To turn a pebble into a stone golem,
A) Would it not work at all because stone golems have immunity to spells affected by SR?
B) Would it work but the Golem would not be immune to spells and could be dispelled because it's a spell effect?
C) Would it not work because you cannot turn a non-magical item into a magical item with the spell?
D) Would it be better just to make the pebble into an elder earth elemental or something else like that?
A) I don't see how magic immunity would cause it to fail (seeing as pebbles don't have magic immunity).
B) I don't believe dispel magic requires SR. If so, you can indeed dispel the golem back to a pebble.
C) Constructs are creatures, not magical items (though they are often created like magical items).
D) Might be less of a headache.
If you're looking to kill people though, it might be better to turn the air into burnt othur fumes or some other nasty poison. Nothing quite like creating a thousand, thousand doses with but one spell.
The spell isn't terribly clear. It references greater polymorph, which has specific creature types that are available to it (animal, elemental, dragon, humanoid, plant), but polymorph any object indicates that it can change any type of creature or object into any other.
The most conservative reading I can see is that the "any" clause simply means that you can change creatures to objects and vice versa, and that the valid creature forms are those afforded by greater polymorph. This reading would imply C above, as a construct is a magical item.
The most permissive reading is difficult to implement as the spell doesn't specify which abilities you gain when polymorphing into something not covered by greater polymorph. I suppose you'd just get the stuff in the polymorph subsection under "Magic", which means you'd get natural attacks and such but no special abilities, special movement speeds, or magical defenses. This implies B above.
D is probably your best bet, though you're limited (in the conservative case) to Large, not Elder, per elemental body III.
C) Constructs are creatures, not magical items (though they are often created like magical items).
Ugh, that does complicate things. Constructs are objects, crafted the same way as magic items, but they don't have auras and can't be temporarily dispelled. Are they "magic items" with exceptions, or creatures that happen to also be objects and also happen to be crafted as magic items but not, in fact, magic items?
*rubs eyes*
What a pain. I think I'll stick to the conservative approach that dodges this question entirely. No greater polymorph into stone golem at all.
Polymorph Any Object is one of those spells that gives you a headache when you try to think about it.
I would think that you can change a pebble into a stone golem with no problem. It would have all of the abilities of a stone golem. However, it can still be dispelled because a dispel would target your polymorph spell, not the golem itself.
As a GM, I'd compare it to Summon Monster VIII, which allows you to summon an elder earth elemental, a creature of the same CR as a stone golem. Mechanically, you're achieving a similar effect.
However, the issue with polymorph any object over summon monster viii is that the creature may have no inclination to obey you. The process of creating a golem the normal way is very involved partially because the creator is going through the trouble of bending the construct to his will. Since a polymorphed golem has no proper creator, it may just stand there and do nothing. If you turn the pebble into an earth elemental, it may ignore you or even kill you out of confusion of its new existence. However, that's a risk you take to potentially get a servant that exists for one hour, as opposed to summon monster's 1 round per level.
It makes sense to me that they would have limited special abilities of the new form. Iron Golems in particular require Polymorph any Object to create, but it's odd that if we were just using simple rules you could permanently change an iron ingot into an iron golem with a permanent duration. I'll have to mention that to the GM when my sorcerer gets that spell.
Hmm, i do think the problem isn t really creating the golem but controlling it.
After casting a spell there would stand a golem and do nothing all day as you have no way of ordering it around, or am i wrong?
The difference between using Craft Construct and using a permanent spell like animate objects to create a construct is that spells are vulnerable to dispelling and antimagic, as mentioned here. A construct built with Craft Construct is self-sustaining and not subject to dispelling/antimagic. I would assume the same rules apply to polymorph any object, especially considering it's also a transmutation spell.
I doubt you'd be able to turn an iron ingot into an iron golem. They're not really the same kingdom because you're turning a non-magical inanimate object into a creature. You'd probably get 3 hours (related+same class), maybe 2 days if the ingot was big enough.
I am not entirely sure that you can make a construct this way (you might be reasonably limited to the types available to greater polymorph: Dragon, animal, plant, elemental, humanoid)
But if you can make a Construct using Polymorph Any Object it would NOT have the construct type, and therefore would not get any construct traits. The issue of type is pretty determinate.
Secondly, since there is no spell to work off of, the pebble would get the attacks of a construct, but nothing else, not even the stats. It would just have the stats that an object gets with no other changes.
I say this because, lets say you turn a pebble into a Large Earth Elemental. It starts with Str,Dex,Con: 10 and Int,Wis,Cha:5
Then you add all the stuff from Elem body III. Your Pebble is now an earth elemental with the following:
Large Object
Init –1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft.; Perception -3
DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 8, flat-footed 14 (–1 Dex, +6 natural, –1 size)
hp 13 (2d10+2)
Fort +1, Ref -1, Will -3
Immune to crits, bleed, sneak attack, its still an object so anything objects are immune to.
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft., burrow 20 ft., earth glide
Melee 2 slams +3 (2d6+3)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
STATISTICS
Str 16, Dex 8, Con 12, Int 5, Wis 5, Cha 5
Base Atk +0; CMB +4; CMD 13
Now the weirdness. The object is still an object (as polymorph does not change type). This being the case, it doesn't have a BAB, it also doesn't have any hit dice. So, what do you do here?
I would say this:
Hitpoints = I would use the table from Animated Objects, because otherwise you just have a 0HD rock, or you have to use the object's hitpoints. But object hitpoints are based on composition, which changes when it is polymorphed. So, HD based on size of the initial object.
Saves = base saves are going to be 0 just like an animated object.
BAB = +1/HD just like an animated object.
So, I guess what I am saying is that making a construct via Polymorph Any Object would work a lot like using Animate Objects... there is no connection in the RAW here, but otherwise there is no way to determine HD, BAB, Saves etc. for an object turned into a creature.
So the Polymorph Any Object example of a pebble turned into a Human would be:
Type Object
HD: 1d10
BAB: +1
Str:10
Dex:10
Con:10
Int:5
Wis:5
Cha:5
Fort: +0 Ref:+0 Will:-3
Immune: anything an object is immmune to.
Then apply the effects of Alter Self