Class Archetype · Beta

Construct Exemplar

“Most craftsmen build things that outlast them. The Exemplar builds herself to outlast everything.”

The Construct Exemplar is not content to create — she must become. One augmentation at a time, she replaces the fallible and organic with the precise and permanent, blurring the line between crafter and creation. She doesn’t do this out of madness, exactly, though those who watch the process rarely see the distinction. She does it because she can, and because each replacement is measurably better than what it replaced, and because the work is never quite finished.

Her companions learn quickly that she is not squeamish, is rarely surprised, and maintains her own body with the same dispassionate expertise she applies to any project. They also learn that she heals differently, thinks differently, and given enough time and materials, will become something that doesn’t have a clean name in any language they know. Whether that prospect excites or unsettles them says more about them than it does about her.

Alignment

Any.

Hit Die

d8.

Starting Wealth

3d6 × 10 gp (average 105 gp), plus one outfit worth 10 gp or less.

Class Skills

The Construct Exemplar’s class skills are Appraise (Int), Craft (Int), Disable Device (Dex), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (engineering) (Int), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Perception (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Progression

Spells Per Day

Beginning at 4th level, the Construct Exemplar prepares and casts arcane spells drawn from the Exemplar spell list. Intelligence is her spellcasting ability; she must have an Intelligence score of at least 10 + the spell’s level to prepare it. Her spell save DC is 10 + spell level + her Intelligence modifier. She prepares spells from a Formulary — a technical manuscript she maintains and studies each morning. Preparing spells requires 1 hour of study. She does not require a separate arcane focus; her Formulary serves as one. Bonus spells from a high Intelligence score apply normally.

The Construct Exemplar’s spell list draws from transmutation, conjuration (creation), and abjuration. Suggested spells include: 1st — crafter’s fortune, fabricate (lesser version), feather fall, gravity bow, mage armor, shield, true strike; 2nd — bull’s strength, bear’s endurance, make whole, resist energy, spider climb; 3rd — arcane sight, greater magic weapon, haste, keen edge, slow; 4th — elemental body I, greater invisibility, stoneskin, wall of force.

Class Features

The following are class features of the Construct Exemplar.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

The Construct Exemplar is proficient with all simple weapons and with light armor. She does not gain proficiency with shields. Heavy or medium armor interferes with her augmentations and arcane processes; she avoids both.

Crafter's Eye (Ex)

The Construct Exemplar adds half her class level (minimum 1) as a competence bonus on all Craft checks. She gains the same bonus on Spellcraft checks made to identify, create, or appraise magic items, constructs, and mechanical devices.

Crafter's Mending (Sp)

As a 1-minute activity, the Exemplar can repair an object or construct for 1d6 points of damage plus 1 per class level (maximum +10). She can use this ability on herself once she has completed any Body Augmentation. She can use Crafter’s Mending a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Intelligence modifier.

Body Augmentation

The Construct Exemplar’s defining ability is her capacity to permanently bond magic items directly into her body, replacing biological components with precisely engineered arcane counterparts. Each body augmentation occupies a specific slot and provides the full benefits of whatever item is bonded to it, without taking up that slot for worn magic items — the augmentation has replaced the body part entirely.

Bonding a magic item requires 8 hours of uninterrupted work and a successful Craft (any) check (DC 15 + item’s caster level). The cost to bond an item equals 50% of the item’s base market price, reduced by the Exemplar’s Augmentation Discount as shown in the table. She must either craft the item herself first (reducing its cost by the normal 50% crafting discount) or use a pre-existing item. If she crafts it herself, the crafting and bonding processes can be combined into a single 8-hour session.

To remove a bonding, the Exemplar must spend 8 hours and expend a restoration spell. All bonded materials are destroyed in the process. To replace one bonding with another, she removes the old one first. To add a second property to an already-augmented slot, see Advanced Augmentation (11th level).

The slots available for augmentation unlock as she advances, as noted in the progression table. A single body slot cannot hold more than two augmentations (see Advanced Augmentation). The properties of bonded items cannot be temporarily suppressed by dispel magic or antimagic field once Flawless Integration (9th level) is gained.

Slot Unlock Schedule:

• 2nd level: Eyes

• 3rd level: Gloves, Boots, Belt

• 6th level: Arms, Shoulders, Waist

• 9th level: Headband, Neck, Ring (two slots), Head

• 12th level: Body, Armor

• 16th level: Heart

• 20th level: Soul (slotless items, such as ioun stones, may be permanently bonded)

Self-Repair (Su)

Starting at 2nd level, the Exemplar can channel a prepared spell inward, converting its arcane energy into biological repair. As a full-round action, she may expend one prepared spell to heal herself for 1d6 hit points per level of the spell sacrificed. This ability can only be used on herself.

Supporting Construction (Ex)

By 3rd level, the Exemplar has integrated enough artificial components that repair magic partially affects her. She heals half the normal amount from effects that repair constructs or objects (such as the spell make whole applied to a creature, or equivalent abilities). At 6th level this improves to the full amount — but she also becomes vulnerable to effects that specifically harm constructs, such as spells with the construct-harming descriptor, taking full damage from such effects.

Damage Reduction (Ex)

At 4th level, the Exemplar’s integrated adamantine and reinforced internal structures grant her DR 1/adamantine. This increases to DR 2/adamantine at 8th level, DR 3/adamantine at 12th, DR 4/adamantine at 16th, and DR 5/adamantine at 18th level.

Light Fortification (Ex)

At 5th level, the Exemplar’s reinforced internals give her a 25% chance to negate the additional damage from a critical hit or precision-based attack (such as sneak attack). At 16th level this improves to 50%.

Greater Crafter's Mending (Sp)

Starting at 6th level, the Exemplar can repair 3d6 + 1 per class level (maximum +10) hit points to a construct or object. She can use this ability a number of times per day equal to her Intelligence modifier. This replaces but does not stack with Crafter’s Mending.

Embed Component (Ex)

At 7th level, the Exemplar can permanently embed arcane components — crystallized spell matrices, inscribed metal plates, alchemical resonance chambers — directly into her body. She can embed a number of components equal to one per four class levels (2 at 7th, 3 at 11th, 4 at 15th, 5 at 19th). Each embedded component grants 2 bonus hit points and one minor constant benefit chosen at the time of embedding from the following list: low-light vision, +1 bonus on saving throws against fear effects, +1 bonus on saving throws against mind-affecting effects, +2 bonus on Perception checks, +2 bonus on Acrobatics checks, +2 bonus on saving throws against poison, or a similar minor utility effect approved by the GM. Components cannot be removed without destroying them.

Flawless Integration (Ex)

By 9th level, the Exemplar’s augmentations have ceased to be additions — they are her. Dispel magic, antimagic field, and similar effects no longer suppress her Body Augmentations. Attempts to forcibly strip or remove augmentations through magic must overcome spell resistance equal to 10 + her class level. She cannot be disarmed of augmented body parts, and she does not need to attune to augmented items.

Advanced Learning

At 10th level, and again at 14th level, the Exemplar selects one spell from the sorcerer/wizard spell list of any level she can currently cast. That spell is permanently added to her Formulary and treated as an Exemplar spell for all purposes.

Advanced Augmentation

At 11th level, the Exemplar’s mastery of the bonding process allows her to layer two augmentations into a single body slot. Adding a second property to an already-augmented slot costs 1.5 times the normal bonding cost of the second item (including the augmentation discount). A slot can hold a maximum of two augmentations total.

Swift Augmentation

At 15th level, the Exemplar has performed the bonding process so many times that it flows as second nature. She can replace or modify a body augmentation in 4 hours instead of 8. She may also do so without expending a restoration spell if she succeeds on a DC 25 Craft (any) check; on a failure, the existing augmentation is still removed, but the process causes no additional harm.

Construct Apotheosis (Ex)

At 20th level, the Exemplar’s transformation is complete. Her creature type changes to construct, but she retains the traits of the living — she is still healed by positive energy in addition to being repaired by repair effects, and she does not lose her Constitution score. She gains immunity to mind-affecting effects, disease, poison, exhaustion, fatigue, energy drain, and death effects. She no longer needs to eat, breathe, or sleep, though she must still rest to prepare spells. She gains a permanent +4 bonus to Strength and Constitution. She is treated as both a living creature and a construct for the purpose of all spells, effects, and abilities.