(Smart) Flying Castle

[Viskocity]

Hello forum,

I was wondering if I could get some help from the more experienced rules ninjas with creating a magic castle, or to be more specific, an intelligent one.

My plan so far was to create what is basically a flying, swimming, burrowing, teleporting, ethereal castle by taking a single stronghold space and stacking a bunch of movement modes on top of it. This obviously limits square footage because I cannot feasibly pay the more than 100000 gp for movement alone for more than one stronghold space. In the future, if I get more funding (perhaps through the landlord feat) I would give it some plane shifting ability and maybe walls of force. In the mean time, though, the only thing left to do is give it life!

So, how would I go about doing that? I know there is a spell to awaken constructs to sentience, but I don't know how to make it one in the first place. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also, feel free to give critique/ advice on the stronghold itself. For the record, I am playing an 11th level transmuter with evocation and enchantment banned.

Edit: What are the class skills for a construct? I can't seem to find them in the SRD.

[sdream]

You SURE you want to give the giant floating castle sentience?

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that."

Queue plot thread about someone "stealing" your castle to start conquering the world, and at the end you discover it's the castle itself which is the BBEG.

[Tiki Snakes]

Well, there are two methods;
If you are the DM;
It's a magic castle. Also it's a person.

If you are a player;
DM, can I have a Magic Castle, that is also a person?

[Viskocity]

Hmm...good point. I guess I will have to find somebody to mindrape it into compliance. Being chaotic evil has its benefits

[nedz]

If its sentient then presumably it has RHD (not to mention LA) and therefore Feats.
Does it have 'arms' or can it just make Slam attacks ?
What Class levels might be appropriate for such a monster ?

Ed:
What feats would be good ?
If you are high enough level can you have one as a cohort ?

[AmberVael]

Hmm...good point. I guess I will have to find somebody to mindrape it into compliance. Being chaotic evil has its benefits

Dude, someone with high enough level to cast Mindrape, who also can cast that spell, is not someone you'd want to trust around your castle. Are you seriously saying "yes, I will invite someone who has specialized in evil mental alteration spells to my sentient castle, and then pay him to alter it for me"? Does this not seem even worse than just risking that the castle might be troublesome on its own?

It's like asking them to secretly plant their own control directives in the thing and then take it over.


No, best bet is to get a scroll or something of that spell and use it yourself. Definitely trust no one else with it.

[lyko555]

how big of castle do you want? My dread necromancer Has a zombie dragon turtle thats been hollowed out. Since its a creature it can use items so it has a ring of invisibility and a necklace of flight.

[Viskocity]

how big of castle do you want? My dread necromancer Has a zombie dragon turtle thats been hollowed out. Since its a creature it can use items so it has a ring of invisibility and a necklace of flight.

Unfortunately, it has to be pretty small. In order to make it land/sea/sky/space worthy, I have to pay for a bunch of movement modes, which have to be bought for each stronghold space. I am going to supplement the space I have with what amounts to permanent rope tricks though. Unfortunately my DM ruled that they wouldn't work on the ethereal plane...

A construct is technically a creature though, right? So it should be able to use magic items, especially if it were sentient. Hmm...I wonder if I could give it cross class ranks in UMD, or even Hide

@Vael: The idea of letting somebody even more evil than me into what is supposed to be a safeer place is pretty scary. I believe Mindrape is enchantment though, so could I actually cast it off a scroll at all?

[Another_Poet]

Dude, someone with high enough level to cast Mindrape, who also can cast that spell, is not someone you'd want to trust around your castle. Are you seriously saying "yes, I will invite someone who has specialized in evil mental alteration spells to my sentient castle, and then pay him to alter it for me"? Does this not seem even worse than just risking that the castle might be troublesome on its own?

I think the obvious solution is to just give the sentient castle the ability to cast Mindrape at-will. And then tell it to Mindrape itself into submission.

*puts on safety goggles*

[Alleine]

Could a castle be defined as an item? If so, you start making it magical and then take the Item Familiar feat to make it intelligent on its own. Just come back to it every day to make sure you don't lose the link with it.

Or alternately, ask your DM if you can blow some cash on what would essentially be a golem manual only beefier. Use it when forming the castle and boom, permanent construct.