Dread flesh golem
The dread flesh golem is a large construct animated by the obsession and the dark desire of its maker together with the fiat of the Dark Powers. As such, it receives the dread golem template.
The dread flesh golem, as opposed to the flesh golem, is a reflective and thinking creature that ultimately follows its own tastes and whims. It begins its existences very much like a child, albeit one with prenatural intelligence and strength. It may be ordered about for a time by its maker. But it soon becomes rebellious and in the end is its own master. The creature is bound to its maker by a one-way telepathic link that enables it to read its master's thoughts. Rather than reassuring the creature, this link serves to reinforce its insecurities, to disabuse it of all respect for its maker, and usually put it on the path of misanthropy.
The creature is lent the shape of a humanoid and even when inactive is readily identifiable as something very much out of the ordinary. It is pieced together from a half dozen or more or cadavers. The degree to which these pieces fits poorly together and the degree to which the resultant creature is mishapen varies with the talent and the effort of the maker. The creature sometimes has a lumbering gait, but it is always a capable and tireless runner.
The first dread flesh golem has been attributed to Dr. Victor Mordenheim. A mad scientist, an overcurious medical researcher, or a grieving doctor, veterinarian, anatomist, or mortician is a potential maker of a dread flesh golem. And the work is not beyond the reach of a properly disposed taxidermist or leatherworker, among other possible candidates. Still, the creature is most often the work of someone with at least some competence in the techniques of surgery, or their like, for body parts must be successfully knitted together into a whole. The most profolic maker of dread flesh golems is Emil Bollenbach.
The motives of the makers of dread flesh golems are rarely, if ever, well-founded. Indeed, the motives almost invariably involve some form of transgression. The creatrues are not made for the mundane purpose of serving as guards. Rather they are intended to bring back the dead, to prove an intellectual point, to put the gods in their place, or to some even madder end (as with Emil Bollenbach).
Contents
Errata Denizens of Darkness/Denizens of Dread
The dread flesh golem as presented in Denizens of Darkness and Denizens of Dread has many problem, many of which derive from the confounding of two very different creatures: a mindless golem animated purely with magic and an intelligent golem animated by dark desire as a "gift" from the Dark Powers. Official Errata
Hit points are listed as 12d10 (49 hp). However, with the average hit points (5.5/level x 12), it should be 66. But in addition, from the monster manual Core Book, constructs gain bonus hit points according to size. As large creatures, dread flesh golems should have +30. So the entry should read: Hit Dice: 12d10+30 (96 hp). Unofficial Errata Homebrew.png This section contains Homebrew non-canon info, created by fans
The dread flesh golem is unique to the Land of Mists and is animated with the assistance of the Dark Powers. Although the dread flesh golem differs vastly from the flesh golem in its capacities and in its creation, the flesh golem serves as the base creature from which the dread golem flesh is derived by the application of the dread golem template. Statistics
Dread Flesh Golem 9d10+30 (79 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30ft
AC 24 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +14 natural), 10 touch , 23 flat-footed
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+15
Attack: Slam +10 (3d8+5)
Full Attack: 2 Slam: +10 (3d8+5)
Space/Reach 10 ft./ 10 ft.
Special Attacks: beserk
Special Qualities: Construct traits, low-light vision, darkvision 60 ft, damage reduction 5/adamantine, regeneration, immunity to magic.
Fort +3 / Ref +4 / Will +3
Str 21, Dex 13, Con Ø, Int 9, Wis 11, Cha 5
OR: 7
Skills: Bluff -10, Climb +5, Diplomacy -10, Gather Information -10, Hide +0, Intimidate +4, Jump +6, Listen +2, Move Silently +2, Perform -10, Spot +2, Swim +5
(9 Skill Points (2 + Int mod per HD (SRD))
(Class Skills: Climb, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Swim)
(A dread flesh golem suffers a -4 penalty on its Hide checks due to size.)
(A dread flesh golem may make use of skills impacted by its outcast rating.)
Feats: Improved Natural Attack, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave
(4 feats (Feats equal to 1 + 1 per 3 Hit Dice. (SRD))
(Note that other feats may be substituted according either to the taste of the dread golem's maker or to the twist that the Dark Powers wish to apply to that taste.)
Challenge Rating: 8
Alignment: Chaotic Evil (usually)
Salient Powers A dread flesh golem has 1d4-1 salient powers. See RSC or the RLPH.
Zeitgebers A dread flesh golem typically has at least one zeitgeber. See RSC or the RLPH.
Combat
Berserk (Ex): see Denizens of Darkness/Denizens of Dread
Magical Immunity (Ex): see System Reference Document (SRD)
Regeneration (Ex): The creature regenerates all types of damage but at the very slow rate of 1 hit point per hour. The creature cannot regrow a lost body part, but it can reattach one by holding it in place for at least an hour. Should the creature be damaged to the point of having a negative number of hit points, it is reduced to a state of inanimacy and ceases to regenerate. Its repair remains possible by its maker or by an individual with the craft construct feat, at a cost of 50 gp per hit point of damage repaired and at a rate of 20 hit points of damage repaired per day. Once it has not less than 0 hit poits, a jolt of electricity with the strength to do at least 8 points of damage reanimates it and it begins once more to regenerate any damage that it has suffered. Note that a construct with the salient power of regeneration receives benefits and acquires disadvantages that supercede those described here. Or in other words, the salient power of regeneration 5 replaces rather than stacks with the power of regeneration described here.
Creation
Minimum of six donor bodies, each furnishing one of the following: brain, torso (including head), limb (4).
Subzero conditions, the gentle repose spell, or other means of preserving body parts.
DC 13 Craft (leatherworking) check or DC 13 Heal check for the assemblage of the body.
500 gp is for fitting out a workshop with appropriate tools. This cost is waved for a surgeon, a veterinarian, a mortician, a taxidermist, a leatherworker, or the like, with access to his or her own existing facility and tools.
500 gp is for electrical equipment.
200 gp is for the construction of the body itself.
A jolt of electricity with the strength to do at least 8 points of damage.
The blessing of the Dark Powers.
Creation Option
Certain characteristics of a Dread Flesh Golem are dependent upon those of the NPC whose brain it was given. To determine the creature's intelligence score take that of the deceased NPC and apply a -1d2 penalty. Any penalties applied to the NPC's intelligence, wisdom or charisma scores resulting from failed madness checks also apply to the creature and are permanent. Should an ability score of 0 or less result, the creature cannot be successfully animated using the given brain and a healthier brain must be substituted. Spells must be recast and electricity must be reapplied. Any madness conditions under which the NPC was labouring at the time of his or her death are assumed by the creature and are permanent. An NPC who was delusional results in a creature that is delusional.
John W. Mangrum's Flesh Golem Lore
Potential.png This section contains Potential-canon info, revealed by the creators from never-published sources
Monster Manual (under Golem)
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (arcana) can learn more about flesh golems. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.
DC 19: This hideous, humanoid composite of crudely stitched-together body parts is a flesh golem. This result reveals all construct traits. This result also reveals the procedure for creating flesh golems.
DC 24: A flesh golem is immune to almost all forms of magic, and its unnatural flesh deflects most minor attacks. However, adamantine weapons can prove effective, and magical cold and fire slow the creature for several moments.
DC 29: A flesh golem flails at foes with its powerful fists. Rather than dealing damage, magical electricity actually repairs a flesh golem and breaks any slow effect currently affecting it.
DC 34: The elemental spirit animating a flesh golem is only tenuously controlled by its master. The longer a flesh golem fights, the greater the chance that it will fly into a berserk frenzy, attacking all that stands before it — even its master. However, its master can forcefully talk the golem back into submission.
