In the Bestiary there are construction costs for:
clay golem
flesh golem
homunculus
ice golem
iron cobra
iron golem
stone golem
wood golem
but not for:
animated object
retriever
Now the `retriever` has in its description "In the darkest corners of the Great Beyond, certain powerful demon lords have mastered the art of shaping the raw, protoplasmic flesh of the Abyss into hideous monstrosities devoid of life, emotion, and the will to resist control."
so I figure it's not possible a PC be able to construct without specific knowledge ... so that leaves `animated objects`.
I did a search on these boards and it seems that there has already been some discussion on this, but no concrete answer.
So besides `Craft Construct` feat and the `animated objects` spell what other requirements are there? What are the costs?
From the Homunculus (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-lists-and-details/-h/homunculus) description is appears that its 50gp/HD + 1,000gp.
EDIT: (fixed costs for Homunculus):
So could a 13 HD `animated object` would cost 1,000gp + 50gp + (13 HD - 2 HD) x 2,000gp / HD) = 1,050gp + (11 HD x 2,000gp) = 1,050gp + (22,000gp) = 23,050gp and Caster Level 7?
Seems about right compared to say a `clay golem` that is also 13 HD but costs 21,500 gp and Caster Level 11.
Please advise.
Yeah, it seems very, very low. I've decided to simply avoid the question not allow PCs to craft animated objects using the craft construct feat until there is a clarification.
Alternately, you could compare the animated object that you want to create to the list of golems to find one of equal power, more or less, and cost it accordingly. You might also look at the recommended CR list to find the nearest CR for the animated object and compare that to the golem with the nearest CR.
Hope this helps.
Personally, I'd prefer constructs to be followers or cohorts and be done with it.
But no established rules for that, either.
There really is just no rules for this. We gave it a fairly decent look over in a thread about week ago. Maybe Beastiary II will have something about this, that would be a great place for it.
animated object generally do not get built, they are impromptu enchanted items.
animated objects refers to the bestiary for it's statistics, also it says it can be made permanent there.
ofcourse I do not rule out, the effect can be copied, the basics is that it is an item that wasn't made to be a construct.
If all animated objects are products of animate object and permanency, then they would all be subject to instakill with dispel magic. That doesn't seem right. And isn't mentioned in the Bestiary.
It is not necesarily the only way, I mean feel free to put them in the ruins of an old wizard room or result of magic gone wild.
There are a few spells that emulate animated objects, but like I said they are not really animated constructs in the sense that they are constructed for that purpose usually. I think they are mainly included to cater to those situations.
no reason you can't actually make one I guess.
Look at permanency... here it is!
Animate objects (Minimum CL 14th) 15,000 gp
permanency for relatively small animated objects sems a waste or wait you can target more right.. hmm.. well it still would be nice to go about it another way I suppose, it should be a wizard spell too for starters >>
It seems to fit wizards better than either bards or clerics.
Hmmm... what if two casters used their combined power and paid double the gp. Maybe add +2 class levels minimum?
not without any feat for cooperative / ritual magic I wouldnt, give bonus on casterlevel, though limited wish could grant a casterlevel increase of 3 or so to a spell you cast the next round.
I'll just make animate objects a wizard spell too, they should be able to do that stuff.
Creative Director
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The permanency spell plus animate object spell is indeed the normal way to build permanent animated objects. While it's certainly still possible to build one using Craft Construct... we were unable to fit that information on the monster's page and decided to forgo it for that entry.
And the retriever's missing construction data is half error, half "PCs shouldn't be building these anyway since they're made by demon lords." We still shoulda put put in a construction paragraph though, probably.
The permanency spell plus animate object spell is indeed the normal way to build permanent animated objects. While it's certainly still possible to build one using Craft Construct... we were unable to fit that information on the monster's page and decided to forgo it for that entry.
Any chance we could get a look at that? Or is that something for the FAQ?
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Creative Director
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The permanency spell plus animate object spell is indeed the normal way to build permanent animated objects. While it's certainly still possible to build one using Craft Construct... we were unable to fit that information on the monster's page and decided to forgo it for that entry.Any chance we could get a look at that? Or is that something for the FAQ?
It doesn't exist. We knew there wouldn't be room for the info so no one ever wrote it.
Well, you know, for a small percentage of the gross proceeds of Paizo, I'd be happy to correct that for you....
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Remember, Animate Object is the poor man's golem. You can create a guardian creature as a standard action out of pretty much anything. Is it permanent? No, unless you want to spend the money on it.
But, remember, it doesn't require the Craft Construct feat, and doesn't cost massive amounts of money. Plus, you have the added benifit of surprising the enemy with an unorthodox attack from a seemingly benign object. Animated rugs and curtains can really ruin a fighter's day.
Plus, if you wanted to animate a bed, you can sleep, carry wounded comrades, carry treasure, etc, in the middle of a dungeon, plus have a backup tank.
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OT, our gaming group has a plan:
Skeletons can provide nearly unlimited kenetic energy. We will build an automated manufacturing plant using skeletons to push large wheels. The plant will produce rather bland suits of full plate armor.
Now, we will dress up the armor a bit with spells, add a permanency with Animate Objects, and sell them off to wealthy clients as security guards. It's like building a golem factory. I want to sell to government bodies as well and make it a major weapons manufacturing business.
And I can't wait until someone tries to use them against us. Automatic dispel anyone?
If you really want to have fun with suits of fullplate, I recommend looking up the stats for helmed horrors and battle horrors from the Forgotten Realms. Lost Empires of Faerun is the source book, IRCC. nasty little buggers.
The permanency spell plus animate object spell is indeed the normal way to build permanent animated objects. While it's certainly still possible to build one using Craft Construct... we were unable to fit that information on the monster's page and decided to forgo it for that entry.
And the retriever's missing construction data is half error, half "PCs shouldn't be building these anyway since they're made by demon lords." We still shoulda put put in a construction paragraph though, probably.
Except... you didn't forgo it. From the Bestiary, p. 14, entry for Animated Object:
"Permanent animated objects can be built using the Craft Construct feat (see page 314)."
Obviously, using Craft Construct would be preferable to merely using the spell, because it can't be dispelled. The same goes for the spell plus Permanency - none of the creatable Constructs can be dispelled, even though all of them (I believe) require Animate Object to make.
Either the reference to Craft Construct under the Animated Object entry is an error and needs to be errata-ed out, or we need costs for building them.