A Drill Is A Man's Romance! [Monsters and Subtype]

[Fizban]

Nice. I haven't watched the show (maybe it got better after the first episode, but I was not impressed), but now I must consider gunman forms of all dnd constructs. Gunman Flesh Goelm (eew), Gunman (mineral) Golem (nice), Gunman Slaughterstone Evicerator (!), Gunman (draconomicon) Golem (!!), Gunman Effigies (lower level !), Gunman (medium size or smaller construct) (small creatures using mecha against humans? awesome), Gunman Dread Guard (basic power suit), Gunman Shield Guardian (crazy expensive but you get fast healing 5 and can take half yourself if you need to), *deep breath*

I'm therefore quite interested in how you determined the pricing and CRing of them. Did you just pick a number that sounded nice, or have you considered the mechanical benefits? Losing the extra actions of a separate creature is a big hit, but remember that unless specifically stated, anything with a price is assumed buyable, so it wouldn't be limited to just casters (and even if it were, no reason the fighter couldn't pay the artificer to build it for him). It seems likely that lower priced Gunmen, such as a Gunman Dread Guard or a Gunman Effigy Giant Eagle, wouldn't be much more powerful than what you could get wit the money (magic armor/enhancement bonuses and movement abilities), but at higher levels I'm not sure. The extra HD give a ton more hp at the cost of a relatively static AC, but since miss chances are more important at higher levels the extra hp buffer is more useful, and it goes up with level as well. And since a construct can wear items as easily as a character, you can equip your usual gear on it (including armor: character inside animated armor inside normal armor...), if you have a cheap one, or you can use it as an extra life, since you'll keep fighting when it's gone. It might work okay if all your money's tied up in the mech, but I'm not sure. Finally, golem magic immunity could be a serious problem. With a fighters feats to back up it's hp and str (and with the increased HD, probably massive BAB), that could get nasty fast.

You've got a nice compromise on making the construct powerful in it's own right, and limiting it to your own dex it a good idea I hadn't thought of. Another question though: what exactly do you mean by full round? It'd probably be best to say "can take no other actions", but it would be nice to allow stuff like quickened spells while piloting. What type of action is it to open/close the hatch (spellcaster stops piloting to open hatch, cast spell, and close hatch, since he can't cast through the Gunman) Since you're allowing feats, I assume you would also mean to allow other character abilities like martial maneuvers, but the description doesn't support that at the moment. I like having natural 1 saves and natural 20 attacks deal some blowthrough damage, and also that you limited it to half.

Finally, weather or not it's balanced, the idea of suddenly taking any sort of construct and making it a pilotable machine makes for some odd ideas. An effigy roc or whale is too expensive to really consider, but making a giant fighter jet/submarine is still awesome. The standard cost of some sort of airship is usually 200,000gp, though Arms and Equipment Guide drops as low as 45k for a dirigible, and if you monkey around with animate objects and wings of flying you could make it to 32k. An effigy creature with flight is probably gonna be at least 15k, but that means you can get at least a one man fighter for less than 30k, nifty.