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I have a PC that wants to play an artificer..Cool I think this should be interesting different...but what can he make... Hmmmmm starts to get limited. a big brute golem, sure. A homunculus ok and the iron snake. Hmm Ok he can animate all nature of coat hangers and the like for a short period of time, or longer with permanency.. but a system to make his own creative constructs would be nice. This is what I was thinking. Base cost should be aprox 2000gp about the same as a homunculus for a small creature and then somehow add costs in for abilities, size, extra apendages like the eidelon for the summoner... What do you think? has anyone done this?
By RAW, animate objects is the closest you will get.
Try this Golemcraft 101
If I do say so myself.
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Great thanks all I will sift through all of this thoroughly before making a snap decision.I have ok'd a few things for my players and then found major... this is out of control abused issues that later needed to be dealt with. when i come up with my solution i will let all know so they may comment/critique more. if you think of any thing else please do pile on. Cheers
I have a PC that wants to play an artificer..Cool I think this should be interesting different...but what can he make... Hmmmmm starts to get limited. a big brute golem, sure. A homunculus ok and the iron snake. Hmm Ok he can animate all nature of coat hangers and the like for a short period of time, or longer with permanency.. but a system to make his own creative constructs would be nice. This is what I was thinking. Base cost should be aprox 2000gp about the same as a homunculus for a small creature and then somehow add costs in for abilities, size, extra apendages like the eidelon for the summoner... What do you think? has anyone done this?
I have actually bought all the books listed here and was still left wanting as none of them really "did it" for me or my group. There were definitely gems in each of them however but not a total solution that really encompassed everything for us. If you are looking for a quick and dirty solution that isn't too bad the Effigy Master PrC (and associated rules) in Complete Arcane(?) was what we ended up using in the end. If you allow for templates (more to the point, stacking multiple templates) it is a potential landmine but for general use it was pretty nice. I'd say to allow 1 template per creature (just to account for concepts like construct zombies, gears/material falling off instead for flesh) if you were open to it.
Let me add that my Golemcraft 101 was originally developed for a Dragon article with lots of e-mail back and forth between Mike McArtor and myself until, after the final version was completed, I got a very simple e-mail that said basically "due to an editorial decision we will not be using this article." I then filled it out and shopped it around to Dog Soul sometime later. Its not perfect, but I have found it useful for artificer types at my gametable.
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Let me add that my Golemcraft 101 was originally developed for a Dragon article with lots of e-mail back and forth between Mike McArtor and myself until, after the final version was completed, I got a very simple e-mail that said basically "due to an editorial decision we will not be using this article." I then filled it out and shopped it around to Dog Soul sometime later. Its not perfect, but I have found it useful for artificer types at my gametable.
Thanks Scott and all those that have responded. I have not yet 'closely' looked at Golemcraft, I will, I have scanned through the sample and it looks really good. Thus far I have decided to take a bit from each of these sources and kind of try to "Pathfinder" the systems a bit. Many sources are from 3.5 or 3.0 days where XP was a cost to be reckoned with. Golem craft uses this as well I believe (Yes it does), and it really isn't a large XP cost for smaller constructs so the material cost trade off would be minimal anyway. I think if i used Scott's system to work around and then added some of the general rules for magic item/ clockwork creature costs in regards to a greater tweakability (custom word) a really good balance could be found. I like a lot about the clockwork system and can see it being really fun to play... but a clock work creature and say small clay toy poodle 'golem??' or a "paper bird construct" are quite different.
"The Paper Bird" is a neat flavor idea that I really loved after my players and I talked after one of our sessions. The artificer could create a small paper construct to deliver messages. It can fly, locate places/people known to the artificer an carry a message "as message" but delivered only by touch. The recipient will then be asked if it wants to reply (still via message)if the answer is yes the bird will wait until a message is given and then depart. It is a simple and unnecessary construct since there are many spells that can more effectively meet these needs but once the creature is created it is safe (the message can only be given to someone at the place or to the person designated). It is a flavor thing i like it it's a neat thing and lets face it the world likes "neat things" more than things that work well... how entropic huh. The bird would be super weak and susceptible to fire, water, acid but healed by force effects (such as magic missiles). Creativity is fun.Regardless Scot's work creates a great frame work. Thanks for the resource it should really help.
Glad it looks helpful for you. Hmmm....I may need to think about doing a Pathfinder update. Not that I have time to write anymore.