Squeezably Enveloped Construct Squad

[unseenmage]

Going to fill Enveloping Pits or Portable Holes with Construct minions using the Squeezing rules (PH148).

Restrictions:
- Have 4,942,765gp to spend.
- Can buy at most 182 Constructs or Magic Items.
- No single Construct can cost more than 200,000gp
- Any 3.x, PF, Dragon, or Dungeon source allowed.
- Can't be templated. Nor can it be a Template that makes a construct from something else.
- Must have a Market Price.
- Will be purchased as is from the book but will eventually be a Sacred Guardian if they aren't Intelligent.

Some questions to help narrow it down:
- Which is more important, movement modes (fly, burrow, etc) or senses (blindsight, tremorsense, etc)?
- What Construct has the most movement modes?
- What Construct has the most senses?
- Which is better, a larger army of smaller Constructs, or a smaller force of larger Constructs?

Can fit this many creatures into an Enveloping Pit if they Squeeze twice:

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- 40,000 Fine sized constructs
- 40,000 Diminutive constructs
- 40,000 Tiny constructs
- 5,000 Small constructs
- 320 Medium constructs
- 40 Large constructs
- 40 Huge constructs
- 5 Gargantuan constructs
- or half of one Colossal construct. Might get the DM to rule that it will fit but it can't get in or out on it's own based on the idea that if you squeeze again you'll be immobilized.

64 small or medium equals a gargantuan
*minimum of 125 small or mediums equals a colossal

Portable Hole has 565.5 cu. ft. of space inside.
Can fit this many into a Portable Hole:

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- 2,000 Fine sized constructs
- 2,000 Diminutive constructs
- 2,000 Tiny constructs
- 250 Small constructs
- 32 Medium constructs
- 2 Large constructs
- 2 Huge constructs
- 0 Gargantuan constructs
- 0 Colossal constructs

1,000 Fine or Diminutive equals a small or medium
125 Diminutive equals a small or medium
8 tiny equals a small or medium
8 small or medium equals a large
27 small or medium equals a huge

Edit: I've found a few worthwhile candidates, will list them here.

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- Helmed Horror (LEoF) Intelligent 75,000gp 13HD medium flight
- Battle Horror (LEoF) Intelligent 150,000gp 20HD medium flight
- Nimblewright (MM2) Intelligent 22,000gp 10HD medium

I've disallowed the Intelligent constructs due to the difficulty of being absolutely sure there aren't some contingent contingent commands lying in wait to ambush the imprecise new owner and to allow for future Sacred Guardian-ship.

- Clockroach (MM4) non-Int 6,150gp (3HD advanced) small climb burrow
- Juggernaught non-Int 175,000gp 35HD huge (at will wallofforce/forcecage) Too big, no hands.
- Drakestone Golem (Drac) non-Int 175,000gp 35HD large fly (will def be getting at least one of these to later make a Sacred Guardian!)
- Shield Guardian, Advanced (SRD) non-Int 200,000gp 27HD huge
- Jade Spider (CotSQ) non-Int 160,000gp 24HD gargant
- Shadesteel Golem (MM3) non-Int 130,000gp 18HD medium DM disallowed, they're already a plot device.

I will be perusing the Mechanomicon and looking up stuff while keeping an eye on this thread.

Thanks regardless Playground.

And an excellent suggestion from Darrin, thank you!

Cast smoky confinement (Complete Mage) on each construct. 100 GP per creature (plus spellcasting costs). Once you dump out all the bottles, a single shatter spell can release all of them.

Additionally, these answers from the Q&A thread (thank you Sith_Happens) tell us that;
250,000+ vials will fit in a Portable Hole and that 3,475,000 vials will fit into an Enveloping Pit.
Which means that's also how many Smoky Confinement-ed Constructs will fin into each as well.
Talk about an awesome effective way to move an army.

[unseenmage]

What is the Price, size, and HD for the biggest Shield Guardian (MM223 or SRD) one can afford without going over 200,000gp?

The Huge Shield Guardian of 27 HD is 200,000 to buy.

Answered. Thanks Snowbluff.

[Yogibear41]

The maug from Fiend Folio are 2hd constructs that advance by character class and are known to be mercenaries.

It lists a price of 10k and 500xp to make one if you actually know how to do it.

Hiring a Maug mercenary costs 5gp per day plus 2 gp per class level of the maug. Says they prefer magic items and rare ore paid in advance.
While they don't have fast healing they do heal themselves for 1 hit point/hour or 2per hour if some one "works" on them.


You could potentially plane shift to the their home and just recruit a TON of them.

[Snowbluff]

Lords of Madness brings us the Elder Eidolon, self-healing magic-immune constructs made of insanity whose over-dimensional geometry provides a deflection bonus to AC, but it's a template and costs 6000 per HD plus a base cost.

The Huge Shield Guardian of 27 HD is 200,000 to buy.

[unseenmage]

The maug from Fiend Folio are 2hd constructs that advance by character class and are known to be mercenaries.

It lists a price of 10k and 500xp to make one if you actually know how to do it.

Hiring a Maug mercenary costs 5gp per day plus 2 gp per class level of the maug. Says they prefer magic items and rare ore paid in advance.
While they don't have fast healing they do heal themselves for 1 hit point/hour or 2per hour if some one "works" on them.


You could potentially plane shift to the their home and just recruit a TON of them.

Ooh! I'd forgotten about Maugs. Thanks.

Lords of Madness brings us the Elder Eidolon, self-healing magic-immune constructs made of insanity whose over-dimensional geometry provides a deflection bonus to AC, but it's a template and costs 6000 per HD plus a base cost.

The Huge Shield Guardian of 27 HD is 200,000 to buy.

Thank you for the mathing. My brain is the tired so it was giving me a headache.

And sorry, no templates. Will edit OP to reflect.

[unseenmage]

With the prices of the strongest constructs it's looking more like a squad than an army.

[kalos72]

Can you shrink them down to store maybe?

If you were traveling underground, what would be your choice for a construct to use?

[Darrin]

With the prices of the strongest constructs it's looking more like a squad than an army.

Cast smoky confinement (Complete Mage) on each construct. 100 GP per creature (plus spellcasting costs). Once you dump out all the bottles, a single shatter spell can release all of them.