Shield guardian

[kingcheesepants]

So the new Icewind Dale book has the Shield Guardian Amulet. It's even craftable. And at 1000 gold it seems like an insanely effective way to boost your survivability (it takes half of your damage for you and has 142 HP) and it has the ability to store a level 4 or lower spell too. A couple questions though, Is the price for crafting the amulet the full cost of the guardian? Or do you need to get a suit of armor or something first? Secondly, I've seen people say that revivify isn't a legitimate spell to have as a contingency spell because you can't target yourself with revivify (and contingency specifically requires a spell that you can target yourself with). Do you think that storing a revivify in the shield guardian would run into a similar problem? It seems to me that it wouldn't as the stored spell language doesn't note any exceptions as to what can be cast in it aside from level 4 or lower. Thus with a shield guardian active you'll have effectively double HP (assuming your HP isn't already more than 142) and you can have it cast revivify on you if you do die from something. That's on top of it being able to make attacks and such too. All in all an excellent deal for 1000 GP and an attunement slot. Is there any reason I shouldn't take a month of downtime and craft one of these for each member of the party?

[Zhorn]

Is the price for crafting the amulet the full cost of the guardian?
No, the amulet's cost is just the amulet.

I have not seen any official pricing for Shield Guardian's in 5e, but as a rule of thumb I'd target between 50,000gp - 65,000gp, taking 30-60 days.
Shield Guardian's are CR7, while Flesh Golems are CR5 and Clay golems are CR9. Each of those are constructible via Manual of Golems for the aforementioned price and time ranges.
I'd still say you need to find the instructions to make a Shield Guardian first just as with a Manual of Golems, but it seems like a fair and reasonable arrangement.

[sithlordnergal]

I don't know about the cost of the Shield Guardian, but I'd say Revivify is a spell that can be cast into the Shield Guardian. The Shield Guardian acts more like a Ring of Spell Storing or an Ioun Stone of Reserve then it does the Contingency spell. Heck, the Shield Guardian has the exact same wording as the Ring of Spell Storing, only they changed out the word "Ring" with "Guardian", and it has to be you to cast the spell:

"Any creature can Cast a Spell of 1st through 5th Level into the ring by touching the ring as the spell is cast. The spell has no Effect, other than to be stored in the ring." - Ring of Spell Storing

"Any creature can Cast a Spell of 1st through 3rd Level into the stone by touching it as the spell is cast. The spell has no Effect, other than to be stored in the stone. " - Ioun Stone of Reserve

"To do so, the wearer must cast the spell on the Guardian. The spell has no Effect but is stored within the Guardian." - Shield Guardian

As such, if you can cast Revivify into a Ring of Spell Storing, which you can, you can cast Revivify into a Shield Guardian with the order to cast it on you if you die since you can predefine a situation for the Shield Guardian to cast the spell and it'll do so if that situation ever arises.

[kingcheesepants]

No, the amulet's cost is just the amulet.

I have not seen any official pricing for Shield Guardian's in 5e, but as a rule of thumb I'd target between 50,000gp - 65,000gp, taking 30-60 days.
Shield Guardian's are CR7, while Flesh Golems are CR5 and Clay golems are CR9. Each of those are constructible via Manual of Golems for the aforementioned price and time ranges.
I'd still say you need to find the instructions to make a Shield Guardian first just as with a Manual of Golems, but it seems like a fair and reasonable arrangement.

Yeah that makes a lot more sense price wise. I think what threw me off was the fact that there's no such item as a manual of shield guardians or any other method for creating one in the books but there is a method listed for making the amulet. I guess I'd have to ask the DM to think about making one available somehow. As for spells, I think the obvious is Revivify but are there any other others you all would think would be good?

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Yeah that makes a lot more sense price wise. I think what threw me off was the fact that there's no such item as a manual of shield guardians or any other method for creating one in the books but there is a method listed for making the amulet. I guess I'd have to ask the DM to think about making one available somehow. As for spells, I think the obvious is Revivify but are there any other others you all would think would be good?

I only know of one official adventure that have it and they have them as two separate things.

The Amulet and the Guardian are not the same item.

You can always look at the ToA one.
In Vorn the statue is actually a deactivated shield guardian.
I saw some places suggest a character can try and craft the amulet instead of looking for it.

[Unoriginal]

So the new Icewind Dale book has the Shield Guardian Amulet. It's even craftable.

What do you mean by "it's even craftable"?

[kingcheesepants]

What do you mean by "it's even craftable"?

As in the item description has a GP cost and crafting time written down for making it. For the majority of items this is not the case.

[Rara1212]

As in the item description has a GP cost and crafting time written down for making it. For the majority of items this is not the case.

As long as you have a rarity on a magic item both the DMG & Xanathars provides estimates of crafting time & cost.

[AttilatheYeon]

I only know of one official adventure that have it and they have them as two separate things.

The Amulet and the Guardian are not the same item.

You can always look at the ToA one.
In Vorn the statue is actually a deactivated shield guardian.
I saw some places suggest a character can try and craft the amulet instead of looking for it.

Out of the Abyss has one and Curse of Strahd has one.

[Sigreid]

As in the item description has a GP cost and crafting time written down for making it. For the majority of items this is not the case.

That would make sense if there's a Shield Guardian in there somewhere with no amulet. "You can have this cool thing, but you have to make the control device first".

[JackPhoenix]

Out of the Abyss has one and Curse of Strahd has one.

You can potentially get one in Princes of the Apocalypse too, if you manage to take the amulet from the owner before you'll have to destroy the guardian.