[Pathfinder] Gargoyle Guardian: easiest construct to craft?

[SimonMoon6]

For no particular reason, I've been going through the various construct creatures to see which ones might be easy to construct for a low level character. There are two usual problems: caster level requirements and a skill check of a certain DC (which might be increased when lacking another requirement, such as a spell required to create the construct). Caster level is pretty weird as a requirement because it has no connection to the caster level that the construct ends up with, but that's not incredibly relevant.

So, looking at the Gargoyle Guardian, I notice that the requirements to construct it are:

Requirements: Craft Construct, animate objects, stone shape, geas/quest; Cost 15,000 gp

So... there is no caster level required to craft this construct. Anybody with the feat can create a gargoyle guardian, regardless of level. Okay, that's a little odd, but it's far from the only construct with no caster level requirement. There are about a dozen other constructs that don't require a specific caster level.

But... there's also no skill check required. I would except something like Craft (sculpture) DC 15 as a requirement, but nope, no skill requirements at all. So even someone with no Craft skills at all could make a gargoyle guardian?

And, you might say, "Yes, but look at the three spell requirements!" And to that, I say, okay, I can add +5 to the skill check DC for each requirement I lack. So, I will add +15 to the skill check DC and ignore those prerequisites. And then... there is no skill check, so the spells don't matter? That seems a little iffy but maybe I can get away with that.

So, then, all I really need to craft a Gargoyle Guardian is 15k gold and the Craft Construct feat? No caster level needed, no skill check needed, and (maybe) no spells needed.

Is this really correct? (I mean, maybe ignoring the spell requirements is a bit dubious, but the rest? That seems weird since this is a CR 8 monster and usually even the moderately weak monsters need a Caster Level of 12 (there are a few constructs with lower requirements, but nothing this powerful).

And, yeah, a Gargoyle Guardian isn't *that* great. It's a fine melee combatant that flies and that's about it. But even so, this seems a bit weird. Only 15k gp to replace the group's fighter?