If you are building a mega-dungeon, or even just a multi-tiered normal dungeon, I recommend using different art styles for different levels, showing the stratographical shift in cultures. The golem is a monster that really lends itself to this design. Have level three be classic Roman statues as clay golems, level five be classical Cypriot votary statues as stone golems, and end with neo Sumatran statues as bronze golems. It can be a great way to show, instead of tell, the passage of time to players and immerse them in the exploration experience. Anyways, great show guys!
Demo-Golem: Lord of Abyssal Contraptions, Prince of Genocidal Invention, The Iron Titan, The Maker-Slayer, Demonlord of Constructs and Archfiend of Golems.
I'm sure I will not be the first to mention this, but I had to smile when you mentioned adding armor to flesh golems. I ran Tomb of Annihilation previously, and Acererak does in fact nail armor to flesh golems, upping their attacks and AC to 18. They wander around the tomb menacing players to the DM's discretion. Keep up the good work, I enjoy listening every week.
If Golem’s can be any shape but keep the same stats, you can make a large one a horse. They might be slow, but they will follow your instructions perfectly and with be a great help with any situation on the road.
Notsae66. It’s a loophole that has been corrected i think. The tarrasque stats dont say its attacks count as magical. Its a typo. Its an oversight. Clay golem is immune to all the tarrasque attack options.
That's a good point. Having direct cultural insight could give better perspective into storytelling and gameplay. This could be said of many of the monsters.
I remember first getting into DND (this was back in early 2e days) and there was so much info to take in. Tons of new monsters to learn but then they got to golems and me and another Jewish friend were just like "oh yeah we already know that one.". Good times lol
As a nerd fan of TTRPG lore and a football fan of the Indianapolis Colts, I laughed so hard at the confusion regarding Peyton Manning yelling "OMAHA!" As someone who straddles those worlds, allow me to clarify. So, normally a QB will be in a huddle with his players on the field for the offense and say "ok folks, this is the play we're gonna run". They'll break the huddle and go line up as the defense does the same. Now, maybe the QB sees the way the defense are set up and thinks "oh crap, the way the defense are lined up suggests that they're in a perfect position to counter whatever we were gonna do. We're in a really bad position if we continue with the original plan." Well, football teams have contingencies, or "audibles". This term has expanded outside of sports and is recognized as calling a plan b on the fly. Basically, you say "hey, we're using the alternate fire on the original play call". It uses the same players and same opening look, but usually runs a different play that is strong where the original play was weak and vice versa. Offenses use trigger words to let their players know that they're going to plan b. Sometimes, they even use fake trigger words so that the defense think something is changing when in reality, it's business as normal. Peyton Manning was a really smart QB, arguably the smartest QB of his generation, and loved reading the defense and making changes to the play at the line of scrimmage just before the ball was snapped. By far his favorite, iconic audible trigger word was "Omaha", and it has become a bit of a meme. Also, for those who don't know, using the same word doesn't make him predictable. The audible play changes based on the original play. So if you call Play X and audible to Play Z, calling your audible trigger word on Play Y doesn't necessarily mean you change to Play Z again. Could be Play H. The smarter and more disciplined your team is, the more options out you can utilize. You could even map out 2 or 3 different audibles: Original Play A is a short pass. Omaha (A) audibles to Play B, a run. Frankenstein (A) audibles to Play C, a deep pass Eisenhower (A) audibles to Play D, where you fake a run but then pass. And you could use Omaha, Frankenstein, and Eisenhower as your trigger words all game for the plan b, c, and d for any given play, each contingency being different based on the base play that was originally called. As easy as it is to dismiss football players as meatheads, there are definitely roads where really smart players can do all kinds of stuff that less studied players just don't have in their toolbox. As a huge nerd and scrawny kid growing up, it's why I adored and idolized Peyton Manning.
Have a pair of Iron Golems as the portal key to an Archmage's Tower. To get in or out you have to be touching the Golem. So breaking in or out is an issue as the Golems don't just let ppl touch them.
If golems always have magically perfect interpretations of their orders it seems like they would be more useful as decision making tools than as actors. Build a small and rather harmless golem. Give it orders to do two things. Let the first order be the method you wish to use to achieve your goal and let the second order be the goal itself. If the golem does not move then you know your chosen method contradicts your goal.
My 3.5e Ravenloft book has bone, doll, gargoyle, glass, mechanical, and zombie golems. The glass one is actually cool since it looks like stained glass, heals in direct sunlight, and can Archimedes death-ray opponents.
I also made a silver golem for taking in werewolves and an adamantine golem that's more powerful than an iron golem a few years back. I'll send those to anyone who's interested.
Flesh golem that is smart and can groan out the word "daddy" or "mommy" sees its creater as a father or mother. Its kept in a room with over sized toys to keep it occupired while not in use. Goes berserk when its "parent" is harmed.
Had my players fight an evil wizard who created several flesh golems to protect himself should’ve been a tough but very winnable fight but do to the rolls it ended up with the bard soloing the wizard with ease but the rest of the party was absolutely destroyed by the golems and the bard had to heal the wizard back up and threaten to put him back down unless he called off the golems good game
If you are building a mega-dungeon, or even just a multi-tiered normal dungeon, I recommend using different art styles for different levels, showing the stratographical shift in cultures. The golem is a monster that really lends itself to this design. Have level three be classic Roman statues as clay golems, level five be classical Cypriot votary statues as stone golems, and end with neo Sumatran statues as bronze golems. It can be a great way to show, instead of tell, the passage of time to players and immerse them in the exploration experience. Anyways, great show guys!
Shout out to Demo-Golem
a flesh golem crafted from disparate demon parts? I think the Prince of Demons would approve!
Infernal Golem sounds dope
@Nash Morrow there is the fiendish flesh golem that they don't cover this episode. It's a canon monster and pretty good.
Demo-Golem: Lord of Abyssal Contraptions, Prince of Genocidal Invention, The Iron Titan, The Maker-Slayer, Demonlord of Constructs and Archfiend of Golems.
I'm sure I will not be the first to mention this, but I had to smile when you mentioned adding armor to flesh golems. I ran Tomb of Annihilation previously, and Acererak does in fact nail armor to flesh golems, upping their attacks and AC to 18. They wander around the tomb menacing players to the DM's discretion. Keep up the good work, I enjoy listening every week.
And that's why ToA was the best!
If Golem’s can be any shape but keep the same stats, you can make a large one a horse. They might be slow, but they will follow your instructions perfectly and with be a great help with any situation on the road.
I can't be the only one who remembers when WotC released the calzone golem.
You two provide such wonderful content, thank you.
For a stained glass golem, see "The Young Sherlock Holmes" from 1985. It was pretty much the first CG character.
To paraphrase Arnold in Predator: "if it has a statblock we can kill it"
ROFL the hamburger flesh golems! That was at Jim Darkmagic's family estate, the reading of his grandad's will.
have you guys seen the hammerhead sharks made of hammerheads? that's what the dwarven hammer golem probably looks like XD
That was the first thing I thought of when they said that.
Excellent episode, gentlemen.
Clay Golems can kill the tarrasque. Its a fun loophole.
Explain.
Notsae66.
It’s a loophole that has been corrected i think.
The tarrasque stats dont say its attacks count as magical. Its a typo. Its an oversight.
Clay golem is immune to all the tarrasque attack options.
If you want to have your mind blown.
....have a discussion with a Rabbi about golems.
I'll never think of them the same way, again.
That's a good point. Having direct cultural insight could give better perspective into storytelling and gameplay. This could be said of many of the monsters.
@@Tacit_Tern
Indeed!
Interestingly, depending on which sect you ask, humanity was created via an extremely advanced and powerful golem spell used by Yahweh.
I remember first getting into DND (this was back in early 2e days) and there was so much info to take in. Tons of new monsters to learn but then they got to golems and me and another Jewish friend were just like "oh yeah we already know that one.".
Good times lol
I like the monster videos the most
Really like the longer episodes
As a nerd fan of TTRPG lore and a football fan of the Indianapolis Colts, I laughed so hard at the confusion regarding Peyton Manning yelling "OMAHA!" As someone who straddles those worlds, allow me to clarify.
So, normally a QB will be in a huddle with his players on the field for the offense and say "ok folks, this is the play we're gonna run". They'll break the huddle and go line up as the defense does the same. Now, maybe the QB sees the way the defense are set up and thinks "oh crap, the way the defense are lined up suggests that they're in a perfect position to counter whatever we were gonna do. We're in a really bad position if we continue with the original plan."
Well, football teams have contingencies, or "audibles". This term has expanded outside of sports and is recognized as calling a plan b on the fly. Basically, you say "hey, we're using the alternate fire on the original play call". It uses the same players and same opening look, but usually runs a different play that is strong where the original play was weak and vice versa.
Offenses use trigger words to let their players know that they're going to plan b. Sometimes, they even use fake trigger words so that the defense think something is changing when in reality, it's business as normal.
Peyton Manning was a really smart QB, arguably the smartest QB of his generation, and loved reading the defense and making changes to the play at the line of scrimmage just before the ball was snapped. By far his favorite, iconic audible trigger word was "Omaha", and it has become a bit of a meme.
Also, for those who don't know, using the same word doesn't make him predictable. The audible play changes based on the original play. So if you call Play X and audible to Play Z, calling your audible trigger word on Play Y doesn't necessarily mean you change to Play Z again. Could be Play H. The smarter and more disciplined your team is, the more options out you can utilize. You could even map out 2 or 3 different audibles:
Original Play A is a short pass.
Omaha (A) audibles to Play B, a run.
Frankenstein (A) audibles to Play C, a deep pass
Eisenhower (A) audibles to Play D, where you fake a run but then pass.
And you could use Omaha, Frankenstein, and Eisenhower as your trigger words all game for the plan b, c, and d for any given play, each contingency being different based on the base play that was originally called.
As easy as it is to dismiss football players as meatheads, there are definitely roads where really smart players can do all kinds of stuff that less studied players just don't have in their toolbox. As a huge nerd and scrawny kid growing up, it's why I adored and idolized Peyton Manning.
Have a pair of Iron Golems as the portal key to an Archmage's Tower. To get in or out you have to be touching the Golem. So breaking in or out is an issue as the Golems don't just let ppl touch them.
If golems always have magically perfect interpretations of their orders it seems like they would be more useful as decision making tools than as actors.
Build a small and rather harmless golem. Give it orders to do two things. Let the first order be the method you wish to use to achieve your goal and let the second order be the goal itself. If the golem does not move then you know your chosen method contradicts your goal.
That's actually really clever. Just make a doll sized clay golem and give it a goal to see how it would go about doing it, then just do the thing.
We needs it, my precious...
My 3.5e Ravenloft book has bone, doll, gargoyle, glass, mechanical, and zombie golems. The glass one is actually cool since it looks like stained glass, heals in direct sunlight, and can Archimedes death-ray opponents.
I couldnt help but think about every possible golem in existence (even the pokemon version...)
This was a great video! My only request is that you cover the chocolate golem down the line
Dungeon dad has if you haven't seen it already.
@@KS-PNW That's were I learned about it, actually! Dungeon Dad's channel is one of my favorites :)
@@1pieveofKH yeah I love that he covers some of the more obscure/just plain weird creatures.
Im so surprised niether one of you guys thought of a seqs doll flesh golem. So dissapointed. Love you guys
In the movie Young Sherlock Holmes (early 80s) there is a good example of a stained glass golem.
As far as real earth historical context golems are a Jewish creation made from clay to protect the community.
I also made a silver golem for taking in werewolves and an adamantine golem that's more powerful than an iron golem a few years back. I'll send those to anyone who's interested.
Flesh golem that is smart and can groan out the word "daddy" or "mommy" sees its creater as a father or mother. Its kept in a room with over sized toys to keep it occupired while not in use. Goes berserk when its "parent" is harmed.
But what about the Newtonian Golem from the Epic Handbook that can kill gods and travel at light speed or Uranium Golem from Spelljammer.
Oh hell yeah.
Always wanted to fight a uranium golem but I was the only one into spell jammer at the time.
Had my players fight an evil wizard who created several flesh golems to protect himself should’ve been a tough but very winnable fight but do to the rolls it ended up with the bard soloing the wizard with ease but the rest of the party was absolutely destroyed by the golems and the bard had to heal the wizard back up and threaten to put him back down unless he called off the golems good game
Just trying to help get to “at least five RUclips comments” 2:25
Yessss!!!!!
It is probably pronounced spice rack, the most evil and spiciest of racks
Finallyyyyy
Omg!
I hate this!
It's
Aqserick
Wait can golems use sign language?
No. They're generally not sentient.
Couple of exceptions (like the Ravenlofts awakened golems) but generally no.