Everyone's Favorite Constructs: It's Golem Time!

 I have a soft spot in my heart for Golems.

I am half-Jewish, and while the Jewish side of my family (at least the way my Dad was raised) is pointedly irreligious, it's a culture that I feel a deep connection to. Golems are, of course, part of that heritage, imagined as a kind of artificial person that a righteous person could create in imitation of God's creation of Adam (which, you'll likely recall, he made from clay). Naturally, a man-made Golem would never approach the perfection of the Almighty's creation, and Golem stories are often stories of mixed success, especially with stories of the Golems interpreting commands too literally, but characters like the Golem of Prague were heroic figures, protecting the oppressed Jewish people from bigoted attacks within a society that enacted violence upon them for being the other.

The Warforged of Eberron are basically the "playable Golems," even including the animating rune on their foreheads (if memory serves, the legend of the Golem has the being brought to life with the Hebrew word "Emét," meaning truth, and then was deactivated by erasing the letter Aleph - kind of the placeholder consonant for words that begin with vowels, because Hebrew doesn't really use vowels in its spelling - and changing it to "Mét," which means death).

But in D&D and fantasy in general, Golems are kind of the default "magical robot," and the most iconic Constructs. While the classic Golem from Jewish folklore is made from mud and clay, Golems of other materials have been imagined.

D&D also links the idea of the Golem with an iconic creature from literature - Frankenstein's Monster. The novel of course draws on some similar ideas of man trying to imitate God in the creation of life, even suggesting "Adam" as the name of Victor's creation (to all the people who say that "Frankenstein" is the doctor, not the monster, I think it's both - the creature considers himself Victor's son, so I think we can actually just consider his name to be Adam Frankenstein. Also, if you're more familiar with the Boris Karloff version and its derivations, read the novel. The creature is probably the most eloquent character in the story.)

Thus, in both 2014 and 2025, the Monster Manual has four kinds of Golem - in ascending order, they are Flesh, Clay, Stone, and Iron.

One of the most memorable aspects of Golems in 2014 was that they were fully immune to Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage except by magical weapons or adamantine ones (which is always funny given that, technically, an adamantine weapon is already considered magical). Many of the Golems are also immune to a particular kind of damage, and often absorb damage they would take as healing.

Given the removal of any "magical" forms of Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Slashing damage, and the removal of most resistances and I think all immunities to those damage types, it shouldn't come as a shock that Golems have lost this. Yes, sad to say, but your Clay Golem can no longer solo the Tarrasque.

With that immunity gone, how do they compare, and what else might have changed?

Flesh Golem:

Well, the Flesh Golem gets more HP to compensate, about 30 additional HP. It retains its immunity to Lightning and Poison damage.

The Berserk function now goes off if the Golem is bloodied, though thanks to the higher HP, the party will need to do about 10 more damage to put them in that state (which also only happens 1/6 times.)

Other features are the same, like an Aversion to Fire and Lightning Absorption.

The Golem still just makes two Slam attacks, but these attacks now deal the usual 13 bludgeoning plus a new additional 4 Lightning damage.

So, for the most part, this is very similar, but deals a little more damage and can take a little more damage, but will no longer be an invincible menace to parties without magic weapons.

Clay Golem:

There are similar changes to the Berserk feature, the immunities, and the HP goes up by 10. Its speed is also now 30, up from 20.

However, the action economy surrounding Haste works a bit differently. Haste is now a bonus action to either Dash or Disengage (with the same 5-6 recharge) and does not affect the golem's AC or grant advantage on Dex saves. It does, however, grant a third attack with its multiattack when the golem uses this. So, essentially, you'll be able to attack three times on the first turn, and then two thirds of the time be limited to two attacks on subsequent turns.

The golem's slam attack deals the same overall damage, an average of 16, but 6 of that is now acid damage. There's no save to prevent this from reducing the target's max HP, but only the acid damage reduces this max.

Stone Golem:

As before, the "kinetic" damage immunities are gone while the golem retains its Poison and Psychic immunities (unlike other golems, it has no absorption, but that's not a change). Again, in compensation, the Golem gets more HP.

Its Slow function has been changed a bit. It's now a Bonus Action, and it now simply casts the Slow spell (with no spell components).

Its Slam attacks now land for 26 average damage, and 9 of that is Force. It also now has a ranged Force Bolt that hits for 22 average force damage at a 120-foot range.

Iron Golem:

To compensate for the lost damage immunities (though poison, psychic, and fire are still there,) the golem gets 42 extra HP.

Like the Stone Golem, the Iron Golem now has a ranged attack option in Fiery Bolt, which hits for 36 fire damage (in my mind it's a super-heated metal rivet, rather than a magical bolt of fire). They got rid of its superfluous Slam attack (which was just lower reach and lower damage than their sword) and replaced it with Bladed Arm, which 20 slashing and 10 fire damage, which is better damage than either of the old one's attacks.

The Poison Breath is also buffed, now dealing 55 damage on a failed save.

    So, overall, these changes are more tweaks than real redesigns. I do think that giving Stone and Iron golems ranged attacks can definitely make them more dangerous. I have this image of going into a big underground temple with rows of statues around the entrance, all of which come to life and start bombarding the party with Force Bolts.

I think the obvious question when it comes to Golems is always who the creator was. A modern mage or mystic could have recently created one that serves as an unquestioning bodyguard, but they can also be the creation of some long-lost civilization. Perhaps in some ancient magocracy like Netheril in the Forgotten Realms or the Age of Arcanum in Exandria, constructs like these were everywhere, acting as soldiers and guards, or even as laborers. In Eberron, they can easily serve as less-humanoid Warforged.

Flesh Golems, of course, come with a very different flavor than the others. There's an inherent horror to the fact that the Flesh Golem was created from the parts of various dead people (or animals). One possibility for the Reborn Gothic Lineage from Ravenloft imagines this playable lineage/species as being a Flesh Golem-like creation.

Golems can be mindless servants, but my understanding of the folklore is that they're actually sentient beings, and perhaps on their own journey of self-discovery. If they are like this, do they have the support from people around them, or their society, to pursue such endeavors, or are they treated inhumanely and lash out at a world that refuses to see them as anything other than a thing? (Ben Grimm, the Marvel character also known as The Thing, who is one of the Fantastic Four, is both Jewish and also modeled to look like a Golem).