Golem I [Mystara]

Golems are constructs, mighty enchanted beings built and animated by high-level wizards or priests from nearly any substance, and new varieties are always possible. Every golem described here is untouched by poison or by attacks on the mind and shrugs off most spells, with exceptions noted for each type. They follow their makers' direct control, understand only simple orders, and are often set to watch over great treasures or important sites. They have no society, no preferred habitat and no place in nature; they never eat or sleep, and they last until something destroys them, usually in battle.

Amber golems usually take the shape of huge cats, lions and tigers most of all. Carved with great skill from semitranslucent amber, they are strikingly beautiful when at rest. In combat they are tireless, pouncing on foes to rake with claws and bite with teeth of jagged amber splinters.

As trackers they are nearly flawless and excel at hunting down fleeing enemies. It follows any trail under 12 hours old without fail, and each further 12 hours adds a 5% chance of losing it; a 48-hour-old trail, for instance, is followed 85% of the time. They make fine sentries too, able to detect invisibility out to 60 feet.

Only magical weapons harm an amber golem. It counts as a crystalline creature for shatter, suffering 1d6 per level of the caster (6d6 at most), with a save for half. Fire spells deal half damage; all other spells fail against it.

When destroyed, it breaks into large amber shards weighing 1d4+2 hundred pounds in all and worth 1d4+2 thousand gold pieces. Only a priest of 7th level or higher can make one, spending 100,000 gp and four months of work and casting command, quest, prayer, animate object and animal summoning III.

Also called a bone golem, this construct is a man-sized frame of human bones lashed together in a crude copy of a body, except that it has four arms, sprouting wherever its maker chose to attach them. Some wizards carve or paint ownership runes on the bones, making the thing even more ghastly.

With four arms it can swing four weapons at once, or a pair of two-handed ones, and attack two different foes in one round. Only magical weapons damage it. Beyond the usual golem immunities, it is unharmed by fire, cold and electricity, though spells with other effects still work on it.

Unscrupulous wizards of one sorcerous empire are said to delight in building skeletal golems to keep outsiders, rival mages above all, away from their homes and laboratories. A wizard of 14th level or higher can make one in three months for 30,000 gp, using animate dead, geas, limited wish and stoneskin.