Effigy Ideas

[Sindenky]

In my current campaign I'm playing a wizard that is built around crafting magic items and Golems. But when i found Effigy they seem better than golems due to the fact that i have a wider verity of options available than i do with Golems.

Now the way I pan to do it is like a summoner. I build all my creations in a hidden place(Currently planed to be between dimensions) and then i put a seal on them. Make the same seal on a scroll and be able to summon the Effigy or golem to me. I plan to do this with some variant of a transportation spell.

Now what i need is ideas. I want several different Effigy or golems to chose from. Some with giant shields to act as...well...a shield. And some to smash. Ones that can fly and ones that can swim. But the thing is i dont know what exactly to use.
The effigy template drops all ability's and feats that don't translate to attacking(like Pounce, Imp. grab, Weapon focus, ext.). So that weakens the effigy to an extent.

I have thought of a Rhino for charging and doing mass damage, but then i also thought of a bullet.

A Tiger or Lion for a fast attacker, or maybe even a Raptor.

A griffin or Phoenix to fly.

Maybe a swarm of some kind.

I'm looking for tips and ideas. Thank you.

 

[Herobizkit]

Note some stuff about effigies:

* Can be applied to any Corporeal Aberration, Animal, Dragon, Giant, Humanoid, Magical Beast, Monstrous Humanoid, or Vermin.

* Loses all Supernatural Special Attacks, Spell-Like Abilities, & Extraordinary Special Attacks whose save DC is based on Constitution (such as poison). It keeps other Extraordinary Special Attacks which has no save (such as Rake) or whose save is based on a different ability score (such as Trample, which is based on Strength).

... Would this mean that an Ogre Mage effigy would lose its spell-like abilities but retain its Change Shape ability, Regeneration and Spell Resistance?

[Edit] ... probably, but "a creature cannot use change shape to take the form of a creature with a template"... confusing.

 

[freyar]

What effigies are these? The ones I remember (from MM2) are a fiery sort of undead.

 

[Sindenky]

As the 2nd post said, Effigy is a template that can be added to "almost" anything.

Its were you build a robotic version of an animal or magical beast. They lose all special ability's and feats that are not related to combat.

I'm just wondering of some good ideas.

i made a bullet and it is really good, but the size is an issue. I need a good medium sized golem or construct or effigy that i can summon for the sake of combat. I assume he will be weaker than Bullet but none the less more melee effective than my Wizard is.

 

[Sindenky]

So today I made another effigy. I made a...hell idk what its name is(making this post pretty ineffective) but its basically a destroyer droid lol.

Its in the minatures handbook and is really cool. Its stats came out really well
Ac of 19
Atk of +10 1d8+3
and gets two attacks with FA
He rolls intobattle bullrushing into the enemy then uncoils and unleashes his attacks.
Verry excited to use them.

 

[Ahnehnois]

What effigies are these? The ones I remember (from MM2) are a fiery sort of undead.

I thought the same thing for a minute. "Effigy creature" is a template from Complete Arcane that makes a golem-like construct shaped like the original creature.

Would this mean that an Ogre Mage effigy would lose its spell-like abilities but retain its Change Shape ability, Regeneration and Spell Resistance?

No. Change Shape is supernatural. To clarify, an effigy loses all spell-like and supernatural abilities (regardless of any key ability) and also loses any extraordinary abilities that are con-based.

 

[Sindenky]

what is a good humanoid race to effigy? i was thinking like a centaur decked out in magic gear (my character has a decent number of the craft feats)

and i still need a good flier, probably going to go with something like an eagle
but i would like some effigys that retain special ability's, like this camodo dragon creature i found that would retain acid bite.

 

[Ahnehnois]

It is advantageous to effigy creatures with low Con (like elves or fey without a lot of special abilities) or low Int/Wis/Cha (like orcs and half-orcs) since they can't use them anyway. On that basis, wild elves are good. Really, though, strong animals and similarly stupid but strong magical beasts/aberrations are more advantageous overall.

 

[LuckyBoneDice]

my fave combos for Effigy

Drow, Drider, and Yuan-Ti Purebloods (considering they have SR= Total HD, they make awesome mage-killers) and even Rakshasa (?)

Always consider that an Effigy should be an exemplar of their race. and remember, Templated Creatures are your friends...Such as a Black Dragonspawn Tauric Yuan-Ti Pureblood/Manticore?

 

[Herobizkit]

You could even make an effigy of a shark with a frickin' laser beam attached to its head:

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