Custom Half-Golem Template - a question of LA.

[Brasswatchman]

Clocking back in after a long time away. I decided I was unhappy with the Half-Golem template in MM2 the other day - I had an idea for a great pregenerated PC, but turns out there is no LA - so I ended up coming up with the following. My main question is about Level Adjustment - does a +4 seem fair, or too low? You be the judge. Thanks.

HALF-GOLEM TEMPLATE

Products of strange magic and stranger alchemy, half-golems are artificial creatures that are half living flesh and half-construct. They are not borne so much as grown in alchemical labs, using a process that is a less-than-logical extension of the methods used to create homunculi. As adults, half-golems make fearsome adversaries, possessing an often uncontainable rage.

Size and Type: Type changes to living construct. Size is unchanged.

Hit Dice: Same.

Initiative: Same as character.

Speed: Same as character.

Armor Class: Natural armor class improves by +6.

Attack: A half-golem gains a slam attack, with its damage based on size.

Size Slam Damage
Fine 1
Diminutive 1d2
Tiny 1d3
Small 1d4
Medium 1d6
Large 1d8
Huge 2d6
Gargantuan 2d8
Colossal 4d6

Special Attacks
A half-golem retains all the special attacks of the base character. It also gains an attack based on the type of golem it is based on, as follows:
Clay – Curse Wound (Ex): Once per day, a clay half-golem can choose to apply a curse to one attack against an enemy. The damage the half-golem deals with that attack doesn’t heal naturally and resists healing spells. A character attempting to cast a Conjuration (healing) spell on the wound must succeed on a DC 26 caster level check, or the spell has no effect on the injury.
Flesh – Breath Weapon (Su): Once per day, a flesh half-golem can emit a 60-foot line of electricity from its mouth. The attack deals 6d8 points of damage. A successful Reflex save (DC 10 + ½ half-golem’s Hit Dice + half-golem’s Con modifier) reduces damage by half.
Stone – Slow (Su): Once per day, a stone half-golem can use a slow effect, as per the spell. The effect has a range of 10 feet, centered on the half-golem, and has a duration of 7 rounds. The effect can be negated with a Will save (DC 13 + half-golem’s Cha modifier).
Iron – Breath Weapon (Su): Once per day, an iron half-golem can emit a 30-foot cone of corrosive (acid) gas, which deals 6d8 points of damage. A successful Reflex save (DC 10 + ½ half-golem’s Hit Dice + half-golem’s Con modifier) reduces damage by half.

Special Qualities
As a living construct, a half-golem gains the following abilities and immunities:
- immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion and energy drain.
- does not need to eat, sleep or breathe (but must rest for 8 hours in order to prepare spells).
- cannot heal damage naturally.
In addition, a half-golem gains the following qualities:
- Darkvision 60 ft.
- Damage reduction: 5/adamantine (if HD 11 or less) or 10/adamantine (if HD 12 or more).
- Spell resistance equal to the character’s HD + 5 (maximum 25).
- Composite Material (Ex): The material that makes up half of a half-golem’s body essentially occupies the same space on the body as a suit of armor or a robe, and thus half-golems cannot wear armor or magic robes. On the other hand, a half-golem’s flesh can be enchanted just as armor can be. The half-golem must be present for the entire time it takes to enchant him or her. A half-golem also receives a 5% arcane spell miss chance, similar to the penalty for wearing light armor. Any class ability that allows a half-golem to ignore the arcane spell failure chance for light armor lets him or her ignore this penalty as well.
- Light Fortification (Ex): When a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on a half-golem, there is a 25% chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and that damage is rolled normally instead.
- Berserk (Ex): Once per day, regardless of what material his or her golem half is made from, a half-golem can go into a berserk state in combat. This ability acts similar to the spell rage. The half-golem gains a +2 bonus to Strength and Constitution, a +1 morale bonus to Will saves, and a -2 penalty to AC. A half-golem must take a standard action to go into a berserk state, and remains enraged for a number of rounds equal to its (unenhanced) Constitution modifier + 4. A half-golem is not fatigued after coming out of a berserk state. A half-golem cannot end its rage voluntarily. If the half-golem is a barbarian, the bonuses and penalty are cumulative with the barbarian rage class feature.

Abilities: Str +8, Dex -2, Con +6, Cha -2.

Challenge Rating: HD 4 or less, as base creature +1; HD 5 to 10, as base creature +2; HD 11 or more, as base creature +3.

Level Adjustment: +4

 

[wmasters]

I'm not going to claim to be the best judge of LA anyhow, but I'd be wary of two things here; the special attacks and the Beserk.

The special attacks as written don't scale at all, which means a low level character can throw them out, and at low levels these look overpowered. A ECL 5 half flesh golem character throwing 6d8 lightining bolts (reflex save for half) I'd find unbalancing. It's more damage than a lightning bolt at that level however you look at it.

The other ability that I'd look carefully at is the beserk. I'm wary of a cumulative 1% chance of a rage. Why - because it's more dice you have to roll. I'm a fan of not rolling any more dice if possible. Also the 'kill everybody' rage makes it something I'd seriously look at banning my players from anyway, because it's not indusive to having a party.

Looking at it without these abilities you're left with:

Light fortification
+6 Natural Armour
Slam attack
Darkvision
+8 Str, +4 Con, -2 Wis
Minor disadvantages which you can largely ignore.

Comparing this to an ogre seems reasonable, and I think the half-golem comes out slightly ahead with the light fortification, slam attack and better stats. I'd look at LA +3 without the Special Abilities and Beserk.

 

[Brasswatchman]

The special attacks as written don't scale at all, which means a low level character can throw them out, and at low levels these look overpowered. A ECL 5 half flesh golem character throwing 6d8 lightining bolts (reflex save for half) I'd find unbalancing. It's more damage than a lightning bolt at that level however you look at it.

Hmmm. I based the breath weapon abilities here on those granted to the half-dragon template. I did put that half-golems only get this attack once per day in the write-up, right?

The other ability that I'd look carefully at is the beserk. I'm wary of a cumulative 1% chance of a rage. Why - because it's more dice you have to roll. I'm a fan of not rolling any more dice if possible. Also the 'kill everybody' rage makes it something I'd seriously look at banning my players from anyway, because it's not indusive to having a party.

That's certainly true. I didn't think of it that way; I honestly just saw it as an interesting character trait. But you're certainly correct in that Berserk is the wild card in this template. And while I honestly like the basic concept of the trait, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to write it in terms of the game rules in a way that doesn't give the player an unfair advantage.

Hmm. Okay, putting aside the dice-rolling issue for just a second - what would you think if I rewrote this trait so that a half-golem, when damaged, acts as if under the influence of a confusion spell? Hmm. That would more definetely place the special quality in the "disadvantage" category. Might need to give half-golems damage reduction to balance it out...

 

[Brasswatchman]

Okay, did some thinking about this template. The Berserk ability has been changed to act like the rage spell. Also decided to try adding Spell Resistance and Damage Reduction to the template. What do you think? Is that going overboard?

Edited the first post in the thread to reflect the changes. All changes are italicized. For the curious, here's the original text I replaced:

Initiative: Same as character -1.
Speed: Same as character, but a half-golem cannot run.
- Berserk (Ex): When a half-golem enters combat, there is a cumulative 1% chance each round that he or she will abruptly fly into a berserk rage, attacking wildly until all living creatures within sight are destroyed. While in this state, the half-golem gains +4 Strength, +4 Constitution, and -2 to AC. While berserk, a half-golem cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity- or Intelligence-based skills, use the Concentration skill, cast spells, activate magic items or use any abilities that require patience or concentration. A half-golem cannot end its berserk state voluntarily. When it enters a berserk state, it immediately attacks the closest creature within range, regardless of allegiance or friendship. When it kills the creature at hand, it will move to the next closest creature – regardless of who is foe and who is friend – and so on, until all living creatures it can sense have been eliminated. Only then will the half-golem come out of its rage. Spells that end a barbarian’s rage prematurely – such as calm emotions – can bring a half-golem from out of its berserk state, but a berserk half-golem receives a +2 to its Will save to resist such effects. Once the berserk state ends, the half-golem automatically takes 1 point of Wisdom drain (or 1d4 points of Sanity damage) with no save. If the half-golem is a barbarian, the bonuses and the penalty are cumulative with the barbarian rage class feature.
Abilities: Str +8, Con +4, Wis -2.

 

[Brasswatchman]

So the template looks good? No complaints? Anyone?

 

[Evilhalfling]

sorry no comments on your build but I have some alternatives,
Using the stonechild benifits in Races of Stone.

also the orginal template, as bad as it is, makes perfect sense for someone inside a giant golem/suit (aside from the whole fail a save and be reduced to 1 HD problem.

 

[Brasswatchman]

sorry no comments on your build but I have some alternatives,
Using the stonechild benifits in Races of Stone.

Thanks for the tip. I'll look into that.

I'll admit the original template might have its uses - but it really doesn't work for PCs.

 

[Brasswatchman]

bump

 

[Meatboy]

I'd say with the changes you've made that it looks pretty good. Definately a step up from the MM2 one. Personaly I have never liked the uses per day thing, especially not for races and the fact that they are not scaling is also a large draw back.

For curse wound, as written the curse looks like it is an automatic thing as long as it hits the opponent, no save allowed. Also it says that it is an extrodinary ability so it will still effect people within an anit magic area. All the other golem types have supernatural abilities though and can either be negated or reduced. It would seem that the curse is a perfect ability for NPCs while the others seem to be in favor of PCs. Also the curse wound ability says that the curse effect only applies to that single wound which would mean only a portion of a given characters HP can't be healed, I would figure that this could increase book keeping somewhat which in turn can slow down the game.

The other stuff about it seems good. If you are wondering about LA a quick way of figuring it out is to make a character using a template that would most suit the template with only one level of that class and then compare it to a human of the same class and level. If one clear outmatches the other you should adjust LA until it becomes hard to decide which is better.

 

[Kerrick]

I looked this over because I'm working on a Fleshcrafter PrC, someone who specializes in grafting different body parts onto creatures (yes, I got the idea from this forum - the original poster apparently let the idea die, so I took it and ran with it). Anyway, one of the higher-level abilities is adding construct limbs, and I had to make a half-golem template. I looked over the MM2 version and this one, and extrapolated my own version. I do have some comments on yours, though...

What is the living construct type? I don't see the need to invent a new monster type for one template - just have the creature keep its base type, and it goes to full construct if it fails the Will save vs. construct dementia (see below).

Clay – Curse Wound (Ex): Once per day, a clay half-golem can choose to apply a curse to one attack against an enemy. The damage the half-golem deals with that attack doesn’t heal naturally and resists healing spells. A character attempting to cast a Conjuration (healing) spell on the wound must succeed on a DC 26 caster level check, or the spell has no effect on the injury.

I went with a variation of the MM2 version - a simple healing spell of 4th level or higher, no caster level check.

Giving flesh half-golems a breath weapon is a bit much. They're the weakest of the four, and the flesh golem doesn't get this, so it makes little sense.

I'm not sure why the stone half-golem's save DC for the slow effect is Cha-based instead of Con-based; the stone golem's DC is Con-based. Technically, it should be 10+1/2 HD+Con, like all monster abilities.

Iron golem: Again, I'm not sure why you went with acid gas instead of sticking with poison. All you'd have to do in this case is reduce the damage a bit - say, 1d3/1d6.

In all cases, I'd suggest limiting uses/day - I went with 3 for simplicity's sake, plus one use per limb past the first. Remember, these are only limbs - a half-golem isn't nearly as good as a full golem.

Special Qualities:

DR and SR: These make a lot more sense than the MM2 version; I added those also.

Composite Materials: Very interesting, and it makes sense - if I've got one or more oversized limbs, wearing armor would be really difficult. Robes, however, would be less so, since they're generally made to accommodate larger body mass. I'm not sure about being able to enchant the golem parts like armor - that's what the natural armor bonus is for, and they get light fort on top of it. Yoinkworthy

Light Fortifcation: Definitely. I'm borrowing this one too.

Berserk: I think only clay and flesh half-golems should have this (the prohibitive costs of stone and iron limbs balances this out). I'd rewrite it so:

Berserk (Ex): A clay [or flesh] half-golem that takes damage must make a Will save (10+damage) or fly into a berserk rage the following round, attacking until it or its opponent is dead. It gains +4 Strength, +4 Con, and -2 AC. It cannot end its rage voluntarily.

Simple, elegant, and it gives a (small) chance for a living being to keep itself under control.
I don't totally agree with the barbarian rage stacking with this one - that's a huge jump - so I ditched it.

As for LA: I have no idea. I generally just set LA to the same as the CR adjustment and call it good.