Here's an idea: A Helmed Horror tasked with protection of a city has been working to meticulously restore the since ruined city of its charge by rebuilding it by hand. It shows no hostility to those who enter the city with peaceful intentions provided they do not damage it, leading to some NPCs taking up residence there both for safety and to study the ancient culture. The horror will take orders from 'citizens' provided it does not contradict it's central mission, provided they wear the appropriate clothes and speak in the ancient language, thus the city is filled with renaissance fair recreationists. It does this because it finds it amusing.
...That would genuinely be interesting. I imagine them having an over-the-top, campy skeletor voice and a love for self deprecation. "Alright, class, this week's *spine-chilling* adventure will involve discovering the fate of the ancient storm sorcerers who suddenly vanished from history books!"
The funny thing is, the idea of Helmed Horror gaining habits and a personality while achieving its goal makes more sense than you think. Scientists recently made a microscopic robot out of actual live frog cells that's fully programmable. Whats fascinating about this is that although they are programmed to achieve a goal. How they do it often varies a lot, with the combined cells having various strange habits completely unrelated to achieving the goal!
I like the idea of a battle horror merged with a nine-life stealer (possibly to collect the souls of troublesome enemies of it's creator), that is so god damned unimaginably old that it has become something like a demi-lich... but it is a construct, not undead... interesting?
So basically a T-1000 that not only has his mission invalidated (because its in another realm) but has lost all connections to SkyNet. Pretty dangerous.
It should also be noted that Helmed Horrors are immune to necrotic, Force and Psychic damage. Your level 9 psychic scream to stun it/disintegrate/finger of death/other tomfoolery of that damage type? Yeah no. Can't do it. ON TOP OF THE 3 SPELLS IT IS IMMUNE TO.
Another great underrated monster, I’m always impressed with your videos AJ. I still would love to see a video on blue collar wizards in the future. Here’s to many more videos to come!
Oh! A 60ft radius chamber that has an operator station in the center of the ceiling that stores arm attachments that allow the horror to change it's arms in response to specific triggers like rogues or archers
I got an idea: the helmed horror is commanded to wait as a display and then jump into a pit once someone puts it on, then put it in front of that low int fighter that keeps begging for full plate with opposed strength checks to move towards danger or go nowhere and the rest of the party freaking out trying to stop it
Yay Just got out of the hospital after a whole bunch of medical test scans and b******* and a bunch of blood being taken so this really lifted my spirits thank you so much AJ for all your hard work
good old neverwinter nights...i have the enhanced eddition and a mod that lets me play as a warforged...and another mod that lets me appear as a helmed horror
I can picture an Helmed Horror that decides to incorporate living tissue in the form of a swarm of some kind. Imagine a Helmed Horror packed with a nest of rats/squirrels or a hive of bees, that it now has a level of command over like a ranger. This could possibly give it a means of communication by controlling the hive's buzzing to make speech. I can see this with a questing Horror trying to get the a treasure he was guarding back.
But could you wear it like normal armor with the instructions to protect you at all costs? That 60 foot blindsight might be useful for you if it can warn you.
Only if it didn't move and let you move. You'd be better off with sentient armor in my opinion. Like a sentient sword. You don't want to be in something that can move on it's own unless you're ok with it breaking your bones as it moves at speeds and angles you aren't used to. It could work, but I figure the commands needed for simple movement with you inside would be convoluted if you wanted it to be safe. If you were a barbarian and rageing though? Probably something like the berserk armour in berserk.
Sometimes you're videos just show up at the right time AJ. Here I was musing on making a beefy space armor to fight my party. The helmed horror will be wonderfully easy to modify. So once again thanks for you're eerily good timing and a d10s worth inspiration.
You know, horror might not be the best name for this if the original command was broad and along the lines of, "defend the defenseless and help those in need". A simple command sent for a servitor and peacekeeper but if it wanders away after the civilization falls, you might end up with a paragon example of Knight Errant. It builds it's personality around the that as it's command you could end up with a knight that out paladin's a paladin as it wouldn't have the same temptations a mortal being would have been born with.
What a twist it would be that the BBG of the campaign turns out to be a helmed horror that gained sentience... If it's learned magecraft it could easily be as formidable an opponent as a lich and yet even scarier.
My table is currently running through an ancient 'Star Trek'ish dungeon they came across underground (they haven't found out that it's a Spell Weaver site just yet) and were a bit strained by the traps/ puzzles that were the major portion of their entrance; These guys sound perfect for when the security system goes from _passive_ to _active_ ...
The way you should be able to identify a Helmed Horror, is by trying to grapple them. Plate armor is heavy but a full set weighs about 80 lbs (36 kilos) which is a lot less than the average human in Plate. If you have a fighter or a barbarian and one of them tries to grapple it, just mention for flavor that it doesn't feel like the champion weights enough.
You're not the only DnD youtuber I've heard say a helmed horror should be made immune to heat metal, but that makes no sense! To a living person wearing a metal suit, yeah, heat metal would lead to a grisly death. But if you ARE that metal suit the most heat metal will do to you is make you glow in the dark for a few seconds...
Possibly the argument might be for damage to the suit itself? like structural damage? I mean think about it. if you ARE the metal suit, wouldn't you eventually melt? Magic of the helmed horror keeps it alive I guess?
@@slivverdarkwing9706 Eventually you'd melt, yes, but it would take a while and a very hot fire. So hyoud probably need higher level spells. And that's if the person who made it didn't think ahead and make it resistant to heat.
ddo added these a while back & they're a bit of a nightmare... whatever colour they glow, that's their element & it heals them, gotta use the opposing one instead - oh, and the element changes periodically! also, they aren't just immune to magic missile, but force damage of any kind actively heals them too, so there goes the old reliable all-purpose backup option.
*"Treguna Mekoides Trecorum Satis Dee"* Substitutiary locomotion Mystic power that's far beyond the wildest notion It's so weird, so feared, yet wonderful to see Substitutiary locomotion come to me
...... Okay for those who played fallout 4. Make Nick Valentine but a helm horror, and have your party help him solve mysteries. "hmmmm now I don't have a nose so tell me what it smells like in here? I mean ya sewers, but do you smell anything else?" possibly have him save them by doing the self destruct sequence bit, and start glowing really bright and going beep. or go full terminator, and have two groups send their own helm horrors to the past or future and have the party side with one. Like a Lich sends his back in time to kill the party before they have kids.
I've always wanted to explore the fact that helmed horrors and to a lesser extent animated armor are simply enchanted armor. my thing is what happens if you WEAR a helmed horror? does it break? do you break? what happens if you also happen to control the helmed horror? do you become a magical iron man with the horror being your personal suit? what happens if you DON'T control the helmed horror? can you make a strength check to forcibly control it? the qeustions go on and on
1.) Can they break away from their programming on their own or by acident, or are they slaved to it? 2.) Could it potentially gain the ability to make more of themselves, or other golems? 3.) If they accomplish their mission, do they have free will, an urge to seek new instruction, or just creatively interpret what they need to do based on their last order (like guarding a thing that they were supposed to retrieve so it is not lost again? 4.) Are they smart enough to be able to repair themselves, or learn magic? 5.) What happens if they are immune to counterspell and have a wand? Can they make their spells un-counterable? 6.) How smart can they get given unlimited time and resources? 7.) What makes the elemental malevolent, and can is that alignment necessary, or just advised? 8.) Dose elven high magic still work, or other ways to get around the lack of epic magic (besides leaving faerun)? 9.) If a lich sacrificed someone in the creation of the healmed horror, could that still happen, or is the soul destroyed?
You had me at the mention of gruesome trail and error,, already my mind is a flicker with thoughts of a helmed horror making some sort of pact of servitude wit ha necromancer in exchange real person. Tireless hauling carts of fresh dead flesh back to its master. I think it be due to being a shadow dragon at heart.
I would say you are half right. Similar methods were used but where as helmed horrors are constructs the warforged are actually alive. So some mysterious additional step was taken that imbued the warforged with true life. Where as the helmed horror is just a very sophisticated automation that has some limited learning abilities.
Great Video AJ. I created one of these years ago, you might like it AJ. I just had a different name for it. Its suit of armor was a super-expensive (fang & stone) dragon scale armor. It was an unusually powerful Helmed Horror. It was charged with protecting a demi-lich. It commanded Armor Golems, Mechanical Golems, Flesh Golems and armor augmented corporeal undeads. The demi-lich figured if invaders could go that deep inside, typical guardians would not be nearly enough. He would have to change strategy. The place was littered with life-detection triggered traps.
Semi-sentient helmed horror seeks Clerics of Moradrin, or some other forge themed deity. Seeks to become fully sentient, and capable of communication via a wish spell or some other blessing of said deity. Has to convey all its small, truncated messages via pantomime and gesticulation, made all the more clumsy by being a suit of plate armor.
nice! I was hoping you'd talk about (various) animated armor (some more) in the magic armor video you recently posted, this was awesome. I am curious about some of the things curtis brown asked about; you said in livestream you cannot wear a helmed horror, im kind of curious about that in general; wearable golem, warforged, animated armor, any living construct. warforged seem tricky but anything is doable i think, it sounds interesting how they'd do it. basically, dnd space marine power armor. i also like wes rus ideas. the helmed horror has the int/wis/cha of a common man (10/10/10), their psychology, senses, and ability to communicate differ greatly but the charisma must mean something there. very different from the 1/3/1 int/wis/cha of animated armor, I was curious about them as a PC. also comparing to animated armor, they have immunity to stun but animated armor does not, but they can be exhausted while the animated armor cannot. I wonder what these differences in mechanics mean from an rp perspective. thanks for sharing! (p.s. thanks for your reply on the magic armor video.) edit: I would use their flying ability to make them more creepy, they could imitate walking or crawling on walls or ceilings or drag themselves along unnaturally like something from the exorcist movie. combined with your pseudo-undead ideas could be really good.
Since they are slow to learn, I can see a scenario where somebody can control one by making it believe it's assigned task is ongoing. If it can be fooled it can be controlled by anyone willing to lead it on for days, months or even years.
@@AJPickett If a Helmed Horror is tasked to guard a specific treasure, but it doesn't know that the treasure has been destroyed someone could possible fool one into conscription by telling the Horror that their enemies are in possession of said treasure. Sending the Helmed Horror on a killing spree directed towards the cheats targets.
All I have to say with this one right here is it makes a very strong argument for a while I can definitely play either iron man or Tony Stark common writer Garo and just have 1 of these things following me around to be that suit of armor that I dislike put on a mid battle it's super cool I want it to be my best friend
But couldn't it do more damage on average with a second attack? Unless your homebrewing rules to make witchbolt genuinely useful I would pick pretty much any other offensive spell.
What if a Novice lich created a bunch of constructs thinking that they are superior to the stupid and frail skeletons and zombies. But instead of binding fractures of elemental souls the lich instead took undead souls from the negative plane. But it went wrong and the undead souls went on a rampage killed the lich and started killing everything living in its sight. And now a group of adventures must go to the liches lair to figure out how to stop these rampaging metal monsters.
In this case, it is a malevolent, therefore, more powerful, advanced and self-aware elemental entity. For most golems, "animal level" elementals are all that is required.
@@taurvanath I do believe that it would classify as an animated construct. Powered by the thoughts and soul of your PC but just animated construct. but just saying. I would merely be happy with the GP needed for a spell like that lol
For some reason, I imagine the Players stumble over a caster, that is just about to end the ritual to create a Helmed Horror, and just as they enter, the ritual is done, and that absolutely standard looking suit of plate mail starts to draw in all the flames of the torches and braziers around, while it begins to animate, trying to take its first steps, falling to its knees, crawling, all while a sound like distant screams of anger and pain and mad laughter can be heard. And during all this, it keeps drawing in the flames, getting stronger and steadier the more it absorbs, while the arcane glow inside it gets stronger, shining through the gaps between the parts, and the metal begins to look as if it does bubble and boil, and then reshapes the parts of the formerly plain armor to look somewhat more organic, grown, and Infernal. (Think of the scene, where Jonny Blaze first transforms into the Ghost Rider) Or a Helmed Horror, that was enchanted/infused, so its metal is impervious to the passage of time, and giving it a similar thing to a Golems immutable form. It's not immune to fire, but it's not bothered by it either, so if the Players cast Heat Metal on it, it starts to glow, and now they have to deal with a glowing hot suit of armor, that wants to kill them. Or a Helmed Horror, that has gained sentience, and put some kind of magic item inside itself, that now basically functions as a Text to Speech device.
Seamus, RUclips has started to tag your comments as Spam, meaning I have to fish them out of the spam folder, just FYI. Not my doing, in case you wonder why some are not showing up for a little while (until I check the folder).
So when you say resistant to non-magical weapons that aren't adamantine does that mean it is also resistant to magical weapons that aren't adamantine? I'm a newer dm but I'm hesitant to use these types of resistant enemies
Oh this would be a fun playable character idea. Was told to protect the creator or if creator dies protect creators disndents. Long story short it was deactivated creator die few hundred or thousand years go by. It get activated. Realise it creators is dead. Set out to find any and or all of creators family. And protect them if it can. Adventure begin by finding the one remaing family member. Who has no clue about the ancester or ansecters creation. Who has now found them and the process to fallow hard and protect said person dutifully. And only that person as the party get to gaether. Being in abule to talk about it one thing it was made to do it just dose it. Following this person who is in this group. And becoming an slitly creepy stalker/protected of said person for the game. And if said person can learn how to give it commands as it creators once did it will fallow thous commands to the best of its ability as well. In less it contradicts is primary command and goal.....
Here's a scary question, what if an adventurer comes upon a helmed horror that was in inactive mode (by order) and puts it on and causing the horror to become active? At 11:38 so if you cover it later, oops. :)
Wait a minute... I think I saw this monster in the Thor Movies. Inspiration truly can come from anywhere. :) hey AJ and anyone else in the comments, what is the weirdest or most unlikely place you’ve found inspiration for one of your campaigns?
I often eat cheese before I go to sleep just because it tends to give me vivid, often strange dreams, and my latest campaign was directly inspired by one of those dreams.
I can't remember exactly where i got the indpiration from but I'm working on a campaign where a recurring villain is grafting parts from other creatures onto his body with the help of the book of vile darkness...and the player party inadvertently. Like they go in and kill a beholder for him to appear and snatch up an eyestalk, next time they encounter him he has beholder eye rays. This pattern continues, I'm trying to figure out how I'll do it, maybe depending on the parties decisions he'll have different parts depending on what quests they pick up.
A long running Planescape campaign I created years ago was inspired by a huge wasp nest that I found in an abandoned farmhouse near my home. The nest was huge, and was semi contained in the hollow walls, and bulbous tumours of it protruded into almost every room in the house. The bathroom had these grey growths growing out of the walls, the kitchen was infested through the floor cabinets, and everywhere they were connected through the walls. It made me think of it like an invading force that spread across the planes like insects in the walls. I imagined an incredibly tough warrior species whose only evolutionary niche was easy interplanar travel. They exist between dimensions, their physical forms adapted to a void filled with chaos and violence. As humans learned to exploit thrown weapons, this chitinous swarm learned to cease their tribal infighting and begin coordinating assaults on weak unsuspecting victims, not unlike bulky vicious Ethereal Filchers who want to eat your flesh and steal your items. Hailing from a dimension where magic and gods do not exist, they leave no trails when they plane shift and cannot be tracked with spells or psionics. So the rooms of the house were dimensions filled with squishy humanoids who like farming and birthday parties, and the space between the walls was filled with angry wasps who could push through any time they wanted. The group fled their world Spelljammer style and kicked it around the planes recruiting allies, being big damn heroes and killing the brain bug(with a twist!) that made the Zerg- I mean Tyranids- Er. Made the baddies attack. Tldr: Bugs are cool.
@@davidmathieson8661 Dude! My BBEG Alchemist Necromancer is doing the same thing but with and Ancient Dragon skeleton. I love your idea and wish you well in your campaign.
Well, aside from the relatively low Hit points, it only has a mundane weapon attack and it has a very limit visual range that makes it vulnerable to ranged attacks.
Here's an idea: A Helmed Horror tasked with protection of a city has been working to meticulously restore the since ruined city of its charge by rebuilding it by hand. It shows no hostility to those who enter the city with peaceful intentions provided they do not damage it, leading to some NPCs taking up residence there both for safety and to study the ancient culture. The horror will take orders from 'citizens' provided it does not contradict it's central mission, provided they wear the appropriate clothes and speak in the ancient language, thus the city is filled with renaissance fair recreationists. It does this because it finds it amusing.
This is an excellent idea!
Yoink!
i guess it's kind of randomly asking but does anyone know a good website to stream new tv shows online?
Requesting permission to use this
I can picture a party discovered a helmed horror depressed at a bar after his ruins got destroyed by orks
Imagine a lich who runs a school dedicated to recovering lost magical arts.
That would be fun and or neat.
...That would genuinely be interesting. I imagine them having an over-the-top, campy skeletor voice and a love for self deprecation.
"Alright, class, this week's *spine-chilling* adventure will involve discovering the fate of the ancient storm sorcerers who suddenly vanished from history books!"
The funny thing is, the idea of Helmed Horror gaining habits and a personality while achieving its goal makes more sense than you think. Scientists recently made a microscopic robot out of actual live frog cells that's fully programmable. Whats fascinating about this is that although they are programmed to achieve a goal. How they do it often varies a lot, with the combined cells having various strange habits completely unrelated to achieving the goal!
I like the idea of a battle horror merged with a nine-life stealer (possibly to collect the souls of troublesome enemies of it's creator), that is so god damned unimaginably old that it has become something like a demi-lich... but it is a construct, not undead... interesting?
Very :)
So basically a T-1000 that not only has his mission invalidated (because its in another realm) but has lost all connections to SkyNet. Pretty dangerous.
"Halls of the High King" was an awesome adventure......brings back some good memories AJ! 😀
It should also be noted that Helmed Horrors are immune to necrotic, Force and Psychic damage. Your level 9 psychic scream to stun it/disintegrate/finger of death/other tomfoolery of that damage type? Yeah no. Can't do it.
ON TOP OF THE 3 SPELLS IT IS IMMUNE TO.
Basically found the baseline stats for an iron man suit. Once you said these things can fly I already knew .
Ah yes. Magical terminator. The reason I once retired in Rust Ranch.
Another great underrated monster, I’m always impressed with your videos AJ. I still would love to see a video on blue collar wizards in the future. Here’s to many more videos to come!
Have you read Patrick Rothfuss' novels, "The Name of the Wind" and "A Wise Man's Fear"? They have some good wizard academy stuff in them.
Cool, I’m always on the lookout for inspiration. Thanks, I’ll check them out.
Theres a full metal alchemist reference here somewhere. I know it
A big fat counter to warlock. Immune to Eldritch blast and hex, so it takes nothing.
Ooo a helmed horror who becomes a warlock pact of the blade or a paladin oath of conquest with the feat mage slayer with free will
Oh! A 60ft radius chamber that has an operator station in the center of the ceiling that stores arm attachments that allow the horror to change it's arms in response to specific triggers like rogues or archers
Out of the intros you've made AJ, this is one of my most favorites.
Finally! A lore appropriate origin story for a warforged.
I got an idea: the helmed horror is commanded to wait as a display and then jump into a pit once someone puts it on, then put it in front of that low int fighter that keeps begging for full plate with opposed strength checks to move towards danger or go nowhere and the rest of the party freaking out trying to stop it
“Gullible fools” oh that was too funny
Yay
Just got out of the hospital after a whole bunch of medical test scans and b******* and a bunch of blood being taken so this really lifted my spirits thank you so much AJ for all your hard work
Hope you are doing ok! *provides Aid for Constitution Save*
@@AJPickett thanks
A helmed horror from the far realm is the t1000
good old neverwinter nights...i have the enhanced eddition and a mod that lets me play as a warforged...and another mod that lets me appear as a helmed horror
I can picture an Helmed Horror that decides to incorporate living tissue in the form of a swarm of some kind. Imagine a Helmed Horror packed with a nest of rats/squirrels or a hive of bees, that it now has a level of command over like a ranger. This could possibly give it a means of communication by controlling the hive's buzzing to make speech. I can see this with a questing Horror trying to get the a treasure he was guarding back.
The BEEEEES!!
But could you wear it like normal armor with the instructions to protect you at all costs? That 60 foot blindsight might be useful for you if it can warn you.
I second this question.
Only if it didn't move and let you move. You'd be better off with sentient armor in my opinion. Like a sentient sword. You don't want to be in something that can move on it's own unless you're ok with it breaking your bones as it moves at speeds and angles you aren't used to. It could work, but I figure the commands needed for simple movement with you inside would be convoluted if you wanted it to be safe. If you were a barbarian and rageing though?
Probably something like the berserk armour in berserk.
Helmed Horror sounds like a sick metal band name
Sometimes you're videos just show up at the right time AJ. Here I was musing on making a beefy space armor to fight my party. The helmed horror will be wonderfully easy to modify. So once again thanks for you're eerily good timing and a d10s worth inspiration.
You know, horror might not be the best name for this if the original command was broad and along the lines of, "defend the defenseless and help those in need". A simple command sent for a servitor and peacekeeper but if it wanders away after the civilization falls, you might end up with a paragon example of Knight Errant. It builds it's personality around the that as it's command you could end up with a knight that out paladin's a paladin as it wouldn't have the same temptations a mortal being would have been born with.
That's a Helmed Hero if you ask me.
What a twist it would be that the BBG of the campaign turns out to be a helmed horror that gained sentience... If it's learned magecraft it could easily be as formidable an opponent as a lich and yet even scarier.
Maybe it stuffs a skull inside it's helmet, just to add to the illusion that it is a lich.
I like Helmed Horrors that act like the Headless Horseman. I call them Headless Horrors. I also like making them Death Knights.
Thanks AJ.
4:21 Well hello Soul of Cinder, fancy seeing you here
My table is currently running through an ancient 'Star Trek'ish dungeon they came across underground (they haven't found out that it's a Spell Weaver site just yet) and were a bit strained by the traps/ puzzles that were the major portion of their entrance; These guys sound perfect for when the security system goes from _passive_ to _active_ ...
Absolutely!
A net that bursts into flames sounds hilarious, almost as funny as a net that is soaked in a pheromone that attracts hornets
*takes notes* I like the way you think.. replace Hornets with Rot Grubs.
In other words, what you put your party against when your EldritchBot minmaxer is carrying too hard.
How's eldritch bolt stand up to a beholder's central eye?
@@muninrob Slightly to the side.
Indeed, also, the whole area the encounter takes place in can be warded against specific spells as well.
The way you should be able to identify a Helmed Horror, is by trying to grapple them. Plate armor is heavy but a full set weighs about 80 lbs (36 kilos) which is a lot less than the average human in Plate. If you have a fighter or a barbarian and one of them tries to grapple it, just mention for flavor that it doesn't feel like the champion weights enough.
I respectfully suggest that the opening for the Imp should be done with ACDCs TNT with the word Imp taking the place of Oi
As someone who is currently playing a warlock of the fiend with a focus on eldricth blasting, I have to say this thing is rather... horrifying
Makes me want to make a player character that is a helmed horror if the Dm would allow
And this is why these things are my favorite monster.
I was about to compare them to Terminators when you did in the video! ^^
"....and private text messages". hahahahaha. Preach, Brother!
You're not the only DnD youtuber I've heard say a helmed horror should be made immune to heat metal, but that makes no sense! To a living person wearing a metal suit, yeah, heat metal would lead to a grisly death. But if you ARE that metal suit the most heat metal will do to you is make you glow in the dark for a few seconds...
Possibly the argument might be for damage to the suit itself? like structural damage? I mean think about it. if you ARE the metal suit, wouldn't you eventually melt? Magic of the helmed horror keeps it alive I guess?
@@slivverdarkwing9706 Eventually you'd melt, yes, but it would take a while and a very hot fire. So hyoud probably need higher level spells. And that's if the person who made it didn't think ahead and make it resistant to heat.
quite a cool construct definitely not your typical golem
ddo added these a while back & they're a bit of a nightmare... whatever colour they glow, that's their element & it heals them, gotta use the opposing one instead - oh, and the element changes periodically! also, they aren't just immune to magic missile, but force damage of any kind actively heals them too, so there goes the old reliable all-purpose backup option.
*"Treguna Mekoides Trecorum Satis Dee"*
Substitutiary locomotion
Mystic power that's far beyond the wildest notion
It's so weird, so feared, yet wonderful to see
Substitutiary locomotion come to me
just watch out for soccer playing lions.
...... Okay for those who played fallout 4. Make Nick Valentine but a helm horror, and have your party help him solve mysteries.
"hmmmm now I don't have a nose so tell me what it smells like in here? I mean ya sewers, but do you smell anything else?"
possibly have him save them by doing the self destruct sequence bit, and start glowing really bright and going beep.
or go full terminator, and have two groups send their own helm horrors to the past or future and have the party side with one. Like a Lich sends his back in time to kill the party before they have kids.
I've always wanted to explore the fact that helmed horrors and to a lesser extent animated armor are simply enchanted armor. my thing is what happens if you WEAR a helmed horror? does it break? do you break? what happens if you also happen to control the helmed horror? do you become a magical iron man with the horror being your personal suit? what happens if you DON'T control the helmed horror? can you make a strength check to forcibly control it? the qeustions go on and on
@@thurismundbotheric7598 fair enough
1.) Can they break away from their programming on their own or by acident, or are they slaved to it?
2.) Could it potentially gain the ability to make more of themselves, or other golems?
3.) If they accomplish their mission, do they have free will, an urge to seek new instruction, or just creatively interpret what they need to do based on their last order (like guarding a thing that they were supposed to retrieve so it is not lost again?
4.) Are they smart enough to be able to repair themselves, or learn magic?
5.) What happens if they are immune to counterspell and have a wand? Can they make their spells un-counterable?
6.) How smart can they get given unlimited time and resources?
7.) What makes the elemental malevolent, and can is that alignment necessary, or just advised?
8.) Dose elven high magic still work, or other ways to get around the lack of epic magic (besides leaving faerun)?
9.) If a lich sacrificed someone in the creation of the healmed horror, could that still happen, or is the soul destroyed?
Damn, this is good timing. I just came up with the idea of an animated armor character
You had me at the mention of gruesome trail and error,, already my mind is a flicker with thoughts of a helmed horror making some sort of pact of servitude wit ha necromancer in exchange real person. Tireless hauling carts of fresh dead flesh back to its master. I think it be due to being a shadow dragon at heart.
Wonder if anyone has tried making a Helmed Horror PC? The lore seems to imply it could happen if their original order was rendered null and void.
I think thats how the warforged came 2 be
an army of robots built to fight a war long over
Would love to skip human limitations ingame and just *become* the iron I want to wear.
I would say you are half right. Similar methods were used but where as helmed horrors are constructs the warforged are actually alive. So some mysterious additional step was taken that imbued the warforged with true life. Where as the helmed horror is just a very sophisticated automation that has some limited learning abilities.
Great Video AJ. I created one of these years ago, you might like it AJ. I just had a different name for it. Its suit of armor was a super-expensive (fang & stone) dragon scale armor. It was an unusually powerful Helmed Horror. It was charged with protecting a demi-lich. It commanded Armor Golems, Mechanical Golems, Flesh Golems and armor augmented corporeal undeads. The demi-lich figured if invaders could go that deep inside, typical guardians would not be nearly enough. He would have to change strategy. The place was littered with life-detection triggered traps.
I always wanted to play as one of these...
One of my fave D&D monsters.
Semi-sentient helmed horror seeks Clerics of Moradrin, or some other forge themed deity. Seeks to become fully sentient, and capable of communication via a wish spell or some other blessing of said deity. Has to convey all its small, truncated messages via pantomime and gesticulation, made all the more clumsy by being a suit of plate armor.
Is it just me or does helmmed horror andthe movie iron giant would be a good start to a side adventure?
Marvin the Paranoid Helmed Horror on a Spell Jammer ship lost in wild space
It's pretty cool that you included the Soul of Cinder from Dark Souls 3, the one with the eclipsed sun above it
There should be a spell that lets a castor magically rust unprotected metal. I could see druids using it.
@@AlexLopez-xo1tc the spell wouldn't affect magical items or constructs just mundane items.
@@AlexLopez-xo1tc If they knew of the spell and it was commonly employed back when the Construct was created.
Just fought a few of these, kicked their metal butts!
I want to make a character template for this. Maybe mix the revenant and warforged.
Oh my god! I missed that intro. Such a good one.
Oh lord, more toys for you.
@@felixoyola-rosa923 What do you mean by that, exactly?
@@purplehaze2358 Just your name, combined with what I know I know about SCP, would be something Dr. Bright would find Helmed Horrors very intriguing
@@felixoyola-rosa923 Oh, yeah. I see you're aware of me, the man of *BRIGHT* ideas, himself?
Oh yes, this would absolutely be an SCP subject.
If I was a high level magic user in the d and d world I would eventually create a helmed horror to guard my loot 😁
And make me coffee.
Like legit these should be a dragons best friend
Sentient Shardplate from the Cosmere. Brandon Sanderson will be proud, haha. I see where he got it.
Eberron's warforged come to mind....
nice! I was hoping you'd talk about (various) animated armor (some more) in the magic armor video you recently posted, this was awesome. I am curious about some of the things curtis brown asked about; you said in livestream you cannot wear a helmed horror, im kind of curious about that in general; wearable golem, warforged, animated armor, any living construct. warforged seem tricky but anything is doable i think, it sounds interesting how they'd do it. basically, dnd space marine power armor.
i also like wes rus ideas. the helmed horror has the int/wis/cha of a common man (10/10/10), their psychology, senses, and ability to communicate differ greatly but the charisma must mean something there. very different from the 1/3/1 int/wis/cha of animated armor, I was curious about them as a PC.
also comparing to animated armor, they have immunity to stun but animated armor does not, but they can be exhausted while the animated armor cannot. I wonder what these differences in mechanics mean from an rp perspective. thanks for sharing! (p.s. thanks for your reply on the magic armor video.)
edit: I would use their flying ability to make them more creepy, they could imitate walking or crawling on walls or ceilings or drag themselves along unnaturally like something from the exorcist movie. combined with your pseudo-undead ideas could be really good.
Since they are slow to learn, I can see a scenario where somebody can control one by making it believe it's assigned task is ongoing. If it can be fooled it can be controlled by anyone willing to lead it on for days, months or even years.
Example?
@@AJPickett If a Helmed Horror is tasked to guard a specific treasure, but it doesn't know that the treasure has been destroyed someone could possible fool one into conscription by telling the Horror that their enemies are in possession of said treasure. Sending the Helmed Horror on a killing spree directed towards the cheats targets.
@@Greenscyth22 Nice!
"lead the players to their own paranoid whispers"
That líne deserves it's own video.
Helmed horror as a phylactery for a lich. Or, housing the phylactery.
Possible.
Or just guarding it.
I don’t know if you take requests, but could you do a video on Lava Children?
All I have to say with this one right here is it makes a very strong argument for a while I can definitely play either iron man or Tony Stark common writer Garo and just have 1 of these things following me around to be that suit of armor that I dislike put on a mid battle it's super cool I want it to be my best friend
So, there could be a Helmed Horror that is kinda lik Data from Star trek, trying to become more human?
Yes
But couldn't it do more damage on average with a second attack? Unless your homebrewing rules to make witchbolt genuinely useful I would pick pretty much any other offensive spell.
So if they can't speak, would they communicate through sign language or telepathy.
Sign language is possible, but not telepathy (usually)
What if you have a creature wearing a helmed horror
By creature I assume you mean horror
What if a Novice lich created a bunch of constructs thinking that they are superior to the stupid and frail skeletons and zombies.
But instead of binding fractures of elemental souls the lich instead took undead souls from the negative plane.
But it went wrong and the undead souls went on a rampage killed the lich and started killing everything living in its sight.
And now a group of adventures must go to the liches lair to figure out how to stop these rampaging metal monsters.
That is less a question and more of a good campaign arc. *approved*
Good video AJ
I wonder what animates different golems is it just elemental energy, arcane knowlege or is there a sort of spark that some possess more of
In this case, it is a malevolent, therefore, more powerful, advanced and self-aware elemental entity. For most golems, "animal level" elementals are all that is required.
Imagine if somehow powerful near elemental prince level elementals were placed in a golem
Could a human soul serve as a helmed horror? As in their soul is used as a pilot for the suit of armor?
Or possibly a second body for a lich?
That could be a thing, but it wouldn't be a helmed horror.
@@AJPickett what would that be then? A possessed suit of armor? Is there a technical term for it?
It could be called a “possessed” helmed horror. But in case of the Lich simply a open vessel to retrieve the Lich’s body.
@@taurvanath I do believe that it would classify as an animated construct. Powered by the thoughts and soul of your PC but just animated construct. but just saying. I would merely be happy with the GP needed for a spell like that lol
For some reason, I imagine the Players stumble over a caster, that is just about to end the ritual to create a Helmed Horror, and just as they enter, the ritual is done, and that absolutely standard looking suit of plate mail starts to draw in all the flames of the torches and braziers around, while it begins to animate, trying to take its first steps, falling to its knees, crawling, all while a sound like distant screams of anger and pain and mad laughter can be heard. And during all this, it keeps drawing in the flames, getting stronger and steadier the more it absorbs, while the arcane glow inside it gets stronger, shining through the gaps between the parts, and the metal begins to look as if it does bubble and boil, and then reshapes the parts of the formerly plain armor to look somewhat more organic, grown, and Infernal.
(Think of the scene, where Jonny Blaze first transforms into the Ghost Rider)
Or a Helmed Horror, that was enchanted/infused, so its metal is impervious to the passage of time, and giving it a similar thing to a Golems immutable form. It's not immune to fire, but it's not bothered by it either, so if the Players cast Heat Metal on it, it starts to glow, and now they have to deal with a glowing hot suit of armor, that wants to kill them.
Or a Helmed Horror, that has gained sentience, and put some kind of magic item inside itself, that now basically functions as a Text to Speech device.
Like a little mini-golem or perhaps some flame elemental like a mephit riding around in the rib cage. Great idea!
Seamus wuz here!
Seamus, RUclips has started to tag your comments as Spam, meaning I have to fish them out of the spam folder, just FYI. Not my doing, in case you wonder why some are not showing up for a little while (until I check the folder).
@@AJPickett I must alter the message....
Witchbolt is perfect for reskinning into heat beams from the eyes
Did you do flying sword too? Well if you didnt please make one!
Our dm gets inspiration if we meta game. It helps encourage more role playing
Noice armour I want one, make it two.
could i make a helmed horror or battle horror as a player character ?
You might want to start with the Savage Species book (I think it was 3.0, but it's a place to start)
Mistah Bryan how much info dose it have about helmed or battle horror?
Hey there are some awesome pics in here! Do you have links to these pics posted somewhere?
I second that.
Talk about Warlock bane wow!
So when you say resistant to non-magical weapons that aren't adamantine does that mean it is also resistant to magical weapons that aren't adamantine? I'm a newer dm but I'm hesitant to use these types of resistant enemies
@@thurismundbotheric7598 Thank you greatly. Now I feel I can properly use this in my campaign
Nice video
So this is a golem subtype then?
Yes.
@@AJPickett or it shoves an actual demi litch skull in its helm, working in tandem with it
chase green Not going to lie.That sounds awesome!
Oh this would be a fun playable character idea. Was told to protect the creator or if creator dies protect creators disndents. Long story short it was deactivated creator die few hundred or thousand years go by. It get activated. Realise it creators is dead. Set out to find any and or all of creators family. And protect them if it can. Adventure begin by finding the one remaing family member. Who has no clue about the ancester or ansecters creation.
Who has now found them and the process to fallow hard and protect said person dutifully. And only that person as the party get to gaether. Being in abule to talk about it one thing it was made to do it just dose it. Following this person who is in this group. And becoming an slitly creepy stalker/protected of said person for the game. And if said person can learn how to give it commands as it creators once did it will fallow thous commands to the best of its ability as well. In less it contradicts is primary command and goal.....
PLEASE DO SEKOLAH!!!
If you remove the helmet, will it die?
Maybe or it could simply not need it
No. (good question though)
It would be very painful...
Here's a scary question, what if an adventurer comes upon a helmed horror that was in inactive mode (by order) and puts it on and causing the horror to become active? At 11:38 so if you cover it later, oops. :)
The party would have to know a command phrase to turn it on possibly. and it only knows the language of its creators.
So basicaly they are Mr. Meeseeks from Hell
Kinda yeah
Wait a minute... I think I saw this monster in the Thor Movies. Inspiration truly can come from anywhere. :)
hey AJ and anyone else in the comments, what is the weirdest or most unlikely place you’ve found inspiration for one of your campaigns?
I often eat cheese before I go to sleep just because it tends to give me vivid, often strange dreams, and my latest campaign was directly inspired by one of those dreams.
I can't remember exactly where i got the indpiration from but I'm working on a campaign where a recurring villain is grafting parts from other creatures onto his body with the help of the book of vile darkness...and the player party inadvertently. Like they go in and kill a beholder for him to appear and snatch up an eyestalk, next time they encounter him he has beholder eye rays. This pattern continues, I'm trying to figure out how I'll do it, maybe depending on the parties decisions he'll have different parts depending on what quests they pick up.
A long running Planescape campaign I created years ago was inspired by a huge wasp nest that I found in an abandoned farmhouse near my home. The nest was huge, and was semi contained in the hollow walls, and bulbous tumours of it protruded into almost every room in the house. The bathroom had these grey growths growing out of the walls, the kitchen was infested through the floor cabinets, and everywhere they were connected through the walls.
It made me think of it like an invading force that spread across the planes like insects in the walls. I imagined an incredibly tough warrior species whose only evolutionary niche was easy interplanar travel. They exist between dimensions, their physical forms adapted to a void filled with chaos and violence. As humans learned to exploit thrown weapons, this chitinous swarm learned to cease their tribal infighting and begin coordinating assaults on weak unsuspecting victims, not unlike bulky vicious Ethereal Filchers who want to eat your flesh and steal your items. Hailing from a dimension where magic and gods do not exist, they leave no trails when they plane shift and cannot be tracked with spells or psionics.
So the rooms of the house were dimensions filled with squishy humanoids who like farming and birthday parties, and the space between the walls was filled with angry wasps who could push through any time they wanted.
The group fled their world Spelljammer style and kicked it around the planes recruiting allies, being big damn heroes and killing the brain bug(with a twist!) that made the Zerg- I mean Tyranids- Er. Made the baddies attack.
Tldr: Bugs are cool.
@@Diditallforthexp Tldr: YOU are cool ;)
@@davidmathieson8661 Dude! My BBEG Alchemist Necromancer is doing the same thing but with and Ancient Dragon skeleton. I love your idea and wish you well in your campaign.
You can make ultron from marvel comics.
Why is this a Cr 4 construct
Well, aside from the relatively low Hit points, it only has a mundane weapon attack and it has a very limit visual range that makes it vulnerable to ranged attacks.
🎲
9:28 Skyrim