Crafting Constructs - Fun for the whole family!

[KoDT69]

I'm looking for whatever sources there are on Crafting constructs. I have a pretty cool idea for an NPC that comes from a village where kidnappings have become a problem. His answer? Creating doll golems, animated toys, etc that will fight off attackers, and of course the adults won't know what's happened to stop the abductions, but now other problems are afoot!

Looking for the cheapest and quickest way this could be done so I can rough out a minimum character level and whatever. May as well get a nice set of guidelines as this dude, or maybe an apprentice will push this to higher level creations.

[daremetoidareyo]

I'm looking for whatever sources there are on Crafting constructs. I have a pretty cool idea for an NPC that comes from a village where kidnappings have become a problem. His answer? Creating doll golems, animated toys, etc that will fight off attackers, and of course the adults won't know what's happened to stop the abductions, but now other problems are afoot!

Looking for the cheapest and quickest way this could be done so I can rough out a minimum character level and whatever. May as well get a nice set of guidelines as this dude, or maybe an apprentice will push this to higher level creations.

How cheesey do you want to get? Filthy Dan of the Junk Crew (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21507073&postcount=188) has a fluff text as RAW workaround.

If you are an urban druid, you get animated objects as animal companions. If you shape soulmelds, you can take the share soulmeld feat and share the soulmeld with the animated object companion. A soulfused construct template in Magic of incarnum stipulates

MoI p.195 "In rare situations, raw incarnum can bond with non sentient animated matter—such as the body of a construct—and imbue it with a semblance of life. The soul energy of the incarnum becomes, in essence, the now-living construct’s spirit, granting it a modicum of sentience and free will."

If you shape lifebond vestments and share them with your animated object companion, you've finished the ritual and boom, you have a soulfused construct.

[unseenmage]

Best most balanced Construct crafting is PF's price by CR found buried in the text of the Building and Modifying Constructs (buildingAndModifyingConstructs.html) section of the PRD.

If PF is not an option Animated Objects created with Craft Construct in place of the spell (arguably doable in 3.x, explicitly allowed in PF) and Effigy template are the next cheapest options.
Elder Eidolon template from Lords of Madness (IIRC) is the older, madness infused brother of the Effigy Template. More gp, more super powers, higher CR.

In either case you'll want to build yousekf a Dedicated Wright Homunculus that will utilize your 8 hr magic item crafting day while you're out adventuring.
Keep in mind, contrary to some advice you'll see multiple Dedicated Wrights will not give you more magic item crafting time per day. They explicitly utilize YOUR crafting time of which there is only 8 hours, regardless of how many Dedicated Wrights you put to work.

Additionally, the Sacred Guardian template from Bestiary of Krynn Revised is the best Int granting template for uts gp cost as it will also net your Construct a host of superpowers. It is tied to a campaign setting specific list of deities, however, and considered 3rd party by most.

Another thing to keep in mind is whether your GM considers Constructs to be Magic Items or not. Craft Construct is viewed by some as an Item Creation feat and as such allows one to use the Combining Magic Items rules in Magic Item Compendium on Constructs.
The Intelligent Magic Item rules can also be employed here.

My personal favorite 3rd party template for Construct shenanigans is the Amalgam Template (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/amalgam-creature-cr-special/) from Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary. (The linked template is PF but the 3.x one us functionally identical.)
With this template any creature combined with a Construct is a Construct. Combined with the PF Price by CR rules it functionally allows you to buikd any creature as a Construct so long as one half of the equation already is a Construct.

[Hugh Mann]

Pathfinder's Horror Adventures has the trompe l'oeil. A relatively cheap type of sentient construct made from paintings. The template lets you keep all the abilities of the base creature while making them immortal so long as the painting is intact. They can also be modified by other construct templates and other construct modifications. The only drawback is that the GM can rule that the paintings can be evil or crazy, and it is unclear if you can control them or not.

The cost scales on HD and size, so it might be best to just draw a bunch of fey and coast on the base creature's special abilities. And at later levels you can basically do whatever you want.

Link here:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/trompe-l-oeil-cr-1/

[Coidzor]

Poppets (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/MonsterDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Poppet,%20Tiny) fill this role, but they're not very fighty, still, enough of them together could form a swarm or just mob someone down with wave after wave of tiny punches.

Tiny (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/constructs/animated-object/animated-object-tiny) Animated (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/building-and-modifying-constructs/) Objects (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/constructs/animated-object) are another potential option and are dirt cheap and more customizable in certain regards.

[BlackOnyx]

Though it might not fly if you're on the sunnier side of the alignment pool, Animate Dead + Haunt Shift (from Libris Mortis) makes for some cheap object animation.


Together, the two spells allow you to create and transfer the consciousness of an undead under 8HD into an object between Tiny and Huge size.


If the object has natural joints/axes of movement and you chose the "poltergeist" variant, you essentially end up with an Animated Object of said size category. (One stipulation being that the CR of undead transferred can't be lower than the CR of the Animated Object it produces.)


A wolf skeleton (CR 1) costs 50gp worth of black onyx to animate and nets you a small Animated Object with the hardness (DR) of the material it's made of.

[Bullet06320]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?453800-quot-1001-Animated-Objects-quot-(from-Wizards-forums)
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?446192-Mechonomicon

[khadgar567]

you know poppets will work as self aware toys that can cast couple of spells( alarm is kinda no brainier) and you can start from level one just put mighty wallop as one of the cast able spells so that toy sword or spear deals damage when it needed.

[Florian]

Cheating with Poppets: Take the "Community Guardian" story feat at 1st level and use it to create a Poppet. Exchange "Community Guardian" for fully fledged "Craft Construct" for fulfilling the story goal.
Only downside: You don't get the crafting discount this way.

[Darrin]

Spells:

Minor Servitor (Savage Species, Clr 7, Sor/Wiz 5). Creates an intelligent animated object, up to 1 cubic foot per caster level. It can be dispelled, but otherwise the duration is permanent. When you combine this spell with a magical trap or a spell clock (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070312a), then you can churn out a staggeringly large number of minor servitors. If the magic trap/spell clock goes off once per round, then that's 14,400 per day.

Sticks and Stones (Shining South, Clr/Sor/Wiz 3). Animates a pile of rocks and branches into a crude medium-sized skeletal creature. Duration is short, only 1 round/CL, but you can add Ocular Spell + Persistent Spell for a 24-hour duration. You could also get more mileage out of it with an energy transformation field (Spell Compendium, Sor/Wiz 7).

Animate Wood (Spell Compendium, Dru 1). Creates a small-sized wooden animated object. There are some complicating issues, though... for example, it's a Druid spell, so getting it on the same chassis as an energy transformation field could be bothersome. Persistent Spell is probably not possible... Reach/Ocular Spell fixes the range, but the duration is "Concentration, up to 1 round/level (D)", and dischargeable means it's not suitable for Persisting. Sonorous hum could fix the concentration issue, but that's a Bard spell and presumably only works for one animated object.

Creatures:

Clockroach (MM4). Can be crafted for 1075 GP with the command amulet, and you can add +1 HD/2000 GP. Attacks with two pincers or a 30' line of acid (usable every 5 rounds).

Clockwork Mender (MM4). Can be acquired as a familiar, summoned via SMII, or summoned as a swarm with a 4th level Clr/Sor/Wiz spell. Can be crafted for 1250 GP, +1 HD/2000 GP. Only has a sting attack + poison (1d4 Dex), but could carry other weapons, such as a sprayer (A&EG) + alchemical fire, mister (DotU) + sleep poison/drugs/etc., or sand pipes (Secrets of Xen'drik). They could also drop bags of Acidic Fire (Eberron Campaign Setting) for massive splash damage.

Homonculus (Magic of Eberron). Can be crafted for 1250 GP, +1 HD/2000 GP. These are linked to the creator, however, so destroying them does 2d10 damage to the creator. It's not clear if a creator can craft more than one... even if you could, doing so would probably be highly inadvisable (due to the 2d10 damage). There are several versions, however, that are just begging to attack en masse: Arbalester is essentially an animated crossbow with legs, the Packmate can spit potions/flasks at your enemies, and the Persistent Harrier can be used to surround enemies and sneak attack them.

[KoDT69]

Love all the feedback! Those Poppets are new to me but 160gp each is a pretty good start. Trying to make sure it's permanent creations and as low level creator as possible.

I'm leaning toward having this dude be misunderstood, the townsfolk taking him as the bad guy. Part of a bigger mystery! Lots of RP potential here.

[Coidzor]

Love all the feedback! Those Poppets are new to me but 160gp each is a pretty good start. Trying to make sure it's permanent creations and as low level creator as possible.

I'm leaning toward having this dude be misunderstood, the townsfolk taking him as the bad guy. Part of a bigger mystery! Lots of RP potential here.

Poppets are something a first level character can achieve with Craft Poppet (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Craft%20Poppet).

I'm not sure what the CR of a hypothetical Fine or Diminutive Animated Object would be, but those would be even cheaper, and the 125 gp Tiny Animated Object (as a permanent creature not subject to Dispel Magic) is the cheapest construct, but you have to have a CL of 5 in order to have the Craft Construct feat in order to build them.