Carting around a Colossal Statue

[Heliomance]

So I'd like to get some way of carrying around a Colossal statue of some sort in a high level game, for Animate Object shenanigans. Any suggestions on how? Shrink Item only gets it down to Medium, and would require a ludicrously huge caster level anyway.

Also, how bank breaking would a Colossal adamantine statue be? What material would you recommend it's made of?

[Segev]

Libris Mortis has rules for "haunting," and includes a spell called "haunt shift." This would allow you to force a skeleton, say, under your control to become a haunting presence...which is then capable of animating the object it haunts.

I don't think it can fully animate an otherwise-inanimate statue, but it could, for example, animate a huge cart to carry it around.

If you're high-enough level, have your wizard Astral Project along with the animate statue. The wizard forms a new projected body on the plane but leaves the statue in the Astral. He hops out and retrieves it when the party needs it.

Polymorph Any Object, too, could transform it into a pocket-sized statuette. You'd have to dispell it to return it to normal sized, though, because same kingdom (mineral) is +5, same class (it's the same material) is +2, and same intelligence (non-stat) is +2, for a total duration factor of 9 (maybe higher; I just stopped counting when I reached 9).


As for material... A shield made of adamantine is +2000 gp. A metal shield weighs between 6 and 15 lbs. That means you're looking at between 133.33 gp per pound and 333.33 gp per pound.

An Iron Colossus weighs 150,000 pounds, and is the right size and shape for what you're looking for. If we roughly equate iron and adamantine for weight, that means you need between 20 million and 50 million gp worth of adamantine to make a colossal adamantine statue.

[Segev]

Interestingly, the Iron Colossus I used as a reference only costs 1 million gp to create, which explicitly includes 100,500 gp for the body. You're probably better off just buying an Iron Colossus for 2 million gp; they're always animate and are a lot more powerful than an animated statue. Also, it transports itself, albeit not in a convenient pocket size. Of course, you want a colossal golem to fight on your side because it's so huge; shrinking it won't help if you are trying to fight in an area it can't grow back to normal.




Though an alternative occurs to me: Make your adamantine statue the pocket size you want to carry. That's easily less than 2000 gp worth of adamantine. Then use PAO to make it colossal. That's still same kingdom, same class, and same intelligence: permanent duration. Dispel it when you want it back down to mini-size.

[Heliomance]

As for material... A shield made of adamantine is +2000 gp. A metal shield weighs between 6 and 15 lbs. That means you're looking at between 133.33 gp per pound and 333.33 gp per pound.

An Iron Colossus weighs 150,000 pounds, and is the right size and shape for what you're looking for. If we roughly equate iron and adamantine for weight, that means you need between 20 million and 50 million gp worth of adamantine to make a colossal adamantine statue.

Yikes, that's a bit out of my price range! I've got two to three orders of magnitude less money than that to throw around :P

Playing with 20th level WBL, so a price in the 100k range is expensive but doable. I have the ability to animate Colossal objects by virtue (vice?) of Fiend of Possession, but lugging around something Colossal is less subtle than I'd prefer. Any ideas?

[Segev]

Yikes, that's a bit out of my price range! I've got two to three orders of magnitude less money than that to throw around :P

Playing with 20th level WBL, so a price in the 100k range is expensive but doable. I have the ability to animate Colossal objects by virtue (vice?) of Fiend of Possession, but lugging around something Colossal is less subtle than I'd prefer. Any ideas?

See my second post; your best bet is to get your mini-statue, and have the party wizard PAO it to the desired size.

[Flickerdart]

Yikes, that's a bit out of my price range! I've got two to three orders of magnitude less money than that to throw around :P
Making the middle of the colossus adamantine is pointless. Make it out of stone or cork or whatever is handy, and give it adamantine plating.

[nedz]

But why not just make it hollow — because transport ?

It would be cheaper and weight less and you could ride around inside it.

Doesn't help with the size though.

[Renen]

Why not just shrink item it? It will become human sized and you can just have a generic donkey and cart move it around.

[Segev]

Actually, since you're a Fiend of Possession, you could just Shrink it down to human-size and possess it. It's your new body.

Though I still think PAO on a small statue to make it colossal is the better, more economical bet.

[Heliomance]

Actually, since you're a Fiend of Possession, you could just Shrink it down to human-size and possess it. It's your new body.

Though I still think PAO on a small statue to make it colossal is the better, more economical bet.

I'm spending most of my time possessing my Thrall's sword, and granting it +6 of changeable bonuses, while manifesting powers now and then. Colossal animated statue is an "OH CRAP IT'S ALL GONE TO HELL" option.

[Segev]

I'm spending most of my time possessing my Thrall's sword, and granting it +6 of changeable bonuses, while manifesting powers now and then. Colossal animated statue is an "OH CRAP IT'S ALL GONE TO HELL" option.

Okay.

1) Do you HAVE access to PAO through a party member or anything?

2) What about sufficient Shrink Item?


I still stand by the "pocket-sized adamantine figurine that gets PAO'd when needed," but given your set-up, you could also get Colossal Adamantine Full Plate. I suspect your DM will make you add the +2000 gp before the x16 multiplier, so it would come to 56,000 gp. Shrink item it down to man-sized and have your thrall WEAR it. When you want it huge, end the shrinkage and let the thrall climb out of it while you possess and animate it.

[Cuaqchi]

It honestly sounds like you're trying to go about this backwards. Why not just get a tiny adamantine statue, take advantage of PaO at the start of any combat and then animate the statue which is now at the appropriate size for the combat in question?

[Jowgen]

Two things come to mind.

a) Find some kind of exotic material that is so light that it'll weigh 20 lb or less, give it a handle somewhere so you can lift it and put it in a glove of storing. Forth it for pure hilarity imo

b) Talisman of the Disk, aka. your best friend ever. Calcuate how many disks you can distribute the statue's weight over, maybe get some strenght-enhancement to boost each disk's carrying capacity, and from that you can calculate how heavy your statue can be. Depending on how heavy it is, and how you plan on lifting the thing, this might be quite the cumbersome approach; but I don't think you can beat the 500 GP price-tag on this.

Light but durable materials that come to mind... Blue Ice from Frostburn halves weight. A cheesier approach would be Riverine from Stormwrack. It seems pricey at 2000/lb, but considering that it is way indestructible, you'd only need the thinnest of outer layers for your statue. And the inside can double as your house/sub/whatever. How much would a hollow colossal statue made out of thin paper weigh? :smalltongue:

[Heliomance]

I'm liking the small statue to be PAO'd idea, but I don't think I have access to PAO. Also, the rest of my party don't know I'm playing an FoP - I'm pretending I'm my thrall :P

Thrall is a Sorc/Prestige Bard/Swiftblade, and I don't remember if she has 6th or 7th level spells.

Riverine sounds good, but I have no idea how it would interact with Animate Objects - the spell says the object retains its hardness, but Riverine doesn't have hardness, per se.

One option I've come up with is having my thrall transform (via Psychoactive Skin or Proteus) into a giant statue, but 1) I don't know if that's a valid target for Animate Objects, 2) it takes the thrall out of combat, and 3) that restricts you to hardness 14 or less.

Looking like my best bet is to wait a few more levels until the thrall can cast PAO, then do the small statue trick.

[Segev]

If your party doesn't know you're a FoP, how do you plan to utilize the statue? Is the thrall going to claim it's a Figurine of Wondrous Power, or is it only a "well, cat's out of the bag" emergency plan, or what?

What other class(es) do you have? Do you have UMD? Does your thrall? It sounds like you're a Thrallherd, but it could be that you're using some other mechanism to control your thrall, so I'm not positive. If you can get UMD, you could invest in a staff of PAO or something and use it yourself, have your thrall use it, or have some other minion (a higher-level follower/believer, perhaps) use it. Heck, a familiar could use it (imp or quasit, perhaps?) if they have the UMD ranks to pull it off.

...if you're a thrallherd, a believer with even a single level of wizard or sorcerer wouldn't even need UMD to use a staff of PAO.

[Heliomance]

If your party doesn't know you're a FoP, how do you plan to utilize the statue? Is the thrall going to claim it's a Figurine of Wondrous Power, or is it only a "well, cat's out of the bag" emergency plan, or what?

What other class(es) do you have? Do you have UMD? Does your thrall? It sounds like you're a Thrallherd, but it could be that you're using some other mechanism to control your thrall, so I'm not positive. If you can get UMD, you could invest in a staff of PAO or something and use it yourself, have your thrall use it, or have some other minion (a higher-level follower/believer, perhaps) use it. Heck, a familiar could use it (imp or quasit, perhaps?) if they have the UMD ranks to pull it off.

...if you're a thrallherd, a believer with even a single level of wizard or sorcerer wouldn't even need UMD to use a staff of PAO.

The latter - emergency plan only. And there's always the *Glibness* "Oh, it's just a magic item I picked up on my travels" option.

I'm an Ardent/Thrallherd. Thrall has sorcerer levels but no UMD, but yeah, picking up a staff is an option. And I can't see a staff of PAO not being useful for general stuff anyway.