Pathfinder 1E Take over control of a construct/golem

[koesherbacon]

In Pathfinder, is there any way to seize control of a construct/golem if the original creator is deceased? How about if the creator is still living?

Thanks!

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Sometimes a golem maker will make a talisman that someone else can use to control the golem (a trusted servant, perhaps) but this is rare.

Going outside the rules, but I think with skill checks PCs could make their own talisman.

 

[koesherbacon]

What about this situation...
A Construct/Golem's creator is deceased and the actual Construct/Golem has been defeated. Could a caster with the Craft Construct feat and a sufficiently high Craft (Sculpture or other appropriate craft skill) or Spellcraft skill take the defeated creature and use it as a base an create their own golem that way?

The reason I ask is that one of my PCs who is playing a Universalist Wizard wishes to be a Golem-Master, who already has the necessary feats. Since creating Golems costs a ton and requires many days - if not months - to create, I want to give him one as a reward instead of giving him other types of magical items as a reward. If there's no rules for the above example, would there be any reason why I couldn't create a homebrew feat that would allow such a situation to take place?

Say the feat is as follows:

• Name: Reanimate Construct (Item Creation)
• Prerequisites: Caster level 5th, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Construct.
• Benefit: By spending one day for each 5,000 gp in its market price , the caster can reanimate an intact and "deactivated" construct as though it was created by the caster herself following the rules for "Craft Construct". After the reanimation is complete, the construct obeys the orders of the caster as though the caster was the original creator. The cost to reanimate a "deactivated" construct is 1/5th the original value since it is implied that the construct now has the broken condition, but is is otherwise salvageable.

Since the construct is already created, and probably sustained some damage, it will only take 1/5th the amount of time and cost 1/5th the original price to reanimate as the original would have.

Personally, I do not see any problem with that idea, but want to know what others think as well.

Thanks very much!

 

[paradox42]

Looks quite reasonable to me. In fact I'd be inclined to not even require the feat tax to do this in my game- if the caster has already spent the feats to be able to craft Constructs of his own (and IME, very few PCs do), then doing cool stuff like that should be allowed for much the same reason creating Cool Grimoires doesn't require much in the way of crafting ability (see the examples in chapter 2 of Ultimate Magic).

 

[koesherbacon]

Maybe make it a Trait instead? I know that Traits are supposed to only be acquired during character creation, however maybe it would make sense for this trait to be picked up through a career of adventuring?

 

[Paraxis]

There is a 7th level wizard/sorcerer spell Control Construct from ultimate magic.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/control-construct

And this one from a paizo adventure that I think is kind of OP, Apparent Master.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/a/apparent-master

Have fun.

If this is a permanent situation I would have it fall under the Leadership feat and cohort rules.

 

[Squire James]

Yeah, the Apparent Master spell is essentially the same as Control Construct... except it's 2 spell levels lower with a duration of hours rather than concentration. Definitely OP. They might be fairly reasonable if the two spells simply swapped spell levels.

 

[koesherbacon]

The effect of those spells is to take over control of a working construct for a short while, after it reverts back to its original purpose. I want to give control of a broken construct to one of my players so he can have a construct minion. I'm going to stick with the feat/trait I made for now, but those spells are definitely worth knowing about. Thanks

 

[Paraxis]

The duration of Apparent Master is an hour per level, the wizard in my game just kept the spell up on an old broken construct I had put in my game for decoration. He paid gold to have the construct fixed and kept the spell going 24 hours a day.

So yeah that is why I say the spell is OP, and once the wizard hits 12th level one extended 6th level spell a day is all that is needed.