Golem Thread

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I get what you're saying, but I find the sentiment reminiscent of the idea that magic is less magical when more people have access to it, or if it can be automated, etc. I don't find those types of settings as attractive as the kitchen sink approach.

I prefer it when what I consider fantastical is somewhat commonplace, and culture and technology evolved around it rather than magic being some rare and wonderful outside force.

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The thing is I feel reducing magic to too scientific a line of thinking is counterproductive. There can be laws, sure, but it should still be drenched in a heavy dose of mysticism. Alchemy instead of chemistry, if that makes any sense.

I went and made golem making a tiered system that represent a wizard's progressive attempts to create life. You start by giving motion to the inanimate and then start adding more complex things like motivation and autonomy. Cheap labourers are just a convenient by-product.

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I like two types of golems overall.
One is the animated and cobbled together type with a overarching theme, like with Circle Orboros. See pic.
The other type is the one built around craftsmanship, great works of art that come to life from time and esoteric knowledge lovingly inscribed into them.

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Golems as housepets!

Golems r cool

I bet the artist must have just read that Clive Barker story before drawing this

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I don't see why it can't be the case. I think when a lot of people see a more science like approach to magic it's somehow devoid of mysticism.

I mean, are you saying it's impossible to have some kind of cult like groups who use science magic? You still have to be initiated into the secret knowledge they present and most people arn't going to be privy to how and why they do the things they do or the symbols they wear and what they mean.

So for me, yeah, the wizard looks like a typical guy of the age but the common person it's going to know or understand why he has a predator style golem standing behind him, decloaking, and coming up to snatch you away while he lights a smoke just as you see his braclet that has weird math looking symbols on it

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I prefer my golems to be big and/or at least somewhat mechanical. Otherwise, they might as well just be bound elementals of some sort or other.

Alternatively, I like the ones that look that they rezzed/created themselves spontaneously from ruins or the wrecks of other constructs.

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Recent campaign i played was underwater/atlantean. the bbeg was an elven mage in an underground volcanic hideaway where he released potion-wastes and other chemicals into the ocean and destroying the area. near there there was this coral reef that stood out and it turned out to be a coral golem. It was hard in some places, sharp and poisonous in others and could regrow in most spots. Nearly killed my barbarian Sharkman with all the poison and coral left in me.

>probably aren't technically golems at all
You're right user, that looks more like a robot.

In my modernish setting, I really wanted a golem enemy--it would be unique to other robotics in that its engineer wanted to reduce dependency on electronics (for better EMP protection, maybe just prove it could be created).
I still wonder how many little gears and switches it would take to enable the thing to operate as a vanguard to a dungeon. This would have been characterized as repeated, whirring pauses between actions as it tried to process even information-light perception apparatuses.

There are actually significant differences between golems and robots. A robot is a highly complex and non magical creation, and usually made in factories. It uses a non magical power source such as a powerful battery or tiny fusion reactor or whatever, though it could theoretically use a magical source that isnt elemental spirits. Its very easy to break a robot and its programming is non magical. They are capable of complex interactions with the environment, often with little oversight. In PF a robot has an intelligence score, vulnerability to electricity, and difficulty to create requiring lots of technological resources.

Golems are simple,magical, and usually one offs. Usually of a single material, with a rough form. They are "powered" by elemental spirits which are unruly and are the basic components of soul stuff filtered through the elemental planes. They have much in common with elementals in fact. In addition, golems feature powerful magical defenses. Golems are only capable of simplistic interactions with the environment, requiring lots of oversight for more complex actions, while being prone to going berserk and destroying everything. Golems are easy to create, lack intelligence scores, and are immune to magic

A perfect representation of the difference between a robot and a golem is the robot golem. It's the reanimated broken remains of a robot via infusion with elemental spirits and given a second life as a simple guard, attacking anything that enters an area.

A neat inbetween state is clockwork constructs. Half robot, half golem, they bridge the gap between high tech and high magic.

I really like the way PF does it, with at least three different ways to achieve your artificial creation that mimics life.

d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/constructs/robot/robot-gearsman/
I really like the way they designed the looks of those robots.

I ran two campaigns in the same world once after a group initially failed to stop the BBEG. The original group's character were infiltrating a castle defended by a sorcerer, who had put runes of suffocation at the entrances. The alchemist of the party spotted a rune but let the party ranger go forward, who ended up dying. Alchemist survived with most of the party's loot as the campaign ended but was haunted by the death of his ranger friend that he was too selfish/curious to prevent.

queue campaign two, the alchemist became an NPC and did a lot of good for the world, had a series of wizard towers across the continent. The new party finds one of these towers and discovers some sort of golem on the top floor in a frankenstein style lab, apparently out of juice. They charge it up and trick it into pulling their cart. One night when the person who had played the ranger was taking watch, he heard the golem muttering. He got closer and it was muttering "favored enemy bonus... favored terrain bonus...", the look on his face when he realized what the alchemist had done was priceless.

>What are your thoughts on Golems and other constructs?
I like them.

>Have you ever used them in campaigns and if so how?
Not any different than anyone else. Currently helping a friend make a specialization based on a construct familiar. African dolls* are mortal-spirit intermediaries which one might build and invite a spirit to make it a home, granting powers to the doll and/or crafter. Really fits well with the notion that blacksmiths are magic users in african folklore, so it's going to be artificer-like, perhaps also making other things to invite spirits into, and having more dolls working at the same time as levels advance.

*Turns out that 'vodoo dolls' is just plain racism. The doll one stuck nails into is european, called 'poppit'.

>Whats your favorite kind of golem and material it uses?
Bismuth crystal. A magitek city has a living wall made of it, and it makes golems out of blocks of itself to experience the world, play with the local kids etc.

The moon also has crystalorigamic creatures, made of crystalline sheets folding and unfolding to move.

Bismuth?

Bismuth.

This.

I love the idea of walking cities.

Pet rock + Chia pet + small animal = Too good to be true.

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Magnificent.

>no user, you are the golems
and then user was a warforged

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I hate those fucking things

Xelor are a good base for not-Warforged in a high magic setting.

At least they're easy to run past

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what's the context here?

The game's entire world is upon the bodies of two continent-sized robots which impaled each other with their weapons. One is biological and is full of animals and plants and the other is entirely mechanical and full of robots. It is rad as hell.

post more golems

Posting

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I feel for this giant, this is a good pic

Maybe a 20 minutes into the __past setting

Well, it's actually a piloted mech.

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So, what do you think about using golems as a walking gardens?

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It would have to be really fucking big. Even something as simple as a rudimentary calculator gets pretty large when you want to do everything mechanically.

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I used a Straw golden as the enemy in a horror one shot. It had knives for claws and was disguising itself as a scarecrow.

The group got way old track after seeing the scratches and gashes and figures it was a werewolf. Still, once they figured it out, it was also neat since the thing had an exploitable weakness to fire.

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I love the golem chilling in the hot tub.

Why is that head-at-shoulder-level monsters induce sort of a primal fear in me?
Have creatures like this ever existed?

Which has more Golem types; D&D or Pathfinder?

Some apes maybe. Not much else, unless you count quadrupeds like pigs.

Motherfucker.

20 minutes too soon.

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Classic golem best golem

What systems would support a PC Golem/Golemancer?

I know for a fact that Fantasy Craft lets you play as a construct.

I had a golem set to kill anything that touched a treasure chest, so the party psion got it to commit suicide by telekinetically beating it with the chest

Eberron

Golem be ye gone!