Golem (5e Race)

Golem

“	When the Gaon saw that the Golem was growing larger and larger, he feared that the Golem would destroy the universe. He then removed the Holy Name that was embedded on his forehead, thus causing him to disintegrate and return to dust.	”
—Rabbi Jacob Emden

Physical Description

By Mikoláš Aleš

Golems are construct creatures made of mud. They are all anthropogenic and shape in size, almost like an unfinished human. Usually, somewhere on their body, typically across their forehead or on their tongue, is a rune which contains the inscriptions from their creator and/or master. Golems are amazingly adaptive in appearance and most can pass as human so long as their quirks are not exposed.

History

Golems are believed to be unfinished humans made from mud and dirt. A divine power had been making man and they did not allow all of them to gain true life. thus, most of them remained as golems. The first golem runes were in fact holy scriptures from the words of the gods. When the simian creator gods saw how humans were less adept at survival than the hard-skinned reptilians or dragonborn, they gave their hapless creations the secret to making golems of their own. Golems were inured to pain and resistant to much of the human condition, making them ideal servants. From the gods, humans learned to program and dominate their golems, and they made many of them beautiful or handsome to fulfill their desires as well as perform grunt work and guard duty.

Originally, only those close to the divine could create these original golems. Arcane manners popped up when people learned to manipulate earth and create fascinating alchemical beings of metal. These older fashioned golems lost their spot in the limelight. As they were nearly impervious to being destroyed unless the proper divine word was spoken, many just remained forgotten and left to roam. Golems displayed a temper when they realized their purpose was all but gone and went on a rampage. To prevent their destructive tendencies, the gods intervened and stole from them their consciousness, rendering them utterly dumb and useless without commands. To this day, golems seek to undo this wretched curse which keeps them bound, but their minds falter much in this endeavor.

Society

Golems, born to serve, have no society to call their own. They are forever tethered to a master until they can break the curse of the gods and regain their senses and freedom. Most reside within the domiciles provided by their creator or master, where they perform housekeeping tasks, sentry duty, and the like. As they do not have taste like humans, and are much more cold and logical, they are not always trusted with certain chores, like that of babysitting. Golems without a master are doomed to roam without purpose due to the curse placed on their mind. Each one has an innate hope locked away to have a life and desire of their own, and the path to free this desire is treacherous.

Personality

As anthropogenic as they are, no golem is fully human without a god's intervention. They tend to speak in a mechanical or extremely objective manner, avoiding subjective terms like "I feel." Golems do not feel pain and are therefore very curious when confronted with human or soft-fleshed emotions stemming from harm. They also find things like entertainment and beauty superfluous, focused only on the practical and efficient ways of life. For all intents and purposes, golems are usually not very aware of their own living or death. They simply exist. This keeps them usually ignorant of self-preservation. Some aware of what is the nature of a construct may come to abhor those with "true life."

Golem Names

Golems are named based on their creator's fancies. These original golems were usually made by those with divine connections, and so will have names of religious importance. While golems have no real sexual organs to delineate gender, their creator usually fashions them after one of the two sexes and names them accordingly.

Male: Josef, Yossele, Goylem, Zurah

Female: Chava, Asenath, Batya, Frema

Golem Traits

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.
Age. As they are created by image, they will be made however they are meant to appear, and not age beyond that point. So long as the magic sustaining them remains, they will not die with the passage of time.
Alignment. A golem's alignment is determined by the creator.
Size. To maintain the image of man, golems retain the size of humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30.
Construct. You are a being molded of divine energy and mud or clay. Your creature type is construct instead of humanoid. As such, spells like cure wounds don't affect you, and you are immune to spells like crown of madness or dominate person because they specifically target humanoids. You are immune to poison damage, being poisoned, and diseases. You do not need to eat or breathe, and any food you do attempt to eat falls through the space where your head would be and into the bottom of your armor. Rather than sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 6 hours each day. You do not dream in this state; you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.
Mendable. Nonliving as you are, you can be repaired like an object. When the mending spell is cast on you, it has the following alterations: It has a casting time of 1 action. If you have 0 hit points you become stable. As part of the casting of mending the caster may expend any level of spell slot to cause you to regain a number of hit points equal to 1d8, plus their spellcasting ability modifier. For each level of the spell slot expended you regain an additional 1d8 hit points.
Programmed Mind. You obey and solely have eyes for your creator. You are immune to being charmed.
Creator's Intention. You have a purpose from which you must not deviate, and nothing can make you go against this purpose. From the table below, roll to see what intention your creator had, and what sort of trait it grants you in aid to fulfill that pursuit.
Languages. You can speak, read and write Common, as well as the language of your creator.

Creator's Intention

d10	Intention	Trait
1	Housekeeping	You are meant to keep things nice and tidy. You know the prestidigitation and mending cantrips.
2	Sentry	Watching over doorways and gates is your thing. You are proficient in the Perception skill and have advantage in saving throws against being blinded.
3	Espionage	You are meant to blend in and sneak around. You are proficient in the Deception and Stealth skills.
4	Proselytization	In the name of the divine word which gives you life, your master means for you to spread the deity's name. You are proficient in the Religion and Persuasion skills.
5	Exploration	For your master's sake, you must go far and wide in search of something. You are proficient in the Survival skill and you cannot be lost by nonmagical means.
6	Messenger	You are meant to relay messages from afar. You know the message cantrip and you can mimic sounds you have heard, including voices. A creature that hears the sounds can tell they are imitations with a successful Wisdom (Insight) check opposed by your Charisma (Deception) check.
7	Bookkeeping	Your master uses you to keep track of records. You are proficient in the History skill and you can accurately recall anything you have seen or heard within the last year.
8	Bodyguard	Your master made you tough to protect others. While unarmored, your Armor Class is equal to 12 + your Constitution modifier. You may use a shield and still gain this benefit.
9	Soldier	You are made to fight alongside others. Your fists are natural weapons to pummel with unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier. Additionally, you are proficient in the Athletics skill.
10	Vessel	You were made to house something greater. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. Additionally, you have advantage in Strength checks to grapple other creatures.

Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
5′ 2″	+2d8	230 lb.	× (1d6) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

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