When Grandaddy Gygax created the various types of Golem (borrowed from Jewish folklore I believe… Yup that’s right), I think he was aiming at a Monster that would be hard to deal with at High Level and that would allow Fighters and other non-spell casters a chance to shine with their +3 weapons.
That concept has passed through the various editions and remains as such in 3.5.
I recall reading on a recent 4e thread over at Okay… Your Turn. (I forget which thread, maybe if one of the readers from there could help me out… thanks! ) a comment by Sean K. Reynolds about how absolutes in RPG rules were bad design (Note that I’m paraphrasing from memory, any bias is my own). D&D has gotten rid of a lot of it’s legacy absolutes by replacing ‘Need +3 weapon to hurt’ with DR 10/Magic. It has also added things like resistance to energy and ablative effects like Stoneskin.
Still there remains things that are absolutes: Immunities, Save or Die effects, etc. The Golem’s magic immunity is one such concept. I seem to recall Sean saying that it was a bit bizarre that should the God of Magic create a spell called Ping Golem that does only 1 point of damage to such a creature, it would fail entirely because, as written, Golems are immune to almost all types of magic.
Well, here’s my addled rhino-virus infected thought on resolving this. Why not make golems just extremely resistant to magic. I mean so resistant that they aren’t likely to be affected by a spell from a caster who’s equivalent to the Golem’s CR. Instead of magic immunity I’d propose these 2 things:
- Golems have Spell Resistance (my version of course, ha ha!) equal to 20+CR
- Golems have a (flips Rules compendium for bonus types) Resistance Bonus to saves vs magic equal to it’s CR
So unless I screwed the rules like I have been known to do, this would make Golems unlikely to be affected by spells when it’s CR matches the party but not impossibly so, especially if the caster invest in SR punching feats and/or when the party faces weaker golems.
Comments? Critics? My Adamantine Golem here will respond to your queries..
Clay Golem is from Jewish folklore, that’s true. But not so much the other Golem types.
This was explored more by Bart Carroll here, but I’ll summarize.
Flesh Golem: distinctly Frankenstein, all the way doen to its affinity for lightning.
Clay Golem: back in the 1e MM, it was the only golem made by clerics. Gotta be a reference to Rabbi Loeb.
Iron and Bronze/Brass golems: seem to be inspired by Talos from Jason and the Argonauts, who was bronze/brass in the movie, and iron in a novel.
Stone? No idea.
Ahhhh Enlightenment has reached my virus infected brain! Thanks!