Vault Guardian [Golem]

A vault guardian can be shaped like nearly anything, from a dog to a person, though most are humanlike statues no more than 6 feet tall. It always has two limbs, hands or claws, to fight with. Intricate symbols are carved over its brow and forelimbs, and rubies serve as its eyes.

Its attack is simple: two punches of 1d10 damage each. Its real danger lies in its magic. At will it can use true seeing, detect invisibility and detect magic, and its fists strike into the Ethereal and Astral planes, hurting even creatures that only magical, silver or iron weapons can harm. It is very quick, imposing a -3 penalty on surprise rolls while protecting its charge.

Fire, magical or mundane, and cold do it no harm, and electricity deals one-quarter damage. Charm, sleep, other mind-affecting spells and poisons all fail. Its tough build means edged and piercing weapons deal one-quarter damage, while blunt weapons such as maces or hammers deal half unless enchanted to +1 or better, in which case they hit normally.

Earth magic is its weakness. Rock to mud deals 2d10 damage and roots it in place for one round. Earthquake or stone shape destroys it instantly, with no saving throw.

These sentinels live in treasure vaults. They were first designed by the wizards of a wealthy merchant nation to protect the hoards of its trading houses. Later a secretive cabal of wizards learned the secret and began building them for the lords of a fortress-city and elsewhere, charging hugely inflated prices.

During creation each guardian receives a permanent key word, which the wizard passes to the buyer. The key word must precede any order, and the guardian can learn up to 100 command phrases besides. Many dishonest makers keep a record of the key words they sold, ready to exploit later.

A vault guardian is a magical construct that never eats or sleeps. Something of a blend of stone and iron golems, it is somewhat cheaper than either but takes almost a year to build and needs extra enchantments. The wizard must be at least 18th level and able to cast, from memory or scroll, true seeing, haste, statue, fabricate, wall of iron, detect invisibility, detect magic, permanency, and wish or limited wish. The breastplate of a suit of plate mail of etherealness is melded into its body, which is what lets it hit creatures caught between planes. Each ruby eye must be worth at least 500 gp. Total cost runs 40,000 to 70,000 gp plus spells; without the spells, it may cost more than a stone or iron golem. Makers sell them for up to three times what they cost to build.