Question about effigies

[PeevedPenguin]

I'm trying to make a bodyguard for my Artificer character and I wanted to get the most mileage out of the effigy template. I was wondering if you could take a base creature (say a troll) give it levels in fighter or rogue and make an effigy out of it and keep things such as sneak attack or the fighter bonus feats.

[unseenmage]

Effigies lose all class levels.

You could try using the Advancement line in your base creatures monster stat block to build a higher HD version of the monster instead. It will effectively have "class levels" in it's own monster HD that would then be converted to Construct HD by the Effigy template.

[PeevedPenguin]

Effigies lose all class levels.

You could try using the Advancement line in your base creatures monster stat block to build a higher HD version of the monster instead. It will effectively have "class levels" in it's own monster HD that would then be converted to Construct HD by the Effigy template.

Alright, thanks,

[unseenmage]

Oh yeah, also, the required minimum CL for those Effigies will be equal to their HD.

I ran up against this problem myself recently. My character met a certain famous epic level NPC in the Forgotten Realms and thought it'd be flattering to build an Effigy of her.
Turns out all I got was a 1HD Effigy of an attractive elf girl, snubbed by an epic character, and a lesson on Effigy CL requirements.

Edit: For getting the most out of an Effigy I suggest the Sacred Guardian template from Bestiary of Krynn, Dragonlance. Also, you want as many extra natural attacks as you can find. There are a couple of Effigy viable creatures with an obscene number of nat attacks in the Fiend Folio I think.
Hope that helps.

[Coidzor]

I'm trying to make a bodyguard for my Artificer character and I wanted to get the most mileage out of the effigy template. I was wondering if you could take a base creature (say a troll) give it levels in fighter or rogue and make an effigy out of it and keep things such as sneak attack or the fighter bonus feats.

Much like the Necromancer, you're better off with a very big, very beefy creature to start. Your advantage on the necromancer is that you can basically just straight-up stack templates on it to make it nastier rather than having to find or breed a creature possessing those templates. You can't give it class levels without significant houseruling.

You can make a very obscene creature with template stacking. (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19861634/Domo_Arigato_Mr._Roboto)

[Inuzuka]

Tarrasque?

[PeevedPenguin]

Oh yeah, also, the required minimum CL for those Effigies will be equal to their HD.

I ran up against this problem myself recently. My character met a certain famous epic level NPC in the Forgotten Realms and thought it'd be flattering to build an Effigy of her.
Turns out all I got was a 1HD Effigy of an attractive elf girl, snubbed by an epic character, and a lesson on Effigy CL requirements.

Edit: For getting the most out of an Effigy I suggest the Sacred Guardian template from Bestiary of Krynn, Dragonlance. Also, you want as many extra natural attacks as you can find. There are a couple of Effigy viable creatures with an obscene number of nat attacks in the Fiend Folio I think.
Hope that helps.

The sacred guardian template looks nice but it says that only clerics can construct them, so I'm going to assume that excludes artificers from crafting them. Unless of course it says somewhere that artificers can craft things that only other classes can craft.

[unseenmage]

The sacred guardian template looks nice but it says that only clerics can construct them, so I'm going to assume that excludes artificers from crafting them. Unless of course it says somewhere that artificers can craft things that only other classes can craft.

Oops. My bad, My artificer is also a Cleric so I had forgotten. I'm pretty sure you can't create cleric only items but nothing stops you from hiring a cleric to stand around and meet that prerequisite for you. 1gp per level per day outta do it for a hireling.

Alternatively you can use Dragon 327 page 72, the Augment Automotons material. Pay gold, get abilities. Rudimentary Intelligence will allow your Effigies to take skills and feats and it costs 8,000gp and has a CL of 12.

Pathfinder's Construct Modifications work in much the same way in that you pay gold and get abilities. One of them adds Intelligence too.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateMagic/magic/buildingAndModifyingConstructs.html

[Coidzor]

This (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?313871-Effigy-Guide-and-Examples)might also be of interest.

Master of Many Forms Bible (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19528526/updated_Master_of_Many_Forms_Bible__official_wild_ shape_rules) may also introduce you to some interesting creatures.

[Crake]

thought it'd be flattering to build an Effigy of her.

Dude, that's not flattering, that's creepy.

[unseenmage]

Dude, that's not flattering, that's creepy.

Nah, the way my character saw it, it was more like painting a portrait and less like building a mannequin. Made much more sense in context.