Brain Golem

The brain golem looks like a towering, heavily muscled humanoid whose head is one enormous brain. In truth the entire body is brain matter wrapped in a thin, slick membrane of skin. It is smarter than most golems but has no means of communicating at all.

Mind reavers use these golems as muscle and sentries. A brain golem fights only when commanded or when someone tries to reach the thing it guards, and it will never attack a mind reaver under any circumstances, which makes it of limited use when reavers fight each other.

It understands a battlefield better than other golems do. It goes for wizards first, aware that one quick blow can kill such a frail opponent, and it seems able to sense roughly how badly hurt each foe is, so after the wizard falls it moves on to whoever is weakest. It strikes with a single fast punch each round; its one-track mind cannot coordinate both fists, but one is usually enough.

Once per turn it can release a version of the mind reaver's mental blast that hits everyone within 60 feet. Those who fail a save vs. spell take 2d8 damage and spend 1d10 rounds stunned, while those who resist take 1d8 and lose initiative on the next round. It usually saves this attack until it has 15 hit points or fewer, or until a mind reaver orders it.

As with all golems it is immune to poison and to mind-affecting magic such as charms and illusions. Death magic also has no effect on it.

Mind reavers employ brain golems as they do every slave: as heavy guards against monsters that resist psychic assault or the reavers' own physical attacks, and as labor for chores beneath them, such as watching over food stores and captives. Because the golems are utterly loyal and obedient, the reavers prefer them to any other servant. Among the zerathi, the bitter saying 'treated like a brain golem' describes a slave master's rare kindness.

One sage records the account of two human captives who escaped the reavers after apparently witnessing a brain golem's creation. They could not identify the magic used, but the body seemed to be pieced together from the brains of several different races. The head came from part of the reaver hivemind itself, and the skin was a membrane that seeped out of the same being. No reaver city or community keeps more than 25 brain golems, likely because they are unwilling to carve too much tissue from their cherished hivemind.

Outside its masters' service the brain golem has no ecological role. According to that same sage, though, parts of its body are useful for making magical items that affect the mind.