Golem Overview [Dark Sun]

Golems everywhere are mighty automatons born from strong magic poured into chosen materials, but those of the desert world differ in nature and kind from golems elsewhere, shaped by its harsh culture and legends. Eight kinds are known: sand, salt, rock, wood, obsidian, magma, ash and chitin.

No one remembers where the first ones came from. Today sorcerer tyrants, high templars and powerful wizards still build them, guarding the method as fiercely as a dragon guards gold.

Each golem needs a particular material because that substance ties it to one of the quasielemental or paraelemental planes. The body becomes a channel for the enormous power of a spirit from that plane, and the spirit, attuned to the matching element, breathes life into the blend of matter and sorcery. Only flawless craftsmanship forges this bond, which then holds until some equally colossal force breaks it.

Most sages, despite trying, do not truly understand how the spirit is trapped. Worse, the sorcerer tyrants and templars who make golems with such effort are blind to much of the danger as well. A spirit chained to the world in a golem's body resents its prison and hates not only its maker but all life on the material plane. How each bound spirit reacts to orders is covered under the individual golem types.

Building the body is enormously intricate. The skill is rare, and a golem frequently needs several makers, some to shape the form and others to perform the enchantment.

Whatever their differences, these golems share key traits. Only weapons of +1 or better can damage them. They are immune to poison, disease, suffocation and spells that work on the mind, such as charm, sleep, suggestion and feeblemind. Most psionic disciplines fail against them too, apart from telekinesis and psychoportation, whose effects work on the body rather than the mind; golems have no psionic ability themselves.

Dispel magic is a valuable weapon. It does not break the golem's binding, but unless the golem saves vs. spell it collapses, apparently lifeless, for 1 round per caster level. The spirit stays trapped throughout; it is merely released from its maker's commands for that time, without the power to move the body.

Beyond the requirements below, every maker must know the secret arcana that link spirit to body, lore held only by the sorcerer tyrants and the templars they trust most. In every case the listed components are consumed.

Ash: a wizard of 16th level or higher casts a body from ash mixed with fire drake blood in a mold carved to the golem's shape; other components cost 2,000 gp; spells are wish, geas, burning hands and polymorph any object.

Chitin: a defiler of 17th level or higher arranges insect carcasses into the golem's form, usually dead pack insects though any carapace serves, then coats it in an ointment of earth drake blood. Components cost 2,500 gp and include an elixir pressed from potion fruits granting vitality and animal control. Spells: animate dead, geas, polymorph other, wish.

Magma: a defiler of 18th level or higher gathers raw matter from a great ring of volcanoes and shapes it in a diamond mold costing 10,000 gp, the one component not used up. The remaining ingredients, sulfur, volcanic ash and flint, total just 100 gp. Shaping and casting take six months. Spells: stone shape, wish, geas, meteor swarm.

Rock: a defiler of 16th level or higher carves the body over two months from a single stone block weighing 2,000 pounds or more; components cost 2,000 gp. Spells: move earth, wish, polymorph any object, geas.

Salt: any wizard of 18th level or higher carves a 2,000-pound block of rock salt over two months; components cost 2,000 gp. Spells: wish, polymorph any object, move earth, geas.

Sand: a wizard of 15th level or higher packs damp sand into a clay mold of the golem's form. Components cost 1,500 gp and must include a cubic foot of silt from the silt sea. The spells match a stone golem's: geas, polymorph any object, slow, wish.

Wood: a druid of 15th level or higher binds together at least five kinds of wood, one per limb and one for head and torso, using specially prepared vines; the wood must have been dead for a month or more. Components cost 1,000 gp. Spells: animate object, bless, commune, entangle, imbue with spell ability, plant growth, prayer.