Winter is Coming II

Last fall @twwombat ran the inaugural Winter is Coming blog festival. The Iron Tavern participated in the festival with The Linnorm Ice Throne, a powerful artifact for the Pathfinder system, and A Winter Chase, a winter time chase using the Pathfinder chase rules.

This year @MarkMeridith has continued the festival with Winter is Coming II over at dicemonkey.net. The Iron Tavern is once again participating with today’s post!

In the spirit of winter and the cold weather I post some example Ice Golems for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG system. Golems are highly customizable in DCC RPG, but these two examples should provide some basis for judges wanting to add some winter themed fun to their DCC RPG campaign.

Ice Golems

Golems are a popular guardian for powerful mages. Not needing sleep or food, golems offer several attractive options for a mage seeking to guard his workshop. In the winter wastes of the north, ice golems are a popular choice for the enterprising wizard. The cold environments easily sustain the golem’s ice flesh.

Crafting an ice golem is still a somewhat difficult task, requiring a mold to be made to freeze the water into the desired size and shape the mage desires. Once a mold has been made though, multiple ice golems can be crafted from the same mold and water for freezing is typically plentiful.

A mage can create varying sizes of ice golems. Depending on the mage’s talent an ice golem can be imbued with various special qualities. Rituals are used to create ice golems with special qualities. Mages of the north keep these rituals as guarded secrets.

Sample Golems

Ice Golem, Large: Init -2; Atk fist +8 melee (dmg 2d6+6) or icy breath; AC 13; HD 10d8+10; MV 20′; Act 1d20; SP icy breath, double damage from fire-based attacks; SV Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +4, AL N

Icy Breath: (cone, width 15’, length 15’, 6d6 dmg, DC 15 Fortitude for half damage)   An ice golem can use its icy breath attack every 1d5 rounds. Using the icy breath weapon consumes the ice golem’s action for that round. Targets caught in the breath weapon’s cone-like shape can attempt a Fortitude save for half damage.

An icy breath attack also has a chance to extinguish any open flames (torches, candles, etc). If an open flame is in the area of the attack there is a 60% chance the open flame will be extinguished.

Double Damage, Fire-based Attacks: An ice golem is especially susceptible to fire-based damage. Fire-based attacks do double their normal damage on a successful hit.

Ice Golem, Medium: Init -2; Atk fist +5 melee (dmg 1d10+4) or icy breath; AC 12; HD 5d8+5; MV 20′; Act 1d20; SP icy breath, double damage from fire-based attacks; SV Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +3, AL N

Icy Breath: (cone, width 5’, length 10’, 4d6 dmg, DC 13 Fortitude for half damage)   An ice golem can use its icy breath attack every 1d6 rounds. Using the icy breath weapon consumes the ice golem’s action for that round. Targets caught in the breath weapon’s cone-like shape can attempt a Fortitude save for half damage.

An icy breath attack also has a chance to extinguish any open flames (torches, candles, etc). If an open flame is in the area of the attack there is a 60% chance the open flame will be extinguished.

Double Damage, Fire-based Attacks: An ice golem is especially susceptible to fire-based damage. Fire-based attacks do double their normal damage on a successful hit.