Golem Manual Clarification

[RoboEmperor]

1. The spells written in the golem manual don't match the spells required to craft the golem. Why is this? i.e. greater stone golem requires antimagic field, geas/quest, slow, and symbol of stunning. The golem manual for creating a greater stone golem provides geas/quest, limited wish, polymorph any object, and slow. So instead of antimagic field and symbol of stunning the manual has limited wish and polymorph any object.

Also, creating the greater stone golem manual lists antimagic field, geas/quest, and symbol of stunning, but the manual itself provides different spells.

The errata doesn't make sense.


Problem: Prerequisite spells for constructing a stone golem or greater stone golem given on page 137 of the Monster Manual don’t match those given for the stone golem manual and greater stone golem manual on page 258 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Solution: The Dungeon Master’s Guide is correct. Add the slow spell to the prerequisites for each of these golems in the Monster Manual.

The monster manual is the one with the slow spell as the prerequisite, and the dungeon's master guide is the one without the slow, and has mis-matching spells to create the manual and the spells the manual provides

2. If using the manual, does it still take 1 day per 1000gp of the base price of the golem to enchant? Or are you finished after you create the body?

3. When using the manual, do you still pay the cost to create the golem or just the body? So for a greater stone golem, you do you pay 105,000gp or just 5000gp? (5000 is cost for the body).

[Kelb_Panthera]

In the absence of any text to the contrary, you still have to pay the cost to create the golemn and spend a day per 1000gp of that cost. The manual just lets you bypass the xp, feat, and spells required in the construction of the golemn.

The erratta error is just par-for-the-course WotC stupidity. The intended result is obviously that the spells contained in, and required by, the manual are supposed to match up with the same for the golemn being made. Expect a DM to rule that way.

Not that it really matters; you can't use the contained spells for anything else and the golemn is activated by the consumption of the book as much as the user's ability to activate it by spell trigger.

[RoboEmperor]

Damn, I guess the only reason why anyone would make a golem manual is to skip the craft construct feat.

At least the manual provides a way to circumvent the XP cost at the cost of 44000gp.

[Fable Wright]

Damn, I guess the only reason why anyone would make a golem manual is to skip the craft construct feat.

No, there's another couple of uses for it. The first being that a Golem you create but hand off to someone else still takes orders from you. Some people are not okay with that, and would only accept a Golem that they made with their own hands.

The second is that the Golem Manual is cheap, and takes very little time to make relative to a full-on Golem. So, your master artificer can pump out Clay or Flesh Golem Manuals every week or so, and then their apprentices (read: Cohorts and their Cohorts) can turn those manuals into Golems despite their inability to cast the component spells and their lower levels. This way, you get an army of golems in 2-3 months, as opposed to 2-3 years.

[RoboEmperor]

The second is that the Golem Manual is cheap, and takes very little time to make relative to a full-on Golem. So, your master artificer can pump out Clay or Flesh Golem Manuals every week or so, and then their apprentices (read: Cohorts and their Cohorts) can turn those manuals into Golems despite their inability to cast the component spells and their lower levels. This way, you get an army of golems in 2-3 months, as opposed to 2-3 years.

Heh, have followers enchant the golem for you. Didn't think of this. Thanks for the info. Makes me wanna get leadership feat XD. Too bad I hate actual people and only like creations.

[Hamste]

Heh, have followers enchant the golem for you. Didn't think of this. Thanks for the info. Makes me wanna get leadership feat XD. Too bad I hate actual people and only like creations.

Make them all warforged?

[Kid Jake]

Make them all warforged?

Crafting golems to craft golems whose sole purpose are to craft more golems. Brilliant!

[unseenmage]

My original DM and I once deconstructed the price of the Golem Manuals, worked out a template for making them for any Golem, then any Construct.
Then we redesigned the Golem Manual as a piece of Wondrous Architecture called the Golem Table,

They were fantastically expensive but cool nonetheless.


We later set them up on a Genesis demiplane with automated Wondrous Architecture to keep it growing forever and turned the Constructs loose with AI programming levels of if-then contingency-esque orders. They were all to make more Constructs using the natural resources we'd established on the demiplane while also adding our programming orders to the new Constructs. We should really go back and see what became of that place some time...

[RoboEmperor]

I'm trying to figure out what spells I need to craft the greater stone golem.

Monster Manual
antimagic field, geas/quest, slow, symbol of stunning

Golem Manual
geas/quest, limited wish, polymorph any object, and slow

To craft the Golem Manual
antimagic field, geas/quest, symbol of stunning


With the errata in mind, does this mean the spells the golem manual provides is the accurate ones, and you need to modify both the monster manual and the golem manual's required spells,

OR

if you don't have PaO and Slow, you can just craft the golem manual and magically the manual has PaO and Slow.

Because the errata says you need slow, and the DMG is right, I'm inclined to believe the golem manual's provided spells are correct.

[Kelb_Panthera]

The situation calls for a houseruling. I'd expect the DM to go with the spells listed in the golem entry and to make things uniform to that set.

The actual RAW of the circumstance is too stupid to contemplate. Thanks WotC!

[Renen]

Crafting golems to craft golems whose sole purpose are to craft more golems. Brilliant!

Yo dawg, I heard you like crafting golems. So I crafted you a manual on how to craft golems that craft golems while you craft golems.

[unseenmage]

Yo dawg, I heard you like crafting golems. So I crafted you a manual on how to craft golems that craft golems while you craft golems.

Bonus points if you use the DragonMech rules to build an Animated Mech City for them all to work in so that your golems are crafting golem manuals on crafting golems so they can craft more golems inside your giant golem.

[Jack_Simth]

My original DM and I once deconstructed the price of the Golem Manuals, worked out a template for making them for any Golem, then any Construct.
Then we redesigned the Golem Manual as a piece of Wondrous Architecture called the Golem Table,

They were fantastically expensive but cool nonetheless.


We later set them up on a Genesis demiplane with automated Wondrous Architecture to keep it growing forever and turned the Constructs loose with AI programming levels of if-then contingency-esque orders. They were all to make more Constructs using the natural resources we'd established on the demiplane while also adding our programming orders to the new Constructs. We should really go back and see what became of that place some time...

...

Is THAT how mechanus started?

[unseenmage]

...

Is THAT how mechanus started?

:smallconfused::smallamused::smallsmile::smallbigg rin::smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin:

It IS now!