Waddlebang [Cannon Homonculus]

[Admiral Squish]

Waddlebang



Size/Type:
Medium Construct


Hit Dice:
2d10+20 (31 HP)


Initiative:
+0


Speed:
10 ft (2 squares)


Armor Class:
15 (+5 Natural), 10 touch, 15 flat-footed


Base Attack/Grapple:
+1/+4


Attack:
Bite +4 melee (1d4+4)


Full Attack:
Bite +4 melee (1d4+4)


Space/Reach:
5 ft/5 ft.


Special Attacks:
Siege Form


Special Qualities:
Construct Traits, Darkvision 60, Low-Light Vision


Saves:
Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +1


Abilities:
Str 16, Dex 10, Con -, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 6


Skills:
Spot +6


Feats:
1


Environment:
Any


Organization:
Solitary


Challenge Rating:
1


Treasure:
None


Alignment:
Any (same as creator)


Advancement:
3-6 HD (Small)


Level Adjustment:
-



A waddlebang largely resembles a fat, tailless alligator, it's body made of many thick bands of solid iron that shift this way and that over each other as four small, reptilian feet pull it's heavy bulk along the ground. A wide, metal-fanged mouth leads it as it moves, opening to reveal a cylindrical hole. Armored, waterproof containers on its sides can securely hold enough black powder and cannonballs to fire the waddlebang five times.

Siege Form: A wagglebang's primary use is as a living siege weapon. As a move action while standing firmly on the ground, the waddlebang can fuse the rings making it's body into a single resilient barrel. While fused in this way, the waddlebang can be loaded, aimed, and fired like a cannon. It's treated as a cannon while fused, but it retains all its normal statistics, though it cannot take actions other than those described below. The waddlebang is considered to be crewing the cannon, and can spend actions to load, aim, and fire itself. It is considered to be proficient with itself. A waddlebang can return to its normal state as a move action, automatically depositing any ammunition or powder the cannon is currently loaded with into it in its square as part of this action. A waddlebang that misfires immediately returns to normal and cannot fuse until its cannon component is repaired, a process requiring 8 hours of work and 100 GP of materials.

Construction
A waddlebang's body is made from specially forged iron or bronze bands and brought to life by a pint of it's creator's blood. The materials cost is 2000 GP, and requires a DC 20 craft (metalworking) check.
A waddlebang with more than two hit dice can be created, but each additional die adds 2000 gp to the cost to create.
Craft Construct, arcane eye, mending; Price — (never sold);
Cost 1,250 gp + 93 XP.



See siege engines (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/siege-engines) for complete explanation of siege engine operation.

NameDamageCriticalRangeTypeCrewAimLoadSpeed
Cannon6d6x4100 ftB&P21310 ft

[Admiral Squish]

So, I scribbled this together very briefly based on a vague idea that showed up in my brain during a discussion about a catapult-golem. Also, I wanted to see if there was a way to make owning and operating a cannon in combat a semi-viable idea. Plus, I just like the idea of a kind somewhere giving a wizard a pile of gold to make him a 'walking siege engine' and giving him this to keep all the gold himself.

I dunno, it might be terrible, I'm tired. Let me know how I did.

[Debihuman]

You should define WHICH siege weapon it can fuse into and flesh out how it works such as how much damage does it do, what is its minimum distance to hit, and what is its maximum range; how long does it take to reload etc. Can it move in siege form?

I would make this a type of modified ballista or light catapult since it only has 2 hit dice, see here: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#siegeEngines. What kind of ammunition does it throw? Rocks?

Since it requires blood to work, this should probably have a chance of going berserk and there should be a mechanism which keys it to its creator. Wresting control of one of these from its creator should be possible as well.

Your cost is off in construction since it requires 2,000 pg of material. It should be 500 worth of material as ballista.

Also, why is arcane eye needed? I would think there are better spells for this. It's not spying on you, it's following you around and throwing things at you. It probably should have lesser geas or limited wish as one of its spells. Intelligent constructs cost 5,000 gp just for the awaken construct spell (see Spell Compendium for awaken construct spell). Mage hand for throwing things as part of its creation or another spell that fits thematically.The DC for metalworking is a bit high at DC 20.

Debby

[Admiral Squish]

Well, I have about half an hour before I have to go offline so I might as well respond here real fast.

Honestly, I feel like you didn't read the ability all the way through.

The ability specifies it's treated as a cannon in the next sentence after the first mention of siege weapon. I figured that would be a more concise way of saying it than actually listing all the cannon stats in the ability text, though I did be sure to include cannon stats down at the bottom. It uses cannonballs and black powder to fire. It cannot take actions other than to load/fire/aim itself or unfuse itself. I thought that was simpler than listing every possible action it could or could not do.

All homonculuses (homonculi?) use the same basic traits, which includes the pint of its creator's blood as a material component. No other homonculuses have a berserk mechanism or a method of wresting control from the creator, so I didn't feel that was necessary.

A cannon costs 6000 gp, so I figured 2000 gp by looking to craft for the cost of materials.

I'm not sure why arcane eyes is involved, but it seems to be a common thread among homonculuses. Homonculuses rarely have a cost higher than 2000 GP, so I don't think awaken construct is factored in there, though they are all similarly intelligent to this creature. I raised the craft DC a bit because I figured hand-forging a bunch of bands with a highly uniform internal diameter would be a rather challenging operation. I suppose I could lower it a tad, but I don't think it's an unreasonable level at the moment.

[Debihuman]

Technically, you would add the cost of the cannon to the cost of the homunculus.

Making a cannon would cost 2,000 gp in materials as the price is 6,000 gp. Plus, each cannonball costs 30 gp so additional 10 gp per cannonball to make as well. Total cost for cannon and 5 cannonballs is 2,050 gp plus the cost of the creature.

Cost for creating just a regular homunculus is 1,075 gp, so the total price of this should be 3,125. Mirror image is missing from creation cost as well, though I can't tell if that was intentional or not. You could substitute alligator blood for the creator's blood as well.

Wouldn't the craft weaponsmithing skill be more appropriate than just craft metalsmithing? After all a cannon is a weapon.

What happens when it runs out of cannonballs?

Debby