Construct Building Wizard = Worth it?

[tadkins]

Just wondering about this one. Given the heavy feat, skill, money and time investment it takes to create and maintain constructs, would it be worthwhile for a wizard to focus on this? A wizard with a few golem bodyguards sounds pretty cool on paper, but I'm questioning whether it would work in actual practice.

I know some might suggest Artificer for such a character, but that class is pretty complicated, and probably out of my depth, so I'd rather try and do it with a Wizard instead. xD

[Gavinfoxx]

Just make efficient designs... read this:

http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1156126

And you will be fine. Only make the ones that are 'worth' it. It only really needs three feats:

Craft Wondrous Items
Craft Magic Arms & Armor
Craft Construct

Are you planning on making a crafter in general?

[123456789blaaa]

Just make efficient designs... read this:

http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1156126

And you will be fine. Only make the ones that are 'worth' it. It only really needs three feats:

Craft Wondrous Items
Craft Magic Arms & Armor
Craft Construct

Are you planning on making a crafter in general?

You're linking the version from 6 years ago. Here's (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8962.0) the most recent one.

[tadkins]

Just make efficient designs... read this:

http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1156126

And you will be fine. Only make the ones that are 'worth' it. It only really needs three feats:

Craft Wondrous Items
Craft Magic Arms & Armor
Craft Construct

Are you planning on making a crafter in general?

Ah, thanks for the link.

Thought of a sort of "magical tinker" type character, in which golem building seems to fit well. I'd mostly like to focus on the crafts that are generally related to construct building, though I might craft a few other things as well. He'd be as much a wizard as he is a crafter.


You're linking the version from 6 years ago. Here's (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8962.0) the most recent one.

And thanks for this one too. :)

[Psyren]

You can use Effigy Master to make constructs on the cheap, and then have that character build the more expensive specialty ones.

[Gavinfoxx]

I'm usually better at posting the most recent version. I can only say that I was distracted!

[unseenmage]

Discuss it with your DM first but Constructs (esp Golems) can count as Magic items for the Custom Magic Items guidelines in the back of the DMG. From there there's the Feats in Items sidebar in the Arms and Equipment Guide and from there the sky's the limit.

Gets really really expensive though.
And of course requires much sacrifice to the Highest of High Lords Over all Creation the Great and Powerful DM.

[tadkins]

You can use Effigy Master to make constructs on the cheap, and then have that character build the more expensive specialty ones.

Can you elaborate on what Effigy Master is? I've never heard of it before.


Discuss it with your DM first but Constructs (esp Golems) can count as Magic items for the Custom Magic Items guidelines in the back of the DMG. From there there's the Feats in Items sidebar in the Arms and Equipment Guide and from there the sky's the limit.

Gets really really expensive though.
And of course requires much sacrifice to the Highest of High Lords Over all Creation the Great and Powerful DM.

DMs are pretty much the final say on everything, to be fair.

This is pretty much what I was wondering; whether a wizard with constructs matches up against wizards who spend their feats/skills/money/time on other things.

[Gavinfoxx]

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=4540.0

Effigy master is a prestige class that does some minor specialty things with Effigies, which are a type of construct. That link shows the sorts of things you can do with effigies.

I like making:

Magebred (Eberron Campaign Setting) adds: +4 to natural armor, +4 str, +2 dex, improved natural attack: claw

Woodling (Monster Manual III) adds +7 natural armor

Half-Scrag (Fiend Folio) adds +4 to natural armor, +6 str, +2 dex, -5 land speed, 20' swim speed, changes claws

Wild (dragon magazine 306) adds +2 str, +5’ to all speeds

Half-Dragon Li Lung (dragon magazine #356) adds 4 natural armor, str+8, burrow speed 10', flying (average) at twice groundspeed

Chameleon: 10’ Climb Speed, Damageless Tongue attack with Reach.

Effigy (Complete Arcane) adds +4 str, -2 to dex, adds 2 to natural armor, removes con and int, removes most special abilities, adds dr 5/adamantine, sets wisdom to 11 and charisma to 1

Girallons (Monster Manual/SRD) scores of note are large size, 7HD, 4 claws at 1d4, bite at 1d8, 40' speed, 40' climb speed, natural armor 4, str 22, dex 17, a rend.


Note you can do all of that by like level 7 or 8 with just Craft Construct.

[unseenmage]

Effigys are Constructs that are like magic robot duplicates of existing creatures. They're from the Complete Arcane book, where too can be found Effigy Master.

You can only make Effigys of any corporeal aberration, animal, dragon, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or vermin.
Not all of a creature's Special Abilities survive Effigy-ization so you want those with the most Natural Attacks and most useful physical forms and movement speeds.

And they're the cheapest constructs you can build.

[unseenmage]

This is pretty much what I was wondering; whether a wizard with constructs matches up against wizards who spend their feats/skills/money/time on other things.

With the Custom Magic Items rules and/or template stacking allowed? Maybe. But you're still not beating the Artificer and his early access to all the spells.

Without the Custom Magic item rules and/or template stacking enabled? Definitely not. There are way better Wizards out there than the crafting Wizards. But then all Wizards break reality into little itty pieces and stir it into their coffee every morning so the difference is minimal.

In summary, Wizard super powerful awesomeness.
Crafting Wizards, slightly less so.

[tadkins]

Thanks for your help, everyone. Think I got everything I need. :)

The more I think about it though, the more appealing being the "ultimate crafter" sounds. If that's the case, I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to study up on the Artificer and give that one a try sometime.

[unseenmage]

Thanks for your help, everyone. Think I got everything I need. :)

The more I think about it though, the more appealing being the "ultimate crafter" sounds. If that's the case, I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to study up on the Artificer and give that one a try sometime.

Like the Wizard the Artificer is tier 1. Though, unlike the Wizard, the Artificer requires a lot more DM participation IMHO.

[Fax Celestis]

Girallons are for pansies. Real men effigize rukanyr.

Hell, you could make a poor man's warforged (a poorforged?) by making an effigy of a dwarf.

[unseenmage]

Girallons are for pansies. Real men effigize rukanyr.

Hell, you could make a poor man's warforged (a poorforged?) by making an effigy of a dwarf.

For the record Effigies of straight 1HD Humanoids can be quite satisfying as they're cheap and they retain all of their nonmagical "combat oriented" racial abilities and feats. This includes a Human's bonus racial feat so long as said feat is "combat oriented".

[Psyren]

For the record Effigies of straight 1HD Humanoids can be quite satisfying as they're cheap and they retain all of their nonmagical "combat oriented" racial abilities and feats. This includes a Human's bonus racial feat so long as said feat is "combat oriented".

Martial Study :smallbiggrin:

(Now I'm tempted to make Renshar-bot)

[unseenmage]

Martial Study :smallbiggrin:

(Now I'm tempted to make Renshar-bot)

For the game I built them in I used the MIC Item Combining rules to give them Skill Boosts and the Feats in Items sidebar in AaEG to give them the Item Familiar feat and used them as servants and staff for my crawling Artificer's tower. It was awesome.