A warm fire crackles under the cast iron cauldron of the witch’s hovel that the young adventurer looks about worriedly. The hominess of the fire and welcoming smells bely the odious trappings, but it’s enough to make him relax his grip on his shield. He wanders to a heavy table piled with fanciful bottles containing colorful fluids. As the young man picks through the bottles, clinking them together, he fails to notice the locks beneath the cauldron rearranging themselves, forming into thick limbs. It’s only as the cauldron golem takes a first lumbering step towards him that he turns, just in time for the bubbling liquid in the cauldron to erupt towards him . . .
I love when I finally get art for older monsters and finally get the chance to post them! The cauldron golem features the fantastic work of Vildevitus#2346 and a slew of fun abilities. Having mostly played as a GM, I never realized the hate that golems get from players, but unfortunately, they're too fun to design for me not to make them. Starting off, the cauldron golem is pretty basic. It's most notable thing is likely its DR 5/adamantine, which I was a little iffy about including, but saw that it was also a trait possessed by the ice golem at the same CR, which assuaged my worries a bit. Defensively, it's actually almost identical to that golem - the cauldron golem is a little more dexterous, but they arrive at the same AC. Its only when we get to its chemical splash attack that we start getting into some of the fun stuff. This has variable damage it can deal, deciding between fire or acid depending on the type of chemicals it chooses to produce, but otherwise gives the cauldron golem a bomb. Overflowing cauldron grants the cauldron golem a classic type of area attack while reagents gives it a means of assisting its master. I wanted reagents to be something that can be more effective if a more powerful cauldron golem is created, so I built that into its system. Its final ability is its immunity to magic with cold slowing it, fire hastening it, and rusting effects being effective against it.
Pathfinder 1e:
For the Pathfinder 2e golem's Reagents, I based it off the alchemist somewhat where it can spend them in a longer time to brew two alchemical items or use its Quick Alchemy to gain a single immediate item. In combat, the cauldron golem can wade into battle with its heavy fists and stand back from afar to throw bombs, which can trigger its reaction. Douse Knuckles adds some extra energy damage to the cauldron golem's melee attacks for a short period. The Overflowing Cauldron also makes its way to the Pathfinder 2e version, but I decided to change it a little bit by adding in some poison damage from the leftover chemicals.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOK
Toil and Trouble: A young but talented witch foolishly uses an ancient artifact in the creation of a cauldron golem and ends up giving her creation more power than she can handle. The cauldron is imbued with the power to convert the dead into unliving, indestructible warriors and now holding a crude sentience and mobility, it seeks to do just that on a grand scale. When the heroes encounter it, it has already amassed a sizable force and they must fight through the undead horde to dismantle the golem. Dealing enough damage to the undead puts them down for a short period before their bodies knit back together and they continue their rampage. However, once the cauldron golem is destroyed, the undead it has raised collapse, truly lifeless now.
Lemme know what you think of this one. I really appreciate constructive criticism, but I'd be just as interested in hearing how you plan to use this in one of your campaigns or anything like that. We have a Monster Monday Discord where we chat about stuff we're homebrewing, across a swath of systems, and just general stuff, and we also have a Twitter where you can see teasers for upcoming posts.
Have a Monstrous Monday!
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