Porcelain Figurine

Tigers remain the usual shape, glazed a rich orange, striped in black, with eyes of yellow-green, though some newer pieces take the form of rakshasa and carry paint suited to that shape. They never speak, but they grasp their master's orders perfectly and carry them out without hesitation. Makers in a sweltering jungle domain of the misty dread realm produce them, but few dare, partly because porcelain is hard to work and partly because whispers claim that making one draws the notice of the dark powers of the realm.

A figurine fights only when its master commands it. At tabletop size it gets one bite or claw per round for 1d4 damage. Pressed hard, or on command, it can swell to the bulk of an adult tiger, about 9 feet long, and then rakes twice for 1d4+1 each and bites for 1d10.

It has a tiger's sharp senses and more. Its eyes grant infravision and let it spot invisible things out to 120 feet. Three times a day it can shoot a black bolt of energy from its eyes that works like enervation, except that a hit drains only one level.

Weapons of less than +2 enchantment cannot harm it. A glassteel spell gives it Armor Class 1 and keeps the brittle porcelain from cracking or chipping in daily use. Fire, magical or not, does nothing to it, but cold and electricity deal full damage.

Owners post these golems as sentries over treasures and important sites, and many keep one at their side as a bodyguard. That closeness cuts both ways: the figurine can break free of its creator's control at any moment and turn on him.

Only the finest white or gray clay will do. The figure is shaped much like a ceramic figurine, with a vent hole in its base so it will not burst in the kiln. Once cool it is painted with pigment mixed from the blood of a great cat and of the golem's future master.

Animation takes a long chain of spells: animate object (or polymorph any object), then limited wish (or raise dead), then enchant an item and enlarge, infravision, detect invisibility, glassteel, enervation and audible glamer, with permanency cast last to hold them all. A kiln, a potter's wheel, brushes and pigments are all required. Two months and 15,000 gp complete the job.