Helping with a fun idea

[Duskranger]

For my players, after they have just finished with a major quest (saving a marketplace full of villagers from strange somewhat smokey opponents), they will get a price from those people.

For that I made the base idea that with the combined money and capabilities of the merchants they saved they will get a golem. The base of this golem is made by players choice.

But since I would like to keep the golem relevant, while the party gains levels I would like to give them some kind of upgrade system based on points.
Every time the party gains 2 levels the golem will gain 1 level. Every level of the golem gives it 4 upgrade points.

What are good capabilities to put in a golem, for what kind of point cost.

At this moment I have something like this:

1 ability point increase (to a max of 20) per stat: 1 point per increase.
1 immunity (per the golem base, undecided for now) 2 points*.


What does the playground think about this, and what kind of suggestions do you have for a fun and useful abilities.


* If the base is stone golem they for example can choose the immunity to psychic damage.

[Azgeroth]

i wouldnt go with the point buys for stats and immunties, you are really asking for some min/max optimised killing machine..

in terms of stat improvements, you could just move it through the statblocks of the higher CR golems, or keep in line with those improvements.

'upgrades' i would do more utility-esc type things, such as.

portable hole in its gut, allowing to carry ALOT of gear with easy access to it.

sentience, give it a mind so it can perform more advanced tasks autonomously.

utility spells, such as fog cloud, darkness, silent image, magic mouth, reduce/enlarge(on-self) etc.

expertise in athletics(grappling/throwwing/lifting)



as a player, the golem is either going to be, an extra melee fighter, a pack mule, or a 24/7 blacksmith working on things for the party.. (golems dont need to eat or sleep, make it sentient and it can run a blacksmith directing labourers in shifts to work 24/7. also any other proffesion.)

[DarkKnightJin]

What Azgeroth said.
Hell, you can add a quest hook by letting tjem go questing for specfic items to upgrade the golem with. And you're probably better off giving them utility options rather than combat upgrades.

Give it an Alarm function, so it can stand watch while the party rests. They can leave it in a town/their base and working on crafting items while they're off adventuring.

Don't make it something that would steal a player's spotlight. I can see that getting annoying pretty quickly.

[Duskranger]

The plan was to give the players a party controlled way to keep the enemies away from them. They lack a frontliner and I was thinking this would be precisely the thing that could help.

Besides that they get to choose Iron or Stone at the beginning, but the golem at first has no immunities at all, just the construct traits (not needing to sleep/eat and breathe). The stats are also very low compared to the standard golems. Which in my opinion also made the point system more sense.

But if people already think it's a bad idea I will see if I can reconsider this.

[Azgeroth]

so what does the party consist of to not have a 'front liner'

if that truely is the case, then yeah it is a good idea. but remember it will already have poison,disease,charm immunity thats pretty baller by itself, it might make sense to give it magic resistance, and mundane weapon immunities, as a construct it cant just be heal/repaired. its a fairly involved process requiring specialist equipment. (i.e. not something you can do in the middle of a dungeon/wilderness) keeping the thing 'alive' could quickly be a problem, even with resistance to everything..

it would probably be better, to just either give your characters some cloaks of protection, work the encounters so it isnt always melee heavy, or give them NPC guards instead, make them champion fighters (easier to track) and lag behind the PC's. they are dumb brutes, who just do as they are told..

like a golem! but healable, improve over time, like PC's so they are always relevant, and can be removed easily later if they are no longer needed..

or, you could give them onyx figurines, so they can summon some big beasty to protect them when its really needed, maybe a few as they can only be used once per 5 days..

[Duskranger]

so what does the party consist of to not have a 'front liner'


Two clerics (1 life, 1 light).
1 Bard of Lore
1 Gunslinger Fighter

[Chugger]

Golems are incredibly powerful.

You could always have an NPC join them who is a bear barb, pal or sword n board fighter or something. It would be way easier. But if you think golem is best, go for it. Figurines of wondrous power are something to consider but probably don't last long enough for what you want.

[Citan]

For my players, after they have just finished with a major quest (saving a marketplace full of villagers from strange somewhat smokey opponents), they will get a price from those people.

For that I made the base idea that with the combined money and capabilities of the merchants they saved they will get a golem. The base of this golem is made by players choice.

But since I would like to keep the golem relevant, while the party gains levels I would like to give them some kind of upgrade system based on points.
Every time the party gains 2 levels the golem will gain 1 level. Every level of the golem gives it 4 upgrade points.

What are good capabilities to put in a golem, for what kind of point cost.

At this moment I have something like this:

1 ability point increase (to a max of 20) per stat: 1 point per increase.
1 immunity (per the golem base, undecided for now) 2 points*.


What does the playground think about this, and what kind of suggestions do you have for a fun and useful abilities.


* If the base is stone golem they for example can choose the immunity to psychic damage.
Honestly?
Unless your party already has one, I'd just make a Monk copy/paste, except for Unarmored (I'd take Barb one) and Stunning Strike (no living creature), refluff the other basic Monk abilities as needed then adapt depending on the chosen base. Since Golem would fight with its fists and wear no armor I think it's a simple way.

Then I'd choose the Way depending on what base players took as a base and how they decided to make the golem look like.
Stone > Open Hand.
Fire-powered metal creature: either Sun Soul (easy), 4E (equally easy) or Shadow (Darkness easy to refluff, more complex for Silence and Pass Without Trace).
Frightening-shaped face > Long Death.

OR, just give some thematically fitting cantrips and spells, following the progression of a 3rd caster (you don't want to make the golem better than that or it could overshadow).

----
In fact, you could even impose that the golem is a complex piece of machinery: that could be a great lengthy sidequest when players want to step back a bit from the big, world-saving quests, and instead want to craft improvements on that golem, like an flask cannon (Create Bonfire -Molotov oil-, Grease -plain oil- Fog Cloud -gaz-, Pyrotechnics -also gaz-), a cooled water propulsor (Shape Water, refluffed Burning Hands, Ray of Frost), a grappling hook (refluffed Thorns Whip), directional sound amplifier (Vicious Mockery, Dissonant Whispers, Tasha's) etc...

That way your players can really tailor it to their taste, creating a stronger attachment, and, unless they are really unreasonable in their wishes, you still keep control on balance because you are still the one creating correspondance between their description and existing spells in the end.

In that case though, it would probably be simpler to just create a complete homebrew, just taking inspiration from a martial class to get the basic features (Unarmored, Extra Attack, Constitution proficiency, immunity to charm, frightened and psychic damage, maybe vulnerability to fire or cold depending on material to compensate) then add progressive spellcasting with mainly cantrips and low-level spells as they enhance him, if necessary adapting them (like, "a strong arm able to launch a PC high in the air" > same effect as Jump as an action for the player, or even Catapult!).

To bounce on your idea of upgrade by points...
1. Find the materials and skills to create the mechanical upgrade (you'll have to tell them beforehand the kind of spells this would provide access to so they can make a full-awareness choice) then...
cantrip: 1 point.
1st level spell: 2 points.
2nd level spell: 3 points.
3rd level spell: 4 points.
Etc.


Two clerics (1 life, 1 light).
1 Bard of Lore
1 Gunslinger Fighter
Just saw this: honestly I think my last suggestion would be the perfect fit, since this party lacks heavily AOE damage and tanking. Having a frontliner able to dish out a wide array of elemental damage while getting hit in place of them seems very complementary.