unseenmage
2017-01-06, 01:40 AM
Just what it says on the tin; I need a crash course on gauging how relevant a given Construct minion will be to a given character or even a given party.
A Clockwork Mimic would be a CR 5 creature at our table and would cost CR*CR*500gp divided by two to make plus Price*0.1 for the body. In considering if this thing would be 'worth' building I realized I had no clue what 'worth it' means in the broader scope of the game.
Sure our table loves rule-of-cool and this certainly fits the bill but I've recently had a Construct or two flop pretty hard and want to learn how to avoid similar mistakes.
What rubrics to use? How to measure them? Is simply comparing CRs and levels enough? How relevant is Spellcasting or a lack thereof?
Thanks to the Effigy (CAr) Template in 3.x, the Taxidermic (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary5/taxidermicCreature.html#creating-taxidermic-creature) Creature template in PF, and the Amalgam Template in Advanced Bestiary I have access to practically any creature as a Construct minion, GM willing (and my current GM currently is!)
However, I find that I have very poor judgement when it comes to picking creatures to Construct minion-ify that can stay relevant as the group gains levels. Either the creature becomes a horrendous mismash of overpowered nonsense in a desperate attempt to keep it hitting at our weight class or it falls behind and is relegated to the old-discarded-loot lists.
So, I've come to the playground asking advice on keeping Construct minions relevant to combat. Differing advice for building a swarm of things vs a single ginormous thing would be appreciated if possible.
A Clockwork Mimic would be a CR 5 creature at our table and would cost CR*CR*500gp divided by two to make plus Price*0.1 for the body. In considering if this thing would be 'worth' building I realized I had no clue what 'worth it' means in the broader scope of the game.
Sure our table loves rule-of-cool and this certainly fits the bill but I've recently had a Construct or two flop pretty hard and want to learn how to avoid similar mistakes.
What rubrics to use? How to measure them? Is simply comparing CRs and levels enough? How relevant is Spellcasting or a lack thereof?
Thanks to the Effigy (CAr) Template in 3.x, the Taxidermic (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary5/taxidermicCreature.html#creating-taxidermic-creature) Creature template in PF, and the Amalgam Template in Advanced Bestiary I have access to practically any creature as a Construct minion, GM willing (and my current GM currently is!)
However, I find that I have very poor judgement when it comes to picking creatures to Construct minion-ify that can stay relevant as the group gains levels. Either the creature becomes a horrendous mismash of overpowered nonsense in a desperate attempt to keep it hitting at our weight class or it falls behind and is relegated to the old-discarded-loot lists.
So, I've come to the playground asking advice on keeping Construct minions relevant to combat. Differing advice for building a swarm of things vs a single ginormous thing would be appreciated if possible.