I'm GMing a group of 6 11th level PC's who just defeated their first Lich. The lich had built a number of flesh golems to help defend his lair, and after the party destroyed everyone they found his manual of flesh golem construction.
At this point in the campaign, the party isn't very interested in adding a melee NPC to the group (the flesh golem), so I'm now considering giving the group the possibility of trading that flesh golem manual for an experimental Healbot construct.
The construct would be unable to use any skills in combat, it would just crawl around, or float around near the party at all times. Maybe something like a party-wide Ioun stone. No perception, no stealth, nothing. It's only ability is to cast some combination of the following X times per day: Cure spells, channel positive energy, remove disease, curse, blindness.... basically stuff that boring healer clerics do.
The party doesn't have a cleric, so healing spells are mostly being done by the druid. I'd like to change that and let the druid do some more interesting things with her spells.
So, if I wanted to build this thing, and keep it's cost to something comparable to the Flesh Golem in value, how do I start?
Any and all advice is appreciated. If you think this is totally a bad idea, let me know.
I like it.
I could see this fitting into a steampunk campaign, with the healbot coming equipment with scalpels, needle and thread, etc.
Or maybe it's a portable dispenser of healer potions.
What about maintenance costs? Healing shouldn't be "free", so maybe you could require the party to pay the equivalent of brewing a potion or scribing a scroll with the specific healing spell the bot performs.
Yea, I was kind of thinking about a floating healer orb, or perhaps a sort of construct spider with dials and meters to kind of fit the steampunk theme. Instead of a wizard, it would be a scientist or an alchemist that would probably be the creator.
Maintenance is a really good idea. It would be extremely costly to hire a cleric healer npc because of the cost of his spells - so we're not going to do that. This would be an alternative in the way that it has perks similar to a golem that the party has paid for and created. I'm trying to think of a way to create this thing so that it's balanced.
Let's start small: If this thing only follows the party around and casts a few spells a day, it shouldn't be crazy expensive. I just don't know how to calculate an NPC in terms of it's abilities and it's value.
If my healerbot spiderling robot thing could cast 4 Channel Positive energy (3d6+3), how much value does it carry? The healing would be helpful enough for a 11th level party, but it's not exactly the versatility of a combat npc.
If it's too expensive, perhaps a weekly maintenance cost could break up the price...
An intelligent item could probably be a lot cheaper than a Golem and since your 'bot is supposed to stay out of combat anyway, should be equally adapt.
Oh yea! An intelligent item is a great idea, I'm not sure how I forgot about those.
The item itself doesn't need any ability scores. It's programmed to do one thing: fix allied broken humanoids. Mobility seems like a huge cost factor. It could either have the ability to sprout legs and walk 10ft for 5000gp, or fly 60ft for 10,000gp... pretty steep. Might be too high for the party to be interested.
Why couldn't some crazy artificer use a dull gray ioun stone as the base material? Those things are only 25gp and orbit their master all day (well, we want it to orbit the whole party if it needs to).
I'm thinking that for 8,000gp, the party could purchase a floating healer orb that can CureLW 6/day, CureMW 1/day, 30ft normal light senses. So, basically, half the cost of this thing is it's ability to float around and zip over to wounded party members all on its own. Heck, if the party wants to upgrade it, we can add additional spells.
So assuming the party decides they like this thing, they could trade the Flesh Golem Manual(8000gp) to the guy who will build the healer orb and also pay for some additional material costs, participate in the item creation (party wizard has craft wondrous items).. Does this seem balanced? Would it be a good use of the parties wealth?
I think with only the intelligence of a golem, how would it know who is most in need of healing? I think that is the key to make sure it is not overpowering.
You might make it only heal on a command word, so the character has to call out for a heal, and then the golem moves to that character on its turn. If more than one character calls out, it could have a short memory and heal in the order received.
Or if you want it floating and not moving, have it instead channel positive energy on command. Maybe it also can have selective channeling, and players have to "register" with it to be friendly. (So friendly NPCs would not get the benefit unless the PCs remember to register the NPC).
Both types would require registering or else the enemy could call out for heals :) Registering would take a minute maybe, so they couldn't do it in combat.
An idea for an upgradeable healing golem:
Allow the PCs to craft the healing golem, give it similar stats to a flesh golem. Take away the attacks, and replace them with an upon command transfer damage ability. The healing golem will transfer an amount of damage from the player to itself. Also, give the golem fast healing I, up to a limit.
Initial Stats (example numbers only):
Healing Golem
- 50 hitpoints
- full round action (by the player) to transfer 1d6 damage to the golem
- fast healing I for 20 rounds per day
That makes for a healing golem with a potential limit on the amount of healing. It sets up a base model with many opportunities to upgrade the golem.
Upgrading the Golem (example numbers only, tweak as desired):
- spend 1000gp to increase the golem's max hitpoints by +1
- spend 1000 times X*X gold to upgrade the amount transferred at one time (where X is the next d6 of healing transferred, example: upgrading to 2d6 per round of damage transferred costs 4000gp)
- spend 200gp to increase the rounds of fast healing by +1 round
- spend 1000 times X*X gold to upgrade the amount of fast healing (where X is the next amount of fast healing, example: upgrading to fast healing II costs 4000gp)
- spend 500 times X*X gold to cast a cure spell (remove disease, neutralize poison, etc.) once per day, this also does 10 times X damage to the healing golem as well (where X is the level of spell being cast)
Kinda wacky, but you never know...
I somehow read the title as "Halibut Construct" and, of course, immediately clicked on it. Imagine my disappointment.
Sorry for the intrusion -- please continue thread.
An intelligent magical healing necklace could maybe get some skillpoints in Handle Animals ( +2500gp) and be worn by an (expendable) trained weasel.
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