Lets say say I have a character carving or chiseling the body for a contruct hes creating, or just an ordinary statue. Time is not really an issue, but he does want it to look good; that statue of a manticore should LOOK like a manticore.
The rules for taking 20 state that the character just keeps trying till they get it right, failing many times and accruing any penalties for failure. In this case, that might mean wasting the block of stone he was chiseling. My question is; would the character be able to take 20 and just assume he takes his time and works carefully, rather than wasting resources?
Second question, what are all the ways to repair a construct? The lowest level spell I've found is Make Whole (Mending specifically states it cant be used on creatures, including constructs, which is too bad). Are there any alternatives?
No, take 20 explicitly assumes that you fail many times before succeeding.
Remember that taking 20 means you do as well as you possibly can do. Literally. It's not simply 'taking your time' or 'being careful,' it's making no mistakes at all that might compromise performance. It's an oh-my-god-I-don't-know-how-I-pulled-that-off moment.
In this case, it's carving 20 different statues and taking the one you like best.
Lets say say I have a character carving or chiseling the body for a contruct hes creating, or just an ordinary statue. Time is not really an issue, but he does want it to look good; that statue of a manticore should LOOK like a manticore.
The rules for taking 20 state that the character just keeps trying till they get it right, failing many times and accruing any penalties for failure. In this case, that might mean wasting the block of stone he was chiseling. My question is; would the character be able to take 20 and just assume he takes his time and works carefully, rather than wasting resources?
Taking 20: When you have plenty of time, you are faced with no threats or distractions, and the skill being attempted carries no penalties for failure, you can take 20. In other words, if you roll a d20 enough times, eventually you will get a 20. Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check, just calculate your result as if you had rolled a 20.
Taking 20 means you are trying until you get it right, and it assumes that you fail many times before succeeding. Taking 20 takes 20 times as long as making a single check would take (usually 2 minutes for a skill that takes 1 round or less to perform).
Since taking 20 assumes that your character will fail many times before succeeding, your character would automatically incur any penalties for failure before he or she could complete the task (hence why it is generally not allowed with skills that carry such penalties). Common “take 20” skills include Disable Device (when used to open locks), Escape Artist, and Perception (when attempting to find traps).
In the case of sculpting something from a single piece of stone you can ruin the block from which you're carving with a bad roll, the failure has a penalty. Since there's a penalty for failure, you cannot take 20.
However, if you have a way to repair any mistakes you made, then you can take 20, since there's no real penalty for failure. So it would play out similar to how Orfamay said it; you make mistakes (perhaps casting mending after each mistake) until you get a 20.
I think the crafting rules work different. I think your manticore construct isnt created in one day. So there are multible skill checks involved. The quality of the result isnt affected by your skill check. It is set by the item you want to create. DC 25 for a real looking manticore and 20 for an ugly one for example. The prices are also different. The create the manticore statue the folowing steps must be done:
Srd wrote:
To determine how much time and money it takes to make an item, follow these steps.
1. Find the item's price in silver pieces (1 gp = 10 sp).
2. Find the item's DC from Table: Craft Skills.
3. Pay 1/3 of the item's price for the raw material cost.
4. Make an appropriate Craft check representing one week's worth of work. If the check succeeds, multiply your check result by the DC. If the result × the DC equals the price of the item in sp, then you have completed the item. (If the result × the DC equals double or triple the price of the item in silver pieces, then you've completed the task in one-half or one-third of the time. Other multiples of the DC reduce the time in the same manner.) If the result × the DC doesn't equal the price, then it represents the progress you've made this week. Record the result and make a new Craft check for the next week. Each week, you make more progress until your total reaches the price of the item in silver pieces.
If you fail a check by 4 or less, you make no progress this week. If you fail by 5 or more, you ruin half the raw materials and have to pay half the original raw material cost again.
Progress by the Day You can make checks by the day instead of by the week. In this case your progress (check result × DC) should be divided by the number of days in a week.
Repair Items: You can repair an item by making checks against the same DC that it took to make the item in the first place. The cost of repairing an item is one-fifth of the item's price