Hello folks! I've decided to try my hand at building the ultimate assassin. And when I say 'build' I mean it literally - I want the most effective construct assassin the pathfinder community can dream up.
I've already made one rough idea - a modified cannon golem with huge stealth and perception who snipes people for colossal cannon damage.
Paddywagon Golem, the Ultimate Sniper
N Huge Construct (30 HD Advanced Cannon Golem)
Init +11 (+14 while transformed) Senses: Darkvision 60 ft, Perception + 34
AC: 36 (+11 Dex, +17 Nat. Armor, -2 Size)
Touch: 19, Flat Footed: 25
HP: 205 (30d10+40)
Fort +10 Ref +21 Will +14
DR 15/Adamantine Immune: construct traits, magic, precision damage
Speed 30 ft.
Melee: 2 slams +41 (3d10+14)
Ranged: Cannon +41 (9d6+12+1d6) 19-20, x4, range increment 100 ft.
With Deadly Aim + Vital Strike: Cannon +33 (36d6+34+1d6)
With Deadly Aim + Vital Strike + Nat. 20 from Cyclops Helm:
+37 to confirm (63d6+136+3d10+1d6 with bullrush or trip as well as stunning for 1d4 rounds with a DC 40 fort save)
Space/Reach: 15 ft.
Stealth +33 (+49 when transformed)
Feats: Improved Critical (Cannon), Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot and Improved, Vital Strike chain, Devastating Strike, Point-Blank and Far Shot, Deadly Aim, Impact Critical Shot, Weapon Focus Cannon, Demonic Obedience (I'm not sure about this one. There are no real rules for what "worship" is. Can a mindless construct that can take feats worship? I hope so, because Haagenti's obedience grants precision damage immunity to keep that squishy golem brain safe and also gives Alter Self twice per day for added assassin utility)
Equipment: +4 Belt of Dexterity, Cyclops Helm
Upgrades: 30 HD, Size increase, Weapon enhancement (+1 corrosive burst cannon), Bioconstruct Upgrade: Brain, Advanced Simple template
As far as I can tell, this guy costs 201,750 gp to craft and another 10,800 go to gear up.
My questions:
1) How can my Sniper Golem be made better without the cost becoming ridiculous?
2)Is there a better way of making a construct assassin? Homunculus or Ooze Golem, maybe?
3)Am I going about this "Loyal Assassin Minion" thing the wrong way? Would undead or simulacra or summons or something do it better?
Homunculus is really the way to go. 1,050 gold to create base, but you can get an extra HD per 2,000 gold spent; for around the same price as your current construct you could have a 100 HD Homunculus with the appropriate saves, HP, BAB, and feats, though the number of attacks you can gain just from BAB has a cap. Homunculi (assuming that is the plural form) also have some pretty awesome minor upgrades you can get, including up to level 3 spell like abilities. I wouldn't actually try to make a 100 HD tiny god though as it is most certainly against all gentleman agreements between player and DM.
Also consider the Juju Zombie template, which can be added with Create Undead. The zombie keeps all the abilities it had in life and just gets more buffed from there. On the downside as it is intelligent it is hard to control, but you could also consider the feat Demonic Obedience choosing the Demon Lord Kabriri; a worshiper of his with that feat and 16 HD can once per day cast Create Undead with no material component and have that undead creature obey him without question, but he can only have one such undead at a time. So totally intelligent Juju Zombie with all the abilities it had in life, except it is totally bound to the will of its creator. Could make for the ultimate henchman.
Okay, I guess Homunculus probably wouldn't be a bad idea. 100 BAB is pretty hard to top, I'll admit. And my sniper golem is pretty darn costly.
Still, this gives me an idea. There should be some sort of pathfinder bot wars on the forums, with custom constructs duking it out for bragging rights. I've got builds.
If this ever becomes a thing I'm pre-emptively banning the homunculus.
And yeah, Kabiri's obedience does look pretty good. I only chose Haagenti for the sniper golem because Haagenti's grants critical hit immunity and otherwise a single crit renders my golem totally useless without its brain.
Can a golem with a brain take Demonic Obedience? I can't find any "worship" rules.
And yeah, Kabiri's obedience does look pretty good. I only chose Haagenti for the sniper golem because Haagenti's grants critical hit immunity and otherwise a single crit renders my golem totally useless without its brain.
Can a golem with a brain take Demonic Obedience? I can't find any "worship" rules.
If it is sentient I don't see why not. Also when I looked at your previous build I didn't look at feats so I didn't even notice you were already considering Demonic Obedience.
There should be some sort of pathfinder bot wars on the forums, with custom constructs duking it out for bragging rights. I've got builds.
If this ever becomes a thing I'm pre-emptively banning the homunculus.
You wanna make it a thing? That sounds fun.
Alright, sure. I think it should have its own thread though.
The rules I'm thinking of so far are 150k gp crafting budget, no using a homunculus. Also, I think no completely new constructs, because the pricing guidelines are really weird. Contestants need to be built using the modification rules for existing constructs.
Anything goes after that. Do you think the rules are ok or should they be changed?
Oh I was figuring campaign thread for this. And the rules sound fine. We can always see what's broken and what's not and add or subtract rules as we go along.
I'm starting to really like the sniper golem, and I think I'll use a scaled-down version for bot wars.
The full deal can be built at level 17 and is capable of easily one-shotting many CR 17 opponents and will on average take an ancient gold dragon down to 20 HP on its opening shot. He's super fragile though.