Hammer Golem conversion

Golem, Hammer
Large Construct
Hit Dice: 14d10 (77 hp)
Initiative: -1 (Dex)
Speed: 20 ft. (can't run), burrow 20 ft.
AC: 33 (-1 size, -1 Dex, +10 adamantine half-plate, +15 natural)
Attacks: Hammer +18 melee, pick +13 melee
Damage: Hammer 1d10+9 (crit x3), large pick 1d8+4 (crit x4) or greataxe 1d12+4 (crit x3)
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Pounding force
Special Qualities: Construct, magic immunity, damage reduction 20/+1
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +4
Abilities: Str 29, Dex 9, Con -, Int -, Wis 11, Cha 1
Climate/Terrain: Any land and underground
Organization: Solitary or gang (2-4)
Challenge Rating: 11
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 15-21 HD (Large); 22-42 HD (Huge)

The nightmare of orcs and other dwarven enemies, this rare golem is constructed by dwarves themselves. The process is as rare and secretively kept as the manufacture of the most powerful dwarven magical weapons.

A hammer golem stands about 9' tall and weighs about 2,000 lbs. It resembles a gigantic stone dwarf (beard included) covered in adamantine half-plate. Its forearms have been replaced by two weapons - a hammer on the right arm and a pickaxe or axe on its left.

Hammer golems are made by dwarven priests for use as guards, warriors, or massive miners (they can tunnel through rock at their burrow speed). A hammer golem created for war possesses a greataxe on the left arm, and one for mining has pickaxes on both.

Combat:

This golem attacks only if ordered by its master, if it encounter orcs, or if it is kept from its assigned task. The latter condition allows it to attack if someone tries to get at what the golem is guarding when it is carrying out this task. When without a master, a hammer golem attacks anything in front of it until the opponents leave it or its charge alone or are dead. If the opponents are goblinoids, only their death or the golem's destruction will break off its attack.

Pounding Force (Su): A hammer golem can employ pounding force once per minute. The pounding force inflicts 4d6 points of damageand pushes away all creatures within 60 ft. of the hammer golem. Treat this as a bull rush with a +15 bonus on the Strength check (+9 for Strength 29, +4 for being Large, and +2 for charging bonus, which it always gets). The force always moves with the creature to push it back the full distance allowed, and it has no speed limit.

Construct: Immune to mind-influencing effects, poison, disease, and similar effects. Not subject to critical hits, subdual damage, ability damage, energy drain, or death from massive damage.

Magic Immunity (Ex): A hammer golem is immune to all spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural effects, except as follows. A wish spell affects the golem as the caster wants. A stone to flesh spell restores the golem to full hit points.

Converted from Dragon Magazine #193 (Live Statues and Stone Men: Golems of the Underdark by John Power)

NOTES:
*The pounding force ability used to have the effects of a repulsion spell. However, this spell has changed drasticallly from 2e to 3e, so in order to capture the feel of the ability, I changed it to be similar to a Bigby's forceful hand spell and the ring of the ram.

Feedback is appreciated.

a great golem idea

My question is with Pounding Force... is the special effect similar to when Sauron waved away dozens of warriers with a swipe of his weapon in "Lord of the Rings"? Or is it achieved by the hammer golem pounding on the ground REALLY hard? You might want to clarify the ability more precisely.

I need to review the rules for a bull rush myself, but I'll assume that using that rule set is more realistic than giving people a saving throw.

Also, on the magic immunity list, there doesn't seem to be any weakness other than a wish spell.

Mathematically, though, very sound.

- Devon

Thanks for the feedback!

Devon - I converted the hammer golem from Dragon Magazine #193. In the original ariticle, it didn't really explain how the hammer golem initiates the pounding force. Personally, I see it as the hammer golem pounding the ground, creating something like a shockwave, as it seems to fit the "mindless construct" better than the magical blast.

Devon and Krishnath - As for the magic immunities, I tried to do a straight conversion, and not add anything to it. But I don't see any reason a weakness to shatter or another spell would harm game balance or affect the CR much.

the hammer, brain, and spiderstone golem were reformatted and reprinted in the MC Annual 1 (with awesome art by Tony Diterlizzi!!). you might want to check there to see if they explained anything differently.

What's the MC?
Also, what's the price/spells/req. level to make one of these goblin smashers?

BOZ, I checked the MC Annual, and the version there had no additional info on the pounding force ability. The entry appeared to be almost identical to the original Dragon article. Thanks for the tip, though.

Krishnath - I agree that an additional spell weakness would be fine, but I didn't want to add anything to the conversion. I wanted to adhere to the original creator's intentions, and leave it up to DMs to customize it as they'd like. I compared the Iron and Stone golems to their 2E counterparts, and they appeared to have the same weaknesses as before, with no additional weaknesses. As designed by the author, the hammer golem's only weakness was the wish spell.

Deranged Youth - Like the brain golem, I didn't include construction costs and the like since the orginal author didn't include any provisions for construction. Personally, I'd probably go with the following:

The golem costs 100,000 gp to create, including 1,500 gp for the body and 11,200 gp for the adamantine half-plate. Assembling the body requires a successful Craft (sculpting or masonry) check (DC 20). The ritual requires a 16th-level dwarven creator who can cast divine spells. Completing the ritual drains 2,000 XP from the creator and requires animate objects, geas/quest, repulsion, prayer, and spiritual hammer.