Animated Mount

[Another_Poet]

Hi everybody, I'm wondering if you can put your minds together and help me out.

I am looking for a wondrous item that is essentially a chair, statue or other sizeable object that is animated to serve as a mount. Does anyone know of any such thing in any 3.5 D&D source? Pretty much any book/source is allowed.

I do NOT need (nor want) a full-fledged golem with SR, immunities, etc. Just a simple animated object. By RAW a permanent animated object would cost over 15,000 gp but I know that wondrous items are often priced more by gut feeling than by exactly following the pricing formulae.

Of course the ideal would be an iron parapet on an iron spider statue, all animated to serve as a battle charger but I know my limits

If anything cheaper exists, please let me know. The character riding it is Medium so the object would need to be Large.

Thanks,
ap

[Assassin89]

There are figurines of wondrous power from the srd, several of which of which can become a large creature with a command word. A Bronze Griffon costs about 10,000 gp, but can only be used twice a week for six hours.

[Flickerdart]

Rocker, eh? I just got the idea of an old fogey Paladin sitting in his rocking chair, charging his enemies. Maybe it flies, too.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Well, I think I can get you a great deal on an Apparatus of Qwalish.

In all seriousness, a Figurine of Wondorous Power is an option, though not quite what you want, I'm sure.

Tenser's Floating Disc or Phantom Steed+Spell Thematics gives you the flavor, especially if your DM allows an item of it to be made with the feat applied. Silent Image also works instead of Spell Thematics.

Animate Dead+Electroplating(Simple Int check to invent) is another way of getting a walking iron chair, though a bit more creepy.

Outside core you get more options, but I'm AFB right now. Sorry.

[Frosty]

There is a Clockwork Steed in one of the MMs. I think it's in MM5?

[Olo Demonsbane]

Equinine Golem in Arms and Equipment guide.

There are some other cool mounts in Heroes of Battle, including multiple constructs I believe.

[Fizban]

A stabilized Astral Construct (see Hyperconcious, 3rd party book) can be pretty much whatever you want and only costs a few thousand per HD. Don't know if they can be sold though.

The last two MMs (IV and V) had some cheaper constructs, one of them being an affordable clockwork steed.

Constructs and Undead have nearly identical immunites. A wolf skeleton is just a tad better than a small animated object, and an owlbear skeleton is significantly better than a medium animated object, and the same goes for troll skeleton vs. large object. As such, I'd say that you should be able to brew up a custom spell that permanently creates one similar to Animate Dead, counting animated object HD as worth 2 undead HD each. Following this, you could get a large animated chair for a 4th level spell slot and 200gp (you need large to work with mount rules).

Concept spell:

Create Animated Objects
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 4
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Targets: One or more objects touched [see text]
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This spell transforms the prepared objects into construct creatures that follow your spoken commands. They use the statistics for animated objects.

The objects can follow you, or they can remain in an area and attack any creature (or just a specific kind of creature) entering the place. They remain animated until they are destroyed. (A destroyed object can’t be animated again, though some specific spells can restore destroyed constructs)

Regardless of the type and size of objects you animate with this spell, you can’t create more effective HD of constructs than your caster level with a single casting of create constructs. (The _______* spell doubles this limit)

The constructs you create remain under your control indefinitely. No matter how many times you use this spell, however, you can control only 2 effective HD worth of construct creatures per caster level. If you exceed this number, all the newly created creatures fall under your control, and any excess constructs from previous castings become uncontrolled. (You choose which creatures are released.) If you craft a construct using the Craft Construct feat, or control constructs by other means than their creation by this spell, they do not count towards this limit. The materials of the object may also affect

Constructs made of materials harder than wood count as if they had more hit dice than normal for purposes of this spell. Materials up to hardness 10 are worth +1HD, up to 15 +2HD, and so on adding +1HD/5 hardness.

Constructs with advantageous shapes also count as if they had more hit dice than normal for this spell. Each additional ability gained due to their shape counts as +1HD.

Material Component
You must prepare the objects to be animated with various arcane reagents, similar to those used to create constructs with the Craft Construct feat. These materials cost 50gp per HD the construct will have when animated. For the preparations you must spend 8 hours and make a craft check appropriate to the material at DC 15+CR of target construct, failure requires another 8 hours for the check and ruins half the materials.

Alternatively, if the object to be animated has an intrinsic value (such as finely crafted statue or expensive rug) worth as much or more than the material components would cost, you may animate it without preparations or other material components. An animated object that is destroyed leaves behind nothing of value.

Special
This spell and Animate Dead both draw from the same pool of control that a caster has. Each HD of constructs controlled by this spell reduces the amount controllable by animate dead by 2 HD, and every 2 HD of undead controlled by animate dead reduces this spells limit by 1 HD, rounded up in all cases.

*Since I'm basing this as a modified animated dead, and desecrate is standard for any serious animater, there should be a similar spell to go with this. Or you could just lift the limit, since anyone who is preparing before casting is always going to have it anyway.

I could also see doing this with effigy creatures, though they have better template modifiers than skeletons. Or you could literally just take the skeleton entry, cross out undead and replace it with construct and call it good. Metagame-wise, the relative ease of boosting and healing undead should make up for the extra hp of big constructs.

[JeminiZero]

How about the Night Caller. Its a 7000 gp whistle that when blown over a grave at night animates the body within as a zombie loyal to you. You can have up to 2 zombies at once, and its usable 1/week.

Take a creature you want to use as a mount, dig a grave for it, and then blow the whistle at night. You now have a zombie mount, and if you use a flying creature, your mount now flies as well. Should the mount die, hey no biggie, just blow the whistle again and animate another one.

[Another_Poet]

Can anyone tell me the price on the Equine Golem (or its CR if no price is listed)? I found the Clockwork Steed and if the pricing is similar I think I have a basis for making a case to my GM.

Fizban, nice work on the spell. I might try to get that approved.

Sorry guys but the undead suggestions won't work. As similar as undead and constructs may be mechanically, one freaks out the peasants a lot more than the other. :) Especially in the setting my GM has cooked up...

[Fizban]

The Equine Golem is approximately ten times the price of the Clockwork Stallion, probably thanks to 3.0 style pricing (3.5 vastly reduced costs to build constructs). I'd take the stallion any day. Also, thanks for the compliment.