Building automatons to plan

For magic research high experimentation and failure can seem reasonable to most players. But when building machines from established blueprints we tend to think of a linear process that ends in a finished product. Given the mechanist rules mirror the construct rules they have failure and experimentation baked in. What if instead you could also do a more linear and slower build from plan? 

This rule is quite simple: 

A mechanist may choose to build from plan instead of using the normal build rules. To build from plan the mechanist must meet the level requirements for the automaton they wish to build and posess a blueprint. The automaton is completed without a throw after ten times the standard build time in days. The tinkerer proficiency impacts both the level requirement and the build time. The amount spent on previous materials reduce the build time by 5% per 10,000 gp spent. The gold value for experience point gains is divided by ten prior to being divided by months or compared to the XP threshold. The builder may stop work and return to the project at any time, simply picking up where they left off with the remaining days in the build. 

While guaranteeing success this reduces the risk and XP earned, significantly in most cases.

A quick note on builds and XP

The Dwarven mechanist class does not specifically say it does or does not get XP from building automatons, but then neither does the cleric, mage or craft priest. Given the automaton rules descend from the construct rules I assume the experience from magical research rule from ACKS p.147 apply. Given mechanists can build from day one my experiences show that available gold limits them from building their way to leveling. But if a party of six level 2 players that each had 1,000 gp donated it to a mechanist they could turbo charge the machinist leveling somewhat.

My main concern here is high level players XP dumping on low level henchmen and assistants. Under normal rules, failures would increase the cost to XP gain, something that this would prevent if not unchecked. It is for this reason I put in the reduction to XP, this combined with the high investment cost should bring this under control.

Also personal automaton is not actual gold spent, so no XP for you! 

Examples 

The following shows the differences between the two build approaches. They assume an existing blueprint and a workshop that provides no bonus, but discuss its impact. The machines themselves come from the machinery to the max article on Alex’s Patreon.

Sparrow Gyrocopter example 

I am deliberately doing this one as it is a very expensive level 2 item that is hard to build. The problem here is no second level character will have this kind of gold or workshop (maybe they could use an NPC mentors workshop similar to a mage and guild library), but a second level henchman or retainer might have access to a players.

The Sparrow gyrocopter can be built by a 2nd level machinist with a penalty of +3 with a base construction cost of 14,000gp taking 21 days to build from blueprint.

Let's assume a 2nd level machinist without mechanical engineering, dwarf bonuses or the tinkerer proficiency.

That gives us a skill of 16+ with a +3 modifier for a throw of 19+ under a standard build. That’s a 10% base build chance using a standard build. We can spend 10,000 gp on precious materials to lower the cost, but the limit here restricts you to halving the modifier. So at best here you can get +1 taking it to 15% chance of success. A good workshop would help, it needs a total of 134,000 gp to get a safer 75% success chance, or 5+, but that’s a really expensive workshop… Fate points can help too.

The XP earned is a whopping 23,925. But then where does a second level character even get that kind of money. It’s more likely this is an NPC with a patron, getting only half at 11,962 XP.

Under the build from plan rule let’s assume the same parameters. The build takes 210 days minus 10.5 for materials taking 199 days to build. This takes around seven months (divide by 30 for 6.6 months).

The xp earned from a slow build here is significantly reduced by first dividing by ten, dividing by seven months, reducing by threshold then multiplying back out to a total of 1,876. This is still a decent chunk, but far off the high risk normal build.

Overall the build times and XP seem reasonable. That said mechanists with patrons who have vast workshops and money can have success and its benefits already in game. Build from plan actually reduces the impact.

I suppose this is why mages can’t research until later levels and just be assistants. But mechanists are designed to make machines out of the gate. The big restriction here is access to the funds.

Clockwork Titan example

Here I am going to explore the impact of the tinkerer proficiency, starting with an unmodified generic skill of 11+ at seventh level.

A clockwork war titan can be built by a 9th level machinist at a +8 build penalty taking 48 days with a base construction cost of 41,000gp.

So, a 7th level tinkerer spending 40,000 extra would throw on 15+ (11+ +8 -4) so 25% chance of success. A workshop of 141,000 is required to get the success rate up to 75% or 5+.

At over 2 months that’s 40,500 per month with a threshold of 2,500. Giving 38,000 per month and 76,000 in total, half if it’s a henchman. That’s going to level up a level seven character assuming they succeed.

But as a slow build its 288 days (480 days -96 tinker -96 materials), almost a year… As a slow build the cost is divided by ten giving 8,100 then divided by ten months for 810 per month which is below the threshold of 2,500. Giving no XP. So tinker doesn’t help too much here, aside from giving the ability for a level 7 to build and shaving off 20% of the time, so may be better off not spending on materials and going for a thirteen month build.

Overall we can see that the benefit of slow build is certainty and low risk of loss of resources. For mid range or lower characters this can help establish some machinery but won’t advance them in levels. For players with a workshop of assistants this allows for some easy to track outputs with known delivery times.