Constructs in 5e: What You Need to Know – CR List, Living Spells & More

Last Updated on January 22, 2023

Not all creatures in Dungeons & Dragons fit into the category of “living and breathing.” No, some are created, designed for a specific purpose. Some creatures aren’t really creatures at all, but rather, constructs.

So how do you define a construct? Very simply actually. “Constructs are made, not born.” – Monster Manual, pg. 6.

Now, obviously, not everything that’s made is a construct. A loaf of bread is probably not going to start fighting you. That might mean you have other problems on your hands.

Constructs specifically are created beings with some form of sentience, even if that sentience is just a drive to fulfill a very simple purpose. A great classic example is the golem.

Formed from clay, or a great number of other materials, these hulking monsters serve their masters’ commands tirelessly.

Constructed Creatures in 5e

It should come as no surprise that constructs don’t tend to just appear. Since they’re made, there’s a process involved. Normally that comes in two steps, the physical construction and the magical aid providing sentience.

While there are some creatures like the clockwork dragon that are almost purely mechanical, even those have some form of magic connected to them.

Let’s look at a few constructs to see how they’re made and what they can do.

Golems – Clay Golem; CR 9 

• AC – 14 (Natural Armor)
• HP – 133 (14d10 + 56)
• Speed – 20 ft.
• STR 15; DEX 9; CON 18; INT 3; WIS 8; CHA 1
• Acid Absorption – Regains hit points when hit with acid damage instead of losing hit points.
• Berserk – Has a small chance of going berserk when under 60 hit points. When it does so it continues to attack the nearest creature each turn until it is destroyed or regains all of it’s hit points.
• Immutable Form – It’s form can’t be changed by any spells of effects.
• Magic Resistance – Advantage on saving throws against spells and magical effects.
• Magic Weapons – Its attacks are considered magical.
• Actions
  • Multiattack – It makes two slam attacks.
  • Slam – 2d10 + 5 bludgeoning damage with a +8 to hit. Creatures must succeed on a DC 15 CON saving throw or have their hit points reduced by the damage taken. Hit points can only be restored by Greater Restoration or similar magic.
  • Haste (Recharge 5-6) – The golem gains a +2 bonus to AC, advantage on DEX saves, and can use slam as a bonus action until the start of its next turn. This ability can’t be used again until it recharges when the golem rolls a 5 or 6 on a d6 at the beginning of it’s turn or on a short or long rest.

Golems of any variety are created by forming the body and tying a spirit from the Elemental Plane of Earth to that body. The resulting creature blindly follows the instructions of its master and has no actual consciousness of its own to speak of.

Whether formed of clay, flesh, stone, iron, glass, or any number of other simple materials, this is the basic package we’re looking at.

Even for a CR 9 creature, this golem is pretty strong. It has the potential to easily drop a target’s max hit points by somewhere 20 to 40 each turn. If a 9th level character isn’t making their saves, they’re going down in about two or three turns. 

What’s important to notice is that these creatures really toe the line of magical and physical prowess. They certainly aren’t coming at you with any spells, but their entire makeup is influenced by their magical origins.

Resistances, magical weapons, and even an impressive buffing ability all show us that this creature is more than just a pile of clay. 

Animated Objects – Animated Armor; CR 1

• AC – 18 (Natural Armor)
• HP – 33 (6d8 + 6)
• Speed – 25 ft.
• STR 14; DEX 11; CON 13; INT 1; WIS 3; CHA 1
• Antimagic Susceptibility – The armor is incapicated while inside of an antimagic field, and falls unconscious if it fails a CON save against the caster’s DC when subject to a Dispel Magic spell.
• False Appearance – The suit is indistinguishable from a normal suit of armor while motionless.
• Actions
  • Multiattack – The armor makes two slam attacks.
  • Slam – 1d6 + 2 bludgeoning damage with a +4 to hit.

Obviously, a CR 1 creature is going to be much weaker than our clay golem, but the animated armor presents its own challenges for players. Like most “animated” constructs, it’s an enchanted version of a regular object players might come across.

Rugs of smothering, animated brooms, and so many other enchanted objects are basically commonplace in creepy dungeons. 

Animated armors are particularly interesting because they can even have messages recorded in them. Some suits you come across will issue threats, riddles, or warnings, while some might be enchanted with powerful enough magic that they can actually carry out a conversation with you.

Modrons – Monodrone; CR ⅛

• AC – 15 (Natural Armor)
• HP – 5 (1d8 + 1)
• Speed – 30 ft. , 30 ft. fly
• STR 10; DEX 13; CON 12; INT 4; WIS 10; CHA 5
• Axiomatic Mind – Modrons can’t be compelled to act against their design or nature.
• Disintegration – If destroyed, modrons disintegrate into dust, leaving any weapons or anything else they’re carrying on the ground.
• Actions
  • Dagger – +3 to hit, 1d4 +1 piercing damage.
  • Javelin – Melee or ranged attack. +3 to hit, 1d6 +1 piercing damage.

Modrons are a very interesting subset of constructs. Consisting of the mono-, duo-, tri-, quad-, and pentadrones, these creatures are automatons that work tirelessly to maintain the clockwork plane of Mechanus. They are created by Primus, a godlike entity that is more of a position than an individual.

Modrons are created as monodrones and promoted through the ranks whenever a higher ranking modron dies. It’s through this process that these absolutely lawful beings may eventually attain the rank of Primus. 

While described in detail in the Monster Manual, there aren’t many publications discussing when one might encounter these law-abiding drones. There is a fun adventure you can find at DMsguild if you’re looking to explore mechanus in more detail.

Living Spells – Living Bigby’s Hand; CR 4

• AC – 15 (Natural Armor)
• HP – 5 (1d8 + 1)
• Speed – 30 ft. , 30 ft. fly
• STR 26; DEX 10; CON 20; INT 1; WIS 10; CHA 1
• Magic Resistance – This living spell has advantage on saving throws against spells and magical effects.
• Unusual Nature – The living spell doesn’t require food, air, drink, or sleep.
• Actions
  • Force Fist – +10 to hit, 4d8 +8 force damage. This can move a target of large or smaller up to 5 feet along with itself. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.
  • Grasping Hand – A Huge or smaller target must succeed on a DC 15 Dex save or be grappleed by the living spell. The target takes 2d6 +8 damage at the start of each of its turns until the grapple ends. While holding a creature in this way, the living spell cannot use force fist.

One of the most unique and, as far as I’m concerned, exciting subsets of constructs are the living spells. Manifested in areas of wild magic or huge power wells, these spells are often cast by a creature before they gain some level of their own consciousness. 

Spells that come to life can have wildly different behaviors. Something like Bigby’s Hand will remain more or less loyal to its caster, acting as a sort of guardian.

On the other hand, a Blade of Disaster that gains consciousness behaves viciously and chaotically, much like a demon. 

While there are only about ten published living spells, you could easily make any spell you want into a living spell. Even something like a Fireball could gain sentience, and just jump around dealing massive amounts of fire damage to creatures around it.

The big question is how you bring them to life. Mad scientists and areas of extreme magical influence, or wild magic, are probably the best two ways to go about it.

There’s also influence from incredibly powerful spellcasters that could use a high enough spell slot to cast a version of Animate Objects capable of manipulating magic itself. 

Characters and Constructs

Constructs are created, and for that reason, it makes sense that characters might be able to make some of these beings themselves. In fact, there are more than a few ways to build your own creatures that were in 5e before we even had access to the artificer class.

We’ll definitely touch a bit on the class that makes magical machinery an art, but let’s get into some other options first.

Animate Objects; 5th Level Transmutation

For spellcasters out there who dream of becoming Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, this spell has your name written all over it. This powerful transmutation lets you bring inanimate objects to life, ten of them in fact.

The way this works is that burning a 5th level spell slot gives you 10 objects worth of transmutation, with any higher level spell slots giving you 2 more objects per level after 5th.

Tiny and small objects count as 1, medium objects count as 2, large objects count as 4, and huge objects count as 8. You can’t animate objects larger than huge.

As you can see, huge objects are a lot stronger, but it might be beneficial to create 10 small objects to really maximize attacks. Unlike conjuration spells, this entirely depends on what’s around you.

Some casters can even make this spell the basis for their whole spell list by carrying around several puppets… terrifying right? 

You can give these constructs commands as a bonus action on your turn. Once issued a task, they will continue until their job is complete until they are given a new command, or until they are dropped to 0 hit points.

Once they do drop to 0 hit points they revert back to their inanimate form, with the object taking any extra damage. 

If they don’t receive any commands, objects just defend themselves from hostile creatures. This suggests that they can make all forms of actions such as dash, dodge, and hide, along with the reactionary opportunity attacks. 

Shield Guardian

The monster manual includes a pretty detailed entry on shield guardians that, perhaps unsurprisingly, feels like it’s missing something. Namely, how on abeir-toril does one get one?

Starting with what we know, they’re large constructs that are controlled and animated by an amulet that takes one week to craft and requires 1000 gp worth of materials. 

They’re also pretty impressive creatures at CR 7 with the ability to regain hit points at the start of each turn, store spells and cast them for its spellcaster master, shield its master, and hit with a pretty solid punch. They’ve got a stat block that I would not want to come up against as a character.

The monster manual says that wizards and other spellcasters create them, so it makes sense that we should be able to in the game. The solution is that of course you can let your players make one, and it’s pretty much up to you.

Here’s how I would do it, with a bit of influence from 3.5e and a bit of 5e mechanical knowledge to back me up.

Rock Gnome’s Tinker Toys

Rock gnomes are allowed to make cute little toys with their tinker ability. While these are not specified as constructs in RAW, I’ve got some fun ideas about them that I’ve just got to share.

Typically, you can make small clockwork toys which make sounds appropriate to what they’re modeled after, firestarters, or music boxes. It does mention that you can make similar items with your DMs discretion and that using Prestidigitation as a reference is a good idea.

That’s nice and all, but I want my gnomes to be able to make tiny little creatures. So here’s how I think about it. Cantrips have various ranges of power, and this should only be about as powerful as a cantrip, or a 1st through 3rd level spell that could be cast once a day following tiefling spell rules.

I stick with cantrip though, using the character’s level as a bit of balancing. Also, since you can typically create up to 3 clockwork devices at a time, my clockwork construct device takes up 3 uses in an attempt to provide a bit more balance to the equation.

Without any further adieu, here is my fourth option for a rock gnome’s tinker ability.

Golems

Look at that! We’re back to Gollums. Oh wait, I mean golems. That’s right, there’s another way that you as the character can interact with golems other than just attacking them.

If you happen to be lucky enough to come across the wondrous item called the Manual of Golems, you’re in for a treat.

This very rare book has the incantations necessary to bring a specific type of golem to life, along with instructions on how much materials you need to construct the golem.

You construct the golem, say the incantations as necessary, and then the book bursts into flames, leaving you the final ingredient. Sprinkle the ashes on the golem and it comes to life completely under your control.

The normal table for golem types is below.

d20	Golem	Time	Cost
1-5	Clay	30 days	65,000 gp
6-17	Flesh	60 days	50,000 gp
18	Iron	120 days	100,000 gp
19-20	Stone	90 days	80,000 gp

If you want to provide your players with the opportunity to create other forms of golems, just look at the CR list in the creatures section of this article and fill it in accordingly. 

Artificers

While I would let any artificer, or really any character, with the right tools and drive create a clockwork mechanism or some form of construct if they really wanted to, the battle smith artificer has a built-in stat block for its steel defender.

At 3rd level they get this bad boy, for which they get to determine the appearance and number of legs. The source material says 2 or 4 but that limitation is for the week. I say make a steel octopus if you want.

If you’re excited by constructs, this is the way to go. Pick up Animated Objects once you get 5th level spells and you just became lord of the mechanical beings. 

I hope this article has made you more excited to bring constructs into your campaign or to come across them as soon as you tell your DM how cool they are.

As always, happy adventuring!