Copyright 2012 Capcom.

This is an entry in the Dragon’s Dogma bestiary. The remaining entries along with the full adaptation can be found here.

As in other fantasy settings, golems are animated statues created by magicians to fulfill a certain mission, usually to guard some important place. In Gransys, the secret of their creation has been lost to the ages, but there are still a fair number of dormant golems still extant. Sages speculate their creators belonged to the same culture that worshipped the elemental deities whose shrines still survive underground. This speculation comes mostly from observing the designs of both the ruins and the golems and concluding their builders liked to think big.

However, none of the golems found so far were even near the elemental shrine ruins. They slumber out in the wild, looking like boulders until an unwary intruder crosses some unseen boundary. Perhaps the truth is that the golems are even older than the shrines, and the places they have been set to guard have long since crumbled to dust.

Advanced Stone Golem

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons contains stats for a stone golem on p. 26. As that book says, those stats represent a basic model. At SM+1, this type of golem can comfortably fit in most dungeons and might indeed be guarding some deep chamber in an elemental shrine.

The “advanced” stone golems found on the wild are quite a bit larger and more dangerous, and have the ability to shoot coruscating energy beams from their foreheads at foes they can’t reach with their powerful fists.

ST 50; DX 11; IQ 8; HT 14;

SM +3; Dodge 8; DR 15;

HP 90; Will 8; Per 8; FP 11

Basic Speed 5.50; Move 6;

  • Punch (16): 5d+1 cr. Reach C-2.
  • Grab (16): Grapples at ST 51.
  • Brilliant Lance (14): 3d burning; Acc 3; Range 10/100; RoF 1.

Traits: Automaton; Cannot Learn; Doesn’t Breathe; Doesn’t Eat or Drink; Doesn’t Sleep; Fragile (Unnatural); High Pain Threshold; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards; Indomitable; Injury Tolerance (Homogenous, No Blood); Pressure Support 3; Reprogrammable; Unfazeable; Unhealing (Total); Vacuum Support.

Class: Construct.

Notes: See below for additional weaknesses.

Fighting the Golem

As a six meter tall, six-ton stone statue the advanced golem has the sort of HP and DR that puts it well outside the range of most personal weapons. Despite its relatively low IQ and Will, it’s not very succeptible to mind-affecting magic either. Fighting it directly would require siege engines or apocalyptic magic. Fortunately, there’s a better way!

Since it requires much more magical energy than the basic golem described in DF 2, this advanced model is powered by 1d+1 Powerstones encrusted in its surface (roll a random hit location for each one). Each can be targeted at a penalty equal to that of the hit location it’s in plus an additional -1, and despite being as Homogenous as the golem has a “mere” HP 10 and DR 0. Reducing the stone to 0 HP cracks it and makes it worthless as a power source. Destroying all of them deactivates the golem.

Of course, parties who stumble upon a golem can also just run away and leave the zone it’s guarding. They will never pursue anyone or fire their beams past that boundary. Even if the golem is on the way to something you need, you can retreat and come back prepared to face it later on.

Golems are always alone - they kill anything else that enters their protected area.

Golem Variants

Iron Golem: Some places were apparently deemed too important to be guarded by mere stone golems. They have faded away to nothing just the same, leaving their immortal guardians watching over empty stretches of bog or meadow.

Not only do iron golems have double the HP and DR, their 2d+2 power sources are located outside their bodies, placed along the boundary of their guarded area. These special talismans are as resistant to time as the golem itself, but have a mere DR 0 and HP 5 each. The problem is finding them while the golem attacks - destroying an iron golem is the ultimate exercise in Extreme Archaeology.