D&D General Golems With Ranged Attacks?

[J-H]

How tough do you want them to be? I once did an adamantium golem. In-lore, it had stood defending an ancient grave mound for thousands of years. Nobody remembers who is buried there, and any markers have long-since been obliterated.
CR 23ish and a decent solo encounter on its own. The party (level 16ish?) managed to overwhelm it with the unkillable zealot barbarian just tanking the damage from the coilgun in its right arm and the vibrosword in its left. They salvaged/sold the 32,000lbs of adamantium.
I can post the statblock if you want. It's from my Against the Idol of the Sun adventure.

I also had written up a (difficult but viable) method of reprogramming it into a giant power armor mech.

 

[jayoungr]

I can post the statblock if you want. It's from my Against the Idol of the Sun adventure.

I also had written up a (difficult but viable) method of reprogramming it into a giant power armor mech.

I'd like to see it! I can always use more golems (I have a weakness for them).

 

[J-H]

I'd like to see it! I can always use more golems (I have a weakness for them).

Here you go.

Spoiler: Wall of Text

Golem, Adamantine
This titan shines with perpetually polished armor,
resembling a headless knight in armor. One arm ends
in a hand, with a greatsword-sized blade sticking out
behind the hand. The other arm ends in a blunt hole
six inches across. When aimed at a target, the hole
crackles with electricity before a metal ball whizzes out
with a sharp cracking sound. As the golem
approaches a foe, the blade begins to vibrate with a
deep thrumming noise.
Huge Construct
Armor Class 23 (Natural Armor)
Hit Points 400
Speed 40 ft.
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
30(+10) 12(+1) 30(+10) 8(-1) 12(+1) 10(0)
Saves Str +18, Con +18, Wis +9, Cha +9
Senses Blindsense 120’, passive Perception 13
CR 26
Damage Immunities poison, psychic, lightning, non-
magical weapons that are not adamantine
Damage Resistances cold, fire, B/P/S from magical
weapons that are not adamantine
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion,
frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, sleep
Slow Regeneration The Adamantine Golem heals at
a rate of 10 hit points per hour.
Actions
Multiattack. The Adamantine Golem makes two
sword attacks, one kick, and fires its coilgun once.
Bracer Vibrosword. Melee Weapon Attack, 10’, +18
to hit, 6d6+10 slashing +2d8 thunder damage.
Kick. Melee Weapon Attack, +18 to hit, 5’, 3d12+10
bludgeoning damage. Targets struck by this attack
must make a DC 26 Strength save or be knocked back
10’ and prone.
Coilgun. Ranged spell attack, +11 to hit, 120’, 3d20
bludgeoning +1d10 lightning damage. Targets struck
by this attack must make a DC 19 Strength save or be
knocked prone.
Bonus Actions
Steady Aim. If it does not move, and makes no other
attacks on its turn, the golem has advantage on its
Coilgun attack.
Tactics
Obedient to an ancient command, the Adamantine
Golem guards a millenia-old burial mound, and will not
stray far from it. The mound is roughly 100’ in
diameter, and the golem will not go more than 50’ from
it. This does give it ability to pursue fleeing foes for a
couple of rounds. It is not stupid, and will use its
Coilgun to fire at ranged attackers while engaging in
melee combat. Prone targets will be priority for follow-
up attacks, but it will usually use its sword first due to
the greater range. The golem will not deliberately kill a
0-hp (downed) foe, but will not allow its allies to
approach unhindered to heal it.

Turning it into Huge Power Armor
If the Adamantine golem has been destroyed
Repairing the chassis requires 100 lbs of Adamantine
and 5 8-hour days. Each casting of the Fabricate spell
available reduces the required time by 4 hours.
If the Golem is disabled/immobilized
Prying open an access panel on the back requires a
DC 25 Athletics check. Opening the panel gives
access to what appears to be a small maintenance
passageway through which the arcane control core
was inserted long ago. The atmosphere inside is a
toxic preservation chemical, requiring poison immunity
or breath-holding to work inside without taking 2d10
poison damage per round.
Disabling the guiding intelligence
The first step in turning the Adamantine Golem into
huge power armor requires disabling its intelligence
functions. Doing so requires a series of 3 DC 20
Arcana checks, each taking 1 hour. Recovering from a
failure requires a DC 30 Arcana check. Success at this
task renders the golem immobile, like a statue, and
permanent disables hit point regeneration. Failure at
these checks will make the golem go berserk and
attempt to kill the reprogrammer.
Crafting a control harness and pilot compartment
This requires 1 week of uninterrupted work for 8 hours
per day, two assistants, five pounds of mithril for
connectors and wiring, and 100 lbs of steel plus 30
pounds of fabric for a harness.
Bringing it online
Piloting the golem requires crawling inside, closing an
access panel, hooking up, and activating the MMI
(Man-Machine Interface) in a process that takes 10
minutes. The MMI requires the use of 3 Attunement
slots. Activation can be sped up to 1 minute by
connecting things rapidly and skipping acclimatization,
but the pilot takes (25 – INT save) x 1d8 psychic
damage.
Golem Armor Traits
• Golem parts may be enchanted or infused as artificer
armor components, bur each component requires 2
infusion slots.
• While in the golem, the pilot has total cover against all
spells, and is dependent on the golem's 120'
blindsense, which is functionally a type of radar. The
pilot cannot cast spells targeted outside itself or the
golem. The golem counts as an object, not a
creature, for the purpose of most spells (Haste,
Teleport, etc.).
• The golem has no microphones or
speakers. Communicating while piloting requires
telepathy, or integration of a Message-type item.
• Use the game statistics of the golem for STR, DEX,
and CON, but with Dexterity set to 6, reducing AC by
3 to 20. Use the wearer’s Proficiency Bonus and
saves. It weighs 32,000 lbs.
• The wearer of the Powered Armor takes 1d8 psychic
damage in feedback for each 10 points of damage
sustained by the golem. Damage incremented in
amounts of less than 10 does not cause feedback
damage.
• The coilgun carries a stock of 20 watermelon-sized
slugs. It regenerates 1d8 slugs per hour
automatically.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Don't worry about the scenario, let's just say there's a wizard obsessed with protecting his tower and likes to amass as many unthinkingly loyal automatons as possible. He'll put the tanky types at the gates, but what kind of constructs would work well up on the ramparts, firing down on would-be siegers? I saw another thread on this site from 2007 that asked a similar question in the Pathfinder/Starfinder forum, but I wanted to bring it up here to include all D&D monsters. So far from that other thread we have:

Maug with a stone-spitter graft (very cool)
Arcane Ballista
Nimblewright with a crossbow hand

Additionally I've come up with:
Iron Golem (15' poison gas cone)
Glass or Crystal golem that focuses sunlight into a laser attack - I'm sure I've seen this somewhere but cannot recall the source

Anything else?

The very very first "boss" creature my Dungeon World players ever dealt with was a golem made of parchment--specifically, a spell scroll golem. It was literally comprised of sheets of paper from scrolls and spellbooks.

Mechanically, I structured this as the golem being able to reach into itself, pull out a scroll, and cast a (randomly-determined) spell--but doing so would chip away at its HP, because...well, it's consuming its own material in order to cast the spell.

A Wizard obsessed with automatons and desiring ranged attacks would probably have a grand old time with a "scrollem" as my players lovingly called it!