Need ideas for a parties mechanical companion rules.

[legomojo]

In my world, wars are fought along side golems. At some point a modular golem was made for many reasons. 1) If it goes berserk, they just emergency eject the core, and its just an inert body and an angry ball on the ground. 2) If soldiers need to upgrade their golems with different parts for different jobs.

SOOOOO... anyways. Years after the war is over my PC's have come across a sentient Golem core. Fortunately they are in a dungeon and it should be awhile before they can forge a body of any kind.

This arouse from their want to have a pet for the whole party, and my want to throw tougher things at them.

Now, my problem is balancing their power to upgrade this construct. I figure I start it off with the same HD as the party level... but even there I'm not sure. But how to award upgrades? How much should they cost? It's intelligent, so should it level up in a class to become stronger, or find a way to give it more construct HD?

I know they'll love it, I just don't want it to be over powered or underpowered, cost too little or too much.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Scott DeWar]

well, encounter wise, you should add the creature-golum to the party. for example, if the party is 4 level 8 characters and a wood golumwould allow you to send 3 cr 6 monsters for an average encounter, or 2 cr 8 monsters for a hard encounter.

math:
party of 4 lev 8 pc's = budget of 4800xp worth of monsters.
a party of 4 pcs at lev 8 plus a wood golem (cr 6 creature) has a value of 7200 xp budget

for an average encounter, xp = xp
foa a hard encounter, xp = party cr +2 + wood golem or 9600 xp worth of monsters or 4 cr 6 creatures at 2400 xp each

That is provided i am doing this encounter design thing right.

 

[Dingo333]

The way I would do it would be as if an animal companion was added to the group

work it so the Golem has 3/4 the APL in HD, the magic user(s) in the group could either hire a golemancer to create/outfit new gear for the golem or modify existing loot. Alternately, you could allow the magic users to take the craft construct feat so they can build your golem (and more).

Another option: Golem Cohort, its HD is fixed (PC pick and build a golem body, implanting the core) and the golem gains levels in a class (your pick since this is an NPC). Restrictions, Party must pay for the full cost of the body and its HD can't be less then 2 below the APL, (use class levels to get to the right level)

Another option, if cores are interchangeable in bodies, allow your players to swap out bodies as they wish (provided they pay for each body and take the time to swap cores). Carrying around 5000 lbs of glass may be difficult for them, but I think you and them will like the flexibility of this approach better. Make is 3 rounds to a minute to extract, implant and active so its a little bit difficult to do mid combat but still possible

 

[Volaran]

The pdfs are fairly expensive, so this isn't for everyone, but you may want to check our the Iron Kingdoms books (specifically the player's guide and the Libra Mechanika).

Both contain rules on labor jacks and warjacks, which are the settings' techno-steam-magic contructs. They're also built along modular lines, with a central cortex that can be swapped between units.

I doubt you'll want to port everything over, especially since it sounds like your golems are more pure-magic, but it might be worth a look.

 

[Herobizkit]

[sblock=From the d20 SRD]A construct is an animated object or artificially constructed creature.

Features

A construct has the following features.

• 10-sided Hit Dice.
• Base attack bonus equal to ¾ total Hit Dice (as cleric).
• No good saving throws.
• Skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die, if the construct has an Intelligence score. However, most constructs are mindless and gain no skill points or feats.

Traits

A construct possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).
Construct Size Bonus
Hit Points Fine — Diminutive — Tiny — Small 10 Medium 20 Large 30 Huge 40 Gargantuan 60 Colossal 80

• No Constitution score.
• Low-light vision.
• Darkvision out to 60 feet.
• Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).
• Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects.
• Cannot heal damage on their own, but often can be repaired by exposing them to a certain kind of effect (see the creature’s description for details) or through the use of the Craft Construct feat. A construct with the fast healing special quality still benefits from that quality.
• Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain.
• Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
• Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.
• Since it was never alive, a construct cannot be raised or resurrected.
• Because its body is a mass of unliving matter, a construct is hard to destroy. It gains bonus hit points based on size, as shown on the table.
• Proficient with its natural weapons only, unless generally humanoid in form, in which case proficient with any weapon mentioned in its entry.
• Proficient with no armor.
• Constructs do not eat, sleep, or breathe.

[/sblock]I would simply treat it as another player character, using the NPC Warrior class if you want a generic Thug... or if you REALLY want to get technical, as a magic item. Use the construction rules for magic items to price "add-ons".

 

[Glade Riven]

I second Liber Mechanika - and if you think the PDF is expensive, you should see what the print version is going for. They even have what you call Golem Cores (they call it a Cortex). The crafting system is solid, if a bit more complex.

Ultimate Magic has some construct love in Chapter 2, granting some simpler (in comparision to Liber Mechanika) ways of modding constructs. There is even a nifty pricing chart, which consolidates some information strung across a few books.

 

[Liquidsabre]

I'd almost just use the Eidolon rules for constructing this golem and will allow the PCs the build and modify it. You might even encourage a player to make an 'engineer' character (i.e. a summoner) in order to 'upgrade' and make the golem more powerful.

 

[Volaran]

Summoner rules might not be a bad idea. A friend of mine let a player run a 'corpse companion' undead creature based on the eidolon for some time.

Appropriate evolutions only, and I believe it had to be mended using actual corpses, though that was a flavour thing.

You could probably use the eidolon rules as a basis for a customizable golem in a similar way.