Grave Dirt Golem

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A construct.

Sources

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Walking Statue of Waterdeep

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A construct.

These constructs have so far been discovered only in Waterdeep.

Sources

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Guardgoyle

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A construct.

Sources

Disclaimer

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Caryatid Column

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A construct.

The caryatid column is described in the 3e Fiend Folio. Basically, it’s a stone golem with some special abilities. The point of this post is to outline how big it is and how much it weighs.

As noted in the FF, the caryatid column is crafted from marble. I assume that it’s shaped to be proportional to a human woman; most giants are also proportional to humans but you could make variant columns which resemble dwarves or orcs or skeletons if you wanted to… that would change these numbers.

Height

Using the blackstone gigant as a precedent, I suggest making caryatid column height equal to HD. This means that the caryatid column’s range of 6-18 HD translates to a range of 6 ft to 18 ft height.

Weight

Solid marble has a density/weight of about 2563 kg per cubic meter (that’s 160 lbs per cubic foot). A human woman, standing 6 feet tall, has a volume of about 0.067 cubic meters (2.4 cubic ft) which means a marble woman weighs 378 lbs. A 6 ft tall woman made of uh, womanstuff, on the other hand, should be somewhere around 147 lbs, which supports our knowledge that marble statues are heavier than people.

Column

As described in the FF, a caryatid column can shapechange into a simple, featureless, stone column. The dimensions of this column logically should depend on the volume of the stone lady.

Note that this column assumes that the caryatid column is carved in the image of a nude woman. If the column is carved to include a skirt or dress, it will have significantly more volume (and weight), and the column form will have a larger diameter.

Quarried

Finally, the FF also notes that the column must be carved out of a single block of marble. It might not be relevant to most adventurers but it could be a fun bit of trivia to know the size of the block needed to create these magnificent women.

So here’s how the numbers work out.

Ht (ft) Wt (lbs) Column Quarried
6 378 8 inches diameter, 6 ft tall 2 ft W x 1 ft D x 6 ft H: 12 cu ft (1920 lbs)
7 514 9 inches diameter, 7 ft tall 3 ft W x 2 ft D x 7 ft H: 42 cu ft (6720 lbs)
8 672 10 inches diameter, 8 ft tall 3 ft W x 2 ft D x 8 ft H: 48 cu ft (7680 lbs)
9 850 10 inches diameter, 9 ft tall 3 ft W x 2 ft D x 9 ft H: 54 cu ft (8640 lbs)
10 1050 11 inches diameter, 10 ft tall 4 ft W x 2 ft D x 10 ft H: 80 cu ft (12800 lbs)
11 1270 12 inches diameter, 11 ft tall 4 ft W x 2 ft D x 11 ft H: 88 cu ft (14080 lbs)
12 1512 12 inches diameter, 12 ft tall 4 ft W x 2 ft D x 12 ft H: 96 cu ft (15360 lbs)
13 1774 13 inches diameter, 13 ft tall 5 ft W x 3 ft D x 13 ft H: 195 cu ft (31200 lbs)
14 2058 13 inches diameter, 14 ft tall 5 ft W x 3 ft D x 14 ft H: 210 cu ft (33600 lbs)
15 2362 13 inches diameter, 15 ft tall 5 ft W x 3 ft D x 15 ft H: 225 cu ft (36000 lbs)
16 2688 14 inches diameter, 16 ft tall 6 ft W x 3 ft D x 16 ft H: 288 cu ft (46080 lbs)
17 3034 14 inches diameter, 17 ft tall 6 ft W x 3 ft D x 17 ft H: 306 cu ft (48960 lbs)
18 3402 15 inches diameter, 18 ft tall 6 ft W x 3 ft D x 18 ft H: 324 cu ft (51840 lbs)

Of course the height range is only a guideline. There could be smaller and larger columns.

Ht (ft) Wt (lbs) Column Quarried
1 10 3 inches diameter, 1 ft tall 1 ft W x 1 ft D x 1 ft H: 1 cu ft (160 lbs)
2 42 5 inches diameter, 2 ft tall 1 ft W x 1 ft D x 2 ft H: 2 cu ft (320 lbs)
3 94 6 inches diameter, 3 ft tall 1 ft W x 1 ft D x 3 ft H: 3 cu ft (480 lbs)
4 168 7 inches diameter, 4 ft tall 2 ft W x 1 ft D x 4 ft H: 8 cu ft (1280 lbs)
5 262 8 inches diameter, 5 ft tall 2 ft W x 1 ft D x 5 ft H: 10 cu ft (1600 lbs)
32 10751 20 inches diameter, 32 ft tall 11 ft W x 6 ft D x 32 ft H: 2112 cu ft (337,920 lbs)
64 43003 28 inches diameter, 64 ft tall 22 ft W x 11 ft D x 64 ft H: 15488 cu ft (2,478,080 lbs)
96 96758 34 inches diameter, 96 ft tall 32 ft W x 16 ft D x 96 ft H: 49152 cu ft (7,864,320 lbs)

Sources

Disclaimer

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Blackstone Gigant

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A construct.

DM’s Notes

Since they’re constructs, they can be created in any shape. In particular, I see two versions being popular:

  • a gigant with two legs, resembling a female drow
  • a gigant with a snake tail, resembling a marilith

Drow Gigants

This examination looks first at the ones that are made to resemble multi-armed drow females. Blackstone gigants typically range from 32-96 HD; they’re Gargantuan at 32 HD and become Colossal at 64 HD. Conveniently, Gargantuan humanoids range from 32-64 feet in height. So I recommend making humanoid blackstone gigants’ height equal to HD.

At 32 ft tall, the “average” drow female would weigh about 4600 lbs. I calculate the volume of such a drow to be about 2.1 cu m, which means if she’s actually a blackstone gigant made of basalt, rather than a living drow, she weighs 13,900 lbs. There’s quite a bit of leeway here if you need it to be lighter or heavier; if you interpret “blackstone” to be obsidian, the weight might be as low as 10,600 lbs, but if you take it to mean black sapphire it’ll be more like 18,500 lbs. You can also increase the weight a bit by deciding that your gigant is armored and therefore has a little more bulk; gigants, as written, are nude except for perhaps some jewelry. The main factor controlling weight is what stone you carve it out of, rather than the presence of armor; different substances clearly means different weights. I think basalt is a good compromise, especially since it’s a very black stone.

I heard you were looking for some basalt?

The “deal” with blackstone gigants is that they frequently have more than two arms. So here are some variations, assuming that you use basalt as the stone and create the golem in the shape of a drow female (with legs, not a snake tail).

2 arms 4 arms 6 arms 8 arms
32 HD, 32 ft tall 13,900 lbs 15,150 lbs 16,400 lbs 17,650 lbs
64 HD, 64 ft tall 55,600 lbs 60,600 lbs 65,600 lbs 70,600 lbs
96 HD, 96 ft tall 125,000 lbs 136,300 lbs 147,600 lbs 158,800 lbs

Marilith Gigants

If you want to do the blackstone gigant as written in the Fiend Folio — which is to say, more like a marilith (phenomenal illustration) — then I suggest adding 75% to the above volume and weight numbers.

Why such a big addition? Because according to the experts, a human leg accounts for roughly 15% of total body weight. If 30% of our weight is legs, then 70% is our upper bodies. If you don’t add sufficient mass to balance out the upper body, then the creature’s center of gravity is too high and it falls over. Entertaining, but not very efficient in combat.

You might point out that the above statement doesn’t seem to make sense given that the mass of our legs is quite a bit less than that of our upper bodies (30% vs 70%) but the difference between a marilith and a human is that the human has legs, which must always be carefully positioned so as to maintain a vertical position. The marilith, in contrast, has sufficient mass in her lower body that she doesn’t need to remain coiled… she can do basically whatever she wants with her tail and remain upright while doing it. Therefore, the tail must overcompensate a bit. This is why I figure the marilith’s body mass is divided at least 40%/60% in favor of her lower body.

There’s also the point that snake flesh is probably more dense than human flesh. So far, Google is not my friend in this regard… I can’t find specific information. I’ll work on the numbers again if/when I get new information, but for now it does assume equal density.

Finally, the assumption is that a marilith “stands” 150% as tall as the humanoid upon which its upper body is based, due to the necessary bending of her lower body. As written in the Fiend Folio (and interpreted by me) the marilith is based on a 6 ft tall female; therefore she stands 9 ft tall. Of course she can reach much higher than that when she wants to, but that’s her normal standing height. Since the gigant merely replaces flesh with stone, the gigant’s shape will be exactly the same as that of a living marilith.

Here are some variations on the marilith-shaped gigant, still using a female drow for the upper body and still using basalt as the stone-of-choice.

2 arms 4 arms 6 arms 8 arms
32 HD, 48 ft tall 24,300 lbs 26,500 lbs 28,700 lbs 30,900 lbs
64 HD, 96 ft tall 97,250 lbs 106,000 lbs 114,750 lbs 123,500 lbs
96 HD, 144 ft tall 218,800 lbs 238,500 lbs 258,200 lbs 277,900 lbs

Sources

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Necrophidius

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A construct.

A necrophidius, also called a death worm, is a skeletal snake, but it’s a construct and not undead.

Sources

  • Fiend Folio page 126
  • Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Appendix [MC5/2107]
  • Ruins of Undermountain [1060] adventure booklet, page 25
  • WotC Monster Index

Disclaimer

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Battle Horror

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A construct.

A battle horror is a modified helmed horror.

Sources

  • Lost Empires of Faerûn [17738] page 177
  • Monstrous Compendium Annual 1 [2145]
  • Ruins of Undermountain [1060] adventure booklet, page 25
  • WotC Monster Index

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Helmed Horror

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

Helmed Horror, from the official WotC Monsters of Faerûn Art Gallery... click on the image for the link.
All rights are assumed to be reserved by that website

At a Glance

A construct.

Related to battle horror.

Sources

  • Lost Empires of Faerûn [17738] page 175
  • Monsters of Faerûn page 60
  • Monstrous Compendium Annual 1 [2145]

Passing Mention

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Silver Horror

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A construct— specifically a clockwork horror.

Sources

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.