Level 26 Elite: Stone Golem Guardian

[Mesh Hong]

Here is another creature from my campaign. I used 2 of these golems as a standard level encounter for 6 level 24 PCs.

They are outer guardians of a The Shrine of Tithe, a mountain top temple to Tiamat where wealth is gathered by Tiamats followers (or extortionists as I like to think of them ) and collected by an Exarch of Tiamat once a year. My PCs are raiding the temple to steal part of an artefact that is held there.

Stone Golem Guardian Level 26 Elite Soldier
Large Elemental Animate (earth) XP 18,000

Initiative +20 Senses Perception +27
Golden Glow (radiant) aura 3; All enemies entering or starting their turn
inside the aura take 15 radiant damage
HP 484; Bloodied 242; see bloodied Powerhouse
AC 42 (38); Fortitude 40, Reflex 35, Will 39
Immune disease, poison, charm
Saving Throws +2
Speed 6 (cannot shift)
Action Points 1

Hammer Swing (Standard; at-will)
Reach 2; attack +33 vs. AC; 2d8+10 damage (crit 3d6+26 damage); on hit
target is marked

Double Hammer (Standard; at-will)
Golem makes 2 Hammer Swing attacks against the same target, if both hit
the target is also dazed (save ends)

Mighty Blow (Standard; recharge )
Reach 2; attack +33 vs. AC; 5d10+10 damage; on hit target is knocked
prone and takes a -4 penalty to attack rolls until the end of Golems next
turn

Golden Beam (Standard; encounter) ♦ radiant
Range 20/40; attack +31 vs. Will; 5d12+9 radiant damage; on hit target is
stunned until the end of Golems next turn; on miss target takes half
damage

Golden Pulse (Minor; recharge ) ♦ radiant
Burst 5; enemies only; attack +31 vs. Will; 1d6+9 radiant damage; on hit
target is immobilised (save ends)

Solid Footing
Golem may reduce all push, pull and slide effects by 5 squares and if
knocked prone may make a free saving throw to remain standing

Bloodied Powerhouse ♦ when first bloodied
When first bloodied Golem regains an action point and until the end of the
encounter it takes a -4 penalty to its AC defence and gains a +5 bonus to
damage with melee attacks

Alignment Unaligned Languages understands draconic
Skills Athletics +28, Endurance +26
Str 30 (+23) Dex 20 (+18) Wis 28 (+22)
Con 26 (+21) Int 6 (+11) Cha 10 (+13)
Equipment greathammer, gold bracer

Technically I have since realised that they should have been natural animate (construct) and not elemental animate (earth). But the difference only has a minor impact on the game.

They seemed to work really well providing a dangerous and exciting combat, they might be a little overpowered for some groups but I think they are just about perfect for mine.

I would certainly like to know what other people think though, anyway I hope you find them interesting.

 

[Mentat55]

Seems fairly nasty, combining a lot of attacks that can pin an enemy close by with an auto-damage aura. I also like that, when it is bloodied, it becomes a lot easier to hit, but also doles out more damage, like a brute.

Did you notice if its very low Reflex defense for its level was too much of a weakness? I guess that would only occur if your party has a lot of implement attacks, probably.

 

[Mesh Hong]

I designed the golems as a standard level encounter, as such I wanted to make sure it didn't drag on too long and I needed to balance the high damage output.

For me the easiest way was to make sure the creature had one weak defence, reflex is the logical choice for a stone golem. I also used the lower AC when bloodied trick both to speed up combat and to give my players something to cheer about, its nice to see an actual sign that you are winning. 42 AC is a reasonably high target for my PCs to hit so it was a moral boost for them when it lowered to 38 (in fact they were surprised it was so low!).

I also had to bear in mind the challanges they are yet to face. Now we are well into Epic Tier I have pretty much thrown out the encounter/creature design rule book and am really piling on the pressure. With so many epic destinies having powers that require a PC to die I am really trying to kill my group, whilst maintaining a certain level of fairness and balance.

I am actually finding that killing my PCs is harder than you would think!