Fiend Factory 5E. White Dwarf Issue 22: The Crystal Golem

WD22 The Crystal Golem

The Fiend Factory column of Issue 22 is titled “The Heavy Brigade”, and mostly features very high-level foes.

First up we have the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, by Ian Cooper, although they share little in common with the entities described in Revelation, perhaps for the better.

These Four Horsemen are vassals of Orcus, led by a 25^th-level Lich called Ky who wears a magical crown that bestows further psionic powers on him and will destroy the mind of anyone under 15^th level that tries to wear it.

The other three horsemen are all advanced skeletons. Lom has psionic powers and wields a magical greatsword. Samazan wields a magical Axe of the Minotaur which he stole from a powerful minotaur (perhaps one could make it Baphomet), and Ogaa was a retiarus, fighting with a magical net and a monk’s unarmed strikes. All of the Horsemen also have powers over undead, can turn clerics in a bit of a turnabout as fair play, and have an ability called Lose Hope whereby the victim not only gives up any actions but also begins to rot.

For powerful creatures, they don’t have much in the way of immunities (they can be hit by +1 weapons or better, which for 1^st Ed is nothing special and puts them only on a par with, say, gargoyles). I think with a bit of extra boosting these four could be turned into some really good high-level enemies, forming a climactic element to a campaign.

Next, Peter Cockburn gives us stats for Tolkien’s Ungoliant, that unreliable ally of Morgoth in the Silmarillion and the ultimate source of all the evil spider creatures in Middle Earth, from Shelob to the Mirkwood brood.

She’s suitably monstrous, able to deal large amounts of physical damage, swallow creatures whole on a critical, exudes a contact poison, has a poisonous breath and her eyes have the same effect as those of a beholder. She does, however, have weaknesses – a soft underbelly and a vulnerability to light (once her surrounding “unlight” is destroyed).

It’s okay, perhaps a bit of a mish-mash of abilities for my liking. In Issue 24, Ian Turton of Tonbridge in Kent (is he a “Disgusted of Tonbridge Wells”?) is shocked, shocked I tell you, upon reading these statistics.

I’ll also note that Ungoliant comes up very poorly in a future “best/worst of Fiend Factory” poll, which I’ll flag up when it appear.

The New Favourite Roger, Roger E Moore, gives us the Capricorn, which in this case is a good-aligned elemental creature.

These creatures are keepers of lore, allies of tritons and haters of sahuagin. They’re also highly psionic (it must be a trend at this time), but only use psionics if they are used against it (handy). They’re okay, I guess, but also not terribly exciting to me. Makes me wonder if one could do the other zodiac signs, though. Once again, Alan Hunter gives us a pretty weak illustration.

But not as bad as that for my pick of the week, Robert Outram's Crystal Golem. Hold onto your hats, because this is possibly the worst monster illustration in the whole history of White Dwarf.

 

Give it a day or two to recover from that.

So, “a strong as a stone golem”; I may as well use the Stone Golem base stats. Vulnerable to +2 or better weapons converts simply to resistance to nonmagical damage, and the fire and cold damage may as well be resistance. There are plenty of creatures that can absorb lightning, and this discharge ability can be turned into an action.

Since glassteel and glassee don’t exist in 5^th Edition, I’m going to ignore that (and stick with the usual golem ability to shrug off attempts to change its shape or form).

The prismatic spray discharge can also be turned into a special ability, and the colour spray is a simple action.

Finally, 3-24 damage with its fists is 3d8, so I’ll use that as the base attack.

I’ll keep all of the other standard golem damage and condition immunities as they’re pretty much construct standard issue.

And there we are:

Crystal Golem

Large construct, unaligned

Armour Class 16 (natural armour) Hit Points 122 (12d10 + 60) Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 22 (+6) 9 (-1) 20 (+5) 1 (-5) 11 (+0) 1 (-5)

Proficiency Bonus +4 Damage Immunities lightning, poison, psychic; bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with adamantine weapons Damage Resistances cold, fire Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralysed, petrified, poisoned Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 10

Languages understands the language of its creator but can’t speak

Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)

Immutable Form. The golem is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form. Lightning Absorption. If the golem is subjected to lightning damage, it instead takes no damage and can discharge half the rolled amount with its slam attack within the next two turns. Magic Weapons. The golem’s weapon attacks are magical. Prismatic Spray Absorption. If the golem is subjected to the prismatic spray spell, it takes no damage and can store the spell within its body, casting it as an action within the next 24 hours. While the golem has a spell stored, it cannot store another but it is not affected by any subsequent prismatic spray spells. If it doesn’t use the spell within 24 hours, the magic dissipates harmlessly. ACTIONS

Multiattack. The golem makes two slam attacks. Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage. Colour Spray (Recharge 5-6). The golem casts colour spray as a 4th level spell slot (affecting 12d10 Hit Dice of creatures within a 15 foot cone)