Steamborgs underpowered?

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malladin_ben
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Steamborgs underpowered?

Post by malladin_ben »

Hi all,

I've just started playing a DM game and I'm playing a steamborg (by far the coolest class). We stated with pregen characters, so I just picked it because it sounded cool, but looking at them in more detail they seem a little underpowered. Have I missed something major, or has anyone got any suggestions to improve them?

Thanks in advance,

Ben
mythfish
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Post by mythfish »

I think coglayers are by far the coolest class, but to each his own. :)

No one has ever played a steamborg in any of the groups I've played with, so I can't speak to their power level from firsthand experience. I think the wide array of steamborg prestige classes and the revised steamborg base class in Steam Warriors indicate that someone agrees with your assessment.
Dieter Zimmerman
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walrusjester
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Post by walrusjester »

Having instrinsic steam powers isn't too shabby, either.
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Ken Hart
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Post by Ken Hart »

Steamborgs remind me of bards, in that you can do a lot with the skill choices and, yes, the intrinsic steam powers to go in a variety of directions with your character, but at lower levels, their abilities don't shines so brightly as those of other classes. (But I think they're the coolest class, too!)

The PrC's that Dieter mentioned in Steam Warriors are really good (with the exception of the lunarborg or necroborg, IMO), emphasizing stealth, combat, psionics, or even crazy animal cybernetics.

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Charke
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Post by Charke »

I think Steam Warriors did a lot for steamborgs.
The PrC's that Dieter mentioned in Steam Warriors are really good (with the exception of the lunarborg or necroborg, IMO), emphasizing stealth, combat, psionics, or even crazy animal cybernetics.
Ah pride. Those are the steamborg prestige classes I didn't assemble. I was very generous with the steamborgs but I hope only to the point of functionality. I really like the artificial parts system and I wanted to play with it - kind of like a variant magic system. I pushed the variant engines -even the necrotic one but I wanted it to stay very mechanical. I actually wrote 3 new steamborg classes but there were enough similarities that two were cut.

I find the concept of steamborgs just horrible, which is why they are so much fun. I was really happy that Joseph decided to include the unborg. It was my way of saying "there is hope here in Highpoint".

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mythfish
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Post by mythfish »

I'm making a steamborg pregen for GenCon, and it got me thinking about this again. I don't think steamborgs are necessarily underpowered, but they're definitely not very sexy. And in this case, I don't mean sexy as in "hot steamborg on steamborg action". The powers granted by the artificial parts ability are for the most part undeniably useful, but in a way they're too general. As other classes go up levels, they gain cool abilities that are very useful in specific circumstances. The steamborg gains abilities that are vaguely useful in a wide variety of situations.

The other problem I see with steamborgs is that you will be underpowered if you don't specialize. An 8th level steamborg with +1 STR, +1 DEX, +1 natural armor, and a +1 attack bonus is a lot less useful (and sexy) than a steamborg with +4 STR, +4 DEX, +4 armor, or +4 attack bonus. I think the Artificial Parts feat from Steam Warriors is pretty much a necessity for steamborgs too, allowing them to max out their number of allowed artificial parts much sooner (then they can multiclass or work on getting their CON higher so they can add more parts).

And also...though I would never EVER let a player in my campaign be a lunarborg or necroborg, they make really good bad guys. :)
Dieter Zimmerman
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Charke
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Post by Charke »

I was looking at the Pushing The Limit feat, but you can only take it once, and it allows you to treat your Con bonus as if it was +1 higher. With the +1 bonus every 4 levels and magic items floating around, you can definetly get that Con score up - especially if you play a dwarf to start with.

Mark Charke
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