Clay Golem Shield Guardian


Advice


My character has almost accumulated enough resources to begin construction of a Clay Golem but is it worth it to save a little more (and gain a couple levels) to apply the Shield Guardian template on it? As the party's only real caster I've gone the route of the Mystic Theurge so I dont have as high lvl spells available to a straight single class caster and sometimes I'm left picking my targets and doing crowd control and buff detail. The golem would allow me to mix it up with the melee types (3 of the 5 of us) and still be able to control the battle field.

SO...who would hold off on construction and who would make it as soon as able?


Scrap both, make a huge animated object that you can ride on (or in) and get a wand of Make Whole to repair whatever punches through it's hardness.

It is cheaper, generally more versatile, and what it lacks in combat ability can be modified with tools and tactics and making a second one that still doesn't add up to the clay golem price tag. Not to mention it looks like whatever you want, like a centaur or a dragon or a flying centaur dragon.

Also, they don't go berserk.


Hrmm. Several reasons why I dont go that path - as a MT I wont have access to the spells required to make a permenant huge animated object until about 6 more levels. Any round where I'm forced to heal or repair anything removes me from my full potential as the only caster in the party. I already have a Manual of Clay Golem Construction (nice find) which allows me to bypass several of the higher spell requirements without increasing construction DCs.

Good idea though, I might end up picking up Craft Construct in the future and work on my little clockwork army :)


Ah, one or two missing spells aren't that big of an issue if your spellcraft is high enough, missing prerequisites can be overcome with a higher DC skill check, but that manual bypasses quite a few things at once.

Presumably you will almost never combat-heal a construct, since the only options are, "expensive repair with tools" or "casting Make Whole many, many times" so fast healing is really helpful. The 4th level spell-storage is also quite useful since it lets you fire off two spells in one round by casting and commanding.

I recommend waiting, since ultimately the Clay Golem is a hassle to heal and that berserk chance...I may be wrong but once it goes berserk it stays berserk forever. Both of those can be overcome with the shield Guardian template.

Also Ultimate Magic has rules for construct upgrades, like giving it a mechanomagically-preserved brain-in-a-jar (and thus combat feats and skills). Not sure if those can slide in with the Manual but it's worth a look.


Honestly I would sugest saving up till you can build a stone golem. Its CL 14, costs twice as much, but the uses you can get out of it are ten fold. The ability to be healed completly with a single spell make it increadably durable. and if your willing to spend the money at later levels, all the goodies that you can upgrade to it are nice. This will delay your ability to get it by alot, and if you think that you will get it to late, then dont bother with this. I would recommend the shield upgrade simply because of the berserk ability. It may never happen, but it only has to go off once and you loose 50k gold. The chances of it going off are small, but any protracted combat you enter, say even a 10 round BBEG could turn disastrous for a 1 in 10 chance. Adding CR 10 to the boss fight is usually not something you enjoy having, especially if the BBEG gets boosted because you 'used to' have the golem on your side.

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