Destined to follow the Sun, Forever. . . [3.5 Construct]

[Ninjalitude]

This is my 1st homebrew in a long time, so i hope it lives up to the standards of my fellow playgrounders. I know that the speed it would require would be different in real life, suggestions welcomed.

Sunsteel Runner
Large Construct
Hit Dice 10d10+30 (90)
Speed 100 ft. (20 squares);
Initiative: +7
Armor Class 25; touch 13; flat-footed 17
(-1 size +4 Dex +12 natural)
Base Attack/Grapple +7,+2 /+15
Attack slam 1d8+9 x2 +16
Full-Attack 2 slams 1d8+9 +16/+11
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks trample (1d8+13 reflex DC24), spell like abilities
Special Qualities Construct traits, Sun powered, fast healing 5, DR 15/adamantite, Stasis, Spell-like abilities, lightrunner
Saves Fort +3 Ref +7 Will +3
Abilities Str 28, Dex 18, Con -, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 16
Skills tumble +17 spot +13
Feats Improved initiative, mobility, dodge, spring attack
Environment anywhere outdoors, never at night
Organization solitary
Challenge Rating 8
Treasure no gold, no gems, triple goods
Alignment neutral
Advancement -
Level Adjustment -

You wander upon a well-trodden path, in the distance you see a large rapidly approaching glimmer. As it gets nearer you see that it is in fact a golden construct the size of a horse with one massive wheel instead of legs and an ornately tooled torso extending above.

Legends say that Sunsteel Runners were created by ancient artificers with limited access to magic, so instead they chose to use the never ending power of the sun. They used a rare metal from the upper planes called sunsteel, which absorbed the power of the sun a siphoned it into the construct itself. Unfortunately for its creators, it developed sentience and realized that there was no reason for it to have to power down at the end of every night when instead it could follow the sun and never have to leave itself vulnerable.

Sunsteel Runners travel the material plane following the path of the sun. they move at such incredible speeds that they can actually travel at the speed of the sun. Due to the fact that they traverse the same routes there are often straight “Roads” that they follow, it is I’ll advised to walk on these roads because you will eventually encounter a Runner under the noonday sun, and they don’t take kindly to delays…

Combat

Usually the Sunsteel Runner wont engage in combat, although it will not stray from its path unless forced or in active combat with someone that poses a threat. They will often just plow through smaller threats or just about anything on their path.

They will begin by attacking their foes with their spell like abilities then moving into melee with a trample, they will often only attack if their path is blocked by something that isn’t immediately destroyed by their trample ability.

Trample 1d8+13 DC 24

Spell like abilities: at will; Daylight, Water Walk (self only), Feather Fall (self only) 3/day Sunbeam (reflex DC20) 1/day Sunburst (reflex DC 21)
Casts as 20th level Favored soul

Sun powered: the main weakness of the sunsteel runner is that it is powerless without direct sunlight. If it is ever not in sunlight (unless it enters Stasis, see below for more details) such as a Darkness spell or the like, it loses its fast healing And spell like abilities. A Sunsteel runner can only stay out of sunlight for its HDx5 minutes before being forced to enter a Stasis to preserve itself until the sun rises again.

Stasis: If the Sunsteel runner’s path is ever blocked or it is delayed in some other way the Runner is forced into a stasis like coma where it is considered an object and its Damage reduction is turned into hardness, in this state it appears to fold in on itself and cover up all of its weak points. The Stasis lasts until the Runner is exposed to natural light or untill it is destroyed.

Lightrunner: The reason the Sunsteel Runner can keep up with the sun is that it can run up to six times its speed when taking a run action.

P.S. I thought of this while digging ditches in the 90 degree Californian Summer, when the sun is pretty much the only thing you can think about :smalltongue:

[Strawman]

I could imagine them spending a couple months of the year in an Alaska type enviroment, when the sun is always up.

They could make interesting guardians in a wizard's greenhouse, where he has created an artificial source of sunlight for the entire day.

[Ninjalitude]

I could imagine them spending a couple months of the year in an Alaska type enviroment, when the sun is always up.

They could make interesting guardians in a wizard's greenhouse, where he has created an artificial source of sunlight for the entire day.

The thing is that it has to be natural sunlight, or else they could just use their daylight special ability and the whole 'Sun Powered' think would be kinda useless

[Strawman]

Oh okay.

Maybe a wizard could set up a bunch of large mirror/lenses in orbit around the world. Then one spot could be under perpetual natural sunlight. And it would destroy the ecology there, annoying many druids and rangers.

Of course, a wizard that high level probably would not care too much about having CR 8 guardians. Can the Sunsteel Runners take class level? :smallbiggrin:

[Ninjalitude]

Oh okay.

Maybe a wizard could set up a bunch of large mirror/lenses in orbit around the world. Then one spot could be under perpetual natural sunlight. And it would destroy the ecology there, annoying many druids and rangers.

Of course, a wizard that high level probably would not care too much about having CR 8 guardians. Can the Sunsteel Runners take class level? :smallbiggrin:

Possibly? i dont really know the rules regarding constructs and class levels

[Debihuman]

I like it. However, it needs a little work.

Assuming an earth-sized planet, the speed needed to follow the sun is approximately 15,840 feet per round (3 miles per round).

Creatures do not get iterative attacks with natural weapons.
Attack should be Slam + 16 melee (1d8+9/x2) and Full Attack should be 2 slams + 16 melee (1d8+9/x2). Note: it's not really necessary to state the x2 for critical hits as that is standard.

It's "adamantine" not "adamantite" unless you are using some 3rd party book, which you should identify.

Why do they have any goods at all? They don't eat and they don't need to wear clothes. What kinds of goods would they have?

You need to state which stat the Trample DC 24 is based on. It appears to be Strength-based. If you make the save do you still take damage? You left out whether damage is halved or negated. Also, Trample is generally an extraordinary ability.

Favored Souls have access to cleric spells but not to domain spells. It shouldn't be able to have sunbeam and sunburst since it can't cast those spells as a Favored Soul. It needs to either cast them as a Druid or as a Cleric with the Sun Domain.


If the Sunsteel runner’s path is ever blocked or it is delayed in some other way the Runner is forced into a stasis like coma where it is not considered an object and its Damage reduction is turned into hardness, in this state it appears to fold in on itself and cover up all of its weak points.

I think you mean that it should be treated as an object and so the "not" should be removed.

Debby

[Strawman]

At 3 miles per round that Trample damage should use a d2000.

Perhaps they run for a while, and then use something like teleport to transport itself forward a number of miles. They need the running time to recharge their energy for the teleport.

[DracoDei]

Needs the Run feat so that it keeps its Dex bonus while running. Make it a bonus feat if you have to.

Initiative should be
Initiative: +8 (+4 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)

[Violet Octopus]

Possibly? i dont really know the rules regarding constructs and class levels

They have an intelligence score of 10, no reason why they shouldn't.

As is they can travel about 1/20th of the Earth's circumference in one day. Perhaps most settings are on smaller, denser worlds, or else they can stick to higher latitudes.

Is the treasure the sunsteel itself? Could be useful material. Sunsteel armor that powers a refrigeration spell, for use in deserts? Spellcasters making Dyson spheres to power their epic spells? Vampires using it to survive in daylight?

[Ninjalitude]

Is the treasure the sunsteel itself? Could be useful material. Sunsteel armor that powers a refrigeration spell, for use in deserts? Spellcasters making Dyson spheres to power their epic spells? Vampires using it to survive in daylight?

The treasure is the sunsteel and other valuble materials used in its creation.

I will stat out sunsteel in a bit.

I also like the idea of having a charge up teleport. Here is how i envision it working.

Lightshift SU: The sunsteel runner's tremendous speed alone cannot match that of the sun, but the magic inside of them allows them to do so. If a Sunsteel runner runs at their full speed for ten consecutive rounds they may Teleport (as the spell) up to 2000 miles in the direction they were running. To onlookers it seems like the runner glows brighter and brighter as if builds momentum until it seems like it is made of light, then it vanishes.

[DracoDei]

If you put that in (which sounds fine) there are two tweaks you almost certainly should make:
-Boiler-plate specifying that after a teleport the 10 round count resets to zero.
-Change the fluff for Lightrunner to "part of the reason" inserting the words "part of" to make it still be true.

[Roukon]

I like the concept. A thought I had was what would happen if a world had more than one sun. While rare in D&D campaigns (as far as I have seen), it has been less rare of a setting for fantasy and science fiction stories. Would it choose a sun to follow, or would it go for the brightest one?

[DracoDei]

It might vary, based on where it felt like going at that time.

[Pronounceable]

Someday you'll find that I am gone, for tommorrow may rain so...Ahem.

I love this, and the fact that it's inspired by near heatstroke makes it more awesome. I'll be using this somehow.

That charging teleport is great as well.

[Strawman]

Would it choose a sun to follow, or would it go for the brightest one?

I could imagine two groups, one that follows each sun.
Quest hook- Once in a thousand years the two groups happen to arrive at a certain location at the same time. You have to stop a massive collision that will kill all of the runners.

[Roukon]

I could imagine two groups, one that follows each sun.
Quest hook- Once in a thousand years the two groups happen to arrive at a certain location at the same time. You have to stop a massive collision that will kill all of the runners.

Interesting idea. Lots of hooks with something like this.

[Ninjalitude]

I love this, and the fact that it's inspired by near heatstroke makes it more awesome. I'll be using this somehow.

Heatstroke is awesome :smallbiggrin:

[Debihuman]

I just noticed that it has the wrong hit points. 10d10+30 (85 hp).

[Eloel]

I just noticed that it has the wrong hit points. 10d10+30 (85 hp).

How about a 'Sunluck' special ability?
Sunluck (Ex)
Any natural 1 rolled on HP rolls is rerolled.

It works! :P

[Dragon Elite]

This is awesome. :smile:

[Lysander]

I like the running part, but this would also be cool just as a limitation for a type of Golem. Sunsteel Golems might not follow the sun, have no free will and obey commands, but still only function in daylight.

You could also have various types of Golems each with a different power source. Firesteel Golems only function in flames. Watersteel Golems could have small chutes with turbines going through their bodies, so they only function immersed in large rivers. Lightning Golems might live on mountains prone to storms and act as giant lightning rods, with each bolt that hits them providing one day's worth of power. Shadowsteel Golems might be powered by shadow magic, and cease to function in bright light.

And of course, Bloodsteel Golems that need to regularly coat themselves in the blood of living creatures to use it for chemical energy. Now those are just terrifying terrifying killing machines.

[Ninjalitude]

I like the running part, but this would also be cool just as a limitation for a type of Golem. Sunsteel Golems might not follow the sun, have no free will and obey commands, but still only function in daylight.

You could also have various types of Golems each with a different power source. Firesteel Golems only function in flames. Watersteel Golems could have small chutes with turbines going through their bodies, so they only function immersed in large rivers. Lightning Golems might live on mountains prone to storms and act as giant lightning rods, with each bolt that hits them providing one day's worth of power. Shadowsteel Golems might be powered by shadow magic, and cease to function in bright light.

And of course, Bloodsteel Golems that need to regularly coat themselves in the blood of living creatures to use it for chemical energy. Now those are just terrifying terrifying killing machines.

i like this idea a lot. i'll try and work on a few more, although i'm going back to school tomorrow so it might take a while

[AlexanderRM]

I could imagine them spending a couple months of the year in an Alaska type enviroment, when the sun is always up.

They could make interesting guardians in a wizard's greenhouse, where he has created an artificial source of sunlight for the entire day.

Yeah, the Alaska type environment would make much more sense, to the point that they'd no longer need to run. Rather than circling the Earth once a day, they'd need to go from maybe the arctic circle to the north pole and back every year... no, wait, they'd need to go... from the north pole down south, spiraling outwards in larger and larger circles, then spiraling inwards again in smaller and smaller ones? Something like that. If there were a lot of them, it'd make the arctic and antarctic circles of that planet interesting places to live, with roads gouged through the ice and everything.


Also, for the wizard thing what about a greenhouse demiplane with a sun that just sits at the top of the sky, or perhaps (if the cosmolgy of the world works the same as ours) a portal up off of the planet that was in constant sunlight, so the sunlight goes through it into the greenhouse?





I like the running part, but this would also be cool just as a limitation for a type of Golem. Sunsteel Golems might not follow the sun, have no free will and obey commands, but still only function in daylight.


Yes, that sound like an excellent idea... in fact the fluff for the runner says that they actually began as such golems.






As is they can travel about 1/20th of the Earth's circumference in one day. Perhaps most settings are on smaller, denser worlds, or else they can stick to higher latitudes.

Yes, most likely they'd be at higher latitudes or live on smaller worlds. Someplace like that... that lower plane made up of all the orbs like tiny planets would be a great place for them, perhaps?




Is the treasure the sunsteel itself? Could be useful material. Sunsteel armor that powers a refrigeration spell, for use in deserts? Spellcasters making Dyson spheres to power their epic spells? Vampires using it to survive in daylight?

Perhaps magical weapons, armor, and shields made from Sunsteel gain double their enhancement bonus and their special effects (those that can be easily doubled- for example, a flaming sunsteel weapon would deal double the fire damage) in natural sunlight but lose their magical bonuses in complete darkness? Stuff like that.

The Dyson sphere idea is pretty awesome, though sadly you'd never get that much sunsteel unless you had a reeeeaaaaallllyyyy small miniature sun. Still, the possibilities... I could imagine a society of some sort actually living inside such a Dyson sphere, or perhaps using them as ships of a sort, sun-powered battleships.
Maybe people could build Dyson spheres that actually feed the energy back into the star to keep it going, fighting entropy in a plane that used to be full of miniature suns but where the suns have largely died. Or even a Dyson sphere that is itself alive, like a gigantic construct, and that actually "eats" miniature suns (subsumes them into itself to feed on their light) to keep itself alive.

Though again, I'm having trouble imagining where you'd get so much Sunsteel. Perhaps Sunsteel is itself produced inside stars, and so you can get lots of it from burned-out suns in planes made up of miniature suns, somehow without making it cheap as dirt? You'd still be able to get Sunsteel there and bring it back to the regular Material plane unless the campaign world was entirely set on such a plane, though.

Wow... I now totally want to see a campaign set in such a plane, inside a Dyson sphere or somesuch, perhaps with the players as guards for sunsteel mining expeditions (getting material for the Dyson sphere) or something or other.