Talk:Robot Girl (3.5e Race)

Ratings

HB Forged likes this article and rated it 3 of 4.

I see why this article is so often disliked: -Slightly overpowered -Perhaps such a mechanical being as a Robot Girl can't exist in such a medieval setting as D&D without proper justification However, I think this is an interesting concept. You get to play as something otherwise unheard of with a unique skillset, though it needs some tweaks. I recommend the following: Have Ghost in the Shell only apply +1, while possibly increasing it to +2 at 8 hit dice if that'd be okay Lightning-Powered grants electricity resistance 10 + (hit dice/2) & make 10 points of electricity damage count as a full meal Laser Eyes' bonus from hit dice should be halved. Also, the blinding effect for 10 hit dice should have a will save or fort save DC 10 + (hit dice/2) + her Con score to negate. While you're at it, give it a cooldown of d6 rounds & anyone who successfully saves against this gains +4 and/or edge on further saves against this for 24 hours. Could make her vulnerable to Heat Metal and/or Chill Metal, but giving her "coolant" (read: water) counteracts Heat Metal somewhat Speaking of, she'll need the coolant at the same rate a human would. Sorry if tl;dr. I'm new-ish here, so... Addendum: She would fit into more futuristic, or sometimes even modern, campaigns.

	Foxwarrior is neutral on this article and rated it 2 of 4.
	I'd dispute that being able to deal substandard amounts of damage as a standard action is overpowered, but unlike the normal "+2 to a stat" or "bonus feat", their Electricity Resistance and six level 1 spells at will are quite extreme at level 1, but completely irrelevant at level 11.

Leziad dislikes this article and rated it 1 of 4.

Forgiving it obvious anime flavor this article has many many problems: - Construct Subtype is dumb, I think you want augmented construct. Or just use living construct. - Built grant scaling nat armor, while it not much it is not something I'd stick to LA 0. Maybe if it was a scaling armor bonus. - Laser Eye start out not bad, but end up blinding people with no save at will. - Lightning-Powered im okay with. Overall it a very weird article, It out of norm for many many things and the abilities are not that interesting. Both combined this article earn a Dislike.

	Tarkisflux dislikes this article and rated it 1 of 4.
	Scanner and laser eyes are really great for a LA 0 race. Probably too great actually. I wouldn't use it, and would suggest you not either.

	Eiji-kun opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.
	Wait, how did I not rate this? Yeah, see below. This is a big flaming pile of baby diapers.

	Ghostwheel opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.
	Scaling armor bonus? Blinding at will as part of your race? Nothx.

	Franken Kesey opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.
	Large quantities of fluff missing, creating a workable robot race has been done much better by other authors, this article is subpar. Plus the laser eyes is overpowered.

Fluff Missing

It looks like you want to be a Construct (Living Construct). Go check out warforged, see what they get, and copy that. Note that Living Constructs have an overall -2 to their ability scores, because they come with a TON of immunities from the whole construct thing. Also, you're missing a lot of fluff, you should add more. As is, it's quite bland. Hope this helps.

Incidentally the title suggest there is only female constructs. Besides explaining why constructs have a gender period (is it a mental thing, in which case why aren't their both genders) or a body type thing (in which case, why are they all girls)? What's up with that? -- Eiji Hyrule 03:13, March 8, 2010 (UTC)

@Living Construct: No, there was an extended conversation on the Den about this very subject, and this race was part of the results of that discussion. The only workable traits for a robot with a Constitution and Intelligence score in the Construct type were immunity to poison and disease (which could go either way), being susceptible to robo-killing specialties, and being fixed up by repair spells. At that point Humanoid (Construct) conveys that information better.

@Fluff: Yeah. I'm not sure how much was on the original thread. I'll add "flavorize the Robot Girl" to my to-do list above "add more pokeymans".

@Gender: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RobotGirl. I personally think you could use the same thing for, say, Astro Boy. Will have to talk to Koumei about that. --Quantumboost 17:33, March 8, 2010 (UTC)

Construct isn't a subtype, but you may be able to pull off Humanoid (Augmented Construct). I believe that works, in that you don't get immunities, but you do get the features (which by in large don't matter since you lack racial HD), but then also count as a construct for all things, etc etc. -- Eiji Hyrule 19:04, March 8, 2010 (UTC)

Construct is totally a subtype, in the same way that Laser Eyes is a racial ability; it was made at the moment this race was. There's also a vaguely related Construct type, which is not problematic in the same way that having both a Fire subtype and a Fire spell descriptor is not problematic. But I've added it to the Wiki for good measure. ;) --Quantumboost 19:30, March 8, 2010 (UTC)

Looks like the redundant department of redundancy is on the case, since Augmented Construct (which is a subtype and does exist) does what you want. Uh, more power to you I geuss. -- Eiji Hyrule 02:43, March 9, 2010 (UTC)

There is no template involved, Augmented Construct just leads to confusion. I fail to see how it's "better" than just writing in Construct. --Quantumboost 06:57, March 9, 2010 (UTC)

Confusion, Questions and Clarification

Got a few questions/comments here:

1. As they are humanoids, are they to be affected by spells that affect humanoids, like enlarge person, polymorph or not? Also, being humanoids they may take templates and such that affect humanoids, such as lycanthrope. Is this intentional to the design?

2. Do they breathe?

3. Is Lightning-Powered an Extraordinary ability or Supernatural?

4. What the heck is "Light" damage (listed under Laser Eyes)?

I will discuss balance after this is resolved. --Ganteka Future 03:20, May 27, 2010 (UTC)

I'll leave Koumei to comment on the intent bits, but:

1. They are in fact able to be affected by spells that affect Humanoids and not non-Humanoids, unless the spell specifically calls out that it doesn't affect Constructs. Enlarge person doesn't fail to affect Constructs because they're Constructs - it fails to affect them because they aren't Humanoids, so it would affect a Humanoid (Construct).

2. Humanoids, unless noted otherwise, breathe; and it isn't noted otherwise here.

3. It isn't stated as either, so that would make it a "natural" ability - like a Dwarf's Stonecutting.

4. Light damage probably means that it's a [Light] effect that deals otherwise untyped damage. At least, that's how I've seen it referred to elsewhere.

--Quantumboost 05:17, May 27, 2010 (UTC)

Light damage is what's done by Lantern Archons with their little rays. So it, yes, is a [Light] effect which bypasses energy and damage resistance. [Light] effects do more damage to some kinds of undead, like vampires, which are weak to it. You can also check spells like Searing Light and so on. --Genowhirl 17:45, May 27, 2010 (UTC)

Ah, now we're starting to get somewhere here.

1. This point was brought up because "..."but is treated as a Construct by any effect that specifically works differently against them..." (under Ghost in the Shell) this bit here, which, while it doesn't mention spells specifically, made me wonder if they are treated as both a Humanoid and a Construct (the type) for what spells affect them. I also imagine that the "Construct" in reference to that quote is the Construct Type and not the subtype. Of course, any spell that effects a Humanoid differently than a Construct (the type), the Humanoid type takes priority, since it's the type, right? I can made an edit to the article to clarify this, or someone else can, I don't really care.

2. This point was brought up because both sleeping and eating were mentioned and breathing was not. It appears to be a simple omission on the part of the author (since eating is as Humanoid and is noted), and such simple omissions are far too common from what I've noticed on this formatting update quest I've put myself on. So, if they breathe, it should be added in to clarify.

3. Dwarven Stonecunning is an Extraordinary ability as noted under SRD:Dwarf#Dwarves as Characters as "Dwarf Traits (Ex): Dwarves possess the following racial traits." For whatever reason, I guess that bit of information in the formatting never made it to the race entry page. I can fix that later, since all the SRD race pages appear to be like that. So, Lightning-Powered is likely Extraordinary as well. That can be added too.

4. I'm still a little hazy on this Light damage business. Should it just be linked to the Light descriptor (since the Light descriptor is just a descriptor rather than a damage dealing energy type from what I can tell) and mention dealing untyped damage? That's probably best unless anyone has any better ideas.

I really just brought all this up because I'm hoping that all the races on this wiki are as clear and easy to use (as well as well written) as possible. If it's getting what seems like an extra amount of attention, I blame the attention grabbing name on that. As an aside, has anyone used this race yet? --Ganteka Future 21:07, May 27, 2010 (UTC)

1. The Humanoid type doesn't take priority. The Construct subtype takes priority, because they have a specific ability that makes them be treated as Constructs. Specific overrides general. If there's ever a conflict between being a Humanoid and being a Construct, the Construct takes priority.

This simply doesn't matter for spells like enlarge person, because enlarge person doesn't give a damn whether something is "a Construct". It cares about "Humanoid" and "not-Humanoid". The answer to the question "Is this a Humanoid?" is yes. The answer to the question "Is this not a Humanoid?" is no.

So the differences between this and a normal Humanoid creature regarding spells:

• It takes the reduced damage from Searing Light, since that specifically mentions being a "construct".
• Epic spells with the Destroy seed turn it to dust at 0 hp rather than -10. Again, specific mention of "construct".
• That's it for SRD spells.

2. Sure. Heck, I'll do that now.

3. Oh. Uh, okay, bad example then. Still, the answer is: "no, it isn't Extraordinary or Supernatural as written". Or spell-like. It's a Natural Ability: "This category includes abilities a creature has because of its physical nature. Natural abilities are those not otherwise designated as extraordinary, supernatural, or spell-like".

--Quantumboost 23:26, May 27, 2010 (UTC)