How dumb are golems?

[Lord Pendragon]

Personally I think that most stone golems and all iron golems would be intelligent, at least at a base level. After all - giving 2 mental stats at 12 and one at 10, along with a minor power, only costs you 1000 gold...

Stone golems can only be made by casters of level 14+. Iron by 16+. Minimum for awarding intelligence to an item is 15+.

Wow. You've just changed my entire conceptualization of golems.

Thank you.

 

[iwatt]

So, you'd only half-use the head of Vecna?

Or only use half the head.

 

[Nail]

IIRC, golems are not subject to illusions.

Not to put to fine a point on this, but: Complete and utter nonsense!

Seriously:

Immunity to Magic (Ex): A clay golem is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance.

and

Silent Image
Illusion (Figment)
Spell Resistance: No

That's pretty clear, eh?

Moreover, check out that Will save for a Clay Golem: +3.

Golems are easily fooled by illusions!

 

[Nail]

Wow. You've just changed my entire conceptualization of golems.

and what does this do fer ya?

CLAY GOLEM
Large Construct

Abilities: ..... Int —, ......

and

Abilities

Nonabilities: Some creatures lack certain ability scores. These creatures do not have an ability score of 0—they lack the ability altogether.

Creator caster level is completely irrelevant.

 

[azmodean]

Ditto for what Lord Pendragon said, Saeviomagy, my players may well curse your name.

Nail, what Saeviomagy is saying is that any caster capable of creating a stone or iron golem is also sufficiently qualified to make intelligent magical items, and it would be silly for them not to do so in the case of golems. Especially considering that it is only 1,000 gp to imbue your golem with int 12/wis 12/cha 10. The extra power does cost a bit more, but it's really just icing on the cake.

CLAY GOLEM
Large Construct

Abilities: ..... Int —, .....

What is the int bonus of a sword?

 

[Trainz]

Ditto for what Lord Pendragon said, Saeviomagy, my players may well curse your name.

Nail, what Saeviomagy is saying is that any caster capable of creating a stone or iron golem is also sufficiently qualified to make intelligent magical items, and it would be silly for them not to do so in the case of golems. Especially considering that it is only 1,000 gp to imbue your golem with int 12/wis 12/cha 10.



What is the int bonus of a sword?

The int bonus of a sword is: --. Swords are not intelligent. Some magical swords are imbued with a soul, and have the intelligence of that soul.

The int bonus of a construct is: --. Constructs are not intelligent. Some constructs are imbued with a soul, and have the intelligence of that soul.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

and what does this do fer ya?

Nothing at all, Nail. Weapons don't have Int scores either, until they're made into magical items, by which process they are imbued with int, wis, and cha scores.

But for the sake of argument let's assume that a golem, being a creature (even though as a construct it counts as an object for many purposes), cannot be made into a magical item in the same way as a sword.

So instead I create a magical stone that grants the golem a +1 attack bonus to its Slam Attack. 2000gp (doubled because it doesn't take up a slot) = 4000gp. Now I make that stone intelligent, choosing to bump it up two levels so the stone can speak = 4000gp. So a total of 8000gp.

The stone can now see and hear in a radius of 120' and speak telepathically with its wielder, the golem. I stick the stone inside the golem's chest.

And my one simple instruction to the golem when I leave my sanctum? Do what the stone says.

 

[ARandomGod]

And my one simple instruction to the golem when I leave my sanctum? Do what the stone says.

Now, that just gave me a momentary vision of the stone taking over command of the golem, developing it's own will, etcetera. Certainly the stone wouldn't normally be able to harm the NPC maker, but could it tell the golem to? Maybe.

Do you think he'd expect that? Perhaps. But maybe not the first time.

Ex Cell Ent...

 

[dcollins]

Personally I think that most stone golems and all iron golems would be intelligent, at least at a base level.

Thing is, this assertion moves the discussion into the territory of House Rules. Regardless of how reasonable you think it would be for Stone and Iron Golems to be intelligent, in core D&D, they are not. A world with intelligent Stone & Iron Golems is not regular D&D. For whatever reason.

 

[ThirdWizard]

And my one simple instruction to the golem when I leave my sanctum? Do what the stone says.

My final words to my players after they torture and slowly kill me will be "It was Saeviomagy and Lord Pendragon's idea..." ^^;