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View Full Version : 'Artificerial Intelligence' or 'Craft Macaroni and Cheese'



ocato
2008-10-29, 10:11 PM
Get it? Rocky and Bullwinkle. I love those guys.

Anyway, I've got a L10 Artificer in a game that might die. However, in the interest of being optimistic and satiating my own intellectual curiosity on the matter, I present to you a few questions and ideas about how to spend my 12th level feats and any general ideas worth considering.

First of all, here is a list of my existing feats. They can't be changed. You are free to not like them, however, telling me that the 'only way' to do something is to change of them of is like telling a 62 year old man that he should've gotten a degree in something else when he was 20. Sure, that's useful information, but it is useless now. Keep in mind that a bonus feat was given at L1 and I took one flaw. Here they are, not necessarily in this order.

Level 1: Point Blank Shot
Flaw: Extraordinary Artisan
Free L1 feat: Legendary Artisan
Level 3: Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Heavy Repeater
Artificer bonus feat L4: Quicken Spell
L6: Chain Spell
Artificer bonus feat L8: Ocato Dumb!
L9: Wand Mastery

...You know what, I didn't take my L8 Bonus Artificer Feat, did I? Huh, that was dumb of me. I guess I'll have to figure that out too.
So I've been wondering what would be some lovely feat choices for those slots? Keep in mind I don't have Magic of Eberron, so I cannot submit anything from that for approval. I did read the Artificer Manual from the WOTC boards, but I didn't feel like it was as inclusive as I would have liked.

One of my biggest questions is in regards to this little pretty: Craft Construct. Now, most constructs give a decent plot of info on how to make them. If you want to make up a construct that isn't explicitly explained, your best bet seems to be taking an animal or humanoid (or aberration, giant, vermin, monstrous humanoid, or magical beast) that is similar, tossing a few templates on it, and making an effigy. Stop me if this is wrong. I'm trying to outline my understanding as best I can.

Now, Let's take the information on a basic-ish construct, the shield guardian.


Construction

A shield guardian is built from wood, bronze, stone, and steel. The materials cost 5,000 gp.

The creature’s master may assemble the body or hire someone else to do the job. Creating the body requires a DC 16 Craft (blacksmithing) or Craft (carpentry) check. The keyed amulet is fashioned at the same time, and its cost (20,000 gp) is included in the cost of the guardian. After the body is sculpted, the shield guardian is animated through an extended magical ritual that requires a specially prepared laboratory or workroom, similar to an alchemist’s laboratory and costing 500 gp to establish. If the creator is personally constructing the creature’s body, the building and the ritual can be performed together. A shield guardian with more than 15 Hit Dice can be created, but each additional Hit Die adds +5,000 gp to the market price, and the price increases by +20,000 gp if the creature’s size increases to Huge, modifying the cost to create accordingly.

CL 15th; Craft Construct, limited wish, discern location, shield, shield other, caster must be at least 15th level; Price 120,000 gp; Cost 65,000 gp + 4,600 XP.

So, using that as an example, I can see that it has 15 HD and requires a caster level (or artificer sneakery level) of 15. Seems pretty cut and dry. However, you can make a better one by spending more money. Do you have to be a higher level to make a higher level Guardian? It doesn't say you do, so I assume you don't. Can you only create better versions of constructs that have explicit directions on how to do so? I haven't found any detailed information, so I must assume that you may not. Effigies offer some information on this, clearly stating in the Complete Arcane that you must have a caster level equal to the HD of the construct you are creating. Does this apply backwards to other constructs or just to this one thing that it is talking about? Hard to say.

However it seems that the easy answer to crafting constructs is to make Effigies. Now, I despite the title pun, Crafting a Cheesebot for my character doesn't sound like my cup of tea. In fact, I'd be mildly surprised if the character in question would actually make a construct, since he still hasn't gotten around to making a Homunculus. With that in mind, what are a few good templates one can add to various effigies? The Horrid Animal template (which is added to a dire animal) seems like a good start, what with the +5 natural armor and acid attacks (assuming I properly understood the text. It says that extraordinary attacks that don't require a fort save stay. Adding Acid to the animal's natural attacks is listed as an extraordinary attack in the Horrid Animal listing. Also, it doesn't give a save). What would be some other neat ones to consider?

Sorry for the wall 'o text. I greatly appreciate the help.

Eldaran
2008-10-30, 11:45 AM
Well, I'm not certain about it, but if you look at the caster levels of the stone golem and greater stone golem from the monster manual, you'll see that they're the same, even though the greater stone golem is just a normal one advanced to its maximum of 42HD. So if adding 28HD doesn't change the caster level on that, I'd assume you can make a shield guardian advanced to the maximum of 45HD at level 15, assuming you have the money.