Witchcraft • Legacy Construct Spell

Create Poppet

Create Poppet turns a specially prepared doll into a minor magical construct capable of simple independent tasks. The spell belongs to the preserved d20 Witch tradition and uses legacy XP-cost and construct-control rules.

Create Poppet at a Glance

5.5e / 2024	No direct conversion published here
5e / 2014	No direct conversion published here
Pathfinder 1e	Not a Pathfinder Witch spell by default
D&D 3.x Legacy	Witch 3, Adept 3, Druid 5, Sorcerer/Wizard 5

D&D 3.x Legacy Rules

School	Transmutation
Level	Witch 3, Adept 3, Druid 5, Sorcerer/Wizard 5
Components	V, S, M, XP
Casting Time	6 hours
Range	Touch
Target	One specially prepared poppet
Duration	Instantaneous
Saving Throw	None
Spell Resistance	No
XP Cost	500 XP

The ritual requires hair from a living creature with Intelligence 5 or higher. Once animated, the poppet serves its creator and can perform simple household, workshop or laboratory tasks independently.

A poppet is normally non-aggressive. The exception is the creature whose hair was used in its creation: if ordered to hunt that creature, the poppet follows the target and attempts to kill it. If it succeeds, the poppet immediately becomes lifeless.

The caster can later replace the hair and reanimate the poppet without another XP cost under the original rules.

A caster can create several poppets but cannot control more total Hit Dice of poppets than the caster has levels. Exceeding that limit causes all currently controlled poppets to break free and run wild.

Edition Boundary

XP costs, Hit-Dice control pools and this form of permanent construct creation belong to older d20 rules. Modern editions should use their own construct, summon or crafting systems rather than importing these numbers directly.