Shadesteel Golem

[JNAProductions]

Shadesteel Golem
Large Construct, Lawful Evil
Armor Class 20 (Shadesteel Construction)
Hit Points 263 (25d10+125)
Speed 40', Fly 20' (Hover)


Strength
Dexterity
Constitution
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma


22 (+6)
16 (+3)
20 (+5)
20 (+5)
20 (+5)
20 (+5)


Saving Throws Constitution +9
Skills Athletics +10, Stealth +7, Arcana +13, Investigation +9, Religion +13, Insight +9, Perception +9, Deception +13, Intimidation +9
Damage Resistances Non-magical and non-adamantine Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing; Cold
Damage Immunities Necrotic, Poison
Condition Immunities Poisoned, Frightened, Petrified
Senses Darkvision 300', Passive Perception 19
Languages Many
Challenge ?
Adaptable Resilience
The Shadesteel Golem has one additional resistance, to any damage type except radiant, bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing. It may change which damage type it resists as a bonus action.

Magic Resistance
The Shadesteel Golem has advantage on saves against magical effects.

Immutable Form
The Shadesteel Golem is immune to any hostile effects that would alter its form.

Necrotic Strikes
The Shadesteel Golem's attacks are magical, and deal an additional 2d6 necrotic damage (included in the statblock below).

Aura Of Unlife
A creature within 10' of the Shadesteel Golem cannot regain HP. A creature within 30' of the Shadesteel Golem has any healing received set to the minimum possible value (so, a Cure Wounds would heal for 1+Casting Modifier, instead of 1d8+Casting Modifier). A creature within 60' of the Shadesteel Golem has any healing received halved. These effects are cumulative, but do not apply to the Shadesteel Golem or undead.

Actions
Slam Melee Weapon Attack:
+10 to-hit, reach 10', one target. Hit: 2d6+6 bludgeoning damage and 2d6 necrotic damage.

Negative Energy Pulse (Recharge 5-6)
All living creatures within 60' of the Shadesteel Golem must make a DC 17 Constitution save. On a success, they suffer 2d10 necrotic damage. On a failure, they take 4d10 necrotic damage, and have their maximum HP reduced b the same amount. If the total save result was 12 or less, they instead take 6d10 necrotic damage and have their maximum HP reduced by the same amount. This reduction of maximum HP lasts until the target completes a long rest.
Once all the saves have been rolled, total the damage dealt. The Shadesteel Golem can heal itself or any undead within 60' for up to half the total damage dealt.

Extra Attack II
The Shadesteel Golem makes three Slam attacks or other attack actions. It may replace a single Slam with negative Energy Pulse.

Bonus Actions
Hide
If the Shadesteel Golem is in dim light or darker, it may use the Hide action.

Shadow Warp
The Shadestel Golem may teleport from an area of darkness to any other area of darkness within 120'.

Legendary Actions
A Shadesteel Golem can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. A Shadesteel Golem regains spent legendary actions at the start of their turn.

Slam. It uses a Slam attack.
Shadow Warp. It uses the Shadow Warp action.

[Kane0]

Very nice, although i would include some method of generating darkness for it to teleport to since that is its only ranged/mobility option

[MrStabby]

I like the aura of unlife as an idea - it seems prety cool but I wonder if 3 levels is a bit complicated... I mean it isn't that hard to deal with, but I think you get diminishing returns for your extra complexity. The middle band especially - as they stack you do minimum healing... and then half it.

The resistances also seem counterintuitive. I imagine this construct is being very much surrounded by shadows - kind of like shadows of Moil, but instead of this protecting from radiant damage it seems to mean it is the one thing it isn't protected from? I have mixed feelings about this ability though - I feel it could leave some players feeling targetted. Yeah, I get no everyone is going to be great all the time but I figure any legendary action monster is intended to be a climactic fight. Once you eliminate BPS damage, radiant damage, necrotic, poison and cold damage... you are left with a pretty small subset of damage types that you are chosing from and you are probably only likely to really hit one PC. Furthermore that PC has a good chance of being one screwed by magic resistance, immutable form and also struggling to tank a hit from a negative energy pulse. If it were me, I would allow resistance to any damage type but also lower the HP slightly to compensate.

I also feel it is missing an ability or two...

Its a creaure with legendary actions. Its probably therefore a big deal. Its your cool creature in an encounter, but what is really going to make it stand out mechanically? So for example compare it to a vampire - a vampire has a lot of abilities of so many different types: Children of the night to summon creatures, HP recovery (both active and passive), a superb charm effect, mobility, grappling, Max HP drain... It has enough abilities that it can probably fid one to annoy every member of a party and can be a tough, memorable fight for everyone.

Or look at the aboleth or beholder or Lich... I think a lot of the really cool enemies have multi-layered attacks and defence and a good mix of active and passive abilities.

I mean you might be wanting a simpler boss-monster, and this is just my preference, but I would stack on a bit more.

Now not everything has to be perfecly efficient, but I think that some of these abilities don't combine well. Max HP reduction seems redundant with stopping healing for example. I like the feel of this, but I just feel to live up to its potential it needs something more? It seems like it does 2 things - damage and mobility.

How about spawning shadows? What if damage hacked off parts of the construct as shadows? Say whenever it took more than 15 damage from a single source a shadow gets spawned?

Or being able to animate PC's own shadows to attack them?

Or some kind of restraint effect? - an aura of healing denial is less scary if you can just walk out



It looks a cool monster though.

[Morphic tide]

Given the entire point of the Shadesteel Golem back in 3.5 was "looks like and synergizes with Undead, but is actually strengthened by anti-Undead measures", shouldn't it have Radiant Absorption or something in that vein instead of Radiant being its one steady non-resistance?