Hey everyone! I want to take a moment to make a quick plug about a new gaming project that I just launched this week. If you enjoyed my Pokedex 5e entries several months back, you’re going to want to check out the 5e Pokedex! Swing on by while I do my darndest to “stat ’em all.”
I’ve been playing around with some new to me theories on monster-craft with the 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons rules. The biggest shift in my thought process has been to go in known what Challenge Rating I want the monster to be at the beginning instead of letting my numbers at the end decide that. In the little bit of work that I’ve done with this approach, I found that things tend to a be a lot more consistent in terms of how the creations look at the end. (H/T to TheAngryDM for his series on custom monster building from several years back that highlighted this idea).
So we’re back this week with a new golem type to challenge your players with – the crystal golem, which is most often found guarding the underground lairs of powerful wizards or within cultures that value gems and jewelry as a means of showing off wealth. I originally toyed with the idea of having radiant damage simply be reflected back at the source, but decided that a group punishment to a single attack was a better option with the Blinding Blast ability. Beyond that, this creature has a lot of the same advantages and immunities of your traditional golem, giving you another higher CR treasure guardian. As always, the PDF link is included for you to download for your own uses.
Ben Erickson
