Shade
Monster Junkie
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Converting Monsters from Dungeon Magazine
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Shade
Monster Junkie
Sleepwalkers
These dangerous golems are the creation of Homayoun Bey, the ruler of this chapter of the Brotherhood. They appear to be humans with glowing red eyes, wearing red caftans and pantaloons and wielding saw-edged scimitars. The golems were named Sleepwalkers by the peasants of the Valley of the Mist because of their slow, shambling golem-strides and their tendency to bump into things and knock furniture over. Though Homayoun wanted to name them Flame Sentinels, the peasants’ name stuck.
Sleepwalkers are essentially minor flesh golems with a few alterations. Each has flaming oil as its blood, which gives the creature a slightly luminescent, orangish skin tone. If slain, the golem bursts into flame and disintegrates, but this does not harm bystanders unless someone is directly touching the golem when it is destroyed. In this case, the victim suffers 2d8 hp damage, with a save vs. spell for half damage. Though skinny, a Sleepwalker is incredibly strong, equivalent to a Strength of 19. Each golem bears a saw-edged scimitar which it uses in battle, causing 1d8+1 hp damage plus its Strength bonus of +7. While the jagged edges on the sword give it an additional point of damage, it weakens the blade and any attack roll of 1 indicates the sword has shattered. If disarmed, a Sleepwalker may punch once per round for 1d2+7 points of damage.
If the Sleepwalker has a weakness, it is its stupidity. Complex instructions are inevitabley bungled, for the golems may be trusted with only the simplest and most repetitive of taks. The Sleepwalker has the usual vulnerability to lightning and is not healed as normal flesh golems are. However, because of their fiery blood, they are resistant to fire, receiving a +4 bonus to flame-based saves, with damage reduced by four points per die, to a minimum of 0 points per die.
Sleepwalkers: Int semi-; AL N; AC 5; MV 9; HD 7; hp 49 each; THAC0 14; #AT 1; Dmg 1d8+8; SA Strength equivalent to 19; SD immune to mind-affecting spells, fire resistance; ML 20; XP 1,400.
Originally appeared in Dungeon Magazine #63 (1997).
These dangerous golems are the creation of Homayoun Bey, the ruler of this chapter of the Brotherhood. They appear to be humans with glowing red eyes, wearing red caftans and pantaloons and wielding saw-edged scimitars. The golems were named Sleepwalkers by the peasants of the Valley of the Mist because of their slow, shambling golem-strides and their tendency to bump into things and knock furniture over. Though Homayoun wanted to name them Flame Sentinels, the peasants’ name stuck.
Sleepwalkers are essentially minor flesh golems with a few alterations. Each has flaming oil as its blood, which gives the creature a slightly luminescent, orangish skin tone. If slain, the golem bursts into flame and disintegrates, but this does not harm bystanders unless someone is directly touching the golem when it is destroyed. In this case, the victim suffers 2d8 hp damage, with a save vs. spell for half damage. Though skinny, a Sleepwalker is incredibly strong, equivalent to a Strength of 19. Each golem bears a saw-edged scimitar which it uses in battle, causing 1d8+1 hp damage plus its Strength bonus of +7. While the jagged edges on the sword give it an additional point of damage, it weakens the blade and any attack roll of 1 indicates the sword has shattered. If disarmed, a Sleepwalker may punch once per round for 1d2+7 points of damage.
If the Sleepwalker has a weakness, it is its stupidity. Complex instructions are inevitabley bungled, for the golems may be trusted with only the simplest and most repetitive of taks. The Sleepwalker has the usual vulnerability to lightning and is not healed as normal flesh golems are. However, because of their fiery blood, they are resistant to fire, receiving a +4 bonus to flame-based saves, with damage reduced by four points per die, to a minimum of 0 points per die.
Sleepwalkers: Int semi-; AL N; AC 5; MV 9; HD 7; hp 49 each; THAC0 14; #AT 1; Dmg 1d8+8; SA Strength equivalent to 19; SD immune to mind-affecting spells, fire resistance; ML 20; XP 1,400.
Originally appeared in Dungeon Magazine #63 (1997).
Cleon
Hero
So these are basically fire resistant Flesh Golems which are stupid, clumsy and armed with scimitars, that explode in flames upon death.
The +7 damage suggests either Strength 20-21 (wielding scimitars 2-handed) or Strength 24. We may as well give them Strength 20 since they're a minor version of the Flesh Golem, which has Str 21 in the SRD.
Its Dexterity and Wisdom should be at least a couple of points lower than the standard 'Frankenstein' golem, since they're said to be clumsier and stupider.
We can't make them less intelligent than the 3rd edition Flesh Golem though, since the rules don't allow for negative Intelligence scores, but we can make them less wise.
Actually, I quite like the idea of giving them Intelligence 3, since the original Semi-Intelligent. It'll allow us to give them feats. I'd like to knock of another few points of Wisdom though, to represent their "unbelievably thick" trait.
That would give us something like:
Abilities: Str 20, Dex 7, Con -, Int 3, Wis 6, Cha 1
Are they as big as regular flesh golems (8 feet), or shall we make them slightly smaller as they have fewer Hit Dice? e.g. Medium-sized, 7 feet tall and 300 pounds. I think I prefer them a bit smaller than a regular Flesh Golem. Their scimitars use a d8 for damage, which is the standard AD&D damage for that weapon (if you ignore the +1 for them being all jaggedy).
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
I think the idea is that they're Medium. Closer to the human archetype. I like the idea of giving them a low Intelligence score and a bad Wisdom.
Cleon
Hero
Falchion's good, and it's a better fit to the jagged scimitar's 1d8+1 damage.
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Minus 4 points per die suggests serious fire resistance. 20?
5d6 for the death throes, perhaps?
5d6 for the death throes, perhaps?
Cleon
Hero
Since the original specifically states it's filled with flaming oil, how about basing it on the 3E equivalent of Alchemist's Fire, with the damage boosted one dice size for the greater quantity?
Flaming Death Throes (Ex): When a sleepwalker is destroyed it sprays alchemist's fire from its death wound. All creatures within a 5 foot burst of the golem take 1d3 points of fire damage, except the opponent who struck the final blow who takes 1d8 fire damage (assuming they didn't destroy the golem from outside the 5 foot range of its Death Throes). On the round following the golem's destruction, the attacker who destroyed the golem takes an additional 1d8 points of fire damage. If desired, the golem's destroyer can use a full-round action to attempt to extinguish the flames before taking this additional damage. Extinguishing the flames requires a DC X Reflex save. Rolling on the ground provides the target a +2 bonus on the save. Leaping into a lake or magically extinguishing the flames automatically smothers the fire. The save DC is X-based.
I was thinking fire resistance 15, since 3.5 generally has weedier resistance numbers than 3.0, but demiurge's fire resistance 20 works as well for me.
Intimidate?
They seem too dumb and clumsy for the usual Stealth and Perception skills.
Some weapon-related feats would seem to make most sense.
Improved Sunder, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (falchion) ?
Cleon
Hero
I think that just means they take standard damage from electricity rather than being invigorated by it like a standard Flesh Golem, not that they take additional damage.
Shade
Monster Junkie
I'm not sure I like the added complexity of alchemist's fire. Flaming oil simply deals 1d3 points of damage each round someone is within the area, so flat fire damage should suffice.
Agreed.
Those skills and feats look appealing. In tactics, we should probably note that they generally use full Power Attack unless commanded otherwise. It seems to fit their modus operandi.
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Agreed with Shade as to the full Power Attack (we should include it in their statblock as an option) and the dislike for the alchemist fire-based death throes.
Cleon
Hero
Well you see, unless my memory is failing me (again) in AD&D "flaming oil" was effectively the same as 3rd edition's alchemical fire, both being nasty hot-burning clinging mixture used for setting light to foes. The 1d3 fire damage version of oil was called lamp oil, at least in 2nd edition.
EDIT: I don't mind doing flat fire damage if you don't fancy my proposal.
Cleon
Hero
That sounds a good idea. I'm sure there's a feat or two that does that, too.
That would give them a +15 Intimidation modifier if they max-out their skill. That may be a bit high since it's likely to only be about a Challenge Rating 4-5.
Perhaps split its skill points between Intimidation and another skill?
Not sure what the other skill should be - maybe Climb or Jump, to exploit their only good ability score?
How about Climb and Jump - 4 ranks in Intimidate and 3 ranks in Climb & Jump? Assuming it has "Intimidating Strength", that gives it:
Skills: Climb +8, Jump +8, Intimidate +9
EDIT: Oh yes, the current stats has the word falchion mispelled to "Falcion" in the Attack and Full Attack lines.
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