Renduaz
2021-03-18, 02:01 PM
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Race: Any small race is ideal
Class: Creation Bard 18 with optional dips, Genielock being my favorite, but we'll also discuss Wildfire Druid and Trickery Cleric.
Notable Feats: Mounted Combatant, Spell Sniper, Ritual Caster, Bountiful Luck
Notable Eldritch Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Eldritch Spear
Notable Spells: Eldritch Blast, Lightning Lure, Magic Stone, Mending, Feather Fall, Sanctuary, Invisibility, Find Familiar, Warding Wind, Catnap, Major Image, Stinking Cloud, Freedom of Movement, Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, Animate Objects, Planar Binding, Forcecage, Mordenkainen's Sword, True Polymorph
Notable Magical Secrets: Antilife Shell, Find Greater Steed, Infernal Calling, Summon Greater Demon, Life Transference, Haste, Magic Circle, Globe of Invulnerability, Hero's Feast, Planar Ally, Simulacrum, Temple of the Gods, Wish, Gate
Introduction
The Mechapilot is a unique versatile build making primary use of the already powerful Creation Bard's less discussed feature - Animating Performance, alongside a number of other tricks, which is utilized as our 'Mecha' or autonomous vehicle with the goal of squeezing our Dancing Item for all its worth, which as it turns out, is quite a lot with some original thinking, both in and out of combat.
Mecha basics
The first order of business is creating the mecha, for which you will need a Medium or ideally Large object containing some hollow receptacle for the pilot, or even two, to stay within, alongside any space you wish to reserve for comfort or personal items or other reasons. If you chose a Small race and create a Large mecha, you most certainly have room for another small companion and a spacious interior, not to mention any Medium creature riding on top with the Dancing Item's STR of 18 likely being able to shoulder it.
The mecha can take any shape and specifications you wish, and customizing it can add some great flavour. It can be somewhat identical to the image of the Mighty Servant of Leuk-o, our mascot artifact since it is very similar in function to our ability-made Construct mecha, it can look like a fighter jet, a mechanical bird, a chariot or cart, a house, a barrel, whatever you want. There are three fundamental requirements to employ this build most effectively however - the interior should provide total cover, you should be able to exit it or better yet poke your head or body out of it, and you should be able to view the battlefield well.
That can be designed in a variety of ways. A hatch, a door, or even a simple opening somewhere in the interior. Any transparent material such as glass or crystal can provide viewing while maintaining total cover, you could even use integrated goggles and scopes, or just make the whole mecha transparent. You can have a constant 360 view, multiple views or a fixed view depending on which way your mecha is facing. You could also always just poke your head out somewhere if you don't mind it.
At this point its important to stress that the materials from which you make the Mecha actually do not affect it whatsoever, at least while still animated. As soon as you imbue any object, it becomes a Dancing Item Construct type Creature with a fixed AC, HP and damage immunities. That means your Glass mecha has the exact same AC and HP as a platinum mecha. By RAW you could even make a Construct out of wood and it will never catch on fire by spells or actions that apply it to objects, like Firebolt. you could even make a Burlap sack as your Mecha, or create a Large Tent construct which supports weight and stretches or bends at will by the same magical force that enables it to move, fly and punch. Some DM's like to spice up encounters by enabling physical/chemical interactions wity creatures based on their composition or physicality independent of the stat block, so you don't really have to go crazy if you suspect any issues coming up.
Lastly, the most important part which I have not forgotten, how are we to produce the object in the first place? There are two simple options - the first, which won't be used often, is to purchase or bring along the mecha with you on your journeys. Its a cumbersome task, but as a small creature, you might just devise some Medium mecha that the party could bring along and drop at will. Alternatively, depending on terrain, wheeled vehicles and the like pulled by animals could be transformed into mechas in a pinch.
The default method is, as you may have guessed by now, to use our Performance of Creation for a fully customizable mecha, up to a gp limit initially of course, which is still no issue if you choose stone or even iron parts or glass and so forth. Now, in unprepared combat, it would take two turns to set up with actions - creating it and moving inside via entry portal, then animating,which would still be worth it for all the value you get, but in most situations you could easily reduce it to 0 or 1 turns.
The fastest and most efficient way is just to create the item and animate it whenever you even think you might need it later on, since your Dancing Item stays animated for an hour, only costs a 3rd level slot to re-animate and gives you a flying speed and other boons outside of combat. Or, as a Genielock, you could put the mecha in the Genie's Vessel, then do something like have a familiar ( Ritual Caster ) or other servant or party member drop it from a height while you take your turn normally. It shouldn't have many hitpoints, so once it breaks, you'll have the mecha ready to go via Animating Performance. You could also break it with damage any other way you see fit - throw it and cast an AOE spell, Thunderwave, etc.
Keep in mind, you can deploy a mecha at any point, for instance whenever you're down on HP or need a getaway.
In combat
Under ideal conditions, we get incredible worth out of our spending when using the Dancing Item as a Mecha rather than its underwhelming Force attack which saps our bonus action. We get total or at least 3/4 cover from attacks, with total cover rendering you untargetable, even near a transparent material since there is no clear path, we get to use the Construct's large HP pool as a damage sponge, and we get a flying hover speed.
Commanding the mecha can be done in two ways - as a Controlled Mount if the DM approves, which we'll talk more about in the FAQ section, or as is, AKA taking its turn immediately after ours, which will be the default mode for the moment. It can be slightly more complicated, but with a ranged focus it usually works out fine, and we rarely want to waste our precious bonus actions on the constructs pitiful 1d10 force punch anyway.
Right after animating the construct, assuming you didn't come with, you'll want to command it to take to the air if possible, with the Dodge action being perfectly suitable. Subsequently, if you have a decent panorama of your enemies, you can 'park' your mecha bunker somewhere, peek out with 3/4 or half cover during your turn through a hatch/window/door/etc ( You can interact with one object as a free action ), cast a spell or make a ranged attack, then close it or crouch/slide back into a shielded space. You could even design some nice spring mechanisms for your ports if you want.
Then command the mecha to move however you desire. If you start seeing combat shifting away from your range in subsequent rounds for example, you could move it closer, or if an enemy is trying to fly within reach, move it farther, etc.
If the battlefield is twisted, or a winding dungeon, or you just have to reach an enemy in the same turn, and you need more precision with your movements, you might have to expose yourself a bit more, though even that can be mitigated. You'll be wanting to poke through a porthole and Ready an Action for your Mecha's movement, then release it in position. On the mecha's turn, in order to avoid being exposed for the round, you could command it to rotate or move vertically in such a way, that whether by intentional design or circumstance, the porthole from which you attacked is no longer facing an enemy or enemies in a direction or angle that enables a clear path to you, at least for any creature which doesn't spend its movement getting right up to the porthole.
Theoretically, a construct with appendages such as arms or even just sliding parts might be able to use its movement to close up a porthole by putting an appendage over it or closing the slider of its own volition like a mouth, although that is more DM dependent.
Out of Combat
In the duration of its hour long animation, an animated object used either as a mecha or otherwise can innately provide incredible utility. It can fly and transport xreatures or carry luggage, it can help you lift or smash things, and used as a hazaed suit - A completely sealed mecha with whatever oxygen supply comes with a Large interior will shield you from any type of smoke, fumes, poison clouds, dnagerous gas and even substances, at least until its down to 0hp. For types other than poison. You could use it as a diving suit under the same principle.
The mecha has no range limitations and can explore ahead, even attack from afar so long as you can command it, possibly wity damage buffs and other boosts. There are more applications which will be reviewed in a later section.
Renewing your Mecha
At any time during outside of combat, you can always use up a 3rd level slot or higher to re-animate an object after an hour passes. However, doing so in combat might be quicker or slower based on DM approach. By RAW, a Dancing Items lives until reduced to 0hp, but it is not written that the inanimate object itself, which our ability transformed from a given object with an AC and HP based on material and size to a Construct with a fixed stat block, is damaged or destroyed by this process. Much as a you might kill a dragon or human, yet leave a mostly intact corpse, depending on how a DM flavours structural damage.
This is further complicated by the fact that unlike tearing chunks out of a dragon's body with each HP loss milestone or ripping apart a Golem, our targeted object and the Construct's constitution are evidently distinct and bestowed completely by magical energy, more akin to a Polymorph spell or Abjuration Ward.
For example, if I, a 6th-level creation bard, animate an apple with an AC of 6 and HP of 1, it becomes a Dancing Item with an AC of 16 and HP of 40. Not an HP of 41, as you might notice, the HP pool stems purely from magic and is completely detached from the object's core integrity. Coupled with the wording of 'lives up to', but not 'desteoyed' as with other object descriptions, it could imply that as soon as the Construct drops to 0hp, it reverts to an intact apple with 1hp, with caary-over damage or not.
It is also a possible ruling to suggest that tye apple becomes some kind of hybrid by which the magic literally turns it into a super resilient object with the density of a hyper-diamond and that's how it gets 16AC and 40hp, and that it keeps getting chipped until destroyed at 0hp, which is less consistent with the wording but not outright denied.
If your DM decides its the former, great, build your mecha feom tough materials and once it is no longer alive, kickstart it yet again by spending a spell slot inside. If the latter, things become more difficult - You'll need to spend extra turn actions and spell slots on creating and animating a new one, and might want to avoid recklessly endangering the damage sponge and invest more into spells or a dip which can heal or defend it.
Feats, Invocations, and Spells
Now that we've more or less covered all the inherent mechanics, let's get to the combos and interactions. Pay heed to the fact that the items on those lists were mostly picked for having some notable synergy with the build rather than being the best ones per se for a level 18 Creation Bard, and you can pick and choose based on playstyle. Some of the lower levels spells are also only available for a certain multiclass variant, inless you take a feat just to grab them.
Mounted Combatant - Pretty self-explanatory if you intend to use the mecha as a mount.
Ritual Caster - Wizard class. Good for Find Familiar, Tenser's Floating Disk to carry objects, Unseen Servant, Water Breathing, Rary's Telepathic Bond, and Drawmij's Instant Summons.
Spell Sniper - Perfect for ranged mechas, excellent with Warlock dip.
Bountiful Luck - Works well with your mecha if you picked Halfling race.
Agonizing Blast and Eldritch Spear - You are likewise a primary CHA caster as a bard, which means you can incorporate the tried and true powerful Eldritch Blast combo into your arsenal.
To spare you some time on the Spells, practically every one of them which creates a defensive effect around you or targets another creature is meant for you and your Construct in pretty obvious ways - choose as you please. The Summoning spells capitalize on the fact that a high-level Creation Bard can, per Crawford confirmation, substitute the cost for Planar Binding oit of thin air. And these creatures can be generally commanded an act independently in combat. Same goes for an unmounted Greater Steed.
Furthermore, any poison AOE other than cloudkill is a good combo, in addition to any spell like Mordenkainen's Sword and Animate Objects which has an ongoing effect that requires you to still see, or simply concentrate on targets, but not repeatedly target them, since it lets you stay under total cover more easily. I'll address some spells which deserve special attention for their function:
Lightning Lure - Move within 10 feet of a target in your hovering mecha. Pull target into the air, deal damage because its still within 5 feet of you when right next to the construct if you're sitting near the edge, deal damage, target falls down if incapable of flying, takes AOO from construct, then takes fall damage and potentially prone. Its a great trick when low on spell slots.
Catnap - Rest inside your construct, which also means it can take actions independently, like Dash, as you are incapacitated. And works great with Song of Rest too.
Major Image - You know what Major Image's biggest downside is? The Illusion is intangible. You know what equals Major Image plus a Large or lesser Construct creature made of any materials and in any shape you can imagine? That's right.
Life Transference - Its a cheap way of healing a construct considering your HP pool is preseeved quite well.
Build Variants
There are a couple of interesting choices when it comes to dips, and while I've already disucssed some of the advantages of my favorite, the Genielock, when it comes to storing and deploying Mechas, there's more to the appeal. Let's look at what each of the dips can offer:
Kinetic Bombardment ( Genielock ) - Not strictly a mecha interaction, but powerful enough to favor the dip in its own right. Did I mention that a Genielock Creation Bard can destroy entire areas, including underground, alongside everyone inside them, and do so from afar? You can even crush them on the move, the mecha only really comes into play if they somehow managed to evade your mastery over mass destruction.
All you need to do is create a 20-foot rock inside the Genie Vessel, give it to a familiar or someone else or yourself while flying, get pretty high up, and shatter the vessel. You can even create the rock with a seat or handhold for you or a familiar, tell a familiar or party member or other servant where to drop it, pop inside the vessel, create the payload and hold onto it. When it starts dropping alongside yourself, you can cast Enlarge 1 minute before impact and steer away via magic/aid and Feather Fall to slow yourself down. Alternatively you could order a familiar to cling to it, fall down so that you are also within 100 feet of the familiar, and deliver the Touch spell. The rock is now 40 feet in diameter and 8 times the weight.
Oh, and you lose the GP restriction at level 14. That means you can create an Adamantine or Platinum ball inside your Genie's vessel. Osmium is the most dense metal on earth, and Adamantine might be equal or greater than that, but honestly even the difference between that and Platinum isn't that large. Should you create a 20 feet Platinum projectile, it will weigh around 17,000 tons. If Enlarged, it will weigh 136,000 tons.
For comparison, the weight of the Empire States Building is 365,000 tons. Now when you drop that thing from about as high as you can possibly attain without freezing your ass or losing your breath, which frankly with some spells can still be overcome, the results of the impact are going to be what we in the business like to call "A lot of damage", and a fine lesson learned about incurring the Wrath of the Creator Bards. And by that I mean the baddies underground dungeon should be nuclear-graded for depth and stability and they should be thousands of feet away from impact or they're in trouble.
In fact, if my calculations are correct, should you want to take it one extra step further and Teleport a familiar or creature with Death Ward or other means of destroying your vessel in one turn, though it will probably get destroyed on its own from atmospheric entry eventually anyway, say to roughly 10,000KM into Prime Orbit, where it will immediately begin to plummet at a 90 degree angle and gain a vmax of 14km/s or so, since this girl ain't breaking apart or burning up in the atmosphere, I believe the energy yield on surface impact is about that of a small to medium nuclear warhead, unenlarged. Probably going to need to be pretty good at astronomy and Teleporting precisely if you don't want it hitting a random spot though.
Wildfire Companion - This dip lets you spend your bonus actions on co-piloting a mecha with your Spirit, which can make ranged attacks or mire neatly, use its Fiery Teleportation to teleport all three of you, dodging opportunity attacks and damaging any creatire who tried to move close at the same price. It can also act freely during your Catnaps.
Invoke Duplicity - In addition to 1st level Cleric spells, this dip is very powerful, as you can use Invoke Duplicity to cast from the illusions's space so long as you can see around while keeping total cover at all times. It might take an extra turn longer to set up though, and you only get two uses.
Futuristic Mechas
The object you create and animate as a creation bard eventually becomes limited in design only by the plausible technological knowledge of your character. While this thread assumes an early medieval understanding, tyere are a lot of opportunities that open up with access to more advanced technological blueprints. Air filtering and ventilation tubes not reliant on pre-existing air, automatic compartments, and so forth. Feel free to experiment in various settings.
FAQ
We are nearly done, just have to sort out a few technical questions that might be raised.
Can you occupy the Construct's space?
No, and Yes, for several reasons and precedents. No, because you aren't occupying its space while inside of it. A creature's space is the space it effectively controls in combat and the area it needs to fight effectively, which does not apply to a creature's insides, or even to other positions which do not impair it. That is why you can get swallowed by creatures which still fight effectively, or operate a Mighty Servant of Leuk-o ( Not just because its an Artifact ), or more bluntly - jump on top of a hostile Griffon or Panther and "willingly end your move in its space" in defiance of RAW, except not really because that's not how Space works.
Jumping inside your fighter jet mecha's cockpit and closing it or your mecha carriage is no different than a Griffon with some fancy barding accessories.
Secondly, even if you did, so long as you create the object first, enter it, then animate it, nothing would happen. Not only did you not end a Move within it, but even if we were to consider standing in place a Move, much like willingly ending your move while swallowed, there is no mechanism by which to eject you from the Construct. You are not compelled to use your movement to attempt to leave if it already happened, nor will you be shunted out or teleported away. The only thing you can't do is move around in the construct itself.
But again, this is irrelevant because the reason such a mechanism does not exist is that RAW explicitly prevents you from willingly ending a movement coming from another square to overlapping the creature's square, not from starting a turn inside a creature or getting on top of it.
Can the Mecha be Mounted?
Yes, it fits the criteria of a willing creatire of a larger size than you. If allowed to act independently, then it will take its natural place in the initiative order, which matches yours, and act after your turn. You should be able to use it as a Controlled Mount as well in my opinion, though I suppose it could be subject to debate for two reasons:
1. Whether the construct has 'been trained to accept a rider', which I'd rule as a strong yes considering it is flawlessly obedient, fitted for your form and always listens to commands.
2. Whether the Mounted Combat rules override Animating Performance RAW or vice versa concerning Initiative. To me it seems pretty reasonable that, much as any other mount's place in the initiative order is overriden to act on your turn, whether its your number or another, so would the construct, but there's always someone who might disagree
Can you be affected by AOE spells inside the Construct?
Pure RAW, not while any openings are sealed and under total cover, and we know living creatures do qualify as cover by the way ( Hiding behind someone for half cover, being swallowed usually granting total cover, etc ). AOE spells can affect creatures behind total cover if a clear path exists from their point of origin and through their radius/cube toward the target. So for example, a Fireball hirled above a trench wherein hides a creature with total cover from you will be hit.
On the other hand, if you are standing in a room separated by a brick wall with a creature on the other side of the wall, casting fireball on the wall won't encompass the other side, because no lines can extend to it from the origin in a radius. That is, unless the Fireball destroys the wall. Likewise, even if the construct is engulfed by damage, it can't penetrate to you.
Ruling wise? Yes, a DM who handles combat that way might say that a Fireball heated the metal to such an extent that it damages you or other rulings.
Can another creature use the Mecha?
Yes. There is nothing stopping you from lending it to a party member who needs the protection, but you'll be controlling its movement.
Race: Any small race is ideal
Class: Creation Bard 18 with optional dips, Genielock being my favorite, but we'll also discuss Wildfire Druid and Trickery Cleric.
Notable Feats: Mounted Combatant, Spell Sniper, Ritual Caster, Bountiful Luck
Notable Eldritch Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Eldritch Spear
Notable Spells: Eldritch Blast, Lightning Lure, Magic Stone, Mending, Feather Fall, Sanctuary, Invisibility, Find Familiar, Warding Wind, Catnap, Major Image, Stinking Cloud, Freedom of Movement, Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, Animate Objects, Planar Binding, Forcecage, Mordenkainen's Sword, True Polymorph
Notable Magical Secrets: Antilife Shell, Find Greater Steed, Infernal Calling, Summon Greater Demon, Life Transference, Haste, Magic Circle, Globe of Invulnerability, Hero's Feast, Planar Ally, Simulacrum, Temple of the Gods, Wish, Gate
Introduction
The Mechapilot is a unique versatile build making primary use of the already powerful Creation Bard's less discussed feature - Animating Performance, alongside a number of other tricks, which is utilized as our 'Mecha' or autonomous vehicle with the goal of squeezing our Dancing Item for all its worth, which as it turns out, is quite a lot with some original thinking, both in and out of combat.
Mecha basics
The first order of business is creating the mecha, for which you will need a Medium or ideally Large object containing some hollow receptacle for the pilot, or even two, to stay within, alongside any space you wish to reserve for comfort or personal items or other reasons. If you chose a Small race and create a Large mecha, you most certainly have room for another small companion and a spacious interior, not to mention any Medium creature riding on top with the Dancing Item's STR of 18 likely being able to shoulder it.
The mecha can take any shape and specifications you wish, and customizing it can add some great flavour. It can be somewhat identical to the image of the Mighty Servant of Leuk-o, our mascot artifact since it is very similar in function to our ability-made Construct mecha, it can look like a fighter jet, a mechanical bird, a chariot or cart, a house, a barrel, whatever you want. There are three fundamental requirements to employ this build most effectively however - the interior should provide total cover, you should be able to exit it or better yet poke your head or body out of it, and you should be able to view the battlefield well.
That can be designed in a variety of ways. A hatch, a door, or even a simple opening somewhere in the interior. Any transparent material such as glass or crystal can provide viewing while maintaining total cover, you could even use integrated goggles and scopes, or just make the whole mecha transparent. You can have a constant 360 view, multiple views or a fixed view depending on which way your mecha is facing. You could also always just poke your head out somewhere if you don't mind it.
At this point its important to stress that the materials from which you make the Mecha actually do not affect it whatsoever, at least while still animated. As soon as you imbue any object, it becomes a Dancing Item Construct type Creature with a fixed AC, HP and damage immunities. That means your Glass mecha has the exact same AC and HP as a platinum mecha. By RAW you could even make a Construct out of wood and it will never catch on fire by spells or actions that apply it to objects, like Firebolt. you could even make a Burlap sack as your Mecha, or create a Large Tent construct which supports weight and stretches or bends at will by the same magical force that enables it to move, fly and punch. Some DM's like to spice up encounters by enabling physical/chemical interactions wity creatures based on their composition or physicality independent of the stat block, so you don't really have to go crazy if you suspect any issues coming up.
Lastly, the most important part which I have not forgotten, how are we to produce the object in the first place? There are two simple options - the first, which won't be used often, is to purchase or bring along the mecha with you on your journeys. Its a cumbersome task, but as a small creature, you might just devise some Medium mecha that the party could bring along and drop at will. Alternatively, depending on terrain, wheeled vehicles and the like pulled by animals could be transformed into mechas in a pinch.
The default method is, as you may have guessed by now, to use our Performance of Creation for a fully customizable mecha, up to a gp limit initially of course, which is still no issue if you choose stone or even iron parts or glass and so forth. Now, in unprepared combat, it would take two turns to set up with actions - creating it and moving inside via entry portal, then animating,which would still be worth it for all the value you get, but in most situations you could easily reduce it to 0 or 1 turns.
The fastest and most efficient way is just to create the item and animate it whenever you even think you might need it later on, since your Dancing Item stays animated for an hour, only costs a 3rd level slot to re-animate and gives you a flying speed and other boons outside of combat. Or, as a Genielock, you could put the mecha in the Genie's Vessel, then do something like have a familiar ( Ritual Caster ) or other servant or party member drop it from a height while you take your turn normally. It shouldn't have many hitpoints, so once it breaks, you'll have the mecha ready to go via Animating Performance. You could also break it with damage any other way you see fit - throw it and cast an AOE spell, Thunderwave, etc.
Keep in mind, you can deploy a mecha at any point, for instance whenever you're down on HP or need a getaway.
In combat
Under ideal conditions, we get incredible worth out of our spending when using the Dancing Item as a Mecha rather than its underwhelming Force attack which saps our bonus action. We get total or at least 3/4 cover from attacks, with total cover rendering you untargetable, even near a transparent material since there is no clear path, we get to use the Construct's large HP pool as a damage sponge, and we get a flying hover speed.
Commanding the mecha can be done in two ways - as a Controlled Mount if the DM approves, which we'll talk more about in the FAQ section, or as is, AKA taking its turn immediately after ours, which will be the default mode for the moment. It can be slightly more complicated, but with a ranged focus it usually works out fine, and we rarely want to waste our precious bonus actions on the constructs pitiful 1d10 force punch anyway.
Right after animating the construct, assuming you didn't come with, you'll want to command it to take to the air if possible, with the Dodge action being perfectly suitable. Subsequently, if you have a decent panorama of your enemies, you can 'park' your mecha bunker somewhere, peek out with 3/4 or half cover during your turn through a hatch/window/door/etc ( You can interact with one object as a free action ), cast a spell or make a ranged attack, then close it or crouch/slide back into a shielded space. You could even design some nice spring mechanisms for your ports if you want.
Then command the mecha to move however you desire. If you start seeing combat shifting away from your range in subsequent rounds for example, you could move it closer, or if an enemy is trying to fly within reach, move it farther, etc.
If the battlefield is twisted, or a winding dungeon, or you just have to reach an enemy in the same turn, and you need more precision with your movements, you might have to expose yourself a bit more, though even that can be mitigated. You'll be wanting to poke through a porthole and Ready an Action for your Mecha's movement, then release it in position. On the mecha's turn, in order to avoid being exposed for the round, you could command it to rotate or move vertically in such a way, that whether by intentional design or circumstance, the porthole from which you attacked is no longer facing an enemy or enemies in a direction or angle that enables a clear path to you, at least for any creature which doesn't spend its movement getting right up to the porthole.
Theoretically, a construct with appendages such as arms or even just sliding parts might be able to use its movement to close up a porthole by putting an appendage over it or closing the slider of its own volition like a mouth, although that is more DM dependent.
Out of Combat
In the duration of its hour long animation, an animated object used either as a mecha or otherwise can innately provide incredible utility. It can fly and transport xreatures or carry luggage, it can help you lift or smash things, and used as a hazaed suit - A completely sealed mecha with whatever oxygen supply comes with a Large interior will shield you from any type of smoke, fumes, poison clouds, dnagerous gas and even substances, at least until its down to 0hp. For types other than poison. You could use it as a diving suit under the same principle.
The mecha has no range limitations and can explore ahead, even attack from afar so long as you can command it, possibly wity damage buffs and other boosts. There are more applications which will be reviewed in a later section.
Renewing your Mecha
At any time during outside of combat, you can always use up a 3rd level slot or higher to re-animate an object after an hour passes. However, doing so in combat might be quicker or slower based on DM approach. By RAW, a Dancing Items lives until reduced to 0hp, but it is not written that the inanimate object itself, which our ability transformed from a given object with an AC and HP based on material and size to a Construct with a fixed stat block, is damaged or destroyed by this process. Much as a you might kill a dragon or human, yet leave a mostly intact corpse, depending on how a DM flavours structural damage.
This is further complicated by the fact that unlike tearing chunks out of a dragon's body with each HP loss milestone or ripping apart a Golem, our targeted object and the Construct's constitution are evidently distinct and bestowed completely by magical energy, more akin to a Polymorph spell or Abjuration Ward.
For example, if I, a 6th-level creation bard, animate an apple with an AC of 6 and HP of 1, it becomes a Dancing Item with an AC of 16 and HP of 40. Not an HP of 41, as you might notice, the HP pool stems purely from magic and is completely detached from the object's core integrity. Coupled with the wording of 'lives up to', but not 'desteoyed' as with other object descriptions, it could imply that as soon as the Construct drops to 0hp, it reverts to an intact apple with 1hp, with caary-over damage or not.
It is also a possible ruling to suggest that tye apple becomes some kind of hybrid by which the magic literally turns it into a super resilient object with the density of a hyper-diamond and that's how it gets 16AC and 40hp, and that it keeps getting chipped until destroyed at 0hp, which is less consistent with the wording but not outright denied.
If your DM decides its the former, great, build your mecha feom tough materials and once it is no longer alive, kickstart it yet again by spending a spell slot inside. If the latter, things become more difficult - You'll need to spend extra turn actions and spell slots on creating and animating a new one, and might want to avoid recklessly endangering the damage sponge and invest more into spells or a dip which can heal or defend it.
Feats, Invocations, and Spells
Now that we've more or less covered all the inherent mechanics, let's get to the combos and interactions. Pay heed to the fact that the items on those lists were mostly picked for having some notable synergy with the build rather than being the best ones per se for a level 18 Creation Bard, and you can pick and choose based on playstyle. Some of the lower levels spells are also only available for a certain multiclass variant, inless you take a feat just to grab them.
Mounted Combatant - Pretty self-explanatory if you intend to use the mecha as a mount.
Ritual Caster - Wizard class. Good for Find Familiar, Tenser's Floating Disk to carry objects, Unseen Servant, Water Breathing, Rary's Telepathic Bond, and Drawmij's Instant Summons.
Spell Sniper - Perfect for ranged mechas, excellent with Warlock dip.
Bountiful Luck - Works well with your mecha if you picked Halfling race.
Agonizing Blast and Eldritch Spear - You are likewise a primary CHA caster as a bard, which means you can incorporate the tried and true powerful Eldritch Blast combo into your arsenal.
To spare you some time on the Spells, practically every one of them which creates a defensive effect around you or targets another creature is meant for you and your Construct in pretty obvious ways - choose as you please. The Summoning spells capitalize on the fact that a high-level Creation Bard can, per Crawford confirmation, substitute the cost for Planar Binding oit of thin air. And these creatures can be generally commanded an act independently in combat. Same goes for an unmounted Greater Steed.
Furthermore, any poison AOE other than cloudkill is a good combo, in addition to any spell like Mordenkainen's Sword and Animate Objects which has an ongoing effect that requires you to still see, or simply concentrate on targets, but not repeatedly target them, since it lets you stay under total cover more easily. I'll address some spells which deserve special attention for their function:
Lightning Lure - Move within 10 feet of a target in your hovering mecha. Pull target into the air, deal damage because its still within 5 feet of you when right next to the construct if you're sitting near the edge, deal damage, target falls down if incapable of flying, takes AOO from construct, then takes fall damage and potentially prone. Its a great trick when low on spell slots.
Catnap - Rest inside your construct, which also means it can take actions independently, like Dash, as you are incapacitated. And works great with Song of Rest too.
Major Image - You know what Major Image's biggest downside is? The Illusion is intangible. You know what equals Major Image plus a Large or lesser Construct creature made of any materials and in any shape you can imagine? That's right.
Life Transference - Its a cheap way of healing a construct considering your HP pool is preseeved quite well.
Build Variants
There are a couple of interesting choices when it comes to dips, and while I've already disucssed some of the advantages of my favorite, the Genielock, when it comes to storing and deploying Mechas, there's more to the appeal. Let's look at what each of the dips can offer:
Kinetic Bombardment ( Genielock ) - Not strictly a mecha interaction, but powerful enough to favor the dip in its own right. Did I mention that a Genielock Creation Bard can destroy entire areas, including underground, alongside everyone inside them, and do so from afar? You can even crush them on the move, the mecha only really comes into play if they somehow managed to evade your mastery over mass destruction.
All you need to do is create a 20-foot rock inside the Genie Vessel, give it to a familiar or someone else or yourself while flying, get pretty high up, and shatter the vessel. You can even create the rock with a seat or handhold for you or a familiar, tell a familiar or party member or other servant where to drop it, pop inside the vessel, create the payload and hold onto it. When it starts dropping alongside yourself, you can cast Enlarge 1 minute before impact and steer away via magic/aid and Feather Fall to slow yourself down. Alternatively you could order a familiar to cling to it, fall down so that you are also within 100 feet of the familiar, and deliver the Touch spell. The rock is now 40 feet in diameter and 8 times the weight.
Oh, and you lose the GP restriction at level 14. That means you can create an Adamantine or Platinum ball inside your Genie's vessel. Osmium is the most dense metal on earth, and Adamantine might be equal or greater than that, but honestly even the difference between that and Platinum isn't that large. Should you create a 20 feet Platinum projectile, it will weigh around 17,000 tons. If Enlarged, it will weigh 136,000 tons.
For comparison, the weight of the Empire States Building is 365,000 tons. Now when you drop that thing from about as high as you can possibly attain without freezing your ass or losing your breath, which frankly with some spells can still be overcome, the results of the impact are going to be what we in the business like to call "A lot of damage", and a fine lesson learned about incurring the Wrath of the Creator Bards. And by that I mean the baddies underground dungeon should be nuclear-graded for depth and stability and they should be thousands of feet away from impact or they're in trouble.
In fact, if my calculations are correct, should you want to take it one extra step further and Teleport a familiar or creature with Death Ward or other means of destroying your vessel in one turn, though it will probably get destroyed on its own from atmospheric entry eventually anyway, say to roughly 10,000KM into Prime Orbit, where it will immediately begin to plummet at a 90 degree angle and gain a vmax of 14km/s or so, since this girl ain't breaking apart or burning up in the atmosphere, I believe the energy yield on surface impact is about that of a small to medium nuclear warhead, unenlarged. Probably going to need to be pretty good at astronomy and Teleporting precisely if you don't want it hitting a random spot though.
Wildfire Companion - This dip lets you spend your bonus actions on co-piloting a mecha with your Spirit, which can make ranged attacks or mire neatly, use its Fiery Teleportation to teleport all three of you, dodging opportunity attacks and damaging any creatire who tried to move close at the same price. It can also act freely during your Catnaps.
Invoke Duplicity - In addition to 1st level Cleric spells, this dip is very powerful, as you can use Invoke Duplicity to cast from the illusions's space so long as you can see around while keeping total cover at all times. It might take an extra turn longer to set up though, and you only get two uses.
Futuristic Mechas
The object you create and animate as a creation bard eventually becomes limited in design only by the plausible technological knowledge of your character. While this thread assumes an early medieval understanding, tyere are a lot of opportunities that open up with access to more advanced technological blueprints. Air filtering and ventilation tubes not reliant on pre-existing air, automatic compartments, and so forth. Feel free to experiment in various settings.
FAQ
We are nearly done, just have to sort out a few technical questions that might be raised.
Can you occupy the Construct's space?
No, and Yes, for several reasons and precedents. No, because you aren't occupying its space while inside of it. A creature's space is the space it effectively controls in combat and the area it needs to fight effectively, which does not apply to a creature's insides, or even to other positions which do not impair it. That is why you can get swallowed by creatures which still fight effectively, or operate a Mighty Servant of Leuk-o ( Not just because its an Artifact ), or more bluntly - jump on top of a hostile Griffon or Panther and "willingly end your move in its space" in defiance of RAW, except not really because that's not how Space works.
Jumping inside your fighter jet mecha's cockpit and closing it or your mecha carriage is no different than a Griffon with some fancy barding accessories.
Secondly, even if you did, so long as you create the object first, enter it, then animate it, nothing would happen. Not only did you not end a Move within it, but even if we were to consider standing in place a Move, much like willingly ending your move while swallowed, there is no mechanism by which to eject you from the Construct. You are not compelled to use your movement to attempt to leave if it already happened, nor will you be shunted out or teleported away. The only thing you can't do is move around in the construct itself.
But again, this is irrelevant because the reason such a mechanism does not exist is that RAW explicitly prevents you from willingly ending a movement coming from another square to overlapping the creature's square, not from starting a turn inside a creature or getting on top of it.
Can the Mecha be Mounted?
Yes, it fits the criteria of a willing creatire of a larger size than you. If allowed to act independently, then it will take its natural place in the initiative order, which matches yours, and act after your turn. You should be able to use it as a Controlled Mount as well in my opinion, though I suppose it could be subject to debate for two reasons:
1. Whether the construct has 'been trained to accept a rider', which I'd rule as a strong yes considering it is flawlessly obedient, fitted for your form and always listens to commands.
2. Whether the Mounted Combat rules override Animating Performance RAW or vice versa concerning Initiative. To me it seems pretty reasonable that, much as any other mount's place in the initiative order is overriden to act on your turn, whether its your number or another, so would the construct, but there's always someone who might disagree
Can you be affected by AOE spells inside the Construct?
Pure RAW, not while any openings are sealed and under total cover, and we know living creatures do qualify as cover by the way ( Hiding behind someone for half cover, being swallowed usually granting total cover, etc ). AOE spells can affect creatures behind total cover if a clear path exists from their point of origin and through their radius/cube toward the target. So for example, a Fireball hirled above a trench wherein hides a creature with total cover from you will be hit.
On the other hand, if you are standing in a room separated by a brick wall with a creature on the other side of the wall, casting fireball on the wall won't encompass the other side, because no lines can extend to it from the origin in a radius. That is, unless the Fireball destroys the wall. Likewise, even if the construct is engulfed by damage, it can't penetrate to you.
Ruling wise? Yes, a DM who handles combat that way might say that a Fireball heated the metal to such an extent that it damages you or other rulings.
Can another creature use the Mecha?
Yes. There is nothing stopping you from lending it to a party member who needs the protection, but you'll be controlling its movement.