Best construct to build?

[TheNerfGuy]

What would be the best construct/golem for a character to build?

All from the following standpoints:
Economic (cost, in-game time, CL, skill requirements).
Combat (BAB, abilities, chance of going berserk).
Regular PC/NPC interactions.

[unseenmage]

At low levels the effigy template is nice.

The Dedicated Wright is pretty sweet.

Higher levels give us the Shadesteel Golem.

For return on investment the programmable SLAs of the Shield Guardian, Runic Guardian, and Spellsong Nightingale are great.

There are spells that make Constructs "cheaply" if put into reusable items/traps. Animate Objects + Permanency, Minir Servitor, and Awaken Sand are all very versatile. Create Crawling Claw mass produces cannon fodder.

At the highest levels the magic immunity and antimagic aura of epic Collossi is neat.

[Jack_Simth]

3.0, 3.5, or Pathfinder?

If you're going Pathfinder, it's really hard to beat a Tromp L'Oeil... if you can locate a clause about created constructs always obeying their creators.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Effigy Creature template, Complete Arcane p151-153.

It has a price based on size, plus 2,000 gp per HD, a medium effigy is 2,000 gp, so a Fleshraker dinosaur is 10,000 gp. The cost to create it is 6,000 gp and 320 xp, and it takes eight days plus the body construction time.

But wait, it gets better. You can create an effigy of a templated creature, and it won't change the price if it doesn't modify its size or HD. So a Fleshraker effigy is the same price as a Magebred Half-Dragon Fleshraker effigy. I wouldn't go any more over the top than that, to avoid books being thrown at you.

[Luckmann]

But wait, it gets better. You can create an effigy of a templated creature, and it won't change the price if it doesn't modify its size or HD. So a Fleshraker effigy is the same price as a Magebred Half-Dragon Fleshraker effigy. I wouldn't go any more over the top than that, to avoid books being thrown at you.I'd go with a Magebred Spellwarped Effigy Anything. Magebred and Spellwarped together is very thematically fitting and (imo) hard to say no to, and at this point, it feels like just about any creature would work well with it, I'd personally feel like picking Fleshraker specifically is just cookie-cutting.

Man, I've never looked at effigies before, now I really want to play a Transmuter or Artificer.

Edit: Is there any way whatsoever to actually advance HD on an Effigy once constructed, beside DM fiat? I could probably sell a DM on allowing "upgrades" by sinking more money into it, but 2000 gp/HD is absolutely nothing and it'd be nice if there were some guidelines already.

[Lord Haart]

I've actually played a character themed around Rock-type Pokemon construct creatures, and I've mostly used Elder Eidolon. It's slightly more costly than Effigy, but so much better.

>A confusing aura
>Fast repair 5 so you don't have to repair every scratch
>Magic immune
>6 higher AC than effigy
>Higher stats
>Otherwise exactly the same, including all the same grounds to be based on a templated creature.

[thethird]

When you have plenty of money around few constructs are more interesting to me than the sardorian golem (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psb/20040123c)

[unseenmage]

As they are technically Constructs intelligent magic items are an excellent choice as well.

[liquidformat]

At low levels the effigy template is nice.

The Dedicated Wright is pretty sweet.

Higher levels give us the Shadesteel Golem.

For return on investment the programmable SLAs of the Shield Guardian, Runic Guardian, and Spellsong Nightingale are great.

There are spells that make Constructs "cheaply" if put into reusable items/traps. Animate Objects + Permanency, Minir Servitor, and Awaken Sand are all very versatile. Create Crawling Claw mass produces cannon fodder.

At the highest levels the magic immunity and antimagic aura of epic Collossi is neat.

Where is Spellsong Nightingale from?

Also doesn't Create Crawling Claw create undead, not constructs?

I really like going with Improved Homunculus and iron defenders and clockwork menders as assassins. I feel like a lot of people forget about clockwork menders but they are pretty awesome you can summon them as a swarm to heal your constructs or build individual ones that work great as flying sneak attackers.

I am partial to scorpionfolk as effigy!

[NNescio]

Where is Spellsong Nightingale from?

Clockwork Wonders, Part 8. (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070115a)


Also doesn't Create Crawling Claw create undead, not constructs?

Crawling Claws are constructs in 3.5e. You might have been confusing them with their 5e incarnation.

[TheNerfGuy]

Maybe a construct handbook should be made?

[Luckmann]

Maybe a construct handbook should be made?Very much so. I love the idea of the archetype, but I have no idea how it'd all fit together in 3.5.

[unseenmage]

Sounds like you two should get crackin.
That handbook ain't gonna write itself.

That and mine's going nowhere fast what with two jobs and all.

Alternatively Google the Mechanomicon, that's the current Construct Handbook IIRC.

[Luckmann]

Is it possible to construct a Construct/Golem with higher HD? I see nothing forbidding it, but I also see nothing about how to do it or how it'd change the price. Clay Golems are 11 HD, with a price of 40 000gp, and a construction cost od 21 500gp. But Clay Golems are also listed as being able to be advanced up to 33 HD.

Also, as a heads up, the Rudimentary Intelligence allows you to spend an exta 8000gp to endow a Construct you make with an Intelligence equal to 1/2 your Caster Level, but still be essentially mindless and bound to your will. This means thar the construct gets skills and feats, which is amazing. It's from Dragon #327.

Addendum: Well, I think I just came across the craziest Construct: https://web.archive.org/web/20090602171303/http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=fr/pg20020731x

Sure, the Blood Golem is 8 HD, but look at how it Advances. Combine with the aforementioned Rudimentary Intelligence and we're talking about one cray-cray construct. The only real issue is that you need to be a Blood Magus or have one handy.

[TheNerfGuy]

Is it possible to construct a Construct/Golem with higher HD? I see nothing forbidding it, but I also see nothing about how to do it or how it'd change the price. Clay Golems are 11 HD, with a price of 40 000gp, and a construction cost od 21 500gp. But Clay Golems are also listed as being able to be advanced up to 33 HD.

Also, as a heads up, the Rudimentary Intelligence allows you to spend an exta 8000gp to endow a Construct you make with an Intelligence equal to 1/2 your Caster Level, but still be essentially mindless and bound to your will. This means thar the construct gets skills and feats, which is amazing. It's from Dragon #327.

The entries do give advancement in the HD, and I did read one construct example that specified that each extra HD required a set amount of gp. I think it was either a golem or the Juggernaut from MM2. Either way, I think it's something that would be up to the DM.

By the way, is Rudimentary Intelligence a 3.5 feat, or is it 5e?

[TheNerfGuy]

Just read the part about advanced golems.

Each additional HD costs 5K, and the cost goes up by another 50K if the size increases.

As for other constructs with advancement, I think that will have to be up to the DM. I would assume the price increases at a slower pace compared to golems.

[Luckmann]

The entries do give advancement in the HD, and I did read one construct example that specified that each extra HD required a set amount of gp. I think it was either a golem or the Juggernaut from MM2. Either way, I think it's something that would be up to the DM.

By the way, is Rudimentary Intelligence a 3.5 feat, or is it 5e?It's from Dragon #327, so 3.5.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Just read the part about advanced golems.

Each additional HD costs 5K, and the cost goes up by another 50K if the size increases.

As for other constructs with advancement, I think that will have to be up to the DM. I would assume the price increases at a slower pace compared to golems.

A number of other constructs have listed rules and prices for crafting advanced versions (e.g homunculi, effigies, elder eidolons, umbral spy).

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Warforged. Given 0 HD and 0 LA and the ability to gain character levels just like other PCs, they can be the smartest, toughest, strongest, most reality-warpingest badasses in whatever world they're on at the time.

As for how to make them? Well, when a daddy warforged and a creation forge love each other very much...

[Malphegor]

I'm always partial to flakes of flat adamantine, animated with Permamencied Animate Objects.

Why? Exemplar's nanite combo with the lend skill ability and aid another. Suddenly, these tiny flakes of hard metal let someone bluff people harder, make good jumps, etc.

This is more because they're super small, and thus volume-efficient for the exemplar's motiviational ability rather than a quality of the flat objects themselves as constructs.

(any sane DM would shoot this down on the basis that an exemplar motivates those around them to be more skilled, which doesn't fit thematically with random bits of trash he found and ensorcelled unless we assume brave little toaster level intelligence on animated objects)

(plus the numbers get nuts fast. "Does a +100 to hit hit?" ... what do you say to that?)

[unseenmage]

If Dragonlance material is allowed the Sacred Guardian template is the absolute best bang for your buck pricewise for granting unintelligent Constructs intelligence.

It's in Bestiary of Krynn Revised on page 84.

The only real downside is it makes the Construct connected to a Krynn deity. Though your GM might let you swap in a setting appropriate diety and associated superpower.

[Luckmann]

If Dragonlance material is allowed the Sacred Guardian template is the absolute best bang for your buck pricewise for granting unintelligent Constructs intelligence.

It's in Bestiary of Krynn Revised on page 84.

The only real downside is it makes the Construct connected to a Krynn deity. Though your GM might let you swap in a setting appropriate diety and associated superpower.I'd say that the only real downside is that you need a DM that allows you to apply templates to the construct. Especially if you're not some kind of priest or similar devotee, I have a hard time seeing it flying.

But now I really want to play a dwarven runecaster that builds a Sacred Guardian Golem and takes it as a Cohort.

[unseenmage]

I'd say that the only real downside is that you need a DM that allows you to apply templates to the construct. Especially if you're not some kind of priest or similar devotee, I have a hard time seeing it flying.

But now I really want to play a dwarven runecaster that builds a Sacred Guardian Golem and takes it as a Cohort.

Sacred Guardian has a price to Craft though IIRC.
Admittedly the template is a mess and will require more than a little adjudication