What monsters do dwarves use? As guardians, etc...

[Gilladian]

In their homes, in their treasure vaults, secret hidden places, what monsters - in ALL the 3.5e compatible (or stealable for) sources, do dwarves turn to using when they want to guard something?

I'm creating a dwarven hideaway that is used to store a very valuable item, which the dwarf who owns it knows is being sought by others. What would he guard it with?

All ideas are welcome, but it is for a moderately low-level (3-5th) party.

 

[Sunseeker]

I would imagine lots of constructs. Things dwarves could build and control. Earth elementals perhaps.

 

[David Howery]

Bears! Big ones!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Constructs are an excellent idea.

I think that dwarves would rely more on their skill at engineering. Think of all those wonderful traps designed by Egyptian architects. Now imagine similarly skilled architects who have 5x the lifespan in which to refine their skills.

Then augment that with magic...incorporating constructs into their plans is a natural.

 

[Gilladian]

I'm thinking caryatid columns, maybe a stained glass golem, definitely a pit trap and some nasty slime or whatnot in it. Maybe a trapped gelatinous cube. This is not a place where the owner/resident has had a lot of time to prep his traps, though. And plot wise, he actually wants the item to draw in the thieves, whom he feels he'll have no trouble overwhelming. But then the thieves hire the PCs...and mayhem is sure to ensue.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The cube should be in a pit. Under it is some gold. Maybe some gems.

To keep it from starving, it is fed liquid meals through some pipes- nothing solid to ruin the illusion of an "empty" pit with some treasure at the bottom...

Once it feeds on some would-be thieves, it is released via a sliding door in the side of the pit, and a new one gets trapped.

 

[Richards]

I could see dwarves using monsters that disguise themselves as part of a room (trappers like to imitate floors, stunjelly hides as part of a wall, lurkers above hide on the ceilings). After all, they're not really that dangerous if you already know they're there, and a dwarf's innate stonecunning ability ought to help them identify which parts of their tunnels aren't really stone (in case the monsters shift around a bit). Properly fed during times when there aren't many intruders to snack on, I could see these types of monsters willingly staying in place.

Mimics might also be put to use, although they're probably a little trickier to handle.

Johnathan