The Inphidian Strikes Back: Let's Read Tome of Horrors II

[erikun]

Golem, Magnesium
The CR 6 magnesium golem's a bit of an odd duck, being both human-sized and capable of human speeds when moving, making it a more quick and subtle...if you can call a walking silver Oscar subtle...golem as opposed to the bash-n'-smash tactics of iron and clay golems [...] It also has a sickness-inducing aura and fists that can punch the Dexterity right out of you at 1d4 points per failed save.

Is this supposed to be some kind of chemistry joke I'm not getting? When I think magnesium, I think fire and going pop when exposes to water. I don't think quickness, subtlety, or making people sick.

Also, how the heck is someone from medievia and without modern industrial techniques going to get their hands on pure magnesium, anyways?

The stat block also has a note on anodized magnesium golems. Basically, take a magnesium golem, soak it in acid, and zap it with electricity spells. Tada! You now have a rust-immune magnesium golem. Hmm, I can't help but think that'd be an interesting principle to extend to iron golems as well. After all, if we're pilfering a chemical reaction for one golem, why not apply it to another?

Won't work. Anodizing works with magnesium and aluminum because the material naturally coats itself with a layer of "rust" that prevents the rest of the material from being effective. All anodizing does is make this layer deeper, so that minor scuffs and dents are less likely to break through that layer and allow corrosion deeper in the metal.

Iron rust actually helps the rate of rusting, so attempting to anodize it would simply cause problems. For iron, you want to use galvanization or galvanic anodes.

Golem, Rope
Our final golem is this one. Yes, as its name implies, this CR 5 golem is made of rope. It is vulnerable to fire, and not really that statistically impressive, but I've got to give it some credit. After all, what other golem whips out its noose-hands to play hangman with adventurers?

Combine this with an assassin vine, and you have the perfect setup for every japanese adult cartoon out there.