Hello!
I'm playing around with making a crafter wizard and looking into building some constructs. At the current level for our game, homunculi are the obvious choice, but I've hit a bit of a snag.
Since the character is all about creating life, I'd like to dump a lot of resources into my little beastie and make it a major focus of my character, but the rules for how to do so are a little unclear. Obviously I can pay 2000gp and add HD or strap whatever gear I please on the little guy, but it seems like there might be some other options based on the "Building and Modifying Constructs" page here: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/building-and-modifying-constructs.
For instance, the page describes pricing new constructs by CR. Could I choose to give my creation class levels, calculate the CR adjustment and the price based off of that? While it makes sense from an in-game perspective since the homunculus is intelligent, I'm guessing no for balance reasons and because nowhere is it stated homunculi can advance with character levels (also the old 3.5 rules give advancement by HD not class).
Assuming that's right out, could I give it the advanced template? It specifically mentions on the above linked page not to use CR to calculate the cost for this, but nowhere can I find a cost for applying this. Is it possible at all for a homunculus to have? If not, which constructs can it be applied to?
Could other templates be applied to it? Would the cost for these be based off of CR or something else?
The page also clearly mentioned adding enhancement bonuses to armor class and presumably (perhaps a big presumption?) a construct could utilize any gear it could reasonably equip, but is there a way to directly increase things like natural armor or is it just a matter of relying on items or templates?
Lastly, is what I'm attempted to do even feasible at all? The homunculus entry in the Bestiary/SRD suggests that homunculi have no ceiling to how far you can advance them (i.e. as long as you've got 2000 more gp, you can throw on another HD). But the page linked above states the following:
"Because a construct’s size is limited, a Hit Dice modification cannot increase its size. Therefore Hit Dice modification can never increase the base construct’s Hit Dice beyond 50% of its total HD. Some constructs have a defined cost for increasing Hit Dice. To calculate the cost per Hit Die of other constructs, divide the construct’s construction cost by its existing Hit Dice."
Does this apply to all constructs, including the homunculus: effectively limiting them to 3HD (half of what they were allotted in 3.5)? Or do entries with "open" wording indeed have an open ceiling to their total HD?
Thank you in advance for all your helpful advice!
