Editing D&D Optimization (section)

=== Wizards ===
; Golems Golems Golems
The market price of a golem is increased by 5000 GP per additional HD and 50,000 GP per a size increase. With the Craft Construct feat, you only have to pay half cost, and as a result, you can create a 54 hit dice iron golem for 195,000 gold pieces; it will have 337 HP, keep its immunity to magic, have a BAB of +36 and have a DC 37 poison breath weapon. For reference, a level 20 character can be expected to have 760,000 gold pieces, easily letting you afford 3 of these bad boys, along with a headband of intellect +6 and a few miscellaneous items. Lower level characters can triple advance weaker constructs, to similar results.

And those constructs can be equipped with armor and weapons, being experienced with Heavy Armor and Martial Weapons (if not Exotic Weapons). Armor (e.g. Full Plate +1, [[D%26D_Optimization#3.5E_Gear_titbits|bought for discount via resising]]) can greatly boost their AC (if you still don't have enough AC, add Tower Shield); weapons upscaled to their size] allow them to do more damage, while having unprecedented battlefield control (e.g. Ranged weapon like Crossbow, or Reach weapon like Lucerne Hammer; Slams if enemy is up close). Huge Lucerne Hammer would have 3d6 x4 Piercing damage and 30 feet Reach (15 feet long, +15 feet Golem's hands; Huge Glaive is 3d8 x3 Slashing). [[D%26D_Optimization#3.5E_Gear_titbits|Light Crossbow of +2 size - Huge Size - is still man-portable]]; so the big "Huge-Golem-Portable" versions are Colossal Light Crossbow (6d6 19–20/×2 Piercing 195.3125 feet range) and Gargantuan Heavy Crossbow (4d8 234.375 feet range 19–20/×2 Piercing). All that results in, basically, walking tank.
 
;Broken Spells
* Forcecage, a level 7 spell which costs 1500 gp to cast (and also allows NO saving throw and NO spell resistance, imprisoning any creature of 20x20 size or less in an indestructible force barrier. Leave an Acid Fog and Dimensional Anchor spell on it and teleport away, kills nearly anything with no save allowed, but that's beside the point).
* Polymorph Any Object has lots of uses. Among them, you could permanently turn a small piece of iron into mountain of any materials - including iron (massive solid cube, massive iron dust pile, or massive pile of 1-lb ingots) and other things (gunpowder bombs, molten iron, etc). There's '''no upper limit to size of thing you can create with Polymorph Any Object'''; even in worst case scenario, you could at least make something of Titanic size (90*90*90 feet; 18*18*18 squares). You could use it for crafts/construction, sell it, sacrifice it to god, entomb something in it, or drop it on enemy by conjuring it while flying. Dropping such iron mountain from terminal velocity is utterly devastating; RAI that's [[Exterminatus|comparable to or even stronger than nuke]]; RAW it's [[Dakka|'''absurdly massive number''']] of projectiles (e.g. 358345310 tiny 1-lb ingots or 17917265 flechettes - for merely 90*90*90 feet pile; '''actual mountain-sized''' pile is a lot bigger), each for 20d6. That's not even going to idea of creating mountain-sized amount of molten iron, or mountain-sized gunpowder bomb.

;Familiars
Its smart to prestige class out with a class that grants full spell casting progression. This however comes at the expense of your familiar's advancement. To combat this there are a decent alternate class features you can use to replace your familiar in dragon magazine. However a familiar that advances is valuable in both fluff and [https://web.archive.org/web/20220926174136/http://dictummortuum.blogspot.com/2011/08/familiars-handbook.html utility]. So after that you take the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131025204012/http://dndtools.eu/feats/complete-arcane--55/obtain-familiar--2078/ Obtain Familiar feat].

If you're in Pathfinder, take the Siege Mage archetype, which is a Wizard archetype that replaces the standard Wizard's small animal familiar for a magic cannon. By level 7, you should have enough money to afford a Fiend's Mouth Cannon, and be able to cast all the spells needed to carry a siege weapon with you anywhere you go, whether that be the bathroom or swimming pools: Floating Disc, Shrink Object, Levitate, etc. In combat, cast ''Unseen Servant'' to act as your cannon crew, so you're free to cast spells. The Fiend's Mouth cannon does 8d6, or 14d6 with explosive ammo. At level 13, take the "Vital Strike" feat to double damage for any one weapon attack roll, making it 28d6 damage. And this is before enhancement bonuses like Enlarge. Combine with the golems above to build a robocop body around your pet cannon.

; Clone rising
You can use ''Clone'' to create inert body of very strong monster - and then, turn it into Undead (especially great with powerful Undead, like "Create Undead" or "Create Greater Undead"), or otherwise make it "live". E.G. Undead Tarrasquenote/Great Wyrm/Devastation Vermin/Hecatoncheires/etc, with a robust template (e.g. Shadow/Spectre/Wraith/Devourer), for a measly 1000 GP per spellcasting renewal (chump change by the time you can cast the spells involved). Do it on secret private demiplane, so no one would interfere.

And if even the Undead Devourer Tarrasque doesn't satisfy your needs? Ask a deity of matching alignment for piece of flesh for cloning (he got great regeneration anyways, so why not). Then, animate the cloned body. E.G. if Evil spellcaster contacted Evil deity and explained his plan, he would get reply of "Go for it. What a great plan. I would like to enjoy the resulting carnage.".