Negative LA-Assignment : Resurrection, but no diamond here

[Beni-Kujaku]

Bog Giant

A giant, but for swamps. Not much more to say, except that the book disrespects them hard : "They are ugly, disgusting creatures, with mottled froglike skin and long, stringy black hair.". The game seldom straight up calls a creature "ugly", while here it doubles down by throwing a "disgusting" at it, which is uncalled for for a kappa-looking giant like the bog giant.

The Bog Giant has very similar stats to a Hill Giant (+14 Str, +0 Dex, +8 Con, -4 Int, +0 Wis, +4 Cha, +7 NA. Compared to a Hill Giant : +2 Dex, +8 Cha, -2 NA) and the same lack of ability, with only a 40ft swim speed and the ability to breathe underwater (but only a 30ft land speed). Don't be fooled by the fact that it is written as having a Huge Longspear, it's actually a typo and the damage is that of a Large Longspear. More Cha but no innate way to make use of it does not really balance having a slower land speed. Same ting as Hill, 6 RHD, and DLA -1 with its whole 8 RHD.

Golems

Each new batch of golems brings something new to the landscape of quasi-life-creating magic. In Fiend Folio, we get golems, but evil! "But how!? Aren't golems supposed to be automatons with no mind or alignments of their own?", I hear you say, you perfectly timed and convenient audience. Well, these golems are created infused with the essence of an Outer Plane, the belief in an Evil deity, or the intelligence and ambition of a Mind Flayer, anything that makes these golems actually more than metal and magic. And maybe, who knows, actually gives them interesting abilities?

Golems, at their core, all have a few things in common. Very high strength, DR and natural armor but low Dex, the Construct type and associated immunities but lack of constitution, and of course immunity to most spells and SLAs that allow spell resistance. Most golems are generally mindless, but since this is Fiend Folio, this last point won't apply to a lot of these.

Blood Golem of Hextor, 10 RHD, Large, +12 Str, -2 Dex, _ Int, +0 Wis, -10 Cha, +9 NA, DR 10/Adamantine
The Blood Golem of Hextor (not to be mistaken to the regular Blood Golem, who was ironically published much later) is the most "normal" of FF golems, being mindless and having regular golem stats, but it is still quite unique. It is composed of the blood of 16 humanoids sacrificed to Hextor, and is thus somewhat dedicated to protecting this faith and killing its enemies. "It is a cruel and malicious combatant, in that it apparently derives satisfaction from slaying enemies despite its lack of true intelligence". Another example of FF's "make everything evil, even if it does not make sense" policy.
The problem with creating a golem made of liquid is that it eventually leaks and goes back to a puddle of blood. Priests of Hextor thus graft a +1 full plate to their golems (for a total +18 armor and natural armor bonus), which reduces the leak but does not fully address the problem. The BGoH still leaks approximately 300cc of blood per day (one drop every 15 seconds or so), which translates to 5 HP per day. Fortunately, it can drink the blood of a helpless or dead creature, dealing 1 point of Con and gaining 5 HP per round (Is that the only way in the game to deal Con damage to dead creatures ?), even being able to go beyond its regular maximum up to having its HDs maximized (so 130 HP for the regular 10d10+30 golem), which makes this "issue" beneficial when you have no shortage of humanoids to be disposed of.
Additionally, the golem's arms finish in masterwork flails (probably enchantable), it can use the Improved Whirlwind Attack feat, but is then slowed for one round. It's a high maintenance creature, but being able to basically double your HP is invaluable for a Construct. That said, I would have liked to see an offensive ability beyond Whirlwind attack. 7 RHD, DLA-2.

Brain Golem, 12 RHD, Large, +12 Str, +0 Dex, -4 Int, +0 Wis, -2 Cha, +4 NA, DR 10/Adamantine
When an illithid wants to make a golem, what do you think is the raw material it uses ? That's right, brains! And a bit of an elder brain's grey matter. It should surprise nobody that such an abomination would awake to sentience, and gain some of a mind flayer's abilities, namely mind blast (1/minute, Will or stunned in a cone for 3d4 rounds) and inertial armor (permanent +4 armor bonus to AC). However, the fact that it is not made of inert material makes it an imperfect golem, with low natural armor and not even magic immunity. Instead, it has SR 15+HD, which is definitely worse but has the advantage of being explicitly suppressable by the golem if it wants to get buffed. And contrary to most golems, the brain golem has ridiculous stumps rather than true hands (which I'm convinced is by design, because Mind Flayers are fancy sadists), which means it can't hold items. 5 RHD, DLA-5.

Demonflesh Golem, 24 RHD, Large, +20 Str, -2 Dex, -2 Int, +2 Wis, +2 Cha, +26 NA, DR 15/Adamantine and Good
And we have a prime example of "whose idea was that!?". Each fiendish graft is already quasi-sentient, influencing their bearer and turning good recipients mad. I wonder what may happen when you create a whole body exclusively out of demon body parts... It turns sentient and starts killing people and fiends alike, of course! In Neverwinter Nights, it's even said that devils create those as war trophies from the Blood War, which seems incredibly stupid and asking for it to backfire, but who am I to judge ?
The Demonflesh Golem has demon wings allowing it to fly at 100ft (average, you may want to take Improved Flight), a demon tail with 25ft reach that dazes the opponent if they fail a DC 11 Will save (which is much too low to be consistent), demon eyes giving it a pretty damn strong fear gaze (fixed DC 19 Will or paralysis for 1d4 rounds) and permanent See Invisibility, a demon head giving it several destructive SLAs (Destruction and Horrid Wilting 1/day, Poison, Darkness and Unholy Aura 3/day), and a sentient demon claw attacking on its own (basically, it gets an additional standard each turn to attack with it at no penalty with a fixed Str of 35. My advice is to cast an SLA and then attack with the claw).
Once again, a golem made of living parts seems to have a flawed magic immunity, and the demonflesh golem's can be bypassed by many spells, including all spells with the good or law descriptor, and all death effects slow it for 3 rounds or until it uses one of its [Evil] SLAs.
This is all really strong, but definitely not epic tier, especially with such low stats apart from Str. Still, with the Fear Gaze, Magic Immunity and the independent claw, I think it is worth 13 RHD, DLA-7.

Hellfire Golem, 20 RHD, +14 Str, +4 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +4 Cha, +16 NA, DR 15/Adamantine and Good
Rather than making a golem out of Outsiders, why not make one out of the very substance of a Lawful Evil plane? Oh wait, now it's on fire. Mark it as a resounding success.
I don't understand why this one is more intelligent than Demonflesh, it feels much more brutish in its tactics. 2 weak slams dealing an additional 2d6 Hellfire damage (half fire, half unholy damage), some pyromaniac CL 20 SLAs (Fireball at will, Flame Strike 3/day, the rest is irrelevant), and an easily bypassed Magic Immunity (all spells with the chaos or good descriptors function normally, and spells dealing cold damage do as well, but if they deal 20 damage on top of the golem's cold resistance of 20, they slow the golem as well).
I expected better than that. 10 RHD, DLA-7


We have regular golems in MM1, evil golems in FF, planar golems in MM3, and later "armored energy" golems in MM5. I can appreciate the will to stick to a theme for each book. Speaking of, we will continue the theme of the most interesting creatures in this book being powerful Undead next time, with the Hullathoin ! Merry Christmas to all !