Create Animated Sentinel

As part of casting this spell, you must prepare a magic circle around the armor you are attempting to make into an animated sentinel, and have a person whose martial skills can be transferred through the use of a detect thoughts spell. These spells' spell slots are consumed as part of casting this spell, and their effects persist for this spell's casting time rather than their normal duration. You must maintain concentration on detect thoughts for the full casting time of this spell for it to succeed.

You place the designated suit of armor and the associated material components into the center of the produced magic circle, seating yourself and the volunteer with martial abilities on opposing sides of the armor. The person whose martial skills are to be employed must be at least a 4th level character with proficiency in martial weapons, shields, and heavy armor. If you meet these criteria, you do not need a second participant, nor to cast detect thoughts, but must still maintain concentration for the full duration of this spell's casting. Over the course of this spell's casting, you inscribe runes onto and within the armor which carry the volunteered skills, proficiencies, and any additional designations you wish to bestow upon the sentinel (such as special command words, or primary objectives). As the armor lay runed and disassembled, you transmute an internal silver wired frame from the powdered silver and metal used for this spell, which serves as the internal body for the construct being made. After the frame is completed, you inset one of the diamonds into the cuirass of the armor, and one into its helm. You then reassemble the armor used around this frame, and magically transmute it, sealing it completely and preventing it from being opened again.

Once this spell is completed, the armor is transmuted into its final appearance and animated, becoming a Steel Sentinel if made using Steel Plate Armor, a Mithral Sentinel if made using a suit of Mithral Plate Armor, or an Adamantine Sentinel if made using a suit of Adamantine Plate Armor. Any enhancement bonuses to AC that the armor used possessed, as well as any magical properties such as damage resistance, spell charges, or granted movement speeds, also transfers to the created sentinel, and it does not need to attune to the armor in order to access them. This sentinel does not have the equipment listed in its monster entry, you must provide its weapons and shield, yourself. The resulting animated sentinel is bound to the Animated Sentinel controller used for this spell, but may be reassigned to another as per the controller's own effects.

At Higher Levels. If cast using a spell slot of 5th or higher level, increase the number of Animated Sentinels that can be made by 1 for each slot level above 4th that is used, but also increase the amount of materials needed proportionate to the additional sentinels to be created. When using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, a large suit of the appropriate armor and 8x the materials may be used to produce a Guardian Sentinel (Adamantine Armor), Swiftstride Sentinel (Mithral Armor), or Towering Sentinel (Steel Armor) in place of 3 of the sentinels that would normally be created (allowing two to be made this way using a 9th level spell slot).