parchment golem! ( Yes I am crazy)

[DnDChick]

Or...how about an Oriental Adventures version of the parchment golem...

the origami golem

No, seriously! Imagine a bunch of characters entering a room fill with what they think are large pieces of wrinkled paper, when suddenly the paper begins to fold itself along the creases and stands up and proceeds to kick their butts!

The origami golem would be man sized, take half damage from bludeoning attacks, and only minimum damage from piercing attacks

and thats just for starters...let me think on it a while...

Origami golems would also be kewl to have in the paper wall panels of Japanese-style homes and temples. The origami golem forms the paper panel itself, falling out of the panel frame and folding itself into its proper shape whenever unwanted intruders enter the area.

 

[Krishnath]

Sounds good erica, you should write it up.

 

[Maldur]

I thought you said parchment not paper.

Parchment can stand water better than paper, only after a while would water (or dampnes) effect parchment. Throw a glass of water over parchment and it would not really be affected, only after a good oak, would it be damaged.

Parchment is cured animal skin not interlinking cellulose fibers (paper).

 

[justinsluder]

Mialee: Ouch, my scroll just bit me!

Regdar: Bah! Wimpy mage.

Mialee: Ouch! It just bit me again.

Regdar: Gimme that! (takes scroll) Ouch! Owwww! Owwww! Owwww! My finger! It cut my finger off! (goes and hides in a corner sucking his stub)




hehehehehehe

 

[Wolf72]

shreck!

... like the size of a large gingerbread man, perhaps?

- Devon

 

[Devon]

Shrek, eh?

"Maybe howsaboutta Par-fay golem, Shrek? evvybuddy likes a nice Par-fay golem!"
"No! Ogres build Onion golems...
Onion golems have LAY-ers... end of story!"

- Devon

 

[Oren the awakener]

Thanks for your replies, I look foward to seeing many parties with multiple paper cuts.

 

[Sojourn]

That's true about the wet cold/dry cold. I once marked a map as having "dry storage" and "cold storage" and one of my youthful, youthful players said, "you can't store something cold and dry?" And I had to explain to this whelp, this cub, this child, that back in the day, before your modern refrigerators, we had something called an Ice Box, which was literally a box...with ice in it. Back before there were crushed and cubed automatic ice dispensers, we had to take an ice pick and hack off a piece of ice from the giant block of ice slowly melting inside. So, no, cold storage is not dry storage in medieval times, son.

 

[Empirate]

Why the fire vulnerability? Take it from a medieval historian: parchment is not only astoundingly resilient, it is also quite resistant to fire. You can't burn it any easier than you can burn (thin) leather. Even though its large surface area might make it more vulnerable to general elemental damage, it won't take flame like modern paper does.

Interesting side note: medieval paper looks and feels a bit similar to parchment. It is produced from glue and cloth fibers, so it doesn't catch fire either.

Also, both materials are as good an insulator as you could hope for, so maybe electricity immunity?

 

[Cleon]

Why the fire vulnerability? Take it from a medieval historian: parchment is not only astoundingly resilient, it is also quite resistant to fire. You can't burn it any easier than you can burn (thin) leather. Even though its large surface area might make it more vulnerable to general elemental damage, it won't take flame like modern paper does.

This monster Homebrew was posted eleven years ago, and Oren's last post on Enworld was in May 2003, so it seems unlikely you'll get any replies from him.

As for the fire question, sure real-world parchment is as tough to burn as thin leather - basically because it is thin leather - so if it is made of that material it shouldn't have fire vulnerability.

Bearing in mind the multitudinous anachronisms and historical inaccuracies in D&D, it's possible the "parchment" isn't proper parchment.

Consider the 3E Goods & Services equipment list. It has "parchment (sheet)" at 2 silver pieces, "paper (sheet)" at 4 silver pieces.

So 3E parchment is half the price of paper. That suggests the "parchment" in question is just parchment-style plant-fibre paper rather than the scraped animal-skin a archivist would call "parchment". Hasn't parchment always been cheaper than paper?

Interesting side note: medieval paper looks and feels a bit similar to parchment. It is produced from glue and cloth fibers, so it doesn't catch fire either.

Also, both materials are as good an insulator as you could hope for, so maybe electricity immunity?

The golem does has electricity resistance 5, which seems plenty for such a minor creature.