D&D 5E A few questions about Animated Objects

[Stalker0]

My player just got his hands on animated objects, so a few questions came up.

1) Do they have any immunities? Many golems do for example but the spell doesn't specify. It came up because of a mind flayer's mind blast. Funny enough, even most golems aren't immune to stunning (even though they are immune to psychic damage).

2) Could you give this general order:

"Fly into the next room, move to the first hostile creature and attack it"

The spell does say the objects can defend against hostile creatures, so it seems to be able to determine hostility. I think this follows the "general command" idea of the spell, but wanted to get people's thoughts.

 

[Shiroiken]

1) I'd glance into the monster manual and look at the various animated objects there for ideas. This is a DM area, since the spell doesn't clarify, but TBH most of them don't.

2) The problem becomes "hostile" is somewhat vague, because unless a creature attempts to attack the animated object it's not hostile to it, and much more likely to be confused by it. A simpler action would be "when the door opens, go into that room and kill any creatures inside." Unless you're worried about hostages, it will do the work for you (just don't enter the room until you give it a new command!).

 

[Dross]

1) I'm not sure that you can equate Golem to an animated object. The spell gives stats for the objects so any immunity etc. should be there. If they aren't, then I'd be saying no immunity. But the objects are considered constructs so have a look there.


2) As Shiroiken said defining "hostile" is important. Generally for this situation hostile means attacking you/the animate object. if you dropped the hostile part of the command i'd be fine with it. Remember that if the object goes into the room and there is more than on foe, it is probably going to be attacked anyways and will need to defend itself.
i'm also not sure that the object would be able to discern between creatures without a command (i.e: attack nearest orc).

 

[Oofta]

Unlike previous editions, there are no blanket rules that apply to all constructs. The spell lists no special resistances or abilities other than what's listed by size. An animated pillow is no different than an animated anvil of the same size. People are attacking and damaging the force animating the object, not the object itself. As the spell says "When the animated object drops to 0 hit points, it reverts to its original object form, and any remaining damage carries over to its original object form." So that pillow will probably explode and spread feathers everywhere, the anvil may have a scratch.

The objects have 3 intelligence and wisdom so they can only follow the simplest instructions. Tell them to attack creatures in the adjacent room and if you forget to tell them to stop while the spell is still up and you party walks into that room, the party will be attacked. We always treated them like slightly dense attack dogs.

All that may seem to weaken the spell, but it really can be a good spell even with those limitations.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Actual attack dogs only have an int of 3, and they are smart enough to attack things threating them on their own.

Cats are also listed as having an int of 3 and being "unaligned". This is, however, a lie. Cats are always-CE.

 

[Oofta]

Actual attack dogs only have an int of 3, and they are smart enough to attack things threating them on their own.

What does "hostile" mean? They defend themselves if attacked, you can point out someone and give a command word to attack. Beyond that? I think it's asking too much even for a trained attack dog, much less a spell designed to follow simple instructions.

As always, up to the DM to make these calls.

Cats are also listed as having an int of 3 and being "unaligned". This is, however, a lie. Cats are always-CE.

But ... but ... kittens are so cuuute! Just because all cats are murder hobos who given a chance will hunt for the joy of killing. Huh. I just realized something. It all makes sense now. When not going on killing sprees just lay around doing nothing, distracted by anything you dangle in front of them, they complain loudly if they don't get their kibble.

Cats are adventurers!