Magic Golem

A magic golem is a human-shaped figure of shimmering yellow energy, pure magic given form. It is the unnatural fusion of a person with a patch of wild magic. After the cataclysm that cast the gods down to walk the world, a secretive cabal of wizards set out to map every wild magic zone in order to study them. On one expedition into a distant region of nomad steppes, a disastrous chain of spells cast by one cabal wizard merged a companion with the untamed magic around him, and the first magic golem was born.

Everything magical within 20 feet of the golem is drained into it. Spells vanish the moment they are cast, and ongoing spells end and are swallowed after one round, apart from the two exceptions below. Enchanted items lose one plus per round (a long sword +2 becomes +1), and charged items lose 1d6 charges each round. Magical weapons cannot hurt it at all, but ordinary weapons, or magical ones already drained dry, can.

It fights by firing bolts of raw magic out to 75 yards for 3d10 damage. These bolts ignore all magical bonuses to Armor Class, so only the target's actual armor and Dexterity count. They cannot get through an anti-magic shell or prismatic sphere until the golem has absorbed the barrier, which takes six rounds for the shell and seven for the sphere.

Dispel magic is useless, since it is soaked up as it is cast. A limited wish, however, suppresses the absorption for one round per caster level, and a wish suppresses it for an hour; during that time magic and magical effects affect the golem normally.

Its link to wild magic forces it to vent a surge of energy once per day. It may aim this flare as a deliberate attack on top of its normal attack that round. Roll 1d10 on the wild flare table to see what form it takes; spell-like results function at 16th level unless stated otherwise.

Magic golems are very dim, and any wizard of 12th level or higher can master one by sheer force of will. With no such wizard around, it drifts aimlessly looking for magic to feed on. If it wanders into another wild magic zone, it stays and slowly drinks the whole area dry, which may need anything from an hour to a month, as larger zones take longer. Absorbing a zone, of whatever size, raises the golem's Hit Dice and hit points by 50%. Afterward it is beyond control for at least a week, attacking anyone who carries or uses magic, before a wizard can master it again.

It needs neither food nor sleep and will endure as long as magic exists. Some theorize that a dead magic zone, another legacy of the same cataclysm, would annihilate a golem on contact, the two cancelling out and leaving an area of normal magic. Because magic golems are so rare, the cabal has refused to test the idea.

The cabal stumbled on the method by accident. A wizard of 12th level or higher, standing in a wild magic zone, casts on himself, in this exact order, detect magic, mnemonic enhancer and anti-magic shell. All three must go off normally, escaping the zone's wild effects. If they do, he can turn another wizard in the zone into a magic golem; the victim gets no saving throw, though magic resistance applies. The new golem obeys its maker, and the wild magic zone is gone, absorbed into the creature as it forms.

Given how unpredictable wild magic is, the odds of success are under 1%. Only three magic golems are known, all held by the cabal.