Clay Golem & Incurable Wounds

[Dr Archeville]

Wounds inflicted by the Clay Golem in assorted versions of D&D don't heal naturally & resist curative magic.

Where did this idea come from? I don't recall hearing of it in the legend of the Golem of Prague. Does anyone know a specific source?

(And how could that ability be statted out in HERO?)

[mayapuppies]

I'd stat it out as a Drain with a major long return time. Can't help with the historical/mythological reference.

[Blue Jogger]

One way would be to introduce new Advantages as House Rules.

+1/2 - Damage Resists Magical Healing - Each level halves any magical healing for the purposes of repairing that particular wound.

Example: Joe gets stabbed (taking 2 BODY) with a dagger that has one level Damage Resists Magical Healing. If he takes 2 BODY worth of healing that applies to that wound, it only heals 1 BODY.

+1/4 - Damage Resists Natural Healing - Each level doubles the amount of time natural healing take to heal that wound.

Example: Joe then gets hit by an soul destroying attack (taking another 2 BODY) with a dagger that has four levels of Damage Resists Magical Healing. Without magical healing, that wound is going to last a long time, because it is 32 BODY for the purposes of natural healing, or 16 times longer to heal than any minor attack.

+1/4 - Greater Healing - Each level negates one level of "Damage Resists Magical Healing" on any wound it is applied to.

[Doc]

Where did this idea come from? I don't recall hearing of it in the legend of the Golem of Prague. Does anyone know a specific source?

Most of "D&D mystical facts" are just bullcrap, anyway...:ugly:

[Bloodstone]

(And how could that ability be statted out in HERO?)

Transform (person to person with reduced BODY)

Alternately, you could do something with Drain (Buy the fade rate down) and Power Defense (Uncontrolled, Useable as Attack).

[Cargus10]

I have a character in Shadowsoul's upcoming game, and he has a hip wound that's incurable - delivered with a demon's blade. I considered it as a Major Transform, reversible by destroying the blade that inflicted the wound. Gives me a nice Disad handle, too, trying to locate that dammed (literally!) blade. But I do like the idea of putting levels of "hard to cure" on something. Or even treating it the way "Hard to Dispel" works....hmmm....

[CTaylor]

I have no idea where they got the idea for that, but it certainly makes it a nasty creature and ability. I'd build this as a drain with difficult to dispel, then have the heal need to exceed the difficulty to actually heal anything.

[Lucius]

Most of "D&D mystical facts" are just bullcrap, anyway...:ugly:

Sometimes.....but then sometimes I've been surprised to find some centuries old source for something I had assumed HAD to have been Gygax's own idea.

So I wouldn't be too totally shocked to someday find, say, a medeival manuscript classifying dragons "color coded for your convenience." Surprised, yes, but not completely shocked. :) Gygax wasn't always that original and never seems to have credited sources.


As for this ability in Hero - I'd say a long term Drain, and Power Defense defined to block attempts to undo the damage.

Lucius Alexander

As far as I know, no evidence exists for a palindromedary prior to late 1990, when I created what I believe to be the first one.

[Comic]

The appendices of various D&D manuals had about fifteen pages of titles and authors of source material cited between them. Footnotes were not included, so it would be fairly laborious to match the source to the monster.

I'm absolutely certain that golems were in more than one original source said to produce wounds so terrible that they would never heal. One of two I'd previously encountered related the wounding power to the golem's special salt-seeking vulnerability, though I can't recall either of them now. There was a Star Trek alien shapeshifter with the same power (sucking salt out of the victim's body), but otherwise not similar to golems.