Last year, I was disappointed in the official D&D advent calendar, which didn't have any actual game content. So I decided to make my own.
Ice Golem L ♥68 ⟁15 ☺10 ↠20'
{+4 -2 +3 -4 -1 -3}
[R] ballistic; [I] cold, poison, psychic, BPS/magic, charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Burning Fire (fire dmg recharges Rime), Cold Absorption, Immutable Form, Magic Resistance, Magic Weapons
MA 2x attacks; Slam +6 † 2d8+4 B + 1d8 C; Frostbite Spear +6 †↗20'/60' 1d6+4 P + 1d6 C & -1 WIS/turn (action ends); Rime (R 5-6) co30' STR 13 slowed 15' (save ends)
Ice golems are CR 6, either elementals or constructs, depending on how you're using them. They can take a lot of different forms, usually blocks of ice stacked into humanoid shapes 10 or 12 feet high. The icicle spears they carry are huge, more like harpoons or pikes, and although they're not as physically devastating as being smashed with a hundred-pound fist, they have a dangerous mental effect. The tip of the spear breaks off and remains lodged in the target, sucking up body heat and with it focus, energy, and alertness, leaving behind hallucinations, lethargy, delirium, and rapid death.
Like other ice monsters, ice golems make sense as summons or constructs, conjured by crafty cryomancers. While it could be used as a naturally-occurring monster in an arctic environment, its status as a golem leans strongly towards an artificial servant. It has enough going on to be a whole encounter by itself, but would also pair nicely with anything that forces a wisdom save, or a skirmisher or ranged attacker that players will want to chase after. In the siege of Racina, they're used in small numbers throughout the ice armies for special guard duties and important battles, including as personal bodyguards for Dymtu Parzillu. They're the elite servants of the Ice Jester, one of the Princes of Winter, because his jokes get a lot funnier when you have -3 wisdom.
There are a couple new elements in this ultra-condensed stat block.
- First, most of the traits are referred to only by name, relying on system mastery to interpret them, but they're either fairly standard (Magic Weapons, Magic Resistance) or self-explanatory (Immutable Form).
- BPS/magic indicates that the immunity to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage is bypassed by magic weapons.
- (R 5-6) indicates that the Rime action has a recharge.
- (save ends) is a much shorter way of indicating the standard repeating-save mechanic that's spelled out so verbosely in every single stat block; (action ends) indicates the effect continues until the target takes an action to end it.
- co30' means the Rime targets a 30-foot cone; other areas of effect would be indicated by cu30' for a cube, r15' for a sphere, r15'x20' for a cylinder, or 10'x120' for a line.
The hit points are quite low for a CR 6 monster, more in line with CR 3 or 4, but its immunity to nonmagical weapon damage makes up the difference. Ballistic refers to damage from cannons and artillery, a term borrowed from Nations & Cannons - they're so much more powerful than regular human weapons that the same damage resistances don't make sense. But the magical ice is hard enough to even resist a cannonball.
While the rest of the stat block is perfectly fine, the real draw here is the wisdom-draining spear. I love ability drain, and I wish it were used more often. I love that it's a way to target characters that doesn't scale with level - a cleric or druid might go from 16 to 20 over the course of their career, but everyone else will have the same 8 or 12 wisdom at level 20 that they had at level 1. No hero is ever more than a few rounds of ability drain away from death, and monsters who can do that stay relevant and threatening forever.
In the ultra-condensed stat block, the drain is 1 per round, because in the Siege of Racina, we skip ability scores and only use modifiers. For typical games that use scores, it should be -1d4 per round instead.
So what does wisdom drain actually do? Besides recalculating some skills, and spell save DCs for clerics, druids, and rangers, and scaring the pants off players, not much. 5e has an implied minimum ability score of 1 or 0, but no spelled-out mechanic for what happens when you get there; the few spells and monsters that deal with ability drain all have their own take on it. For example, shadows' strength-draining attack kills you when your strength reaches 0, but it's not clear if that should apply to all strength-draining effects. (Presumably, being raised as a shadow 1d4 hours later is not a universal feature.)
I give each ability a condition when it reaches 0, that lasts until the ability is restored - strength: paralyzed; dexterity: paralyzed; constitution: dead; charisma: stunned; intelligence: stunned, and can't speak or understand language (as feeblemind); and for wisdom: unconscious. Additionally, with wisdom of 3 or lower, you lose all self-preservation instinct, and can't distinguish friend from foe.
As written, the stat block doesn't give a way for the ability drain to go away, meaning it's technically permanent (except for greater restoration). Having it disappear on a short or long rest would be typical. I prefer longer-lasting consequences, though, so restoring 1 on a short rest or 1d8 on a long rest would be more my speed. Since this represents frostbite, it would naturally only be restored somewhere warm and dry, with a change of clothes and hot cocoa.
Between a powerful melee attack, a ranged attack/debuff, and action denial, an ice golem is really a full encounter on its own. The Rime breath weapon almost feels excessive, like I could've saved it for another monster in need of something unique. I wouldn't mind taking it off the ice golem, letting it focus more on its signature ability, if I had another monster in mind to give it to. But it does have a purpose here as well: it gives the DM an option to ease up on the damage and debuffs, while still doing something dramatic and impactful, that doesn't feel like going easy on the players. It also lets the golem keep up with faster creatures that are trying to run away.
Ice Golem
Large construct, unaligned
Armor Class 15
Hit Points 67 (9d8+27)
Speed 20 ft.
STR +4, DEX -2, CON +3, INT -4, WIS -1, CHA -3
Traits
Damage resistances ballistic
Damage immunities cold, poison, psychic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing not from magical weapons
Condition immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
CR 6
Magic Weapons. The golem's weapon attacks are magical.
Magic Resistance. The golem has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Immutable Form. The golem is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form.
Cold Absorption. Whenever the golem is subjected to cold damage, it takes no damage and instead regains a number of hit points equal to the damage dealt.
Burning Fury. When the golem takes fire damage, its Rime automatically recharges.
Actions
Multiattack. The golem makes two weapon attacks.
Slam. Melee weapon attack, +6 to hit, 2d8+4 bludgeoning damage plus 1d8 cold damage.
Frostbite Spear. Melee/ranged weapon attack, +6 to hit, range 5 ft. or 20/60, 1d6+4 piercing damage plus 1d8 cold damage, and the spear tip breaks off and remains lodged in the target (the spear reforms in the golem's hand at the end of its turn). Until a creature uses an action to remove it, the target takes 1d4 points of Wisdom drain at the end of each of its turns. A creature with Wisdom of 3 or lower loses all sense of self-preservation and cannot distinguish between friend and foe, and a creature with Wisdom 0 falls unconscious. A creature restores 1 point of Wisdom during a short rest, or 1d6+1 during a long rest, in a warm environment.
Rime (Recharge 5-6). The golem conjures clinging frost in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC13 Strength saving throw or its speed is reduced by 15 feet. An creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
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