I started it with "sure, it won't be much of a problem, this will be much more story-centric and not really intended to be combat based". But it's hard for there to be tension without some kind of mortal danger either on the horizon or in the present.
>>44115618
Well, depending on what they are made of they may have low specific elemental resistance.
Copper would be more susceptible to heat than cold and especially resistant to electricity, less so to acid, while something like steel will have decent fire resist, middling cold, and not much for acid.
You're not giving us enough detail. But generally speaking, acid will fuck them up, and so will untyped magical damage most likely.
Firstly you need to give us exact stats and such on the character. And maybe the setting would be fucking useful.
How are they made?
If they're solely mechanical with a magical soul, give them a weakness to electricity. Discuss it with them first, obviously, but machines do not mix with electricity, magic or not.
If they're completely magical, just make a mage designed explicitly to take them down - not through inflicting damage, but through destroying their mechanisms. Basically, a magical EMP, fine-tuned for ruining their day.
Even if you only throw it out once, if you're running a big-bad, maybe they start throwing in more electricity into their arsenal (or the magetype that EMPs them), depending on how much they care about the players.
But also what system?
>>44115655
What if it was damaged in a debilitating, but not game ending way? I imagine the loss of an arm could do the trick.
>>44115687
Go for subdual. Even if they're bulletproof, that doesn't mean they couldn't be wrestled to the ground or otherwise immobilized.
>>44115618
GIVE THEM PROBLEMS THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO SOLVE BY BEING STRONG YOU IDIOT
THAT WAY THE PLAYER EITHER A. WILL STOP BEING OP IN THE CONTEXT OF CHALLENGES OR
B. WILL COME UP WITH ENTERTAINING WAYS FOR STRONGNESS TO STILL ASSIST
I MEAN SHIT, WHAT IF THE PROBLEM IS "we need a forest here because of desertification"?
HE COULD SOLVE IT BY BEING A ROBOT AND PLANTING ALL THE TREES, SURE, BUT THAT WOULD TAKE A THOUSAND YEARS. NOW HE HAS TO LOOK FOR ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS. OR A TIME MACHINE.
>>44115618
You could make a story of how, by cursed magix, he is turning into a human. Slowly, through a span of 40 years or so.
Maybe he likes it. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe he falls in love.
Maybe he will be washed away. Like tears... in rain...
>>44115777
this is awful.
>>44115693
Magical-constructed substance somewhere between steel and concrete, but much more durable. Very, very high melting point, as these things were made to defend against/combat casters and knuckledraggers alike.
Acid seems like a good route to go with. Freezing wouldn't do much damage but would be good for incapacitating them if I want them to not just "tank" everything with their face and give other chars a chance to shine.
Homebrew setting. Don't have statblocks handy, but I'm thinking more along the lines of fluff- what would just "make sense".
>>44115711
This. Destroy a critical, but not too critical conponent.
>>44115794
Let OP be the judge of that.
>>44115904
it's just
"Make them be some other race"
>>44115798
Could electricity be used to give them a jolt? Might be a good idea to have 'temporary damage' of sorts where if he takes a lot of stess or trauma to his magical core, he shuts down and has to recharge (effectively falling unconscious)
possible ROBOT PROBLEMS:
1. power. Where does power come from? sounds like it might cause problems.
2. they are literally the most disposable party member and should be used for all dumb or dangerous ideas
3. "whoops, the rope broke. you'll have to find a way up, robot"
4.TIIIIIIIIIIME
5. he can still form emotional connections
>>44115751
I feel like a dumbo for not considering that. I always think "they're very strong" so I never thought to throw physical challenges at them, having forgotten that there is, in fact, stronger shit. Or just a lot of weaker shit. A big dogpile of fatties, for instance.
>>44115702
The process turns a human into a construct, essentially destroying the original body by transmuting it into the aforementioned stone-like substance but keeping the soul bound to it. Although a more expensive process than simply manufacturing a golem, they're much more capable and need less time to figure out how to learn and reason.
Electricity wouldn't do much. They're semi-conductive, but it wouldn't interfere with their internal workings.
>>44115777
Kinda goes against their purpose of their creation to begin with. I gave the construct the option to regain their humanity (and memories) through divine means, but they refused, deeming that being nigh-indestructible was far more useful for keeping their new friends alive. Memories are nice, but images of a long-lost age won't stop blades aimed at your allies.
>>44115755
;_;
>>44115618
No healing magic, so any damage a construct suffers is going to be with it until it can find its way to an expert craftsman capable of manufacturing replacement parts.
In a pre-modern setting, the average country might only have a couple such craftsmen, and they're likely only in the largest cities and would charge an extraordinary price.
>>44115994
Enemy wizards might make magical attacks on the party's souls and minds that are no more or less efficacious against robot men than meat men because they have the same parts in that respect.
>>44115926
No, it is facing the character with a fate that may or maynay be in his hand.
Think of this for a bit: You are told you have cancer and have 6 months to live. Would you shitpost until the end, or embrace your fragile existence and live it to the fullest?
Would YOU go gentle into that good night? Or rage, rage against the dying of the light?
>>44116090
now not only is it a "you are this race now, enjoy", it is also a timer on your character.
This is hitting several red flags for GM quality.
>>44115972
1. Most recent encounter has left their core partially exposed. Knocking that out would basically be like a shot in the heart, needless to say.
2. They're also the only one with any real goals or personal direction.
3. That's happened a few times. Being super dense isn't so great for getting around.
4. ???
5. Also true.
>>44116066
So just chipping away at them 'til they're no longer suitable to fight and have to return to their base halfway across the world while the living party members are able to just mend broken bones with some mending and couple days?
That doesn't really feel like I'm giving them a challenge or danger, though- just like I'm telling them to go sit in the corner while the rest of the party does things without them.
If it's got the learning capabilities benefit over normal constructs due to its previous humanity then illusion magic should make an effective weakness.
>>44115618
It's the classic anime meets monty hall problem.
Your pcs are too overpowered by the awesome loot you gave them what do you do.
Here are two possible solutions:
Solution #1
Most likely the player in question will understand why you scale back their toys so they have less resistances, and perhaps you could introduce an artifact that allows him to heal his damage lightly so he doesn't die from having all his defenses suddenly lowered.
Solution #2
If you talking to your players and figuring it out like adults is out of the question there's really only one thing to do.
UP THE POWER LEVEL.
Make the rest of the party follow, Joe Schmoes finds the hat of awesome that somehow only responds to him, because his grandfather was blessed because he was the best at giving blowjobs (or whatever, it's his personal loot, stop worrying about it and accept that other ppl need toys too)
Thus upping the power level of the group to the amount where all the pcs can handle the crack-wizardry that you kindda wanted from the get-go with this race of super-robots.
#3 I guess you could start playing to the players weaknesses, but it kindda sucks, because perhaps the players strengths are some of the things you all prefer to play.
Grease spells on the construct. Because while they may be incredibly durable, that means nothing if they can't stay on their feet for more than three seconds at a time. Or go for tripping foes-an adamantine warforged I made got kept off balance pretty well by a wolf who kept tripping him, for example. Just approach him with more plans than hitting him very hard.
>>44116087
>Enemy wizards might make magical attacks on the party's souls and minds
>>44116155
>illusion magic should make an effective weakness
>>44116157
>Joe Schmoes finds the hat of awesome that somehow only responds to him, because his grandfather was blessed because he was the best at giving blowjobs
Rust monsters.
Do they have anyone they care for? Any NPC's they're particularly fond of? Have a BBEG kidnap them and threaten to start mailing them the NPC one joint at a time unless they do exactly what they say. Have the next fight take place on fragile terrain like a frozen lake bed that can't support their weight. Have a villain take an entire market square hostage and throw delayed blast fireballs into the crowd, now they have to hustle after them and dive on top of the spells before it goes off and cooks 20-50 peasants each time!
>>44116130
The idea is to discourage the construct's player from just rushing in and solo-ing every encounter, not to actually take them out of play.
Ideally you'd never have to play the "you are incapacitated by damage and need to be shipped back to the capital for repairs" card.
>>44116263
>Ideally you'd never have to play the "you are incapacitated by damage and need to be shipped back to the capital for repairs" card.
Also, if you did play that card, just have them play a stand-in character in the meanwhile, just if one of the Joe Schmoes had died and needed to re-roll their character, but they just get to come back.
>>44115618
What's even the system?
You might just not quite know how to perform with these parameters.
Nothing to be ashamed of if that's the case, look at THE ENTIRETY OF PAIZO ADVENTURES AND PFS IN REGARDS TO GUNSLINGERS.
Have it so that in some big climactic event, they take critical damage that normal repairs don't fix. While they can still get back to full health, perhaps what got damaged was their immunities or something- loss of plating? Okay, you can still be sturdy, but your weak points are more exposed and you're now vulnerable to crits. Ignoring most elemental damage? Someone above mentioned their core becoming exposed, I imagine such a thing would be far more delicate than the rest of the construct and more susceptible to energy damage.
I've found that, if there's a logical explanation for some debuff and the hope that it can be removed with effort, you can slap an amazing amount of crap on player characters and the good ones will just roll with it and end up using it to make tthe character even better.
If it's the kind of player that bitches about minor debuffs? Then you're kinda boned.
>>44116157
> the player in question will understand why you scale back their toys so they have less resistances
I don't know why more people haven't suggested this. Honestly, just approach the player and tell him what you've told us. If you're reasonable about it and explain yourself well, it should be fine.
You should first ask him if he's willing to un-OP his character, by taking away or modifying some of his strengths. I've done this once, and the players agreed after much complaining. If he's unreasonable, then he's a bastard, and you should find a fair but difficult to avoid way to annihilate the character. I've also done this, but because the character was fucking stupid as fuck and everyone in the group wanted him gone and for the player to do something less grating.
>>44116313
>Nothing to be ashamed of if that's the case, look at THE ENTIRETY OF PAIZO ADVENTURES AND PFS IN REGARDS TO GUNSLINGERS.
>>44115755
That made Lucca sad and you should feel bad!
>>44116455
In Pathfinder, a huge chunk of "difficulty" implemented both in adventures* is of the "This Orc is bigger. It has one morehit-die AND is wearing plate instead of leather, which makes this fight very difficult" variety. Gunslingers target Touch-AC in their first range increment (do note that means "even a stubby dorf's charge range").
So, 'slingers make many supposedly-tough encounters a cakewalk by sheer virtue of "literally nothing happened that he would notice".
They got around this through massive nerfs, bans and heavy price restrictions to keep them from being used.
A similar affair was the old Crane Wing style, where a monk could, by level 11 or so, auto-block a single attack a round completely. This is FUCKING NOTHING (but nice to have) versus shit that's attacking you 6 times a round for easily 1/3 your health per hit... Except many of the encounters in those adventures are single humanoids doing single standard attacks, which means the monk was "invulnerable".
In other words, sometimes, it's not the ability, it's the design. If we know what system you use, we can help you find the holes in his build.
Not that you should get rid of the one guy that's actually fucking roleplaying. The "Give him dilemas that aren't directly solved by IS HARD AND STRONG" idea is your best bet: I personally love - as a player - having to figure out how to solve all those puzzles when all I have is a hammer (well okay a beam cannon).
Creative applications of STRONG to try and solve things completely unrelated to STRONG can be entertaining and hilarious. Like our barbarian a few months back...
>*though the other chunk in that case is encounters well beyond the party's means unless they are specifically a group of casters with the appropriate spells for the encounter; we're talking "you have no hope of winning initiative on this thing and its first act is a DC 20+ mind control on half the party because you're level 2" situations sometimes here
>>44115618
Sounds like the Dalek problem. I think you need some stairs.
>>44115618
Consider making a virus, or some other inorganic "disease" or condition that only they can get.
