Hey Paizo Bored!
Let me start out by giving a little explanation towards WHY I'm trying to create this spell. The game that I am currently running is based in a Post-Apocalyptic World- where Magic and Tech can be found (both in limited supplies mind you).
One of my players had came to me with the wishes to be able to make cheat Constructs (Robots and the such, that don't cost an arm and a leg to make and use). This inspired me to try and put this spell together, I've tried to keep it as close in line with other spells of its 'power level' as I can. (Once you read it, you'll see its obviously based off for Animate Dead).
The Spell is as follows:
School transmutation; Level cleric/oracle 3, sorcerer/wizard 4;
CASTING
Casting Time 10 Minutes
Components V, S, M (Various Materials worth at least 50 gp per Hit Die of the Droid)
EFFECT
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Targets Droid Materials
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
DESCRIPTION
This spell allows the caster to channel a portion of their life energy to create Constructs in the form of Droids that obey your spoken commands.
The Droids can be made to follow you, or they can be made to remain in an area and attack any creature (or just a specific kind of creature) entering the place. They remain animated until they are destroyed. A destroyed Droid can't be animated again.
You can't create more HD of Droids than twice your caster level with a single casting of animate dead.
The Droids you create remain under your control indefinitely. No matter how many times you use this spell, however, you can control only 4 HD worth of Droid creatures per caster level. If you exceed this number, all the newly created creatures fall under your control, and any excess Droids from previous castings become uncontrolled. You choose which constructs are released.
Droids Form: A Droid is always crafted to resemble the physiology of an existing creature. (Most being built after a Humans Form). The creature that a Droid is designed after must have a physical anatomy.
Also- I figure the rules on 'creating' these Droids could work as follows
Creating a Droid
“Droids” can be built to resimble any corporeal creature (other than an undead) that has a Physical autonomy, (referred to hereafter as the base creature), that the creator is very familiar with. The creator is considered 'very familiar' with his own Physical Autonomy for the purpose of creating Droids. To become 'very familiar' with with another creature, the 'creator' must study that creature for a week- either by watching that creature up close for extended periods of each day, or by examining a relatively in tact corpse.
Challenge Rating: This depends on the creature's new total number of Hit Dice, as follows:
HD CR XP
1/2 1/6 65
1 1/3 135
2–3 1 400
4–5 2 600
6–7 3 800
8–9 4 1,200
10–11 5 1,600
12–14 6 2,400
15–17 7 3,200
18–20 8 4,800
Alignment: Always True Neutral.
Type: The Droids type is Construct, and is treated as a Construct in every way, except as listed below.
Armor Class: Natural armor bonus changes as follows:
Droid Size Natural Armor Bonus
Tiny or smaller +0
Small +1
Medium or Large +2
Huge +3
Gargantuan +6
Colossal +10
Hit Dice: A Droid does not gain any HD gained from class levels (As the Creature it is based on may or may not of had) and changes racial HD to d8s (Not the normal d10s granted to Constructs). Creatures without racial HD are treated as if they have 1 racial HD. If the creature has more than 20 Hit Dice, it can't have a Droid made based on it by the animate droid spell. A Droid does not have a Con score, and should treat their score as if it was 10 for the purpose of Fortitude and other effects based off of their Con Score. Droids gain extra Hit Points based on the chart below.
Construct Size Bonus Hit Points
Fine —
Diminutive —
Tiny —
Small 5
Medium 10
Large 15
Huge 20
Gargantuan 30
Colossal 40
Saves: Base save bonuses are Fort +1/3 HD, Ref +1/3 HD, and Will +1/3 HD.
Defensive Abilities: A Droid gains none of the Defensive Abilities of the Base Creature and gains DR 5/Adamantine and Vulnerability to Electricity. It also gains all of the standard immunities and traits possessed by Construct creatures.
Speed: Winged Droids can fly, but maneuverability drops by one (Minume Clumsy). If the base creature flew magically, so can the Droid. The Droid gains all other Movement types the Base Creature Has.
Attacks: A Droid has a single Slame Attack and all the natural weapons of the base creature, and is proficiant and all simple weapons. A Slam attack deals damage depending on the Droid's size (see Natural Attacks table below.) If the base creature already had a Slam attack, use the Droids claw damage only if it's better.
Natural Attack (Slam) Base Damage by Size
Fine Dim. Tiny Small Medium Large Huge Garg. Col.
- 1d2 1d3 1d4 1d6 1d8 2d6 2d8 3d6
Special Attacks: A Droid has none of the base creature's special attacks.
Abilities: A Droid's Dexterity increases by +2. It has no Constitution or Intelligence score, and its Wisdom and Charisma scores change to 10.
BAB: A Droid's base attack bonus is equal to 3/4 of its Hit Dice.
Skills: A Droid gains a single skill point per HD. These Skill points can not be spend on Int based skills, and no skills are considered class skills for Droids.
Feats: A Droid gains no feats possessed by the base creature and gains Improved Initiative as a bonus feat.
I figure the words 'Clockwork' could be slipped in there between Animate and Droid for 'higher' fantasy based games.
So I want to know if you guys think this is to Powerful as is? or perhaps is it to weak? Do you have any ideas that might make it better or perhaps something you might think make it cooler.
Any types, suggestions, critics, modifications or just general thoughts on this spell idea will be MOST useful!
Thank you in advance!
Bump for the hopes of suggestions!
You might want to get yourself a copy of the Inner Sea Bestiary. In it are statistics for androids and several types of robots. There are also Clockwork creatures in Bestiary 3, which is in the PRD.