Downscaling an Iron Golem

[AddizAbeba]

Hi,

My party will soon come up to the entrance to an ancient tower that is now mostly underground (or not, haven't decided yet, I DM like that).

The entrance has to be guarded by something, and I thought of an iron golem. The idea is to have them fail at entering, but learn they'll need adamantine weapons to overcome this threat (they'll have plenty of warning on the difficulty of passing this golem).
Luckily they have a map which indicates a mining site which is unknown to the kingdom they're in. They haven't investigated that site yet, so I am free to fill in what I like (and choose an old adamantine mine, inhabited by dwarves that cannot reach the adamantine veins because a dragon moved in).
I'll stop making it more complicated, but you understand I'd like to have a very-hard-to-beat guardian at the tower entrance (unable to bypass, or party must be very clever), which can be much easier overcome by obtaining some special weapons to beat it.

So I chose the iron golem and the adamantine weapons.
But.
The Iron golem is CR13, and as-is, will kill off the PCs (lv6/7, when they come back maybe lv8) without much trouble. Its breath weapon for instance is killing.
So I thought to downscale the golem so it will not turn out to be a TPK.
Reducing the effect of the breath weapon, reducing it's strength maybe.
The party will automatically discover the slowing effect of lighting spells, since these are the party mage's favourite. That is a big advantage they will already get.

What ideas to you people have on this?
Totally other ideas are welcome as well. The basic premise is I'd like to have a very-hard-to-beat guardian at 'a dungeon' entrance (unable to bypass, or party must be very very clever), which can be much easier overcome by obtaining some special weapons to beat it.

 

[AddizAbeba]

Forgot: My first idea was to remove the breath weapon, and reduce the strength from 33 to 27 (3 points less AB and dmg).
But I use CR to compute XP (and add my own roleplaying xp amount), so a resulting CR would be useful. I have no experience whatsoever creating monsters.
But removing the breath weapon might be too much... downscaling to lower CON damage and lower DC?

 

[Quartz]

Maybe the golem's been ordered to use non-lethal damage?

 

[ruemere]

The monster, as written, is fine. Well, almost. All you need to do is to adjust environment so that:
- the players can manoeuver around the golem, yet they are not able to enter the tower,
- the players can outrun the golem,
- the players cannot solve the situation by using long range attacks,
- single round of melee with will not results in player deaths,
- the golem will not use grappling to kill players.

Proposed adjustments:
- tower entrance is accessible via little causeway crossing a shallow pool .
- causeway is 5 feet wide.
- the pool is filled with a boiling water from hot water spring.
- steam coming from boiling water restricts visibility to 15 feet.
- the golem does not leave the pool.
- golem hands have been replaced with weapons (cannot use grapple attack).


In game effects of the proposed environment:

- boiling water (I have simplified d20 rules a bit to enhance the flow of this encounter):
3 points of fire damage per round of contact. The golem heals 1 hitpoint per round of contact.

- steam (over and 30' around the pool):
restricted visibility (10' = concealment, 20% miss; 15' = total concealment)
d6 points of fire damage to all breathing creatures per minute (no save).

- poison breath attack is limited by steam to the following effects:
golem's poison breath takes one round to fill its attack area space - each character should have at least one round to leave attack area.

golem's poison breath persists for one round after it fills its attack space - anyone beginning his turn within attack area suffers the damage.

condition of the character hit by such attack changes as per original poison breath attack, however, instead of original result, change character status using chart given below:

Healthy > Sickened > Sickened & Nauseated > As previous & Poisoned (partial) > As previous & Poisoned (full)

Sickened - -2 penalty to all checks (attack, damage, skill, save)
Nauseated - can take only Move action each turn
Poisoned (partial) - equal to successful save vs original attack
Poisoned (full) - equal to failed save vs original attack

Save changes character status...
... 1 step up (if out of attack area) on success,
... 1 step down (if within attack area) on success,
... 1 step down (if out of attack area) on fail,
... 2 steps down (if within attack area) on fail.

This should make your encounter more interesting.


regards,
Ruemere

 

[AddizAbeba]

Interesting thoughts.
I think I will use that steaming hot pool idea (visibility & fire damage), and the 'unable to grapple' feature. The golem will have heavy maces for hands (it's origin makes that the obvious choice, and it's design will be a hint for the players they are at the right spot).

The steam will do 1 subdual fire damage per round. Is more than what you proposed, but only subdual and much simpler to adjudicate as well (and still 'energy resist'able).

For the poison breath, I find your idea too complex for play. I think I will simplify that to explain that the poison is diluted by the steam, and therefore it will do half 1d4 Con primary, half 3d4 Con secondary, on Fort 17 fail (-2 circumstance mod). Still very challenging for my group.

The pool will then be in a room with a 10ft causeway around it (except not at tower entrance side), and the pool itself some 25ft square (so room is 10+25+10=45ftft wide by 10+25=35ft deep).
the golem then can remain happily in the pool, while being able to attack anyone getting close to him. His body will hold the magical key macguffin to open the door. So bypassing him is kind-of impossible. Have to think of what they could do to retrieve that thing without fighting the golem, though... (Diplomacy is out ).

As a side note: Since this area is beneath a Vegas-style town, the steam can be used by a casino for it's display as well So the PCs better not disable the hot spring, or face the wrath of the casino-owners...

All in all, a very good idea! Thanks!

 

[Evilhalfling]

I have a tendency to want to medium golems:
(-8 to -4) str -2ac, lower damage (-1CR) reduce HD by 2(-1CR); also change clouldkill breath to stinking clould (-1CR) this gives you a cr10 ~ not overwhelming for 7/8th but certainly a threat. For missle defense I normally have a alcove that a stationary golem can retreat to, but the smoke/steam would work as well.

Keep in mind all the new spells that ignore SR. If your wizards have orb spells, golems are less deadly then they were. PCs may just opt to buy the spell rather than explore the admantium mine.