Pathfinder guardian phantom armor question

[Thandur]

Hay guys, I'm wanting to know if someone could explain to me why creating a cr 2 guardian phantom armor undead requires a 12th level character with a 6th level spell? I've played a lot of 3.5 and pathfinder, but mostly I stick to melee style toons. I can't wrap my head around why you would have to be so high of a level to make a cr 2 like that. I'm slowly trying out the caster side of the game and was wondering about this for a necromancer style guy I was bouncing around in my head. Any help would be appreciated, thanks

[Grizzled Gryphon]

Balance, mostly. If you could make a CR2 construct at level 2, then you not only effectively doubled your power, but you also threw off the power level of the party. And if you could make it at level 2, then it would be rather cheap to do so, which means you could just make more and more of them. And it would be at a very high level that an army CR2 creatures would start to loss its usefulness. I am not sure what the cost of a level 2 construct is, but it would be low enough that a level 10 wizard could have 20 or more, as it would be comparable to the cost of magic items, and a level 10 wizard (or any character, for that matter) would be able to afford a LOT of items a level 2 character could afford, especially if he is making them himself, as he only has to pay half the cost of the item.

[Milo v3]

... Whenever I see constructs and undead, I'm always amazed at how high level you have to be to craft them. Makes it so much harder to actually have constructs common in the setting for barely any reason. :smallsigh:

[Grizzled Gryphon]

... Whenever I see constructs and undead, I'm always amazed at how high level you have to be to craft them. Makes it so much harder to actually have constructs common in the setting for barely any reason. :smallsigh: Again, the reason is balance. If you could make undead and/or constructs cheaply or at low level, then players would abuse it to the point it would be banned in pretty much every game.

[...]

When I first read this, I thought it said "guardian plot armor." You have unintentionally made my day.

[Milo v3]

Again, the reason is balance. If you could make undead and/or constructs cheaply or at low level, then players would abuse it to the point it would be banned in pretty much every game.

Except the balance wasn't kept because you have to wait to a level were the creature is useless to make it most of the time. Phantom armour is useless by 12th level. At least golems are useful when you can craft them.

You have to be 7th level at all to craft constructs. I think 7th level is fine to make CR 2 creatures, I mean hell necromancers can make CR 2 creatures at that level with a much smaller cost.