# Effigy Creatures - Hints and Tips



## Iku Rex (Oct 4, 2005)

Recently the effigy creature template (Complete Arcane page 131) caught my eye. It seems like an interesting addition to the game, so I though I'd try for a ENWorld brainstorming session. Since I already have some ideas I'll include them in this post - please don't let that stop you from making suggestions on anything effigy-related. 

(This is a work in progress. I may suddenly loose interest and wander off, but if anyone else finds the subject interesting enough to post to the thread I'll probably stick around and update this post once or twice.)

The template has it's own prestige class, the effigy master (CA page 30), but any character with the Craft Construct feat can make an effigy creature and any character with enough gold can buy one.

For reference, the template works as follows:

 The base creature must be abberation, animal, dragon, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid or vermin.
 The creature is changed into a construct. From the SRD: 

Construct Type: A construct is an animated object or artificially constructed creature.

Features: A construct has the following features. [I've underlined some key points.]

10-sided Hit Dice. 
Base attack bonus equal to 3/4 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).

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 following table.  

Fine -, Diminutive -, Tiny -, Small 10, Medium 20, Large 30, Huge 40, Gargantuan 60, Colossal 80

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. 

The Rules of the Game articles on constructs may also prove helpful.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050809a (Part 1)
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050816a (Part 2)

 Natural armor improves by 2.
 Humanoid shaped creatures gain one or two slam attacks. (See CA - not that important.) 
 Ability scores: Str +4, Dex +2, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
 The effigy looses all the special attacks and qualities of the base creature except for extraordinary special attacks that don't rely on Con for a save DC. (So you keep extraordinary abilities like improved grab, but loose poison).
 The effigy gains DR/adamantine based on its HD. 
1-3 HD 1/adamantine
4-6 HD 3/adamantine
7-10 HD 5/adamantine
11-15 HD 7/adamantine
16-20 HD 10/adamantine
21+ HD 15/adamantine
 The effigy looses all the skill ranks and feats of the base creature except for feats that improve attacks, like Improved Natural Attack, Multiattack, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus and Weapon Proficiencies. 
See Complete Arcane for a more detailed description - this is just the basics and I've probably missed a thing or two. 

Cost: 
Body: Tiny (or smaller?) 500, Small 1000, Medium 2000, Large 5000, Huge 10000, Gargantuan 25000, Colossal 50000

In addition you have to pay 2000 gp for each HD. (If you create the effigy yourelf you pay 1000 gp + 80 XP per HD in adition to the cost of the body.)

Ok, with that out of the way let's move on to the practical application.

*Which spells are best used to improve an effigy? * 

Obviously the _repair ... damage_ spells (Complete Arcane, Eberron CS) are a must-have. You can heal a construct without them but it's far too expensive.

Most standard buff spells can be cast on an effigy. Energy protection of various kinds are especially useful. 

Artificers have some kick-ass construct-specific infusions. 

*Which (magic) items are best used to improve an effigy? * 

Mundane armor provides cheap AC compared to magic items like rings of deflection. Constructs aren't proficient with armor or shields but that doesn't matter if the ACP is +0.  Ways to reduce ACP include masterwork (-1), mithral (-3) and darkwood (-2). 

A wand of repair light damage saves the wizard from wasting slots on repair spells.

*Which base creatures make for powerful or useful effigy creatures?*

Combat: Annis hags (Large, 7HD), Cave Trolls (Large, 9 HD, MM3), War Trolls (Large, 12 HD, MM3) seem like the best combat forms. 

Utility: Best mount? (Fast? Flight?) Guard? (The creature keeps racial bonuses to spot or listen.)  

*How do you best use an effigy creature? * 

Combat effigies can double as guards, door-breakers and loot-carriers. 

Don't send the effigy into a random combat situation unless it's melee defenses (AC, DR) or immunities gives it a special advantage, or you've prepared it with heavy buffing. They have crappy saves and relatively few hit points.

Effigy creatures can be expensive, but if you split the cost (and risk) over the entire party you can get a relatively cheap henchman that never complains, rests or questions your orders. Effigies can also benefit greatly from a combined buffing-effort from several different classes.


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## Wycen (Oct 5, 2005)

My research shows animals and dinosaurs (or at least the megaraptor) to be the best choices for early level Effigy Masters.  The dire lion example is actual probably one of the best first choices, unless you advance a tiger to 8 HD, (which is what I did) then the tigers extra feat makes it a better choice due to the improved damage output if it rakes.  A dire lion is actually 2 points stronger than an 8HD tiger.

The manticore and wyvern have been mentioned in other places as being good choices, but I like my Effigy to be Large in size, to make sure it can go on most dungeon crawls.

I'll probably post more when I've got more time.


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## Iku Rex (Oct 5, 2005)

I'm not sure what you mean by "the tigers extra feat".  
I like the idea of advancing creatures though. Medium-Large grants some very ability score boosts. I'll keep that in mind. 

Hmm. I was in the middle of showing why the annis makes a better effigy then a dire lion (better AC, rend, humanoid) when it occurred to me: You can add new abilities to magic items. The effigy is, in a sense, a magic item. (?) Therefore, you probably want a base creature that can be advanced in HD (without changing size) a few times as you level up. Since the Annis can't be advanced by HD it's out of the running.  :\  (Cave troll [MM3] still going strong.)

BTW, a giant octopus would be an interesting effigy - 20' movement, 8 tentacle attacks.


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## Saeviomagy (Oct 5, 2005)

If you're REALLY into min-maxing your effigies, don't forget templates that don't increase hit-dice. Half dragon, for instance, gives your construct a lot of extra power (flight, stat bonuses etc) for no extra cost.


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## TheGogmagog (Oct 5, 2005)

Would Wyvern be an acceptable form?  I like it for polmorph.

Also, what would a guard dog cost?  Or maybe an Owl.  I'm always trying to come up with a good way to sleep well for a night, ever since the lone guard in one game got hit with sleep arrows.


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## Wycen (Oct 5, 2005)

TheGogmagog said:
			
		

> Would Wyvern be an acceptable form?  I like it for polmorph.
> 
> Also, what would a guard dog cost?  Or maybe an Owl.  I'm always trying to come up with a good way to sleep well for a night, ever since the lone guard in one game got hit with sleep arrows.




Cost in gold is based on size and HD.  A medium sized effigy with 1 HD is 2000 for medium and 1000 for 1 HD, so 3000 gp total.

Wyvern is a dragon, so it would work.  Unfortunately, a wyvern's STR is less than a tiger or lions and their Dex is 12.  The effigy template reduces a creatures Dex by 2, so that sucks.



> I'm not sure what you mean by "the tigers extra feat".



  The effigy template drops all feats from the creature not related to attacks or weapons, so things like Alertness or Track get dropped.  The tiger has 2 feats, both Improved Natural attack, for bite and claw, versus the Dire lions single feat, Weapon Focus.


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## KerlanRayne (Oct 5, 2005)

Half Dragon would be a great Template to use. Try it on an Ogre with only 4 Hit Dice. 
A Pegasus Effigy (also 4 HD) would make a great mount. 120 ft Fly Speed!!

KerlanRayne

EDIT: You could use an Owl or Giant Owl for a spotter at night. Bobo anyone?


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## Xellous (Oct 5, 2005)

You can really get crazy with this template. I have found that the Tauric template is extreamly helpful here. With all the nice Magical Beast creatures out there there are very few templates that can be added to them. The solution is to make them Tauric with something that has loads of NA and few HD (Crucian from SaS comes to mind). This changes the type to Monstrous Humanoid so then you become eligible form many more Templates such as Feral. As an added bonus Tauric also allows you to rechoose feats for the creature so that none of the feats are wasted.


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## Iku Rex (Oct 5, 2005)

Re: Templates. 
You can't make effigies out of already templated creatures. No, it doesn't actually say that, but the self evident doesn't have to be stated outright. (That's what "self evident" means...)

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				Wycen said:
			
		

> The effigy template drops all feats from the creature not related to attacks or weapons, so things like Alertness or Track get dropped.  The tiger has 2 feats, both Improved Natural attack, for bite and claw, versus the Dire lions single feat, Weapon Focus.



Ah.   I couldn't figure out how the last two HD somehow got you an extra feat. But the lion is still better IMO - better Str and better AC more than makes up for one less feat.


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## IcyCool (Oct 5, 2005)

Iku Rex said:
			
		

> Re: Templates.
> You can't make effigies out of already templated creatures. No, it doesn't actually say that, but the self evident doesn't have to be stated outright. (That's what "self evident" means...)




Unless it somehow specifies that templates are not allowed on the base creature, then it sounds like you could do it (note, I don't have the Effigy Creature Template description in front of me at the moment)..

Of course, slavishly following all the foolish bits of the RAW is really only fun here in the Rules forum, not at the gaming table.


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## Iku Rex (Oct 5, 2005)

IcyCool said:
			
		

> Iku Rex said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The purpose of the rules is to convey the intent of the person writing the rules. If the intent is clear from the rules, then the rules are clear. Since no sane person could think the writer intended for the effigy template to be applied to some freakish collection of templates, that's not allowed. 

The effigy template (or the _shapechange_ spell) have implicit restrictions beyond those specifically included. You can't pile on an infinite number of templates, you can't base it on "elite" creatures, you can't assume the creature "picked" only feats to boost it's natural weapons and so and so forth. 

If anyone thinks otherwise, *please start a new thread*. I started _this_ thread to explore the practical usage of the effigy template, not to indulge in munchkin "it-doesn't-explicitly-say-that-I-can't-so..." fantasies.


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## Patryn of Elvenshae (Oct 5, 2005)

Iku Rex said:
			
		

> Since no sane person could think the writer intended for the effigy template to be applied to some freakish collection of templates, that's not allowed.




Err, that's a really big assumption there, which I'm not sure I buy.

Self-evident also means, "I can't prove it," by the way.


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## TheGogmagog (Oct 5, 2005)

Wycen said:
			
		

> Wyvern is a dragon, so it would work.  Unfortunately, a wyvern's STR is less than a tiger or lions and their Dex is 12.  The effigy template reduces a creatures Dex by 2, so that sucks.



  Wyvern looks sucky in the Monster Manual block... but add one HD and it's size increases, +8 to str.  Four more (IIRC) and it's size increases again another +8.  +16 to Str, Con goes up 8 and Natural armor increase faster than the size and dex penalties accumulate.  Aslo at 8 and 12 hd, you get +1 ability to either balance dex or even out str and con.  On top of that the Wyvern has 6 attacks, multiattach, flyby attack and a poision whose DC increases nicely (not sure if you get poision with effigy).

Granted you are dealing with quite a bit of money at that point:
Gargantuan 25000 + 12x2000 gp for each HD. 49,000 gp?


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## Wycen (Oct 6, 2005)

TheGogmagog said:
			
		

> Wyvern looks sucky in the Monster Manual block... but add one HD and it's size increases, +8 to str.  Four more (IIRC) and it's size increases again another +8.  +16 to Str, Con goes up 8 and Natural armor increase faster than the size and dex penalties accumulate.  Aslo at 8 and 12 hd, you get +1 ability to either balance dex or even out str and con.  On top of that the Wyvern has 6 attacks, multiattach, flyby attack and a poision whose DC increases nicely (not sure if you get poision with effigy).
> 
> Granted you are dealing with quite a bit of money at that point:
> Gargantuan 25000 + 12x2000 gp for each HD. 49,000 gp?




Size is an important consideration.  I still wouldn't choose a wyvern and upsize it.  A Huge or bigger creature suddenly is that much less likely to go everywhere in a dungeon that its master can go.  Large is in my opinion as big as you want to go, so it can still squeeze into those corridors.


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## IcyCool (Oct 6, 2005)

Iku Rex said:
			
		

> If anyone thinks otherwise, *please start a new thread*. I started _this_ thread to explore the practical usage of the effigy template, not to indulge in munchkin "it-doesn't-explicitly-say-that-I-can't-so..." fantasies.




Calling people insane or "munchkin" is generally frowned upon here, from what I understand.  That being said, I apologize for "indulging in munchkin fantasies."  But if you don't like the answers to your questions, don't ask them.  It's self-evident.

Edit - At the risk of more vitriol, might I suggest taking a look at vermin?  If you can find a diminutive or fine sized vermin and make an effigy of it, it could be quite the useful spy.


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## Patryn of Elvenshae (Oct 6, 2005)

IcyCool said:
			
		

> Edit - At the risk of more vitriol, might I suggest taking a look at vermin?  If you can find a diminutive or fine sized vermin and make an effigy of it, it could be quite the useful spy.




Now that sounds like a great idea - although vermin tend to be pretty high-HD creatures for their size, so it might be more expensive for a spider than a bird.


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## IcyCool (Oct 7, 2005)

Patryn of Elvenshae said:
			
		

> Now that sounds like a great idea - although vermin tend to be pretty high-HD creatures for their size, so it might be more expensive for a spider than a bird.




Something that size is bound to have a fractional hit die though.  Which brings up the question, if you have to pay 1000gp for a 1 HD effigy (plus body cost), do you have to pay 500gp for a 1/2 HD effigy (plus body cost)?

Monstrous Centipede, Scorpion, and Spider all have Tiny versions that clock in at 1 or less HD.  I'm not sure, but I think the Hoard Scarab from the Draconomicon does as well.  There are a couple of Fey creatures that might also be likely targets for this.

Now, if only you could apply the Effigy template to your familiar, much like the Stitched Flesh familiar from Libris Mortis.


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