Editing Flesh Golem (section)

==D&D==
===AD&D===
Introduced in this edition as a "Lesser Golem", the Flesh Golem is a big, dumb, lumbering brute, mostly useful for its relative ease of construction. Hideously strong, it doesn't handle combat well, having a tendency to fly into a mindless berserk fury if forced to fight for too long (cumulative 1% chance per round). Immune to attacks from non-magical weapons, fire and cold-based spells only Slow them for a few rounds, whilst electrical attacks heal them (1 HP per damage die inflicted) instead of hurting them.

The same edition featured two variants, both native to [[Ravenloft]].

The "Ravenloftian Flesh Golem" is a direct reference to Frankenstein's Monster, and is far more powerful than its standard cousin; it's more intelligent (sometimes to the point of true sentience, although in such cases the golem inevitably turns on its "master") and has great healing powers - it regains 1 hit point per hour and, if slain, can be resurrected by sewing up its wounds and jolting it with lightning. And those are just some of its powers. It does have a unique weakness, in that it takes significant damage from fire. Adam, Lamordia's [[Darklord]], is the best known of these flesh golems.

The Zombie Golem is an even more grotesque version of the standard flesh golem, made from rotting flesh which later editions would specify have to be taken from bodies that had originally been animated as [[zombie]]s. It's even more sluggish and stupid than a normal flesh golem, and lacks its standard magical defenses, but can't go berserk, can be healed by Animate Dead spells, and exudes a noxious stench akin to that of a Ghast.

[[Mystara]] is home to the "Drolem", which is what you get when you make a Flesh Golem out of '''[[Dragon]]''' bodyparts.

====Flesh Golem PCs====
The "Book of Secrets", #3 of the [[Books of S]] netbooks for [[Ravenloft]], features an article called "Wretched Creations" which presents rules for playing a Flesh Golem PC in a game of [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] 2nd edition.

Inspired by the earlier articles on [[Broken One]] and [[therianthrope]] PCs from the Book of Souls, which in turn were inspired by the rules for [[undead]] PCs from the Requiem: The Grim Harvest official [[splatbook]], they are true to AD&D [[Ravenloft]] rules: overly complex and guaranteed to fuck you over sooner rather than later.

To start with, flesh golem PCs have supernatural physical abilities, but distinctly substandard mental ones. Thus, they ignore the normal dice roll range for generating ability scores and use this one instead:
::Strength: 4d4+4
::Dexterity: 4d4+4
::Constitutiion: 4d4+4
::Intelligence: 3d6
::Wisdom: 1d4+2
::Charisma: 1d4+2

Next, race. Now, technically, your race is "Flesh Golem", but you have to consider what races your golem was built out of. This means you need to determine the ultimate origins of your golems ''Brain'', ''Head/Torso'', ''Arms'' and ''Legs''. Whilst a DM may allow you to skip this and just pick a base race if your backstory justifies it, there is, of course, the option to randomly roll on a d100 table for each component.

Brain Table:
{| class=wikitable
!Roll ||Race || Traits
|-
| 01||[[Dwarf]] || -1 Charisma, Magic Resistance, Mining Skill, Fearlessness, Magical Item Use, +10% Open Locks, +15% Find/Remove Traps, -5% Read Langauges
|-
| 02||[[Elf]] || Secret Doors, Iron Will, +5% Hide in Shadows
|-
| 03-04||[[Gnome]] || +1 Intelligence, -1 Wisdom, Magic Resistance, Mining Skill, Magical Item Use, +5% Open Locks, +10% Find/Remove Traps, +5% Hide in Shadows
|-
| 05||[[Half-Elf]] || Secret Doors, Iron Will, +10% Hide in Shadows, -5% Open Locks
|-
| 06-07||[[Halfling]] || Magic Resistance, Determination, +5% Open Locks, +5% Find/Remove Traps, +15% Hide in Shadows, -5% Read Langauges
|-
| 08-09||[[Half-Vistani]] || +1 Wisdom, +1 Intelligence, Nature Affinity, Fire Building, Tralaks, Moon Madness
|-
| 10-100||Human || None
|}

Head 'n' Torso Table:
{| class=wikitable
!Roll ||Race || Traits
|-
| 01||[[Dwarf]] || +1 Constitution, Infravision, -10% Climb Walls
|-
| 02||[[Elf]] || +1 Dexterity, -1 Constitution, Infravision
|-
| 03-04||[[Gnome]] || Infravision, +10% Detect Noise, -15% Climb Walls
|-
| 05||[[Half-Elf]] || Infravision, +5% Dectect Noise
|-
| 06-07||[[Halfling]] || +1 Dexterity, -1 Strength, Infravision, +5% Detect Noise, -15% Climb Walls
|-
| 08-100||Human || None
|}

Arms Table:
{| class=wikitable
!Roll ||Race || Traits
|-
| 01||[[Elf]] || Weapon Expertise, +10% Pick Pockets
|-
| 02||[[Half-Elf]] || +5% Pick Pockets
|-
| 03-04||[[Halfling]] || Combat Bonuses, +5% Pick Pockets
|-
| 05-100||[[Human]] || None
|}

Legs Table:
{| class=wikitable
!Roll ||Race || Traits
|-
|01 ||[[Elf]] || Surprise Bonus
|-
| 02-03||[[Gnome]] || +5% Move Silently
|-
| 04-05||[[Halfling]] || Surprise Bonus, +10% Move Silently
|-
| 06||[[Half-Elf]] || +5% Move Silently
|-
| 07-100||[[Human]] || None
|}

Additionally, there is a 1% chance your golem includes some kind of monstrous humanoid component, taken from the d8 table below:
{| class=wikitable
!Roll ||Part || Traits
|-
| 1||[[Hag|Annis]] Head+Torso || 60' infravision, -2 bonus to AC
|-
| 2||[[Doppelganger]] Brain || +1 Charisma, Disguise proficiency for free
|-
| 3||[[Ermordenung]] Arms || Unarmed strikes do +1d6 poison damage if victim fails save vs. poison
|-
| 4||[[Goblyn]] Head+Torso || 90' infravision, bite attack (1d6 damage)
|-
| 5||[[Mind Flayer]] Brain || +1 Intelligence, mentally contacting the golem causes the contacted to be stunned for 1d8 rounds
|-
| 6||[[Paka]] Brain || Summon & control 2d6 domestic cats 1/day
|-
| 7||[[Reaver]] Arms || Swim speed 12
|-
| 8||[[Vampyre]] Head+Torso || Bite attack (1d6 damage) that Charms victim if they fail a save vs. Poison with a +2 bonus
|}

Now it's time to pick your class: [[Fighter]], [[Avenger]], [[Thief]] or multiclassed Fighter/Thief. Also, because golems suffer a "spiritual battle", good golems raise their experience totals to increase in level by +20%, and neutral golems do so by +10%.

As with the undead heroes from Requiem: The Grim Harvest, flesh golem PCs are saddled with the Alignment Descent system, which basically means they need to check against a complex grid system after each adventure to see whether or not they slide towards Chaotic Evil [[alignment]].

Now let's talk about the common advantages to playing a flesh golem. For starters, you're completely immune to all life-affecting spells and effects, aging, suffocation, disease, poison, mind-affecting spells and effects, and telepathy. Also, you only need to eat the equivalent of a suckling pig's worth of raw meat or carrion per week - failing to keep up with this causes you to lose 1 Constitution point per week of starvation until you catch up with the cumulative food debt, whereupon your Constitution returns at a rate of 1 point per day.

Now, the drawbacks. Firstly, that protection against mental jiggery-pokery does '''not''' apply to regular old Fear, Horror and Madness checks. In fact, because of how abysmal your Wisdom score is, these checks will largely screw you over. Secondly, obviously, you look like a monster; aside from your shit Charisma score, you suffer a whopping '''+12 penalty''' to Reaction rolls to creatures seeing your visage for the first time. Invest in concealing clothing. Thirdly, there's the uncontrollable rage; whenever you are exposed to violence, involved in any kind of hostile confrotantion (including verbal), or even surprised, you have to roll a d6. Roll a 3 or less, and you stay in control. On a 4, you flee for 1d4 rounds. On a 5, you attack the nearest NPC for 1d10 rounds. And on a six, you attack ''everything'' around you for 1d10 rounds. Oh, and because you are considered "morally responsible" for this despite literally not having the choice over whether or not to attack it, you can still fall afoul of [[Powers Check]]s provoked by this unthinking rampage. Finally, you have a ''zeitgeber'', a specific stimulus (sight, sound, odor, situation, etc) that, for whatever reason, renders you mentally insensate for 1d6 rounds, leaving you completely unable to do anything.

Now, your proficiencies. Because you're a cobbled together thing which uses a stolen brain, you have to spend half your starting nonweapon proficiency points on randomly generated proficiencies. Yay. On the plus side, you can spend the remaining half of your points however you wish, and can even use them to buy supernatural golem powers, which consist of:
* Animate Undead: Costs 4 NWP points, lets you animate twice your HD in [[zombie]]s 1/week.
* Attack Resistance: Makes you immune to mundane weapons. Every 3 NWP points spent boosts the enchantment required to hit you by +1.
* Cause Disease: Allows you to inflict diseases with your unarmed attacks. For 1 NWP point, you can cause a ''Debilitating'' disease that will steadily drop the victim to Strength 2. For 3 NWP points, you can cause a ''Fatal'' disease that will negate magical healing and cost them 1 Constitution per day until they die. Even creatures without Constitution scores are vulnerable to this one, losing 10% maximim HP per day until destroyed.
* Cause Despair: Costs 2 NWP points, lets you plunge all creatures around you into a state of near-defenseless apathy 3/day if they fail a save vs. death magic.
* Climb Walls: Costs 2 slots, gives you the ability to use the thief skill of the same name. Can't be taken if you have the Thief class.
* Damage Immunity: Costs 2 slots, grants you immunity to one elemental damage type and auto-success on saves against it.
* Damage Resistance: Costs 1 slot, grants you 50% resistance to one elemental damage type and a +4 bonus to saves against it.
* Hideous Laugh: Costs 2 slots. You can unleash a terrifying laugh 3/day; creatures must save vs. death magic (-2 penalty) or suffer a Fear check.
* Hide in Shadows: Costs 2 slots, gives you the ability to use the thief skill of the same name. Can't be taken if you have the Thief class.
* Hyper-Regeneration: Costs 6 slots. When reduced to 0 HP, you begin regenerating 10 HP per round until fully healed. You can only be killed if destroyed with fire or acid damage.
* Move Silently: Costs 2 slots, gives you the ability to use the thief skill of the same name. Can't be taken if you have the Thief class.
* Resilient Flesh: Grants you resistance to enemy magic; 2 slots per +1 to all saves vs. damage dealing magic.
* Stench of Decay: Costs 3 slots. You exude a [[ghast]]-like stench.
* Weapon Resistance: Costs 2 slots, gives you 50% resistance to either Bludgeoning, Piercing or Slashing damage.

You can also select vulnerabilities (Allergen, Allergen Ward, Animal Repulsion, Weapon Vulnerability) to gain a bonus NWP slot per vulenrability chosen.

===D&D 3.x & PF===
The D&D 3e flesh golem appears in the first [[Monster Manual]]. It is essentially the same as its AD&D counterpart, save for one new trait; zapping it with lightning fixes any Slow effect it may be under, and also heals it instead of hurting it.

A 3e update for the Zombie Golem appeared in the [[Ravenloft]] Gazetteer #2.

[[Heroes of Horror]] introduced the cadaver golem, an intelligent golem that can gain new skills and abilities by attaching new body parts from other creatures to itself.  [[Serpent Kingdoms]] introduced the serpentflesh golem, a golem made out of dead snakes or other scaly creatures.  They usually are made by people who really hate [[Serpentfolk]].  [[Fiend Folio]] introduced the demonflesh golem, made of the flesh of demons.

[[Pathfinder]]'s flesh golem appeared in its first bestiary. Its equivalent to the Zombie Golem, the foul-smelling, disease carrying Carrion Golem, appeared in the 2nd Bestiary.

===D&D 4e===
There are multiple kinds of flesh golem in D&D 4e. 

The standard Flesh Golem appeared in the Monster Manual 1 for this edition. It's pretty much the traditional D&D flesh golem; a cheap, low-level golem that stands out by being strong, tough & stupid, with a propensity to fly into berserk rages.

The Open Grave sourcebook features the Blaspheme, a direct reference to Frankenstein's Monster in the form of a unique undead created from multiple body parts, and the Cadaver Golem, a rare outcome where an attempt to create a flesh golem imbues it with its own sentience, which typically hates its creator.  This version of the cadaver golem has very different abilities than the one from the previous edition, as it doesn't gain new abilities from assimilated flesh.

===D&D 5e===
Appearing in the Monster Manual, the 5e Flesh Golem mostly preserves its tradition of being a shambling, destructive, unstable brute, but with a few tweaks for the new edition. This is the first edition where the standard flesh golem has some kind of pyrophobia, in the form of suffering Disadvantage on its attack rolls and ability checks until the end of its next turn if it takes fire damage.

===Gallery===
<gallery>
flesh golem 1e.jpg|1e
flesh golem MM 1e 2.jpg
Ironclad flesh golem A3.png
flesh golem MCV1.jpg|2e
Flesh golem Clay golem MM 2e.png
flesh golem party Adam's Wrath.jpg
adam vs mordenheim Adam's Wrath.jpg
flesh golem Adam's Wrath.jpg
adam Red Boxed Set.jpg
adam Domains of Dread.png
flesh golem VRGttCreated 1.jpg
flesh golem VRGttCreated 2.jpg
flesh golem VRGttCreated 3.jpg
flesh golem VRGttCreated 4.jpg
flesh golem VRGttCreated 5.jpg
flesh golem VRGttCreated 6.jpg
flesh golem VRGttCreated 7.jpg
flesh golem VRGttCreated 8.jpg
flesh golem VRGttCreated 9.jpg
flesh golem VRGttCreated 10.jpg
flesh golem VRGttCreated 11.jpg
flesh golem CotN The Created 1.jpg
flesh golem CotN The Created 2.jpg
flesh golem CotN The Created 3.jpg
flesh golem CotN The Created 4.jpg|Beholder Flesh Golem
flesh golem harpy Castle Spulzeer.png|Harpy Flesh Golem
flesh golem DoDread.jpg|3e
flesh golem 4e.jpg|4e
flesh golem 5e.jpg|5e
flesh golem B1.png|PF
flesh golem PF CHR.jpg
flesh golem PF 2e.png|PF 2e
</gallery>
{{D&D2e-Races}}