Best constructs for upgrading and durability?

[Ravingdork]

I have an 11th-level gnome artificer/sorcerer, and I was wondering: what is the single best construct I can build for roughly 66,000gp?

I was thinking of a bog standard quartet of alchemical golems (Bestiary II) with runes of shielding (Ultimate Magic), but the upgrade cost is so high for golems, I'm left to wonder if a non-golem construct with tons of upgrades might be better.

What is most cost effective? Also, if I'm going to be putting all my eggs in one basket, I want it to have real staying power in addition to combat capability.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

34 HD homunculus! Definitely your cutest option.

[LordKailas]

I got a lot of mileage out of a glass golem. It's about a quarter the cost you're asking about and it's fairly easy to heal since all you have to do is hit it with magical fire spells. So that should leave you plenty of room to upgrade it. It also has a nifty spell reflection ability.

This was in a campaign where the GM loved to kill off followers, companions, horses, etc. So, the fact that it lasted me 3-4 levels was on the whole quite impressive.

[Ravingdork]

Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:

34 HD homunculus! Definitely your cutest option.

I was just considering that! Poison DC 29 or fall asleep is fairly appealing. How do I get past the lack of reach though? Lunge feat I guess?

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

Ravingdork wrote:

Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:

34 HD homunculus! Definitely your cutest option.

I was just do soldering that! Poison DC 29 or fall asleep is fairly appealing. How do I get past the lack of reach though? Lunge feat I guess?

Seriously? Well, either Lunge or just eat the AoO for entering their square.

For extra cuteness and defenses (at the cost of some HD) see if your GM will let you pay something to apply the young template to it once or even twice---of course to do so twice you'll need to apply the advanced template or its Str will hit zero. ~24 HD super-agile micro-homunculus! (Speculating ~2500gp for each youngening.)

[Meirril]

Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:

34 HD homunculus! Definitely your cutest option.

Take it down 2 HD and give it acid breath and voice. Now you've got a tiny(?) Homunculus with 176hp, a 16d6 acid breath (DC 26), 15 feats to choose and 7 attribute points to assign. Or you could increase its size a bit? This would take a bit of GM involvement to decide what a fair CR would be so you can bumb its attack and other stats in a way the GM is ok with.

If you are planning on building multiple golems consider ice. Ice golems can breath cold every d4 rounds, and they could include each other in the cone. At 9,500gp production cost it isn't too bad to make a few of them.

Though if you are looking for a golem that will be viable for a long time, nothing beats the Alchemical golem. The bombs hit on touch.

Still that homunculus is just frightening.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

Oh, better solution than Lunge; for 3,000 gp cost you can give it the ability to spit its poison as a 15' ranged touch attack. That's worth 1.5 HD.

[deuxhero]

Colossal Animated Object (30,000) with a brain (+22,750). 151 HP, hardness 15, flight, and 6 feats. 7 feats and 162 HP if you spend 4616 GP to add two HD. Sure it can't make sleep poison with a stupidly high DC (yet no way to bypass the common immunities to sleep and poison), but you have an airship. You could even con... uh convince the party to contribute funds for it. Spend the feats on Run, Extra Traits (Wanderlust+whatever) and Fleetx5 and your per hour movement speed is 42.61363636363636 miles per hour (You can increase this slightly if there's a trait beyond Wanderlust and Following Breeze, which you can't get because adopted and Wanderlust are the same trait type your airship isn't a slyph, that increases speed more than once per day.). Make docking towers with Wall of Stone or make a companion loading barge (12,500 GP) to get cargo on and off. Increase the strength for more cargo capacity.

As a straight answer to your question: Trompe L’oeil. Simulacrum wasn't broken enough as a spell? Here it is as a construct that costs double but it regenerates like a Lich and has some free equipment!

[Cevah]

For multiples, I like the Terra-Cotta Soldier @ 19,000 gp price (10,000 gp cost). You could build six.

Quote:

Keen Weapons (Su)

After it has engaged in at least 1 round of combat, a terra-cotta soldier’s weapons automatically gain the benefits of keen weapon (CL 6th). This effect persists until the end of the battle.
Rank Fighting (Ex)
Whenever a terra-cotta soldier is adjacent to another terra-cotta soldier, it gains a +2 dodge bonus to its AC and a +2 bonus on saving throws, attack rolls, and damage rolls.

Sending in several gets you more capable constructs.

You might also like the Rune Guardian @ 6,500 gp price (3,500 gp cost). You can build 18.

Quote:

Sin Magic (Sp)

A rune guardian has a single spell-like ability, usable at will, from the school of magic associated with the reward of rule it represents. Rune guardians of envy cast hold portal, rune guardians of gluttony cast ray of enfeeblement, rune guardians of greed cast reduce person, rune guardians of lust cast sleep, rune guardians of pride cast color spray, rune guardians of sloth cast summon monster I, and rune guardians of wrath cast burning hands.

At will 1st level spell? Nice. A common mod is to swap the Burning Hands spell for Magic Missile on a Wrath Guardian. Serious range, and it quickly adds up.

/cevah

[doomman47]

If you are allowed 3rd party a warmachine creature would probably be best. The ability score increases plus the +2 size category for wielding weapons/natural attacks is pretty potent. In combination to its dr, immunities and resistances its pretty solid and it even has a built in option for making it a mount.

[deuxhero]

@Cevah
Unseen Servant on a Rune Guardian is great for labor.

[MerlinCross]

It's not very tough or strong but at 5200 gold it's somewhat affordable and has something a lot of other constructs lack.

It's the Junk Golem! You too can be the proud owner of this beat up golem made of scrap today! Comes with all the standard features. Okay AC backed up by DR 5/Adamantine, double Slams, bipedal the usual.

But it has Fast healing 2 while standing in junk. Depending on your game, there's usually enough for it to be topped off. Also the Discorporate abiliity leads to some funny ideas(Put it in a bag to give to raiders/enemy soldiers, have it activate X hours later)

Down side is that it's Disease attack is very lackluster on the PC's side. Talk with your DM about replacing it with maybe stats or check out the third party variants.