Golem I [Dark Sun]

An ash golem is a gray figure 8 feet tall yet astonishingly light at just 150 pounds. Fine ash sifts from its body with every step, so following one is no challenge. It turns up in settled lands bordering the stony barrens of the desert world's plains.

Fire of any kind deals it only half damage. Weapons are at risk as well: a melee attack that misses by more than 4 sticks fast in the golem's body, and the weapon must save vs. magical fire. Success pulls it free undamaged; failure destroys it.

Its heavy arms club for 3d6 damage. Three times a day it may try a burning grasp: any hit on a natural roll of 17 or more means the victim is seized, taking the usual 3d6 that round and 1d10 fire damage each round afterward while held. The golem lets go if the victim makes an open doors roll or if allies deal it 20 or more points of damage in a single round. Once per day it can also hurl a fireball as an 8th-level caster.

The ash it sheds is caustic. One to two hours after touching bare skin it begins eating away at the flesh for 1d4 damage per turn until scrubbed off completely, roughly an hour's work; a heal spell also removes it. Anyone the golem strikes is coated with the same dust and suffers the same way.

Chitin golems are lanky humanoids up to 10 feet tall and 200-250 pounds, with arms dangling past their knees and no real face, though they growl when angered. Up close they carry a faint smell of rot. Their gait looks wobbly and unsteady.

Necromantic magic goes into their making, so they ignore every necromantic spell no matter the caster's level, and any spell from a being of under 5 Hit Dice or levels. They claw for 2d10, and the claws are venomous: a victim who fails a save vs. poison takes 2d6 more damage and loses 1d4 Strength for 2 turns, while one who saves takes an extra 1d6 and keeps its Strength.

They are dangerous foes but uncommon, appearing mostly in the desert world's forests. Sorcerer tyrants rarely post them in their fortresses; most are built by necromancer defilers to guard their own homes.