TLDR : There is no proper ritual for a Divine Warden, found in Bestiary 3. It is mentioned, but not there, and animate object doesn't work as a replacement.
Post: I was building a character for one of my students games and I stumbled upon Divine Warden template in Bestiary 3 while researching dieties. This led me down a rabbit hole trying to figure out where this ritual was. Unless I'm mistaken, there is none. A general template is in place for the putting this on a monster, but not the rules for the ritual to make a creature this way.
Created through complex rituals performed by a faith's adherents, divine wardens have been imbued with a fraction of the power that courses through a champion or cleric of a particular deity. This divine spark allows the divine warden to serve as the protector for a temple, shrine, or other holy site. Such guardians aren't intrinsically bound to a fixed location, but they rarely leave the temple or site over which they watch.
Most divine wardens have been crafted from clay, stone, wood, or similar materials and typically have features that resemble a deity or a deity's herald. Divine wardens often have other abilities typically exhibited by constructs, such as armor plating, the ability to disguise themselves as statues, or other similar benefits.
The faithful worshippers who craft divine wardens typically animate the constructs using a special ritual in which the followers beseech their deity to empower the guardian. The divine mandate that imbues a divine warden with power also allows the sentinel to recognize enemies of its deity and prevents the construct from attacking other members of the faith, unless these patrons choose to attack it first.
In rare cases or particularly dire times, a deity might create a divine warden by directly animating an existing statue or idol to aid faithful followers. These divine guardians are most likely to be found outside of their original locations, assisting displaced congregations or pursuing those who might harm the faithful.
I've looked at the other rituals to see if maybe there was a generic ritual that accomplished something similar and thus checked animate object first. While it can function somewhat ok, it's not very satisfying since the ritual from the bestiary is supposed to create a guardian infused with divine energy that protects those who follow the deity.
Other rituals bless a place, ward an area, and other such things, but nothing does what this block suggests. Anyone have any ideas, workarounds? I'll homebrew one for my own campaigns, but this seems like such a commonly desired kind of activity that I'm surprised the ritual doesn't seem to exist.
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I don't think it is missing at all. I don't think that one is needed.
Bestiaries are not player-facing books. The lore information given for Divine Warden would allow the GM to create some Lore behind one being used as an NPC to either a) assist in the defense of a shrine that the PCs are protecting, or b) to be an adversary when the PCs attack an enemy temple.
They're not intended to be mobile things that travel everywhere with PCs. Even if there is a use case for one being used in that way in your campaign, the easiest way to deal with it is to have it given to the PCs by the head of the temple or shrine. After all, if the Divine Warden is so key to the story that it has to travel with the PCs, then you don't really want a risk of the Ritual failing, do you?
Not every bit of flavor needs a mechanic tied to it.
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Well that is the thing. I'm not asking for it as a player, but a GM. I would love to have an event for my players, using a ritual to create a Divine Warden, for the players defend an area they leave, as a plot event. Having a premade mechanical ritual is the point. If it's not there, it's just a pity is all. I try to not impliment things that are not in the books, for player transparency. Just frustrating to have to use homebrew when it seems like a thing the developers could have built.
Just frustrating to have to use homebrew when it seems like a thing the developers could have built.The number of things the developers could have built is infinite. At some point it's ok for GMs to build them themselves.
True. I'll be building a ritual here soon. I'll be posting it to share when I'm done for advice.