What're Your Favorite Animated Objects Ever?

[unseenmage]

How does one build the deadliest Animated Objects ever?

And stories of your favorite, most deadliest-est Animated Objects are welcome too. :smallbiggrin:

I'm also curious what the Playground thinks of Quintessence (EPH 128) and Thinaun (CW 136) as Animate Objects targets.
Do they work? Are they cool or suboptimal?

Edit: Is there an expanded list of Animate Objects attacks anywhere, possibly with an Envelop or Swallow Whole ability?


Relevant Spells
Animate Objects (PH 199)
Minor Servitor (SS 68)

Hardness (SC 109)
Augment Object (SBG 41)
Matter Manipulation (EPH 115)

Permanency (PH 260)
Awaken Construct (SC 21)
Humanoid Essence, Greater (RoE 186)
Incarnate Construct (SS 67)


And also Dwarvencraft (RoS 159).

[Tvtyrant]

I really like using Animated ships as submarines for groups that don't need to breath. They go between gargantuan and colossal, and have their own grapple mods so they can pull down and drown other ships using their rigging ropes.

[supermonkeyjoe]

Throwing animated statues of golems in with golems of the same material can give characters a fun surprise.

Animating anything with wheels as a means of self-propelling transport also gets points for style.

[almightycoma]

something I've always wanted to try was animating someones clothes. It seems so cool.Imagine being choked by a tie,tripped by your shoes, grappled by your pants/underwear and making checks to stop your shirt and gloves from using your own arms to punch you all at once.

[GolemsVoice]

There's actually a monster like that in one of the dozen MMs, or was it Heroes of Horror? It's basically the clothes of either a murderer or a victim, come to life. Creepy stuff.

Also, my DM once nearly killed me with an animated rug that enveloped my character and began thrashing around. Nasty stuff, my character has grown suspicious of rugs after that.

[hamishspence]

That would be a Raiment, from Libris Mortis- clothing of a victim, in this case- but an undead rather than a construct.

The Ragamoffyn from MM2 is even creepier in some respects- a construct made up of clothing (in the case of the weaker ones) that wraps around the target, and turns it into a helpless, mind-controlled host.

[Xefas]

The Ragamoffyn from MM2 is even creepier in some respects- a construct made up of clothing (in the case of the weaker ones) that wraps around the target, and turns it into a helpless, mind-controlled host.

What confuses me about those is that they're "Always Neutral", and have high mental ability scores. So, surely they understand that mentally dominating people against their will is... bad? There must be some factor here that prevents them from being Evil.

'course, now I'm imagining a construct made of last year's, now outdated, high fashion, who then hires the PCs to wear them to some gala event so they can feel appreciated again.

[hamishspence]

The Mindbender PRC is built around dominating people- yet it is "any nongood" rather than "any evil".

It may simply be that the designers didn't think too much about the morality of their monsters. It wouldn't be the first time an intelligent Neutral monster's behaviour came across as something that a DM might cause a PC to slip to Evil for repeating.

[nedz]

I had some fun with animated caltrops which followed you around and tried diving underneath your feet.

A Trap haunt was more fun, but that's more a case of possession. Basically the obvious trap goes off and resets itself whilst you are merely searching — hilarious.

[Kree West]

Spending way to much on Craft checks and some Presidigitation + Divination to make a tank and then animating it is too much fun.

[gr8artist]

animated treasure hoard. That is all

[almightycoma]

I'd imagine something like that could qualify as a swarm/swarms. I can practically see PCs crying as a sorcerer uses fireball to kill it, melting their loot.

[Malimar]

My favorite Animated Object is... a Warforged with Alter Self.

"I transform into an animated trashcan and remain perfectly still so they don't notice me."
"Our destination is on the other side of the city? I transform into an animated wagon and transport the party in comfort."
"We need to get over this wall? I transform into an animated ladder."

It's like you're Inspector Gadget, if Inspector Gadget were a Transformer instead of a cyborg.

[Orran]

Malimar, that's beautiful. For added fun, get your alter self from dragonfire adept, and then be a fire breathing trashcan, or anything else, all day.

[Talderas]

something I've always wanted to try was animating someones clothes. It seems so cool.Imagine being choked by a tie,tripped by your shoes, grappled by your pants/underwear and making checks to stop your shirt and gloves from using your own arms to punch you all at once.

I once conceived of a plot where an instane wizard broke into homes and animated all the clothes to serve nefarious means. The clothes would kill the residents and then slink off to a cave where they would stitch themselves together into a giant clothing golem.

[Tetsubo 57]

My favorite is an animated corpse. Make an 'unturnable' undead...

[Lord Haart]

My favorite is an animated corpse. Make an 'unturnable' undead...

I'm so ninja'd.

Seriously, though, for someone like me (with my unkillable tendency to build characters like Nale (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0050.html), only on a synergistic beguiler/jade phoenix mage chassis) that's the best kind of necromancy.

[unseenmage]

My favorite is an animated corpse. Make an 'unturnable' undead...

Contingent Animate Objects spells in all of your allies, Cohorts, Followers, Thralls, pets, mounts, familiars, etc, etc. All set to go off if they die.

Boost the duration and you not only get surprise reinforcements at critical moments but the bodies transport themselves back to church. :smallamused:

[CTrees]

It's not the deadliest, but they do amuse me. Spoiler tags, because it's a spoiler for Pathfinder's Reign of Winter adventure path.

The fifth module, Rasputin Must Die, goes to Earth during World War I. It includes animated Russian tanks. Seriously.

[ArqArturo]

Contingent Animate Objects spells in all of your allies, Cohorts, Followers, Thralls, pets, mounts, familiars, etc, etc. All set to go off if they die.

Boost the duration and you not only get surprise reinforcements at critical moments but the bodies transport themselves back to church. :smallamused:

*Acolyte sees troupe of dead adventurers/mounts/animals moving towards the church*

"Father! An army of undead approaches"

*Cleric with levels of Church Inquisitor/Radiant Servant of Pelor looks at the horizon*

"I knew this day would come. Fetch me my armor"

[unseenmage]

*Acolyte sees troupe of dead adventurers/mounts/animals moving towards the church*

"Father! An army of undead approaches"

*Cleric with levels of Church Inquisitor/Radiant Servant of Pelor looks at the horizon*

"I knew this day would come. Fetch me my armor"

I... hadn't thought of that. And it's awesome!
Now I want to do it just because of the awkward explanations afterward. :smallbiggrin: