Golems Are Great

[Blk4ce]

I am thinking a concept for a spare character. I would make him a Golemomancer. How should I spec him? Does crafting cover him or must I invent a new field of thaumaturgy, golemomancy?

Next are the golems themselves. How would you stat them? I have an idea for creating them. Use the enchanted items "Golem Heart", where frequency means how many times you can deploy them before they need recharge (if you treat it as potion it stays indefinitely but once destroyed it must be replaced), but what determines their power, appart from power=Lore? What skills and powers can they have?

Also, method of animation. Do I treat the heart as a battery or do I bind an earth spirit, for example, inside it?

[Magicpockets]

Summoning/Binding is what you're looking for, since a Golem would probably be an elemental earth spirit bound to an artificial body. As such, a heart would not be necessary, since they are not zombies. As for statting them, RAW looks concise usable rules. There are homebrew summoning rules, which I'm sure Sanctaphrax or someone else will kindly link for you.

[Blk4ce]

I used the word "Heart" metaphorically. It will actually be a slab of granite or something.

Although, a Flesh Golem sounds interesting...
So does a Bone Golem...

[Quantus]

Either of those would probably fall into a necromancy thing, but it probably depends on what you bind to it to animate the thing.  Though the Rawhead creature from Cold Days is basically a Fae version of that. 

A loa spirit for example wouldnt have a problem animating the corpse for you, but keeping it around permanently would be a bargain.  A Demonbinding or other spirit could probably be worked to animate basically anything, so it would come down to what the character would be willing to bind. 

Regardless if I were your storyteller, Id let you have a more powerful one if it required a recharge, depending on how often and difficult it would be to recharge it.  But that would be between you two for the table balance. 

[S1C0]

I play a half svartelf artificer that is a little broken with golemancey i found that unless you want to break the game a small 2-3 golem unit would be the most i play in full stat or one epic companion like gauge from borderlands two, other than that i treat them each as aspects to invoke for effect to act in effect a potion remember story is still more important than stats so just try and play it by ear and leave room in the spot-lite for other npcs

[Quantus]

Is this going to be a PC or an NPC?  Balaning an NPC is less of an issue as long as you keep the actual encounters reasonable.  For a PC you have to establish limits up-front more. 

[Blk4ce]

PC. That's why I want to address the issues. And I am interested in the way it works.

I agree about the story. But as you said, I want to make it in a way that is fun for everyone (at least until my army is large enough  )

[Quantus]

Cool.  Next question:  Are you picturing a single "pet" that is more or less permanently present, or a summoner with a small stable of them?  S1C0's comment about having several but treating them basically as embodied aspects to invoke seems a clean way to go. 

[Sanctaphrax]

There are homebrew summoning rules, which I'm sure Sanctaphrax or someone else will kindly link for you.

Here they are.

And here are some example golems.

[InFerrumVeritas]

For a superhero game I run, I came up with rules for a character who wanted to duplicate themselves.  They could probably be tweaked for a rapid summoner, character with a psychic link to golems, or something similar.

Duplication
Costs: 3 refresh
You have the ability to create a duplicate of yourself.  Choose an open consequence slot.  Your duplicate has a number of stress boxes equal to the value of that consequence (so 2 for Mild, 4 for Moderate, 6 for Severe).  If the duplicate is taken out, you take a consequence equal to the value of that duplicate.  All of your and your duplicate’s skills are reduced one step on the pyramid (to no less than Mediocre) while it is active.  The Duplicate’s high concept is “Copy of …”.  Other than the above, the duplicate has the same capabilities as you (but it cannot create a duplicate of itself).  Creating a duplicate takes an entire turn.  You may reabsorb your duplicate on your turn so long as you both are in the same zone, and doing so takes an entire turn. 

Extra Duplicates
Cost: 2 refresh, requires Duplication
You may create additional duplicates.  Choose another open consequence slot and reduce your skills and additional step on the pyramid for each duplicate created (to no less than Mediocre).  You may create or absorb as many duplicates as you want in a single turn, but the action takes your entire turn.

Mob of Duplicates
Cost: 3 refresh (if you have Duplication, this only costs 2 refresh)
You may create a mob of duplicates, creating one Duplicate for each open physical stress box you have.  You may take a consequence to create additional duplicates, gaining 2 for a mild consequence, 4 for mediocre, and 6 for severe.  Each character in this mob (including your “original”) only has one stress box and your skills are reduced by one step for each duplicate you control (to no less than Mediocre).  Consequences already taken may be used by any duplicate in the mob.  This power may not be used at the same time as Duplication or Extra Duplicates.

Competent Duplicates
Costs: 2 refresh, requires Extra Duplicates or Mob of Duplicates
When creating duplicates, any skill you have Fair or better may not be reduced below Average rather than Mediocre.

Things to consider:
-I'd probably go for a "Modular Abilities" like power for amount of refresh summoned allies can have if you're not doing a direct copy of yourself. 
-Allies with different skills than you are probably more useful more often than ones who just have a copy of your skills. 
-I'd probably switch the physical stress with mental stress for a magic based power like this.
-I would let this be done with Thaumaturgy, but would charge FP (or open tags) for it, like a temporary power.
-This probably need much more tweaking.

No, I would not like this particular group of powers, or tweaks derived from them posted on a resource board, partially because they were really written with Fate Core in mind.

[Blk4ce]

Cool.  Next question:  Are you picturing a single "pet" that is more or less permanently present, or a summoner with a small stable of them?  S1C0's comment about having several but treating them basically as embodied aspects to invoke seems a clean way to go.

I was thinking a crafter that specialised in making golem bodies and having a few that could last more than a scene (as depicted by frequency), as well as some that I would treat them as potions, which thankfully don't need separate rules. However, I also like that first approach that you and S1C0 suggested. It could either be my only permanent golem, my life's work that I put all my skills in (and my only alternatives are smaller potion-golems) or an IoP, a golem from an ancient long lost civilisation.

That said, there is also the matter of what I would use as a generator. For the more expendable ones I could do the Frankenstein method and use some sort of supernatural battery and the more permanents (like guardian gargoyles on the roof of my house) I could bind spirits.

Here they are.

And here are some example golems.

These are very good ideas, thanks. These methods are only for the first time it is summoned?
If I bind the spirit with a willing contract, or by using its true name, should I need less power? At least it seems logical to me. I don't force it that way, merely "hiring".


Ferrum, these look good for a superhero. However, I agree that they need serious tweaking to use for golems. And they don't cover my above points.

[Magicpockets]

If I bind the spirit with a willing contract, or by using its true name, should I need less power? At least it seems logical to me. I don't force it that way, merely "hiring".

Those would be declarations, helping you meet the complexity easier.

[S1C0]

what i did for my first low level homunculus was to power it with my own blood, a moderate consequence then for my first fighter golem i went with creating a iop that the golem holds similar to a heart but more of a battery that needs time to absorb all forms of ambient power IE kinetic energy,fire , sunlight,magic, even the earths magnetic field ,magma (dangerous), and the slowest yet most useful hold out the force of the earth's rotation, but that was far latter for the last 3. the iop was for me took 32 shifts of power for its complexity i had to take over a month to cast but thats how it goes being an artificer "Days of planning. Weeks of building. Months of perfecting. Seconds of smashing."




 it is all limited only by your imagination and knowledge of basic Thaumaturgy

[Sanctaphrax]

No, I would not like this particular group of powers, or tweaks derived from them posted on a resource board, partially because they were really written with Fate Core in mind.

Aight, I'll respect that. I like the idea of committing consequences to a separate body, though, and I may steal that bit if you don't mind.

These methods are only for the first time it is summoned?

Not sure what you mean by that. The idea here is that your minion appears when you complete the ritual and disappears when the duration runs out.

If you've bound a demon to serve you and you want to summon it from your house to the battlefield, then that'll probably be significantly easier than summoning it initially. But if the duration of the binding runs out and you want to summon them again, you'll have to do the summoning all over again.

If I bind the spirit with a willing contract, or by using its true name, should I need less power? At least it seems logical to me. I don't force it that way, merely "hiring".

Like Magicpockets said, those could be Declarations.

Alternately, they could not be thaumaturgy at all. You could handle a contract with a demon the same way you handle a contract with a mortal NPC.

[Todjaeger]

A Golem is a construct (think Wardhound) and from an email exchange with Evil Hat, there should be some rules on making Constructs in the Paranet Papers.

From memory, the guidelines were to take the total point cost of all skills, stunts, and powers and total them.  That was the minimum number of shifts required for the ritual to create the construct.  Then if people want the construct to stick around, additional shifts are required for additional duration for the ritual.  Also keep in mind that going about making constructs like this could get unpleasant if the opponents wise up and manage to leave 'circle' traps scattered about.  A construct built via a ritual would essentially collapse if inside a magic circle someone else created.

-Cheers