Doll/Animated Object Master Class?

[Flemkopf]

I've been trying to figure out how to pull off a specific character idea, and I'm not really sure what classes there are which would really fit it well.

The basic idea is an animated doll master, where you have a bunch of small animated objects which you can use, either for combat, utility purposes, for really fun role-playing opportunities, etc.

The Animate Objects Spell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/animateObjects.htm) covers the basic idea, but it is the only spell that I know of that lets you animate objects, and it is restricted to Bards, Clerics, and (I suspect) classes which share those lists and it is a 6th level spell, which means 11th level characters at the earliest.

I saw the Effigy Master from Complete Arcane, it looks interesting but at the end of the day you are mostly sinking a few levels and a lot of gold into creating what is effectively just an animal companion. It gives you one companion, not a whole flock of them. I suppose that I could have a cheap golem focused crafter.

Pathfinder has a couple of (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/constructs/doll-soulbound/) different types of dolls (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/constructs/guardian-doll/), but no real way to use them in a base class.

I did manage to find a homebrewed class here on GiantITP (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?319803-Base-The-Doll-Maker-(PEACH)) that fulfills the archetype, but I'm not sure that I could pull it into a lot of different games.

My question is, is there any base class that really fills the archetype of the dollmaster, with a set of disposable minions? I've got this image of gunpowder-filled dolls being used as assassination tools in a political campaign, and the associated intrigue that that would bring.

Much of the inspiration originally came from this character. (https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Alice_Margatroid)

[ben-zayb]

Necromancer does pretty much this. Of course, the nature of the material is that it's prone to accelerated wear and tear, so make sure to use Gentle Repose.

Plenty of options for base class, although not all has Gentle Repose: Wizard, Dread Necro, Cleric, Warlock, and even Incarnate.

[Dagroth]

Necromancer does pretty much this. Of course, the nature of the material is that it's prone to accelerated wear and tear, so make sure to use Gentle Repose.

Plenty of options for base class, although not all has Gentle Repose: Wizard, Dread Necro, Cleric, Warlock, and even Incarnate.

Ooo... I like it! A crazed Necromancer who dresses up their undead in frilly clothing and has "tea parties" and such.

Bonus points for using small & tiny creatures.

Extra bonus points for sewing/fabricating "skins" for their skeletons and stuffing them with sawdust. Now they look and move kind of like Zombies (need slashing weapons to harm) but fight like Skeletons (need crushing weapons to harm)!

[Soranar]

Looks like you're looking for an urban druid

they get animate object as a level 5 spells and

they get and ''animal companion'' that can also be an animated object

finally they can turn into animated objects once they reach a high enough level

coincidentally I wrote the handbook for the class

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?506218-The-Urban-Druid-Handbook

[Dagroth]

A Psion Kineticist would work to. They get Control Object at 1st level & Control Body at 4th level.

[Vizzerdrix]

Druids get animate fire and wood at level 1 or 2. The wiz/sorc list has minor servitor. Costs xp but is a perminent animate object. I think it was level 3, but I may be wrong.

Ive also seen a 3rd party book that breaks animate object down like summon spells. With higher versions being able to animate more and larger things.

[Venger]

Druids get animate fire and wood at level 1 or 2. The wiz/sorc list has minor servitor. Costs xp but is a perminent animate object. I think it was level 3, but I may be wrong.

Ive also seen a 3rd party book that breaks animate object down like summon spells. With higher versions being able to animate more and larger things.

minor servitor is a 5 for sor/wiz, a 7 for clerics.

[Eldariel]

You can always have a way to assume Outsider forms (easiest by just being an Outsider race, though you can use mediated shapechanging with Holy/Infernal Transformations) and using a Polymorph-effect (permanent Polymorph Any Object for instance) + Assume Supernatural Ability [Savage Species]/Metamorphic Transfer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#metamorphicTransfer) to assume Ravid (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ravid.htm)'s Animate Objects and go around animating the world.

[lord_khaine]

I saw the Effigy Master from Complete Arcane, it looks interesting but at the end of the day you are mostly sinking a few levels and a lot of gold into creating what is effectively just an animal companion. It gives you one companion, not a whole flock of them. I suppose that I could have a cheap golem focused crafter.

I think you misread the Effigy master? Its certainly not only one compantion, you can create as many of them as you can afford.
And they get a lot more useful than animated objects.

Perhaps you got confused because the sample effigy master wastes a lot of space on the rat familiar it gets from being a wizard?

Edit.
You can combine this with animate dead, corpse crafter feats and skeletal minions for even more minion power. some of who does indeed blow up when killed.

[Sian]

Psion with Astral construct (and ignoring the CompletePsionics nerf) would be a good place to start ... another option would be Urban Druid (Dragon compendium)

[Flemkopf]

Oh wow, I was not expecting to get so much of a response so fast. Thank you all!


Necromancer does pretty much this. Of course, the nature of the material is that it's prone to accelerated wear and tear, so make sure to use Gentle Repose.

Plenty of options for base class, although not all has Gentle Repose: Wizard, Dread Necro, Cleric, Warlock, and even Incarnate.

I had not thought about using undead to make it work. The classes that can run undead already have mechanics built in to create, control and manage them, and there are a lot of such classes.


Ooo... I like it! A crazed Necromancer who dresses up their undead in frilly clothing and has "tea parties" and such.

Bonus points for using small & tiny creatures.

Extra bonus points for sewing/fabricating "skins" for their skeletons and stuffing them with sawdust. Now they look and move kind of like Zombies (need slashing weapons to harm) but fight like Skeletons (need crushing weapons to harm)!

I'm imagining a character with a really high Craft (Taxidermy) skill very carefully restoring some of the creatures they face and animating those, and/or making deals to pull in housepets and such. This would make the undead option even more workable. Also, I could totally see tea parties being a thing, especially with some of the girls that I've played with.


Looks like you're looking for an urban druid


I've taken a look at the guide that you wrote. That is a very flavorful class with a lot of good potential. Does it have any summoning spells or other minion-type abilities besides summon swarm and the animal/animated object companion? The spontaneous repair spells would be quite useful if that was available.


Druids get animate fire and wood at level 1 or 2. The wiz/sorc list has minor servitor. Costs xp but is a perminent animate object. I think it was level 3, but I may be wrong.


Those are some very useful low-level spells that would work wonderfully, thank you for mentioning them.



Ive also seen a 3rd party book that breaks animate object down like summon spells. With higher versions being able to animate more and larger things.

Would you happen to know what book those came from? That right there could form the basis of the entire character's abilities.


You can always have a way to assume Outsider forms (easiest by just being an Outsider race, though you can use mediated shapechanging with Holy/Infernal Transformations) and using a Polymorph-effect (permanent Polymorph Any Object for instance) + Assume Supernatural Ability [Savage Species]/Metamorphic Transfer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#metamorphicTransfer) to assume Ravid (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ravid.htm)'s Animate Objects and go around animating the world.

Okay, that would be a heck of a lot of fun, but the requirements to make that work are pretty cheese heavy and story breaking, so I don't think I could pull this off in a game where most players are pulling from just one book. That being said, it would make for quite an exciting villain when I DM another game for the group.


A Psion Kineticist would work to. They get Control Object at 1st level & Control Body at 4th level.

Psion with Astral construct (and ignoring the CompletePsionics nerf) would be a good place to start ... another option would be Urban Druid (Dragon compendium)

Psionics is definitely an option. I haven't delved too much into that particular system in the past, but I'll take another look.


I think you misread the Effigy master? Its certainly not only one compantion, you can create as many of them as you can afford.
And they get a lot more useful than animated objects.

Perhaps you got confused because the sample effigy master wastes a lot of space on the rat familiar it gets from being a wizard?

Edit.
You can combine this with animate dead, corpse crafter feats and skeletal minions for even more minion power. some of who does indeed blow up when killed.

Yup, you are right that I misread that one. I think I was looking at the costs for building effigies and assumed that you would pretty much just be building one or two large effigies that you keep around forever, since the cost of replacing small ones is just so high. 1000 gp a hit dice is not a cheap date, is there any way to bring that down?

Also, does it explain how you control your effigies, and what the limit on how many of them you can control is? Is it limited mainly by how much money you have to sink into them? I could imagine building a couple of effigies as mounts for players, and other such hijinks.

I will take a look at the corpse crafter feats. Combining those with skeletal/effigy minions would be a really fun time.

[Vizzerdrix]

Minor servitor can be found in savage species.

[Fizban]

Dnd 3.5 really doesn't support animated objects much at all, despite the deluge of weird higher level spells. The best solution is to directly homebrew what you need. I've got six different versions of animate object/element/puppet invocations in my notes.


Ravid's Touch/Crypt Warden's Blessing (Lesser, 4th)
By infusing an object with positive energy you animate it and bring it under your control, with the statistcs and abilities of an animated object with its size and properties. This effect has a range of touch and lasts for 1 round/level, or indefinitely for objects with an initial value of at least 25gp for each hit die they have after animation. Clever warlocks might make improvements before animating an object, such as welding a sword to a suit of armor to improve its damage, or hiding gems in a mound of dirt to increase its worth. You may only control 2 HD/level in animated objects this way: if animating a new object would put you over the limit you may choose which objects are released and de-animate.

Animate (Least, 2nd)
By focusing your dark will, you may use Animate Objects as the spell with the following restrictions: the range becomes Close, the duration becomes Concentration, and you may not animate objects of greater than Medium size.

Dark Proxy Warmonger (Lesser, 3rd)
This functions as Animate, but better. You may animate even magical objects of up to large size, which retain their mundane and magical combat qualities. Weapons use their weapon stats in place of slams, armor and shields may use their AC bonuses, and any increased hit points, AC, or other defenses are carried over. By increasing your concentration to a full round action and uttering any neccesary command words, you may cause a magic item you are animating to activate an abiity on it's own behalf. Finally, your objects may add your charisma modifier to attack and damage.

Puppeteer (Lesser, 4th)
With strands of eldritch energy you make objects dance to your bidding. You may use Animate Objects as the spell, except you may target only one object per four caster levels and have the option of animating an object indefinitely. Up to one object per six caster levels can have a duration of Permanent (D) instead of the normal 1 round/level.
Note: can't remember if I meant this to be one small object/four levels, or the normal one small object/level in "value" with a cap on total targets.

Creator of Animate Life (Greater, 6th)
By shearing off a seed of your own life force you may give life to an object. This invocation has a casting time of 1 day (8 hours), costs 500xp, and instantaneously animates a single object of up to Huge size with Int, Wis, and Cha stats of 3d6 each. The newly awakened construct is always friendly toward you, increasing to helpful and following you on adventures as long as it is the only awakened construct accompanying you.

Puppetwright (Lesser, 4th)
With this invocation you gain the knowledge of crafting exquisite puppets, dolls, and mannequins, and the ability to animate them to serve you. Crafting a puppet takes one day and costs 500gp in materials per HD, but requires little actual skill, and results in a tiny object. You may duplicate the statistsics of Elementals, Astral Constructs, or simple Animated Objects if you so choose, and may add extra hit dice and determine the visual form as you wish. Animating a puppet requires a full round action at which point it grows to match it's intended size, and you may have HD equal to your caster level active at any time. Dismissing the effect causes a doll to shrink back to it's normal size and leaves it unharmed as long as it is not destroyed in animate form, but if detstroyed in either form it is lost.

Animate Elements (Least, 1st)
You gain the ability to create and control Elementals for as long as you concentrate. You may animate a Small Elemental from a corresponding portion of element, which takes one round to form and begins taking actions at the start of your next turn. The elemental acts as you direct it, and if destroyed you must wait one full round before creating another from a new batch of material. An Air Elemental requires an empty space twice its size in order to form, Earth requires unworked patch of both earth and stone, Fire requires a fire of equal size, and Water requires water of equal weight (and volume) to the resulting elemental. As you gain access to higher grades of invocations you can animate stronger elementals: Medium with Lesser, Large with Greater, and Huge with Dark.
Not neccesarily all of these should be available at once, but if your DM is cool with you having a bunch of minions they can allow as many as they want. The HD pools on Ravid's Touch and Puppetwright are half that of Animate Dead due to not needing bodies/potential special abilities, but combined they only reach the same total. A dedicated necro-animator can probably match the control pool of even a warlock with every invocation here thanks to Control Undead and various items.

[Mehangel]

Spheres of Power (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/), Enhancement (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/enhancement#toc11) sphere allows for animating objects at 1st level and does a decent job at it. Ofcourse it was written for Pathfinder, but it can easily be backported into D&D 3.5 with almost no effort.

[Thurbane]

You need the Puppet Master PrC.

Unfirtunately, there's two issues with it;

1.) It's homebrew
2.) It's my homebrew and I never finished typing it up!

...if you're open to homebrew, let me know and I *might* get around to finishing it off and uploading it.

Basically it's a caster PrC that gets an animated object (puppet) as a "familiar", and has some control-type abilities.

Is this for 3.5, or Pathfinder?