Fun low level player minions

[Hogeyhead]

Hi, I used to frequent these forums often, but eventually stopped as I moved on to other systems. That being said I've recently (it's been a few months) begun a new campaign as a player that is shaping up to be a lot of fun, and there is something I'd like to do while I'm low enough level for it to be relevant.

I really like the idea of cheap disposable minions, but ones that are relatively competent. However I have a hard time finding something that satisfies me within the rules. The thing is I have many restrictions that makes this relatively difficult to accomplish.

1. Morality: Minions are weak, minions die. I don't want minions who's deaths are a moral concern, this means that minions like hirelings or bought trained pets are out.

2. No class features: First off my build is fairly set. I'm an exploiter wizard and not particularly focused in any one direction, I don't particularly want to invest character resources into this, it just frankly isn't that important. I just want to because I think it would be fun, and that is what the game is about.

3. Money, yes, a fortune, no: Golems are cool, but I can't afford them, and would not if I could. Their prices are just dumb, besides I'm level 5 I can't afford anything on the menu, even if I could have technically taken the feat. These things are rare to buy in this world, and forget about those prices being remotely what I want to spend. That being said money is how I would prefer to get my minions.

4 No evil: We are mostly a good or neutral party and in specific one member is particularly against undead (also channeling, which could kill them, though selective channeling is present). This one is honestly really unfortunate as this would be the best and easiest method to get what I want. Raise a few skeletons for a few gold, reach my cap with a few powerful (though obviously not too powerful) undead. Great! If they die, no problem a few gold down, but we can just raise more. Easy come easy go. Unfortunately really not an option, and fair enough, it's really not a nice thing to do. It just would have been fun.

Advantages: I possess craft wondrous and craft scroll. I don't know how those might be relevant but there they are. No opposition or prohibited schools. A nice perk of being an exploiter wizard. Relatively generous GM. Nothing obscene, but definitely on the positive side of generous. Relatively permissive GM. He's not a pushover or anything, but if you propose something he will try to roll with it.

Aside from undead I considered animated objects using scrolls, but the cost was terrible from what I calculated.

I am also aware of planar binding, and while I think that would fly, it's a ways off.

Any suggestions or brainstorming are welcome. Worst case scenario I get no minions, and don't end up bogging down the initiative, and everyone (except maybe me) is better off for my failure. Still I'd like to hear what people think.

Thanks for reading my long post, and it's good to be back!

[Pizza Lord]

Swarms of butterflies?

One giant butterfly (giant like a Small-size giant spider kind of giant).

Marble-dispensing goblin?

Animated teakettle that has a 5-foot steam blast and can brew tea?

One quarter of an animated broken stone statue (Can't be mended or made whole with magic alone, have to find all its parts). Basically it's just the arm, shoulder, and head, and it pulls itself along at 5-feet per round, and attacks with a slam?

A talking stuffed caterpillar with a hammer. Can shoot weak silk strands?

[Mysterious Stranger]

Have you considered summoned creatures? The Summon Monster lines of spells are on the Wizard’s spell list. That could last you until you get high enough level to get Planar Binding.

[Trokarr]

Craft Poppet feat. Tiny or small mindless humanoid construct. Tiny ones cost 160 to create, small ones are 500gp. Special augmentations exist just for poppets and are relatively cheap. With GM permission you can probably give them an INT score.

[Trokarr]

The Magic Trick(Unseen Servant) feat allows you to do some interesting things it normally can’t do and is certainly disposable enough.

[Hogeyhead]

Mysterious Stranger wrote:

Have you considered summoned creatures? The Summon Monster lines of spells are on the Wizard’s spell list. That could last you until you get high enough level to get Planar Binding.

After my post last night I thought about it. I was aware of the summon monster line, I just want something a bit more permanent that doesn't eat into my action economy. However I had an idea.

A magic item that would have a constant summon monster 4 once per day would cost (as in to buy) 44,800 gp. I could craft that for 22,400 assuming I gave it a slot. I could use wrist. That would give me one or more useful and disposable minions that I don't need to summon in battle, and I don't need to care about if they die.

If you are curious about the math here it is:
continuous (2000) * caster level (7) * spell level (4) * round per level (4) / one use per day (5) = 44,800 gp.

Very expensive, but I may be able to justify the expense. I would be able to keep around a medium elemental if I wanted or d4+1 small elementals, could be a lot of fun.

Currently that is more wealth than I have all together, but well, I'm doing a dungeon crawl, so we will see!

Tell me what you think. Hopefully this will be helpful to someone else with a similar desire, who also cannot use skeletons, ha ha!

[Hogeyhead]

The craft poppet feat is actually really cool, it's just that they are a bit too weak for what I want.

[Mysterious Stranger]

One thing to keep in mind about skeletons and undead in general is they are actually not that good in combat. Animate Dead is a 4th level spell, so at 7th level (minimum to cast the spell), you get 7 skeletons. That is a CR 4 encounter. Summon Monster! V allows you to summon up a single celestial dire wolf. In a level appropriate encounter, the celestial dire wolf is going to be a lot more effective than 7 skeletons. The celestial dire wolf is going to kill 1 skeleton per round. The skeletons are unlikely to be able to harm the wolf at all because of the DR 5. The wolf will also have 10 points of resistance to 3 types of energy, and spell resistance.

Create Undead is a 6th level spell, so at 11th level you can create a single ghoul. Monster Summoning VI gets you a fiendish dire tiger. To make matters worse the ghoul is not even under your control. You need to be able to command undead to be able to control it. That pretty much means you are going to be limited to skeletons and zombies. You could of course animate something more powerful than a human, but it is still going to be less powerful than what you can summon.

Undead minions are not as useful as you think. About all they are good for is being able to deal with very weak foes. The only time minions become significant are if the character has a class feature that gives him minions. From the sound of it what you need is a Summoner.

[Hogeyhead]

I guess I overestimated skeletons, and while I'm sure there are ways to make more powerful ones, even with no class features, I'm sure you are right and that they are relatively weak. Just a bad example I guess.

I don't really want to be a summoner, and an eidolon is way overkill for what I want, but I think summon monster in one way or another is probably what I'm going to look into. That or possibly just give up.

[Mysterious Stranger]

I was thinking a Master Summoner focusing on Summon Mastery instead of the Eidolon. At 1 minute per level instead of 1 round per level the summons have more usefulness. Gaining Augment Summoning at 2nd level makes the summoned creatures even more powerful. The Summoner is the class that really focuses on minions.

Summon Monster will work. If you are willing to invest a couple feats it can be even better. Picking up Augment Summoning will be worth it, but it does require spell focus conjuration.

[Pizza Lord]

I like skeletons. They can be very useful in the right situations. They're fast, they have DR slashing and piercing, their AC is respectable. Especially if you give them decent armor and weapons above their standard broken scimitar and broken chain shirt. A couple mendings and their AC jumps up to 18 and their attack increases by +2, their damage increases by +2, and they crit on 18 instead of 20. Not bad for using a couple cantrips.

Even as mindless creatures, they can move to flank, and then you can also go for variants, like bloody (if you don't want to keep replacing or 'healing' them) or acid skeletons, which can do respectable damage even if hit themselves.

Wasn't there some kind of summoner that was like a Poke`mon trainer? Maybe you could go that route

[Mudfoot]

Homunculus. Cheap, disposable, make as many as you want, no control or alignment problems. They're barely any use in a fight but that's not the point. They're more like movie Minions in that they're small and stupid-intelligent. You can even make them look distinctive and the GM can endow them with individual personalities.

The only downside is that you're short 2 feats (Craft Construct and Craft Magic Arms & Armour).

[Marcella]

The Draconic Ally spell provides you with a capable scout & assistant. If pressed into combat, the critter can provide one good blast from its breath weapon but has too few hit points to last long. Shadow Conjuration produces an even flimsier version but at no cost. Unfortunately, you can have only one such draconic ally at a time, but they last one day per level.

The Command Undead spell is more akin to "charm undead" for most specimens, but it would give you an undead friend without the moral quandary of bringing one into the world. It sounds like the Command Undead feat is disqualified, which is a pity.

You probably are aware of the options to create fast zombies and bloody &/or burning skeletons.

[Azothath]

1) Blood Sentinel:T3 and a polymorph (familiar)? You can buy/make all sorts of stuffed critters, dolls, wooden/ceramic sculptures. You can only have 1 active but there are spells for familiars that then apply. I almost always take an amulet bonded object with my wizards so this spell is helpful... I choose a realistic one(for stealth), fun/charming one(bluff & diplomacy), then ensure I cover flying, underground(burrow), and water(swim) as that saves on the polymorphs.

2) purchased pets. Dogs, horses, tigers... some Cha & Hndl Anml ranks will be needed.

3) Poppets, yes they're cute & cheap but take a feat.

4) Homunculus, not as cheap but craftable by NPCs for you so you can trade gold for the feat. You can also add HD and have more than 1.

5) Soulbound dolls , again not as cheap but craftable by NPCs and a bit more powerful plus magic item usage. I have one PC with a soulbound doll familiar with Fortifying Stone, (+1)sml mithral dagger, hat of disguise, wands, ioun stones, etc

6) Monsters that failed Charm Monster save...

7) magic items like Migrus Locker, Figurine of Wondrous Power, etc. I know an Iron Cobra is an old standby.

I like Draconic Ally too.

Undisguised Undead are problematic especially when not sentient.