Yora
2011-04-08, 03:18 PM
I love golems. I also love E6. This obviously poses a problem.
To fix that, I've come up with a number of lesser golems.
Wood Golem
Wood golems are branches, twigs, and vines wrought together into a single tough yet flexible body and animated by an air elemental.
Bone golems are mostly identical but mostly made from bone and sinews.
Wood Golem - CR 4
Large construct
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Listen +0, Spot +0
Languages -
---
AC 14, touch 9, flat-footed 14 (-1 size, +5 natural)
hp 68 (7 HD); DR 5/adamantine
Immune mind-affecting, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, massive damage
Resist half damage from cold, electricity, and fire; SR 14
Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +2
---
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +9 (1d8+4)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Base Atk +5; Grp +13
Atk Options double damage against objects
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd):
At will - warp wood (DC 12)
---
Abilities Str 19, Dex 10, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
Feats -
Skills -
Ice Golem
Ice Golems are carved from massive blocks of ice into a vaguely humanoid shape and magically hardened to resist damage and warmth, animated by a water elemental.
Ice Golem - CR 5
Large construct (cold)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Listen +0, Spot +0
Languages -
---
AC 15, touch 9, flat-footed 15 (-1 size, +6 natural)
hp 85 (10 HD); DR 5/adamantine
Immune cold, mind-affecting, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, massive damage
Resist half damage from electricity; SR 16
Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +3
Weakness double damage from fire
---
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +12 (1d8+5)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Base Atk +7; Grp +18
Atk Options double damage against objects
Special Actions breath weapon
---
Abilities Str 21, Dex 10, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
Feats -
Skills -
---
Breath Weapon (Su) 30-ft. cone, once every 1d4 rounds, damage 4d6 cold, Reflex DC 15 half.
Clay Golem
Clay golems are massive blocks of clay roughly shaped into a humanoid shape and animated by an earth elemental.
Clay Golem - CR 6
Large construct (earth)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Listen +0, Spot +0
Languages -
---
AC 16, touch 9, flat-footed 16 (-1 size, +7 natural)
hp 101 (13 HD); DR 10/adamantine
Immune mind-affecting, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, massive damage
Resist half damage from electricity, and fire, one quarter damage from cold; SR 17
Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +4
---
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +15 (1d8+6)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Base Atk +9; Grp +19
Atk Options double damage against objects
---
Abilities Str 23, Dex 10, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
Feats -
Skills -
Stone Golem
Stone golems often resemble 10 to 14 feet tall statues and are animated by an earth elemtal.
Stone Golem - CR 7
Large construct (earth)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Listen +0, Spot +0
Languages -
---
AC 17, touch 9, flat-footed 17 (-1 size, +8 natural)
hp 118 (16 HD); DR 10/adamantine
Immune mind-affecting, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, massive damage
Resist half damage from electricity, and fire, one quarter damage from cold; SR 19
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +5
---
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +19 (1d8+7)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Base Atk +12; Grp +23
Atk Options Awesome Blow, double damage against objects
Special Attacks Stomp
---
Abilities Str 25, Dex 10, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
Feats -
Skills -
---
Awesome Blow (Ex) As a standard action, a stone golem can make a single attack with a -4 penalty to the attack roll to push a medium or smaller target back by 10 feet where it falls prone. If an obstacle prevents the target from completing the move, both the target and the obstacle take 1d6 points of damage.
Stomp (Su) As a standard action, a stone golem can stomp his feet on a stone floor to cause a shock wave that deals 2d6 points of damage to all creatures and objects within a 20 ft. radius and causes affected creatures to be stunned for 1d4 rounds. A DC 18 Fortitude save negates the stun effect and reduces the damage by half.
Obsidian Golem
Obsidian golems resemble stone golems made from black glass.
Obsidian Golem - CR 8
Large construct
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Listen +0, Spot +0
Languages -
---
AC 18, touch 9, flat-footed 18 (-1 size, +9 natural)
hp 134 (19 HD); DR 10/adamantine
Immune mind-affecting, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, massive damage
Resist half damage from electricity, and fire, one quarter damage from cold; SR 20
Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +6
---
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +22 (1d8+8)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Base Atk +14; Grp +26
Atk Options Awesome Blow, double damage against objects
---
Abilities Str 27, Dex 10, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
Feats -
Skills -
---
Awesome Blow (Ex) As a standard action, an obsidian golem can make a single attack with a -4 penalty to the attack roll to push a medium or smaller target back by 10 feet where it falls prone. If an obstacle prevents the target from completing the move, both the target and the obstacle take 1d6 points of damage.
What I did was taking the Large Animated Object, pushing Wisdom to 11, making it 2 slam attacks, and adding Spell Resistance, Damage Reduction, and object resistances against energy damage.
Usually Constructs advance +1 CR for every four additional HD, but with those special abilities, I made it +1 for every 3 HD.
Then a few special abilities added, and you get the result you can see here.
However as someone who almost exclusively ran games at very low levels, I'm unsure about the balance.
For one thing, Spell Resistance inproves dramatically as HD and CR increase. CR 18 for a 4th level spellcaster is doable, but even with feats and some other shenanigans, an E6 spellcasters will never overcome the SR 30 of a mere CR 8 obsidian golem. And I think the CRs are actually a bit low. CR 8 is a fight that requires the players attention with a 6th level group, and then it's no problem, but I'd like Stone and Obsidian golems to really roughen such parties up and possibly even killing some of the characters. When these monstrocities show up, it's business. A CR of 10 and 11 would be more in the range I want, but I think just adding 9 more HD will not result in a very interesting end result. Without adamantine weapons, 134 hp means a lot of chipping.
The lack of ranged attack and spells does not seem like a problem to me since the SR and DR should make it neccessary to engage them in meele and hit them hard. In the open, you can just go around them, but that's why a gm should place them in front of a doorway or blocking a corridor. If the players find any creative ways to defeat the golem with melee combat, it should take them some time, and to me this means "mission accomlished", we got ourself a memorable encounter.
But please take a look at them yourself and tell me what you think so far and what I can do to improve them.
To fix that, I've come up with a number of lesser golems.
Wood Golem
Wood golems are branches, twigs, and vines wrought together into a single tough yet flexible body and animated by an air elemental.
Bone golems are mostly identical but mostly made from bone and sinews.
Wood Golem - CR 4
Large construct
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Listen +0, Spot +0
Languages -
---
AC 14, touch 9, flat-footed 14 (-1 size, +5 natural)
hp 68 (7 HD); DR 5/adamantine
Immune mind-affecting, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, massive damage
Resist half damage from cold, electricity, and fire; SR 14
Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +2
---
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +9 (1d8+4)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Base Atk +5; Grp +13
Atk Options double damage against objects
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd):
At will - warp wood (DC 12)
---
Abilities Str 19, Dex 10, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
Feats -
Skills -
Ice Golem
Ice Golems are carved from massive blocks of ice into a vaguely humanoid shape and magically hardened to resist damage and warmth, animated by a water elemental.
Ice Golem - CR 5
Large construct (cold)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Listen +0, Spot +0
Languages -
---
AC 15, touch 9, flat-footed 15 (-1 size, +6 natural)
hp 85 (10 HD); DR 5/adamantine
Immune cold, mind-affecting, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, massive damage
Resist half damage from electricity; SR 16
Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +3
Weakness double damage from fire
---
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +12 (1d8+5)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Base Atk +7; Grp +18
Atk Options double damage against objects
Special Actions breath weapon
---
Abilities Str 21, Dex 10, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
Feats -
Skills -
---
Breath Weapon (Su) 30-ft. cone, once every 1d4 rounds, damage 4d6 cold, Reflex DC 15 half.
Clay Golem
Clay golems are massive blocks of clay roughly shaped into a humanoid shape and animated by an earth elemental.
Clay Golem - CR 6
Large construct (earth)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Listen +0, Spot +0
Languages -
---
AC 16, touch 9, flat-footed 16 (-1 size, +7 natural)
hp 101 (13 HD); DR 10/adamantine
Immune mind-affecting, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, massive damage
Resist half damage from electricity, and fire, one quarter damage from cold; SR 17
Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +4
---
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +15 (1d8+6)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Base Atk +9; Grp +19
Atk Options double damage against objects
---
Abilities Str 23, Dex 10, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
Feats -
Skills -
Stone Golem
Stone golems often resemble 10 to 14 feet tall statues and are animated by an earth elemtal.
Stone Golem - CR 7
Large construct (earth)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Listen +0, Spot +0
Languages -
---
AC 17, touch 9, flat-footed 17 (-1 size, +8 natural)
hp 118 (16 HD); DR 10/adamantine
Immune mind-affecting, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, massive damage
Resist half damage from electricity, and fire, one quarter damage from cold; SR 19
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +5
---
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +19 (1d8+7)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Base Atk +12; Grp +23
Atk Options Awesome Blow, double damage against objects
Special Attacks Stomp
---
Abilities Str 25, Dex 10, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
Feats -
Skills -
---
Awesome Blow (Ex) As a standard action, a stone golem can make a single attack with a -4 penalty to the attack roll to push a medium or smaller target back by 10 feet where it falls prone. If an obstacle prevents the target from completing the move, both the target and the obstacle take 1d6 points of damage.
Stomp (Su) As a standard action, a stone golem can stomp his feet on a stone floor to cause a shock wave that deals 2d6 points of damage to all creatures and objects within a 20 ft. radius and causes affected creatures to be stunned for 1d4 rounds. A DC 18 Fortitude save negates the stun effect and reduces the damage by half.
Obsidian Golem
Obsidian golems resemble stone golems made from black glass.
Obsidian Golem - CR 8
Large construct
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Listen +0, Spot +0
Languages -
---
AC 18, touch 9, flat-footed 18 (-1 size, +9 natural)
hp 134 (19 HD); DR 10/adamantine
Immune mind-affecting, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, massive damage
Resist half damage from electricity, and fire, one quarter damage from cold; SR 20
Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +6
---
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +22 (1d8+8)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Base Atk +14; Grp +26
Atk Options Awesome Blow, double damage against objects
---
Abilities Str 27, Dex 10, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
Feats -
Skills -
---
Awesome Blow (Ex) As a standard action, an obsidian golem can make a single attack with a -4 penalty to the attack roll to push a medium or smaller target back by 10 feet where it falls prone. If an obstacle prevents the target from completing the move, both the target and the obstacle take 1d6 points of damage.
What I did was taking the Large Animated Object, pushing Wisdom to 11, making it 2 slam attacks, and adding Spell Resistance, Damage Reduction, and object resistances against energy damage.
Usually Constructs advance +1 CR for every four additional HD, but with those special abilities, I made it +1 for every 3 HD.
Then a few special abilities added, and you get the result you can see here.
However as someone who almost exclusively ran games at very low levels, I'm unsure about the balance.
For one thing, Spell Resistance inproves dramatically as HD and CR increase. CR 18 for a 4th level spellcaster is doable, but even with feats and some other shenanigans, an E6 spellcasters will never overcome the SR 30 of a mere CR 8 obsidian golem. And I think the CRs are actually a bit low. CR 8 is a fight that requires the players attention with a 6th level group, and then it's no problem, but I'd like Stone and Obsidian golems to really roughen such parties up and possibly even killing some of the characters. When these monstrocities show up, it's business. A CR of 10 and 11 would be more in the range I want, but I think just adding 9 more HD will not result in a very interesting end result. Without adamantine weapons, 134 hp means a lot of chipping.
The lack of ranged attack and spells does not seem like a problem to me since the SR and DR should make it neccessary to engage them in meele and hit them hard. In the open, you can just go around them, but that's why a gm should place them in front of a doorway or blocking a corridor. If the players find any creative ways to defeat the golem with melee combat, it should take them some time, and to me this means "mission accomlished", we got ourself a memorable encounter.
But please take a look at them yourself and tell me what you think so far and what I can do to improve them.