Bees buzzed lazily about the plump golden body of the hive golem as it slumped lazily against the fence, seemingly inert. The prosperous pollinators danced among the flowers of the field before bringing their bounty back to their burly bodyguard. They clambered through the hives, traveling along tunnels and channels within the golem’s body that linked them all. Mindlessly, the hive golem lifted a hand to regard its sticky hand before it was distracted by the lowing of a hungry bear. The dutiful guardian rose to its stumpy legs and curled its heavy palms into fists before turning to face the intrusive beast.
This was prompted by a request on another Discord that I'm part of, originally suggested as a 'honey golem.' As usual, it comes with the traditional immunity to magic that all golems have as well as the damage reduction against everything except adamantine. It's adhesive ability is based off of the power of the same name of the adherer while its honey glob is inspired by and based off of the web universal ability. As a hive golem, I had to include some actual swarm based abilities, which I designed to interact and potentially build off of each other, considering the sickened and nauseated conditions. Between protective swarm and its adhesive ability, foes are discouraged from fighting it up close but might struggle to escape with its honey glob ability. It can also unleash swarm to damage enemies in a cone and increase sickened to nauseated.
Pathfinder 1e:
For the 2e hive golem, I wanted to add a new ability to it in the form of its Sticky Slam that was based off of the doprillu's Body Blow with the added effect of sticking people together. I was considering giving the ability a lower DC since it slows both affected creatures, but only one needs to Escape to end the effect. I settled on fire as the slowing effect as the smoke puts bees to sleep while cold damages it as it causes the honey to harden and chip off.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOK
Bee-attle Bots: A curious case of awaken animal being cast upon a queen bee that inhabits a hive golem has resulted in her learning how to control and further modify the golem. Armed with an improved honey golem and her own knowledge, as well as spells, she begins a vendetta against the humanoid races in recompense for the untold honey they have stolen. The heroes find themselves dragged into this bizarre conflict, which they might be able to resolve by attempting diplomacy with the queen bee. However, if they resort to combat and aren’t able to catch the queen bee, she will escape to marshal her forces, her powers, and return with an even greater golem in her quest for vengeance.
If you're interested in joining the discussion on what creatures I'm working on or just discussing your own homebrew works, check out our Discord! If you want to get some teasers or help us get to our yet unlisted milestones for extra content, check out the Twitter.
Have a monstrous Monday!
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