Noticing there is a dearth of craftable golems that are good for the ranged artificer, and oftentimes better than the homunculus arbalester, I decided to create a CR 5 Construct that is a very high quality animated ballista. What do you guys think? Is this CR 5 appropriate?
Animated Precision Ballista, 6 hd, using a Masterwork Huge Light Crossbow as base
Challenge Rating 5 (Higher if party is starting at extreme range, which benefits this creature, or the creature has a defensible position, or if it is given various improvement options)
These mindless antipersonnel weapons were made to be the perfect long range marksmen, capable of picking off an armored general standing under partial cover of a castle's battlements, in very dim light, at 240 feet away. With their ability to see extremely far in very low light (but not total darkness), their immense range, their capability of extremely rapid, pinpoint fire, and their capability of ignoring most forms of cover, these constructs can, if not moving while firing, fire their entire 20 bolt holster in one minute, a bolt firing roughly every three seconds. They are, however, almost completely helpless in melee.
Always N Medium Construct
18 dex
8 str
con --
int --
wis 1
cha 1
Init +4
Senses: Superior Low Light Vision, listen -, spot -
Standard Attacks:
Slam +3 1d6-1
Bolt: +10 (3d6+6 19-20/x2) 120 ft range increment
Full Attack: Rapid Shot Bolts +10/+10 (3d6+2 19-20/x2)
(Breakdown of attack bonus: +1 Masterwork, +4 Dex, +1 Weapon Focus, +4 BAB (as Cleric))
AC: 20, touch 14, flat footed 16
Space 5ft, Reach 5ft
6 natural armor (one natural armor per hit dice)
Hit points 53 (6 hit dice)
Movement: 30 feet, Swim 10 feet
Feats: Does not gain feats from hit dice. Instead, every version of this creature has the following feats and only the following feats, even if they do not meet the prerequisites for them: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Reload, Rapid Shot, Improved Rapid Shot*, Improved Precise Shot, Far Shot, Weapon Focus: Light Crossbow, Crossbow Sniper**, Dead Eye***
Special Qualities: Self Loading, Superior Low Light Vision, Construct Traits, Receive Enchantment, Field Repairable, Works Underwater, Linked to Gem
Self loading: Due to the Rapid Reload feat and the animated arms that the creature has, each reloading action is a free action where it loads itself, which does not provoke an attack of opportunity. Note it only has a 20-bolt quiver, generally stocked with bolts sized for a huge creature, or javelins sized for a medium or small creature.
Superior Low Light Vision: Can see four times as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of low illumination.
Receive Enhancement (Ex): The crossbow built into the construct can be magically enhanced as if it were a normal masterwork weapon. The costs for enhancing the weapon with enhancement bonuses and other special qualities are independent of those associated with constructing or advancing the creature.
Field Repairable (Su): These weapons were made to be sturdy weapons of war, and the magic in them was made to be resilient, such that they are able to get working after destruction with the use of an army's logistical resources. As long as seven days have not passed since the construct has become inert from hit point damage, but is not wholly destroyed, they can be repaired with minimal fuss in one of two ways: Either a half an hour has to be taken to repair them, where a DC 18 Craft: Weaponsmithing, Craft: Bowmaking, or Craft Carpentry check has to be made AND there needs to be one casting of "Mending" and one casting of "Repair Minor Damage****" has to be cast into them, OR that same DC 18 craft check has to be made, and 50 gp worth of repair parts specific to the creature has to be expended. When 'repaired into working order', the creature starts with 1 hit point. Also, more powerful versions of either mending or the repair damage spells will work equally as well, though there is no benefit to using those. However, after the seven days, more involved and exotic means are required to get it back in working order, generally involving things similar to the requirements of creating it anew in the first place, at the DM's discretion.
Works Underwater: It was discovered, quite by accident, that this weapon works perfectly fine underwater -- it seems to be able to swim surprisingly well, if slowly compared to some creatures, and it can fire, albeit at very short range (quarter all the range increments) underwater, and it turned out to have neutral bouyancy. There has been at least one instance of these creatures being used, with specialized adamantine bolts, to sink lighter ships from underwater by a clever commander!
Linked to Gem: This creature follows the telepathic commands of whomever is carrying a gem that each creature is attuned to (being considered 'carrying' requires intentionally holding the gem for a single minute), and the 100 gp gem is included in the cost of creating the Construct. The commands need to be formulated a certain way, and require at least a swift action to tell it to do something. If the gem is ever separated from the construct by more than half a mile or destroyed, the connection between the construct and that gem is lost, and the construct either continues to do the last order it was told to continue doing, or does nothing other than sit there and defend itself until a new connection is forged, requiring any gem worth 100 gp, 200 gp worth of ritual items, and a 2 hour ritual requiring the casting of the Lesser Telepathic Bond**** spell as part of the ritual, which has to take place within 60 feet of the construct with line of effect to the creature. The gem's connection to the creature is also lost if the creature is destroyed for over seven days without being repaired, requiring the aforementioned ritual to be performed before it will follow commands. This linking ritual can even be done in strange situations, such as when the creature is already linked to an existing gem, or when the creature was rendered inert under 7 days ago, provided it is repaired to working order before its seven days are up. Knowing about this ritual is a DC 20 Knowledge Arcana check, and figuring it out by closely examining the runes on the object requires Read Magic and a DC 20 Spellcraft check to reverse engineer the ritual.
Required to create: Craft Construct, Caster level 8, Arcane Eye, Lesser Telepathic Bond****, Low Light Vision****, 12,000 gp (700 gp of this is generally the mundane masterwork huge ballista, the associated stands and wheels, and the parts that would be made into reloading arms and the worth-100-gp gem associated with it), 864 xp. Additionally, a DC 18 Craft: Weaponsmithing, Craft: Bowmaking, or Craft: Carpentry check is required in the construction of this item, even if the 700 gp of parts are already provided, as changing it into a construct always requires altering the pieces. Also see Options for extra crafting options and Advancement for advancement options.
Advancement: Per hit dice, does not get bigger, each hit dice adds 1 point of natural armor, every 4 hit dice increases dex by 1 (the first level of this is already included, note that creature gets 1.5x dex bonus to damage, from Crossbow Sniper and Dead Eye), and advances BAB as a cleric. 2000 Gp and 160 xp are required to be invested per hit dice added. Note this creature specifically does get iterative attacks at appropriate hit dice advancements, but does not get feats as it advances hit dice. Also note that it can only have at most, two hit dice less than the caster level of the person who is advancing it at any given time. Hit points gained per hit dice are always 5.5 on per HD (D10 Construct, and it already has 20 bonus hit points gained from its size increase from tiny to small to medium). Every 4 hit dice increase the challenge rating of this creature by 1.
Options: This creature can be crafted with "Exotic Materials": Dragonbone and Serrenwood composite construction of the arms of the bow, Livewood most everything else, Aurorum, Mithral, Greensteel and Truesteel metallic parts, putting an advanced crossbow sight on the stock of the crossbow and enchanting the creature to be able to see through the sight, etc. If this option is chosen, give it +10 more hit points, give all of its attacks the Ghost Touch Property, increase the critical threat range of the bolt attack to 18-20 instead of 19-20, give it fast healing 1, gives it 1 higher point of natural armor, gives it damage reduction 2/adamantine, makes the slam attack also count as masterwork (increasing it's chance to hit by +1), increase the range increment of the bolt attack to 140 feet, add one extra point of piercing damage to it's bolt attacks, and allow it to treat enemies as if they were two range increments closer for its bolt attack. Then add +3000 gp and +216 xp to the base cost of the creature for all the strange materials and difficulty working with them, and add Repair Critical Damage*** to the spells needed in the crafting of it, and the craft DC needed to create it increases to 20. Generally, these "Fancy" versions were almost always enchanted, and generally built "extra accurate and tough" with a few more hit dice added, and were generally at least as +1 Bane weapons, usually bane against whatever horde the purchaser was fighting -- usually goblinoid, orc, or human. Occasionally, some bold military commanders commissioned that the crossbow part was actually given intelligence, and the control gem placed as part of the crossbow, thus giving these creatures true sentient-level decision making capabilities like any other soldier, and often enabling them to actually have a chance to spot hiding and sneaking enemies, as it both bypasses the restriction on sight range of normal sentient magic items, and can popularly gain access to abilities like Spot, Listen, a Wisdom Score, and Faerie Fire. Various magic and mundane enhancements impact the challenge rating of the creature, at the DM's discretion.
Treasure: This creature generally does not have treasure as such, but enterprising individuals might be able to salvage the gem and the masterwork (and often magical) Huge Light Crossbow. The 'exotic materials' Masterwork Huge Light Crossbow, at a minimum, counts as being made of Serrenwood, and is usually worth at least 1000 gp, and has a nonmagical version of the Ghost Touch property. Additionally, if not utterly destroyed, it is generally possible to salvage ~200 gp worth of exotic materials from the other parts of this version of the creature. However, the wisest form of treasure taken from these sorts of creatures is generally 'the creature itself', as fully working examples of this creature often can go for at least the gp price of creating the creature and its crossbow. This creature generally has a quiver which carries 20 bolts sized for a Huge Crossbow, or normal Javelins, or Javelins sized for a small character--it works equally well with any of those ammunition loads. Sometimes it is supplied with more exotic versions of these bolts, for whatever reason might be considered necessary. These forms of ammunition have to be refilled in its quiver for it to continue firing, but if given specific enough instructions, the creatures are capable of refilling their own quivers with nearby, easily reachable bolts, and more bolts might be nearby to wherever these creatures are found.
*From Complete Warrior
**From Player's Handbook II
***From Dragon Handbook Volume 1
****From Spell Compendium
*****From Magic Item Compendium
