Seharvepernfan
2014-04-04, 01:27 PM
There are many ways to get a lump of matter to move and attack things in D&D. I was thinking about some of those ways today, and I thought I'd start a discussion on the matter.
The first and easiest way is to cast animate object. Personally, I dislike this one the most. You infuse an object with positive energy, which causes it to get up and dance like the furniture in Beauty and the Beast. Blegh. I don't know if the objects can bend and twist and all that, or if they keep their shape and just move around as if they were being wielded by an invisible giant. You'd think since a cleric can turn or rebuke dead creatures animated by negative energy, that an evil cleric could turn an object infused with positive energy, but I guess not.
It makes me wonder if you could use negative energy to animate something; I'd guess not, since the fluff is that positive energy "creates life", and negative energy takes/destroys it. Then, why does negative energy animate a corpse? Why couldn't positive energy do that? Or can it? Could I cast animate object on several corpses? That would be a good trick against a cleric. Is there some way you could animate a statue with negative energy?
edit: okay, so apparently animated objects aren't animed with positive energy; that's just something I thought because of ravids, I guess.
Then there's my personal favorite: golems. Giant statues bound with earth elementals that move and are total juggernauts. This one makes the most sense to me, as earth elementals have that "earth glide" ability, which lets them move through earth/stone as if it weren't there, and kinda makes it easier to understand how a thing composed of rock can move/bend/twist like rubber without breaking. As I understand, this method creates the "strongest" animated statues.
What about using other elementals? I know the MM2 had the nimblewright, which was animated by water, I think (might have been air). I don't think I've ever seen another variation. What about using bound celestials or fiends?
Then there are automatons, which are articulated machines animated by shadow magic. They have actual moving parts, kinda like a robot, instead of being just a chunk of matter. They are unreliable, and not as resistant to damage/magic as a golem. I like this idea, but again, I've only seen it in the MM2, and it was rather underwhelming. They had a 50% chance of not doing anything on a given round (kinda unreliable for mining machines, don't ya think?), and despite being composed of metal, they only had like 15-30hp. I wish they had fleshed that idea out a bit better.
Are there any other methods?
What are your thoughts on the ones above?
Discuss.
The first and easiest way is to cast animate object. Personally, I dislike this one the most. You infuse an object with positive energy, which causes it to get up and dance like the furniture in Beauty and the Beast. Blegh. I don't know if the objects can bend and twist and all that, or if they keep their shape and just move around as if they were being wielded by an invisible giant. You'd think since a cleric can turn or rebuke dead creatures animated by negative energy, that an evil cleric could turn an object infused with positive energy, but I guess not.
It makes me wonder if you could use negative energy to animate something; I'd guess not, since the fluff is that positive energy "creates life", and negative energy takes/destroys it. Then, why does negative energy animate a corpse? Why couldn't positive energy do that? Or can it? Could I cast animate object on several corpses? That would be a good trick against a cleric. Is there some way you could animate a statue with negative energy?
edit: okay, so apparently animated objects aren't animed with positive energy; that's just something I thought because of ravids, I guess.
Then there's my personal favorite: golems. Giant statues bound with earth elementals that move and are total juggernauts. This one makes the most sense to me, as earth elementals have that "earth glide" ability, which lets them move through earth/stone as if it weren't there, and kinda makes it easier to understand how a thing composed of rock can move/bend/twist like rubber without breaking. As I understand, this method creates the "strongest" animated statues.
What about using other elementals? I know the MM2 had the nimblewright, which was animated by water, I think (might have been air). I don't think I've ever seen another variation. What about using bound celestials or fiends?
Then there are automatons, which are articulated machines animated by shadow magic. They have actual moving parts, kinda like a robot, instead of being just a chunk of matter. They are unreliable, and not as resistant to damage/magic as a golem. I like this idea, but again, I've only seen it in the MM2, and it was rather underwhelming. They had a 50% chance of not doing anything on a given round (kinda unreliable for mining machines, don't ya think?), and despite being composed of metal, they only had like 15-30hp. I wish they had fleshed that idea out a bit better.
Are there any other methods?
What are your thoughts on the ones above?
Discuss.