Golem Making (4e Variant Rule)

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Golem Making

Design Note: This rule is intended as a possible replacement for the extant rituals.

Ever wanted to make a servant for yourself out of whatever was lying around? If your enemies can make Golems out of flesh, fire, mud, and the kitchen sink, why can't you? It takes a bit of money and some trial and error as well as time and material. But if you have all those things and the patience and mental fortitude, there is little else stopping you from making yourself the Golem of your dreams!

Below are two tables for Golem making. There are your normal Golems, made of the usual materials. There is also one for exotic Golems serve particular tastes or have hard-to-acquire materials. Like a typical ritual, the process of making the golems requires the key skill of Arcana (no check), but with the added need for certain specific materials instead of just gold. Some of the golems may have additional trained skills needed, and they may include variant skills. If you have the materials within parentheses, you only need to pay 100 gp to enchant the materials to create your golem. Otherwise, you pay the component price in full.

Design Note: When the Heal skill is listed as a required skill, it is less about healing and more about knowledge of anatomy and medicine.

You can find the stat blocks for the golems either on the superscript notes or on the miscellaneous golem index.

Base Golem Design
Level Golem Time Component Cost Market Price Hit Points Additional Skills
15 ClayMM2,134 1 hour 1,500gp (1,000 lbs of clay) 21,000 gp 368
8 Blood 1 hour 500 gp (the blood of 16 Medium humanoids) 1,000 gp 80 Heal
10 Brain 1 hour 3,000 gp (8 humanoid brains) 5,000 gp 96 Religion
12 FleshMM142 1 hour 2,600 gp (6 different bodies of flesh) 3,000 gp 304
12 BoneMM2,133 1 hour 1,000 gp (1,000 lbs of bones treated with oil and shellac) 10,000 gp 302 Heal
17 StoneMM142 8 hours 13,000 gp (3,000 lbs of hard stone) 325,000 gp 336 Crafting
20 IronMM2,134 8 hours 10,000 gp (5,000 lbs of smelted iron) 150,000 gp 386 Crafting
13 DuneDSCC57 1 hour 3,500 gp (1,500 lbs of sand and soft earth) 10,000 gp 184
11 SaltDSCC56 1 hour 3,000 gp (1,000 lbs of coarse salt) 3,500 gp 278 Nature
14 Copper 8 hours 20,000 gp (18,000 lbs of copper ore) 180,000 gp 320
11 Mud 1 hour 300 gp 500 gp 100 Nature
5 Ice 1 hour 500 gp (1,000 lbs of ice) 18,500 gp 53 Nature
4 Soil 1 hour 100 gp (500 lbs of earth) 500gp 42 Nature
5 Rope 1 hour 200 gp (200 lbs of rope, special bindings, and powders) 14,200 gp 53 Crafting
6 Wood 1 hour 19,300 gp (blocks of fine wood and herbs) 300 gp 64 Crafting
Base Exotic Golem Design
Level Golem Time Component Cost Market Price Hit Points
8 Magma 30 days 20,000 gp 40,000 gp 300
14 TreasureDM164,96 10 days 10,000gp (1,000 lbs of gold, jewels, etc.) 500,000 gp 700
18 Mantrap 8 hours 15,000 gp (500 lbs of metal trap parts) 45,000 gp 354
14 CrystalDM367,43 1 day 7,000gp (2,750 lbs of cut crystal) 127,000 gp 216
19 ObsidianDSCC57 5 days 8,500gp (2,500 lbs of obsidian) 130,000 gp 358
22 ChainMM2,133 5 days 3,000 gp (1,000 lbs of iron chains) 15,000 gp 418
18 Mithral 10 days 250,000 gp (3,000 lbs of mithral) 50,000 gp 276
27 Adamantine 15 days 525,000 gp (4,000 lbs of adamantine and other precious metals) 100,000 gp 337
9 Alchemical 1 day 33,000 gp (50 lbs of alchemical items) 3,000 gp 96
8 Glass 8 hours 17,000 gp (1,000 lbs of glass) 1,000 gp 96
7 WebDQE17 20 days 1,000 gp 100 gp 272
12 Burning 3 months 60,000 gp 200,000 gp 304
9 Coral 8 hours 57,000 gp (1,000 lbs of coral) 3,500 gp 96

To create a Golem, you must spend the time shown on the table, working without interruption with the manual at hand and resting no more than 8 hours per day. You must also pay the specified cost to purchase supplies. The above table shows the base for a golem in their default size. Use the table below to calculate added costs and time needed to construct a Golem with varying size.

Size Variable
Size Added Cost Added Time Added Hit Points
Tiny 1/2 cost 1/4 time spent 1/4 hitpoints
Small 1x cost 1/2 time spent 1/2 hitpoints
Medium 1x cost 1x time spent 1x hitpoints
Large 2.5x cost 2.5x time spent 3x hitpoints
Creating Bigger Golems

If you want to make a golem larger than Large size, you instead make a juggernaut, which uses the iron golem juggernaut stat block on page 135 of Monster Manual 2.

Repairing a Golem

As a Golem is not a living thing, it is strictly interpreted with the construct keyword and therefore cannot benefit from healing spells or effects that heal living things. You therefore must spend time repairing them mundanely. For every 10 hit points you repair, you must spend an uninterrupted hour fixing the Golem, and you must have at least 1/8th of the component cost on hand when doing so, which is consumed once you are done repairing. The cost of components and time increases as you make heftier repairs. If you are somehow trained in the shaping of the relevant material, such as a blacksmith for simple metals, or a potter for clay-shaping, the time is reduced by half. The cost is unchanged.

Outfitting a Golem

Sometimes you want to invest more than just creation into these minions. Golems are very difficult to outfit due to their body types. However, by making them, you do have the option of enhancing them like you would a magic item. Golems have only one enhancement slot, which can be outfitted with an accessory from the table below. These accessories are limited in some cases to certain golem types, and they become part of the golem once equipped, meaning you cannot remove them to swap enhancements. As with enhancements, you will be needing to expend money. However, you will also be crafting a good deal of these add-ons, which means they will take time as well, as shown on the table below.

Golem Accessories
Item Time Component Cost Prerequisites Effect
Spiderstone Arms Obsidian Golem The Golem's level becomes 18 and they gain an extra pair of arms, allowing them to make double the amount of attacks on their turn.
Blade Arm No This blade becomes an arm of the Golem it attaches to and can be used to make attacks, dealing +1 every two levels the Golem has on a successful hit
Demonflesh 131,000 gp (fiendish body parts: arm, leg, tail, wings) Flesh Golem
Dragonbone Bone Golem
Equine Wood Golem
Fang Bone Golem
Incarnum Any metal or glass golem
Juggernaut Iron Golem Your iron golem changes into a iron golem juggernaut.MM2,114
Serpentflesh Flesh Golem
Brass Copper Golem
Hextor's Armor and Flail 4,465 gp Blood Golem
Rimefire days gp (essence from the Plane of Ice) Ice Golem You change the ice golem into a rimefire golem.DM367,45

In addition to outfitting a golem, you can give them effect items in the form of consumables. Same as with accessories, some consumables only had effects on specific golem types.

Golem Consumables
Consumable Time Component Cost Prerequisites Effect
Desert Wrath Sand Golem
Dragonflesh Flesh Golem
Drakestone Stone Golem
Hellfire 120,000 gp (clay from the plane of Gehenna) Burning or Magma Golem
Puzzle Stone or Wood Golem
Shadesteel Any metal golem
Gemstones Stone Golem
Grave Soil or Stone Golem You temporarily infuse necrotic energy into the golem.
Sand Instantaneous 5,000 gp (vial of coarse grained sand) Dune Golem Your golem has its level raised by 2 and it becomes a sand golem.DM367,43

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