[3.5] The Golden Army Returns!

[arguskos]

Several years ago (in fact, 9 days after I joined this site and had around 40 posts), I posted a piece of homebrew. I'd just watched Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, and wanted to brew up the Golden Warriors of the Army. I did this, but it didn't end amazingly well actually (DracoDei even figured out a method to permanently defeat a Golden Warrior, found here). The original is spoilered below:

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Golden Warrior
Huge Construct
HD 10d10+40 (90)
Speed 30 ft
Init: +2 Dex
AC 220 (10, +10 armor, +2 Dex, -2 Size); touch 10; flat-footed 18
BAB +7; Grp +25
Attack Mwk bastard sword +16 (3d8+10, 19-20/x2); or slam +15 (3d6+10)
Full-Attack Mwk bastard sword +16 (3d8+10, 19-20/x2); or slam +15 (3d6+10)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks None
Special Qualities Loyalty, Regrowth
Saves Fort +3 Ref +5 Will +2
Abilities Str 30, Dex 14, Con -, Int -, Wis 8, Cha 2
Skills None
Feats Power Attack(b)
Environment Where commanded to go.
Organization The Golden Army (4900)
Challenge Rating 8-ish?
Treasure None
Alignment True Neutral
Advancement None
Level Adjustment N/A

Blahblahblahfluffhereblahblah.

Loyalty (Su): The Golden Warriors obey only the orders of a rightful wearer of the Golden Crown. If there is no bearer, the Golden Warriors take no actions, not even in self-defense, trusting to their Regrowth ability to recover if destroyed.
Regrowth (Ex): If destroyed, a Golden Warrior's body will restore itself to full fighting capacity in one round. This ability cannot be suppressed by any known method, and is non-voluntary (that is, a Golden Warrior cannot choose to not regrow, nor can they trigger the ability on their own).

While this one works, it's fairly bland, and not very true to the nature of the army. I got a lot of nice advice in that thread but never updated it (don't even remember why). I was looking over my old (and terrible) works, and decided, "hey, why not bring the Golden Army back up to speed?" It helps that I watched the film again last night.

So, here they are, the updated Golden Army! The core is the same, but there's a lot more special stuff.

Golden Warrior
Huge Construct
HD 10d10+40 (90)
Speed 30 ft
Init: +2 Dex
AC 20 (10, +10 armor, +2 Dex, -2 Size); touch 10; flat-footed 18
BAB +7; Grp +25
Attack Mwk bastard sword +16 (3d8+10, 19-20/x2); or slam +15 (3d6+10)
Full-Attack Mwk bastard sword +16 (3d8+10, 19-20/x2); or slam +15 (3d6+10)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks None
Special Qualities Loyalty, Like Clockwork, SR 25, Fire/Acid Resistance 30, Pieces and Parts, Construct Traits
Saves Fort +3 Ref +5 Will +2
Abilities Str 30, Dex 14, Con -, Int -, Wis 8, Cha 2
Skills None
Feats Power Attack(b)
Environment Where commanded to go.
Organization The Golden Army (4900)
Challenge Rating 9
Treasure None
Alignment True Neutral
Advancement None
Level Adjustment N/A

Called the Unstoppable Force, the Golden Army was created in ancient days for some unspecified lord or king to wield against his enemies. They proved so devastating that the lord's heart grew heavy with regret and pity for his now-decimated foes, and so he called a truce, promising to lock the Golden Army away for as long as the truce was upheld. And so the Golden Crown that commands the Army was sundered, and the Army itself locked away deep in the earth.

The stats above are for one of the 4900 Golden Warriors that composes the Army. Should the Army be awakened, the world will tremble at their sight, for the Warriors of the Golden Army are truly a terror to behold.

Loyalty (Su): The Golden Warriors obey only the orders of a rightful wearer of the Golden Crown. If there is no bearer, the Golden Warriors take no actions, not even in self-defense, trusting to their Like Clockwork ability to recover if destroyed.
Like Clockwork (Ex): The warriors of the Golden Army were build built with goblin precision. One round after it is destroyed, a warrior of the Golden Army rises from its debris completely restored, immaculate, in full-fighting capacity and with full hit points. The ability cannot be suppressed by any known method and is involuntary. A golden warrior can neither trigger nor cause the spontaneous restoration. Like Clockwork will also reattach maimed limbs, reconstruct melted parts, etc as needed to reform the construct. However, if the Golden Soldier is reduced to a pile of molten metal (as from lava immersion/massive amounts of acid damage), then it takes 3 rounds to reform completely. Like Clockwork will not function if the Golden Soldier is totally eliminated in one action, as with a disintegration effect, however it will work in any other circumstance. Partial disintegration still is subject to Like Clockwork.
Pieces and Parts(Ex): As a Golden Soldier loses hit points in battle, they begin to lose parts. When reduced to 3/4 hp, a Golden Soldier suffers a -5 ft reduction to movement, a -2 penalty to AC, and a -2 penalty to attacks. When reduced to 1/2 hp, these penalties increase to -10, -4, and -4 respectively. When at 1/4 max hp, the penalties are -15, -6, and -6.

Credit:

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Like Clockwork's credit goes the that old thread (so, Debihuman, DracoDei, Yakk, AstralFire, AgentPaper, and Djinn_In_Tonic). Pieces and Parts was inspired by Yakk, but is my own work.

The Golden Crown (Major Artifact): This unassuming gold crown is composed of three pieces. When assembled, the Crown permits any descendent of the original owner, the nameless lord that commissioned the Crown, to command the Golden Army. It's not clear who actually commissioned the Crown, nor its whereabouts in the present day, meaning almost anyone could be a descendent of that ancient bloodline. Assembling the Crown is a standard action, and commanding the Army (in any number, from all 4900 to a single soldier) is a free action. The Crown permits the wearer to sense the location of any member of the Golden Army at any time. When the Crown is worn by anyone who is not a descendent of the lord who forged the crown, it is simply a pretty and expensive gold crown.

[Mulletmanalive]

Casts Tick Tock Knock, target "stunned" [despite being a construct]

Team of three ties robot in 4 layers of rope [for a Break DC requiring a roll of 12 on the bot's part]

Rolls into hole

Fills with mud

Transmute Mud to Rock



Damn dangerous, probably worth including lesser crowns or rogue units or something, just so that actually wanting to use these without defying the core design of the creature [screw the source material, it's gotta be usable in game].

[arguskos]

Casts Tick Tock Knock, target "stunned" [despite being a construct]

Team of three ties robot in 4 layers of rope [for a Break DC requiring a roll of 12 on the bot's part]

Rolls into hole

Fills with mud

Transmute Mud to Rock

Source on Tick Tock Knock? Can't defend against something I've never actually heard of before. I don't want them defeated in one spell, that defeats the point.

Damn dangerous, probably worth including lesser crowns or rogue units or something, just so that actually wanting to use these without defying the core design of the creature [screw the source material, it's gotta be usable in game].

Eh. I mostly made them because I could. They're like the Emerald Legion: there as a super-threat in case of shenananananangins on someone's part. I like the Golden Army in a "force of nature" sort of situation, where you can't actually do more than delay them for a time, and instead have to find and kill the crown wearer.

[Mulletmanalive]

Dragonmech, though there are Eberron spells that stun/paralyse/disable constructs too.

They tend to show up in any setting that uses a lot of constructs

[Debihuman]

I'd recommend changing Like Clockwork to an Extraordinary ability rather than a Supernatural one rather than have it violate the antimagic field rule.

Transmute metal to wood should act like a slow spell when cast against a golden warrior.

You should include the means of destruction.

Debby

[sigurd]

So you're trying to make an unbeatable monster at cr 9?


S

[super dark33]

Thats their purpose actually, but is there a way to eternaly DESTROY them without makeing them an Evil sealed in a can?

[arguskos]

Thats their purpose actually, but is there a way to eternaly DESTROY them without makeing them an Evil sealed in a can?

Yes. Like Clockwork even specifies: anything that obliterates a golden warrior in a single action (so, being struck with antimatter, being wished out of existence, being entirely disintegrated, etcetcetc) destroys that warrior.

[Aergoth]

The answer to all problems: Sphere of Annihilation (or the Entropomancer, which I believe can mimic it)

[arguskos]

The answer to all problems: Sphere of Annihilation (or the Entropomancer, which I believe can mimic it)

Indeed, indeed.

Also, Debi, the Like Clockwork Ex change is done. I do want some justification for the Transmute thing though, cause I'm not seeing it. They don't have Spell Immunity like golems, just a high SR.

EDIT: sigurd, they are hardly unbeatable. They're just stupidly resilient. They can be brute forced if you really want to (see the OP, the link to DracoDei's method), it's just brutally hard.

[Tanuki Tales]

You called the Golden Warrior "Golden Soldier" in Like Clockwork.

Edit: Also, shouldn't the Crown accommodate a challenge for control of the army?