Golem, Stone Colossus (Statue-that-Walks)
Huge Construct
Hit Dice: 22d10+40 (161 hp)
Initiative: –1
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 26 (–2 size, –1 Dex, +19 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 26
Base Attack/Grapple: +16/+36
Attack: Slam +26 melee (4d8+12)
Full Attack: 2 slams +26 melee (4d8+12)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Double damage against objects, inspire terror
Special Qualities: Construct traits, damage reduction 10/adamantine, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to magic, low-light vision, repair structure
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +7
Abilities: Str 35, Dex 9, Con —, Int —, Wis 11, Cha 10
Skills: —
Feats: —
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary or gang (2–4)
Challenge Rating: 14
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 23–42 (Huge)
Level Adjustment: —
This massive stone statue begins to move of its own volition, heading toward a nearby building.
Statues-that-walk are specialized stone golems designed to maintain and repair buildings.
The statues-that-walk were originally built as caretakers by a long-dead race. Knowing that they faced extinction, the ancient race built the statues to maintain the glory of their monuments and buildings and tear down anything that would detract from them. Many of the ancient structures have long since sunk beneath the earth, but the statues know where they should be. They would move entire hills or rip apart towns to unearth a buried monument. A statue-that-walks performs the tasks assigned to it until destroyed, deactivated, or all of its tasks are completed. If it finishes all its work, the statue becomes rigid and awaits new orders.
A statue-that-walks' instructions are sophisticated enough that should it face a task that's impossible to complete it will only work until it exhausts the possibility of success. For example, if tasked with maintaining a structure that no longer exists, the statue will excavate to the depths of its original foundations and search the area for rubble or remains of the structure before considering the task complete.
A statue-that-walks will repair any other constructs assigned to the care or protection of its building.
A statue-that-walks is 18 feet tall and weighs around 22,000 pounds.
Statues-that-walk cannot speak or understand languages. They were “programmed” by drawing runes upon them. The art of creating and altering their programming is long lost, but the rune-program for stopping a statue on the rampage is still known to scholars (see Immunity to Magic for details). If a group of statues-that-walk is programmed to perform the same task, every statue in the group must be inscribed with a new rune-program to change their instructions.
COMBAT
A statue-that-walks has little interest in battle, but will attack any creature openly harming a building under its care. If a statue-that-walks encounters any new, unauthorized structures in the proximity of its assigned buildings, it batters the foreign structure to rubble.
Double Damage against Objects (Ex): A statue-that-walks that makes a full attack against an object or structure deals double damage.
Immunity to Magic (Ex): A statue-that-walks is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance. In addition, certain spells and effects function differently against the creature, as noted below.
A transmute rock to mud spell slows a statue-that-walks (as the slow spell) for 2d6 rounds, with no saving throw, while transmute mud to rock heals all of its lost hit points.
A stone to flesh spell does not actually change the golem's structure but negates its damage reduction and immunity to magic for 1 full round.
A statue-that-walks is affected normally by any symbol, glyph of warding or sepia snake sigil spell. Furthermore, any of these spells can be inscribed upon the golem as if it were a surface. If the golem is moving or resisting the inscription, the spellcaster must succeed at a touch attack on each round of the spell's casting time (minimum 1 touch attack) to trace the spell out on the golem. If any inscription touch attack misses, the spell fails. If the inscription succeeds, the statue-that-walks then attempts a Will save (DC equals spell's DC); on a successful save the inscribed spell dissipates harmlessly, if the golem fails its save it is rendered immobile and helpless until the symbol, glyph or sigil is discharged.
The statue can also be immobilized by ritually inscribing a secret series on runes upon it, which instruct the statue to pause its current task. Discovering these secret runes requires a DC 25 Knowledge (arcana) check, DC 25 Gather Information check, or DC 22 Bardic Knowledge check. Inscribing the runes on a statue-that-walks takes 1 minute (10 rounds). Unfortunately, the runes must be inscribed on every statue-that-walks that is assigned a particular task before they take effect and immobilize every statue in that group. The statues-that-walk remain immobile until reactivated by one of their assigned tasks being triggered or the immobilizing runes being overwritten by the inscription of new runes or any symbol, glyph of warding or sepia snake sigil spell upon one of the statues (the new glyph or runes need not be a valid instruction or affect the statue to cancel the immobilization, the attempt at inscribing them is enough to neutralize the immobilization rune-program).
Inspire Terror (Ex): A statue-that-walks can inspire terror by marching. Any creature with less than 6 HD is subjected to the effects if it fails a Will save (DC 21). On a successful save, the subject is immune to the inspire terror ability of that statue-that-walks for one day. The save DC is Charisma-based.
On a failure, creatures with 2 or fewer HD become panicked for 4d6 rounds and those with 3 to 5 HD become shaken for 4d6 rounds.
Repair Structure (Su): A statue-that-walks can magically maintain or rebuild a building or other structure, molding stone or wood as if they were putty (treat as the stone shape or wood shape spells). It can smooth damaged sections back to their original condition, or form raw materials into new parts for a structure that is partially destroyed. For every hour the statue spends repairing a structure it can repair 100 hit points of damage. A statue-that-walks can use repair structure to heal the damage of another wooden or stone golem, including other statues-that-walk. It can not heal any other kind of golem or living creatures that have been petrified, nor can it fix a wood or stone golem that has been destroyed.
Construction
The secret of creating statues-that-walk has been long forgotten. Anyone wishing to create one must first discover the necessary information by succeeding at a DC 35 Knowledge (arcana) check, a DC 35 Gather Information check, or a DC 30 Bardic Knowledge check.
A statue-that-walks' body is chiseled from a single block of hard stone, such as granite, weighing at least 33,000 pounds. The stone must be of exceptional quality, and costs 5,000 gp. Assembling the body requires a DC 17 Craft (sculpting) check or a DC 17 Craft (stonemasonry) check.
CL 14th; Craft Construct, antimagic field, geas/quest, stone shape, symbol of stunning, wood shape, caster must be at least 14th level; Price 125,000 gp; Cost 65,000 gp + 4,800 XP.
In the Realms
Statues-that-walk are found in the Prefecture of Gheldaneth. The ancient race of desert-dwelling giants that created them was wiped out by a series of plagues centuries ago, but left the statues to maintain the glory of these structures and tear down anything that would detract from them. Most have been immobilized by glyphs of warding placed on them by the lizard folk who occupied their lands.
Over a thousand statues-that-walk remain in Gheldaneth, and the extinct giants assigned them all the task of maintaining their monuments. Many of them are unknown to the Prefecture's modern inhabitants, standing in forgotten valleys or buried in the earth. Should any of these statues-that-walk ever be reactivated, anyone wanting to perform the immobilization ritual that stops them would have to find every one of the thousand-odd statues and inscribe the immobilizing runes upon them all.
Notes: The Statue that Walks Golem in the Creature Catalog and the Stone Colossus in the Creature Catalog's Crypt are actually the same monster, the Statue that Walks that originally appeared in FR6 Dreams of the Red Wizards. The Stone Colossus from FR10 Old Empires is a different monster from the Epic Level Handbook's Stone Colossus so should not have been assigned to the Crypt. The above entry includes elements from both conversions.
Originally appeared in FR6 - Dreams of the Red Wizards (1988).
Design Notes
I took the Creature Catalog conversion of the Statue that Walks Golem as the base creature and added the Strength 35, 3d10 slam attacks and Inspire Terror from the CC Crypt's Stone Colossus.
The Colossus's Str 35 is far more appropriate for a Huge Stone Golem than the Statue that Walks' Str 31, since a normal Stone Golem advanced to Huge would have Strength 37.
To keep the Inspire Terror's save DC at 21 like the FR10-based version I increased the monster's Charisma to 10. With Charisma 1 it would have had a DC 16 save.
I've also slightly tweaked the In the Realms section's text, adding “desert-dwelling giants” after the “ancient race” and moving “series of plagues” to the same sentence from the basic creature's background info.
Secondly, I've moved the “secret of creating statues that walk” paragraph to Construction where it seems a more natural fit.
Thirdly, I added the "immobilizing runes" that feature in the original scenario and Monster Compendium entry.
The Inspire Terror special ability isn't significant for CR-appropriate opponents due to its HD limit and it doesn't mention any range. Also, I'd prefer the duration to be 2d6 rounds like the original. I'd recommend rewriting it to be have some effect against more puissant foes, i.e.:
Inspire Terror (Ex): A statue-that-walks shakes the earth when it marches and can inspire terror with its mere presence. This ability takes effect automatically whenever the statue attacks, charges, or moves. Creatures within a radius of 180 feet are subject to the effect if they have fewer HD than the statue-that-walks and fail a Will save (DC 21). On a successful save, the subject is immune to the inspire terror ability of that statue-that-walks for one day. The save DC is Charisma-based.
On a failure, creatures with 2 or fewer HD become panicked for 2d6 rounds, those with 3 to 5 HD become frightened for 2d6 rounds and those with 6 or more HD become shaken for 2d6 rounds.
In closing, I recommend increasing the Challenge Rating to 14. This is the CR of a standard 22 HD Huge Stone Golem. (base CR 11 +2 CR for +8 HD, +1 CR for size increase). The weakness to rune-inscription doesn't seem quite worth it being a full CR lower.
