I want to create Howl’s Moving Castle from scratch. I’m assuming it would require Craft Construct since it’s a moving, semi-sentient object. Assume my “Howl” is going to be a Wizard (fire elemental familiar of course), what else would I need to accomplish this? Spellcraft is a no brainer, but would I perhaps need Craft: Stonemason and/or Knowledge: Engineering? Could even Profession: Engineer or a little Craft: Alchemy be needed to achieve this? What would the costs be to build this colossal, semi-sentient, mobile home? Once the actual building is complete, what sort of spells would you place on it to help replicate the feel of the castle?
May everyone who help’s bacon remain as succulent and delicious as miyazaki animated food usually looks.
Craft Construct and animate objects are expensive but plausible ways of animating your castle. If you want golems as well you may want craft skills - but you may prefer a blood arcanist with the impossible bloodline. This bypasses a prerequisite or two when crafting.
avr wrote: Craft Construct and animate objects are expensive but plausible ways of animating your castle. If you want golems as well you may want craft skills. Nah, just the castle is all I intend to build for the most part. he's going to a conjuration wizard with an itch for travel. The castle would be a big enough project time-wise and money-wise without placing golems on top of that.
blackbloodtroll wrote: The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga.
Done.
But I have no way to craft that as a character, not to mention also the wrath of Baba Yagga if I absconded with it. Although it does win points for chicken legs.
No character could craft Howl's Moving Castle.
It's Artifact level magic.
So, unless it's an Artifact, it's never going to be anything like you want it to be.
i dunno how you'd get it to move, but you could easily make a castle with a cool revolving-door of planes. the Gate spell is a good place to start. maybe create demiplane. these options range between cheap and expensive, depending on your control. hell, some... liberal... application of the Wish spell would do it.
If you actually want a character to craft it, you'd probably need to go on some epic quest, since Artifact level items are usually not something a Player Character can craft.
A moving castle is extremely easy.
Find some free days. Prepare a ton of Walls of Stone. Use them for your raw materials. You may or may not need Knowledge: Engineering if you want to get fancy, talk to your GM.
Then, either use Animate Objects + Permanency or Craft Constructs to turn your castle into an animated object. The first method is cheap and quick, the second is expensive and time-consuming but doesn't fail to a Dispel Magic. You'll need Spellcraft for the second method; it's a DC16 check + 5 per pre-req you don't meet (Animate Objects and Permanency are the two). So at maximum, a DC26 check you can take ten on. Not hard. If you can hit a DC31 check, you can build it twice as fast (puts you down to fifteen days instead of thirty).
I'm not sure how self-aware "semi-sentient" is, but you could probably talk to your GM about adding the rules for intelligent magical items is Construct-grade intelligence is insufficient.
What else does this particular castle do that you want to emulate?
It should be noted it is Calcifer controlling the castle, I wouldn't say the building itself is semi-sentient. Also of note is that Calcifer considered a fire demon and was a fallen star... not sure how that would translate in Pathfinder. The Castle itself is very mutable, the owner of the castle able to change its interior in any way they wish.
I had an idea for a Magical Door that opened a portal to not just different dimensions/planes but to different places on the same plane. So perhaps a mix of Gate and Teleport Without Error that was based on the door from Howl's Moving Castle.
You could make it a moving door to your Demiplane, that you can control as you wish.
The doors being connected to a great demiplane makes the most sense, from the movie. I'd suggest for the physical exterior castle, liberal reading of the Witch's Hut hex. Would make sense that Howl was such a powerful witch.
Perhaps Howl could be a Dimensional Occultist with either the Elements, Stars, or Transformation patron.
I will say I find Witch's Hut perhaps a bit limited, unless you can have the Howl's Moving Castle be a permanent Witch's Hut not just last 24 hours.
kestral287 wrote: What else does this particular castle do that you want to emulate? Well I'd like for it to be powered/controlled with my fire elemental familiar, and I was also think about petitioning my GM to have Mage's Magnificent Mansion + Permanency to recreate to "bigger on the inside" feel to it. Maybe multiple castings so I can have secret entrances in safe houses in the major campaign cities. I was also thinking to have my familiar be a Valet archetype so he can help me craft this monstrosity.
JonathonWilder wrote: Also of note is that Calcifer considered a fire demon and was a fallen star... not sure how that would translate in Pathfinder. We're just going to have my familiar be an irritable fire elemental that my GM is allowing me to keep in a lamp, because she thought it was cute.
Angry Wizard wrote: kestral287 wrote: What else does this particular castle do that you want to emulate? Well I'd like for it to be powered/controlled with my fire elemental familiar, and I was also think about petitioning my GM to have Mage's Magnificent Mansion + Permanency to recreate to "bigger on the inside" feel to it. Maybe multiple castings so I can have secret entrances in safe houses in the major campaign cities. I was also thinking to have my familiar be a Valet archetype so he can help me craft this monstrosity. Valet cuts your time in half, which is a nice boon. Controlled by the familiar is almost a given if the familiar can speak; so far as I know the creator of a construct can just issue it an order of "listen to the thing in the lamp".
Bigger on the inside... I'd favor the Demiplane route that others have mentioned, but the Mansion certainly works as well. Multiple entrances are covered by Gates or Teleport Circles as required by your choice of planes.
kestral287 wrote: Bigger on the inside... I'd favor the Demiplane route that others have mentioned, but the Mansion certainly works as well. I'll have to convince my GM to allow the demiplanes spells, as she is very wary about demiplane shinanigans, but as long as I promise not to make it some OP Hyperbolic Time Chamber nonsense she may allow it.
|
