So here is my question:
Is it possible to bind a (willing) person's soul to a construct to make a unique intelligent item, construct or construct control module--that could possibly be moved to different constructs,--or to some sort of mindless undead to gain a new body?
Mostly I'm interested in Intelligent items and constructs/golems. If golems can go berzerk that is irrelevant since the golem could be made a shield golem for itself or its control module. The idea for controlling undead is just a different idea.
There are 3 constructs on that theme.
The soulbound doll (Bestiary II), the soulbound mannequin and the soulbound shell (both in Bestiary IV).
So you want to replace your body with that of a golem or golem part? You want to change your creature type from humon to construct or undead?
If think this is going to far for a PC and it is not supported by RAW. There are some spells that transform you into another creature for a limited time. With the 'reincarnate' spell you can to this forever.
If you are playing with mythic rules you can go with the legendary item. With a storyline (and GM assistance) you can say that your new intelligent legendary item is an old friend that died in battle etc.
If you don't need to transfer a soul to an object, there are 2 construct playable races: Androids and Wyrwoods
There are 3 constructs on that theme.
The soulbound doll (Bestiary II), the soulbound mannequin and the soulbound shell (both in Bestiary IV).
The catch with the soulbounds is that it is a fragment of the soul, not the soul itself.
So you want to replace your body with that of a golem or golem part? You want to change your creature type from humon to construct or undead?
If think this is going to far for a PC and it is not supported by RAW. There are some spells that transform you into another creature for a limited time. With the 'reincarnate' spell you can to this forever.
If you are playing with mythic rules you can go with the legendary item. With a storyline (and GM assistance) you can say that your new intelligent legendary item is an old friend that died in battle etc.
Actually this isn't for a PC, it is for world building. I suppose Wish could do it. I am just curious of the "legal" options.
Wish would probably be able to achieve this, of course at a ridiculous price.
So cost of building golem, animating mindless undead, creating intelligent magical item + 25,000 gp. This isn't necessarily beneficial to the person being bound.
I'll look into those, I remember a friend wanted to play a Wyrmwood once.
There is no hardline RAW method of handling this, I'm afraid.
In RAW, there are two ways to get a new body: clone and reincarnate, neither of which really do what you're looking for.
If you're asking for house-rules, the soulbound stuff is a decent place to start, as is the Magic Jar or Trap the Soul - especially a "cursed" variant where the soul is taken... but is then the one in control.
In a game I ran, a BBEG (a brain-in-a-jar) was defeated, but one of their servants* was diplomacied, and eventually (in an attempt to regain the guy body) was situated inside another body**. The brain was carefully removed from the jar, and placed into the body, and the skull-part was sealed with the flaming skull (with had fire-immune flesh sealed over the top of it).
Unbeknownst to the flaming skull*, the PCs had put the soul-gem*** into the body (and some random Kings Tears), the mind wound up being less the BBEG's and a composite with all the BBEG's (and flaming skull's) memories being filtered through the lens of a Lawful Good character (who was capable of recalling approximiately 100% of his memories, if slightly distantly****).
In any event, this made everyone not-as-happy-as-hoped, but it more or less worked out over the years (as the golem slowly got over his personality crisis).
So... not exactly what you want, but a personal anecdote of how we had a personality imprinted into another (construct) body.
Another idea I long had
Slightly more in line with what you're asking about (though not PF-specific) there was an intelligent item in a 3.5 Eberron adventure that was noted as being "the soul" of an awakened horse placed into the double scimitar.
I could certainly see something like an Intelligent Item being crafted that held the soul of someone else. Make it an amulet and place said intelligent item onto the golem in question. Golem (automatically) fails its opposed CHA check and the item is suddenly in charge. If it's had a constant Apparent Master, Control Construct, and/or Soothe Construct effect, with the special purpose "control a construct body to keep living and pursue the missions important to you in life" I could certainly see that working out pretty cleanly (especially if the item has telepathy <range:touch> and/or lacked any but blindsense and there was some sort of constant share memories effect in place, almost making the item feel like it's making the memories of the construct).
Similarly, in the old computer game Hordes of the Underdark, there were (originally) plans to allow you to take a sentient sword and place it into a construct to create a sentient new ally. Sadly, this never panned out (I think they just never finished the coding for it - possibly they just couldn't figure out how). But still, that's one other point of "near" canon.
Hope this helps!
* It was one of those situations where two would-be enemies were trapped in a relatively small space for a loooooooooooong time, neither of which could readily get rid of the other. Thus they compromised. Sort of.
** The body itself was actually a flesh-golem crafted from a number of hobgoblins, a slightly battered (and no-longer-animate) deathlock, and a still-animate but exceedingly loyal flaming skull via an arcane variant of the fusion psionic power and a variant application of make whole/polymorph any object application.
*** Based on a 3.5 fiendish soul pact; it's like trap the soul, except the guy was dead in a way that would never get better.
**** It was a random %. They rolled 100%. Well played, guys. Well played. It was able to be recalled like a recording more than as actual memories, though.
Mad wizards all up in this thread.
I read threads like these and I suddenly understand why someone would would think it's a fun idea to cross-breed a bear with an owl. :)
The question before us is, did the owl boink the bear or the bear boink the owl?
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The question before us is, did the owl boink the bear or the bear boink the owl?Mad wizards all up in this thread.
I read threads like these and I suddenly understand why someone would would think it's a fun idea to cross-breed a bear with an owl. :)
*Queue's Barry White Vinyl*
*Ahem*
"The beagle is willing, but the cat is weak." ...?
I think she meant "wyrwood".