Clockwork Poppet


Advice


I'm in an Iron Gods game, playing around with the idea of some sort of Alchemist tinker/researcher. I had orignally planned on having a simple poppet "assistant" for them. Not a familiar just normal Poppet.

Then I found the "Tinkerer" Alchemist Archetype.

However I'm too hooked on the idea of this tiny doll helper following around rather than say some sort of bird(Due to Tinkerer having a Clockwork Familiar which only has stats for a bird type)

Is there a place to find stats for other types of Clockwork Familiars(Biped, Quad, etc) or how would you go about stating up a Clockwork Poppet?


The tinkerer familiar is able to take on the form of any permitted Wizard familiar, so you are not limited by the bird shape. So you could get a bipedal mammal and claim it has the physicality of a doll (monkey is handy here I think).

As for poppets, they are technically under the craft construct feat available to a 5th level character (I would advice checking with GM before making a crafting character like that, craft construct EASILY breaks games). As per craft construct you can shape it however you desire, and apply construct points for additional cost and DC to augment with abilities. Tiny poppets have no extra slots, small poppets might have room for 1 upgrade.

As well they are a purchasable item. Ask your GM if it would be possible to simply buy at a reduced price as part of starting equipment purchase. I would not personally see a problem with a character starting with one, it costs the same as a camel or a riding dog, with about the same level of power.

Craft construct has everything you need to know about the task, including material hardness (likely brass) number of ability slots (likely 1 for a small construct with low HD and low CR). But in all honesty, this is an ask your Gm situation.


Beastiary 5 has stats for clockwork familiars although they require the Improved Familiar feat and arent normaly availible until 7th level. Im not familiar with the archetype your looking at so not sure if it gives you early access to it. Here is the link to the prd entry for clockwork familiar http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary5/clockworkFamiliar.html#clockwo rk-familiar


Quoth13 wrote:
Beastiary 5 has stats for clockwork familiars although they require the Improved Familiar feat and arent normaly availible until 7th level. Im not familiar with the archetype your looking at so not sure if it gives you early access to it. Here is the link to the prd entry for clockwork familiar http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary5/clockworkFamiliar.html#clockwo rk-familiar

Ah well lemme pull that

Quote:

Clockwork Familiar (Ex)

At 6th level, the tinkerer turns her familiar into a clockwork familiar that takes any form she wishes. She must choose which type of item is installed in the clockwork familiar. She gains the clockwork familiar at no cost, as if she were a 7th-level spellcaster with the Improved Familiar feat.

And it's not so much that I'll get it early, but I'm swapping characters. The details aren't needed for this question but I will be a Level 5 "Blank" of my choosing. Picking Alchemist. So while this won't effect me now, it will soon, within a session or two even.


Guardianlord wrote:
Craft construct has everything you need to know about the task, including material hardness (likely brass) number of ability slots (likely 1 for a small construct with low HD and low CR). But in all honesty, this is an ask your Gm situation.

I figured this would be an Ask GM, but also wanted to see if I could get info before heading to them.

Also, where is this info? I'm looking at the SRD and all the info is spread out across a lot of entries(To find Brass hardness I had to look at Brass Spider)


MerlinCross wrote:
Guardianlord wrote:
Craft construct has everything you need to know about the task, including material hardness (likely brass) number of ability slots (likely 1 for a small construct with low HD and low CR). But in all honesty, this is an ask your Gm situation.

I figured this would be an Ask GM, but also wanted to see if I could get info before heading to them.

Also, where is this info? I'm looking at the SRD and all the info is spread out across a lot of entries(To find Brass hardness I had to look at Brass Spider)

Animated Object. is great for determining points, Hardness, and abilities.

Craft construct is a great all in one page for stats, including a list of existing constructs as examples.

Craft Poppet. Cheapest source of a "Clockwork" or similar tiny and small construct. best part, they can be purchased from a friendly NPC, and have a 100% control option via a token.

Bronze is listed as having hardness 9, which for the purpose of special materials is the same as Brass, except it has the fragile quality. Which is negated by being magical.

Clockwork spy is a good start here, as is a tiny or small poppet of similar materials.
So a tiny Clockwork poppet would be 3000gp, crafted for 1/2 cost for the 2cp benefit of metal added to the 1HD (Hardness 10 common metal or 9 for brass under special materials) for 1500gp. This is for animated object.

Craft poppet is a much cheaper way to go, though it is technically then still wood with brass (or common metal) "Armor AC+2" but only costs 610gp buy, 310gp craft. Small would be 1200gp buy, 550gp craft.
There is no equivalent Hardness increase, but going off of animate object, 2000gp purchase, or 1000gp craft to provide Hardness 10 and an AC increase of +2 (natural Armor). If it is made of brass, it will technically have the fragile quality and Hardness 9 and AC+2, but the same cost and weight of iron or steel. If the GM declares the process of manufacture makes the material magical, then ignore the fragile penalty (Especially as there are no rules on Broken condition and Construct creatures). If you want the flavour of fragile, I might just say a natural 20 confirmed does 2x critical damage or does 1/2 HD in damage before dice are rolled, (so, really, really, scary for a 1-2HD creature).

The spell make Whole will be your friend, as will likely carrying around a half dozen deactivated ones to take the other place, just in case. As these are not familiars, they will not advance with you, and will be very weak for your levels. but the fact they can be worn as clothing or accessories when not in use means they technically act as you for the purposes of AOE's and saves, meaning you act as total cover or if the spell is overwhelming and you do take item damage, they are 8th or 9th on the list.


Clockwork Poppets would be Poppets that are Vulnerable to Electricity but have Improved Initiative and Lightning Reflexes as bonus feats and a +2 Dodge Bonus to AC.

They'd also have the whole Winding property, so basically they need to be wound up once a day, though maybe being a familiar would mean they can go for multiple days.

Other than that, they have the stats of Poppets, which come in Tiny and Small varieties.

Their construction costs would increase to either 750 gp for a Small Poppet or 240 gp for a Tiny Poppet. I suppose that means that a Small Poppet would now take more than 1 day to create, unless one added +5 to the DC for faster crafting or had Cooperative Crafting involved.

Being Clockwork should not have any effect on the cost of modifications available to Poppets or the more general modifications one can make to constructs in general.


Quote:

Promethean Disciple (Alchemist Discovery)

Some alchemists dabble in the art of construct creation.

Promethean Disciple: An alchemist with this discovery learns how to craft constructs by way of alchemical research rather than arcane magic. The alchemist gains Craft Construct as a bonus feat without needing to meet its requirements. The alchemist substitutes his number of ranks in Craft (alchemy) for his total caster level and must use Craft (alchemy) to create the construct. The DC to create the construct still increases for any necessary spells that the alchemist does not have access to. However, the alchemist can use extracts in place of spells as spell prerequisites. An alchemist must be at least 6th level before selecting this discovery.

There is also the Promethean Alchemist which gets a Homunculus Companion.

Liberty's Edge

MerlinCross wrote:

I'm in an Iron Gods game, playing around with the idea of some sort of Alchemist tinker/researcher. I had orignally planned on having a simple poppet "assistant" for them. Not a familiar just normal Poppet.

Then I found the "Tinkerer" Alchemist Archetype.

However I'm too hooked on the idea of this tiny doll helper following around rather than say some sort of bird(Due to Tinkerer having a Clockwork Familiar which only has stats for a bird type)

Is there a place to find stats for other types of Clockwork Familiars(Biped, Quad, etc) or how would you go about stating up a Clockwork Poppet?

If third party material is allowed at your table, you might check out the Tinkerer, one of the 12 new and expanded classes in the recently released hardcover edition of the New Paths Compendium.

Tinkerers are master inventors, builders, and engineers, trap-makers etc who start the game with a clockwork companion that can be customized in many different ways ... you could easily make your clockwork companion a small bipedal doll :)

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