House Rules for Magical Guardians

by Brian Potter

Date: Fri, 8 Mar 1996 11:25:30 -0500 From: Brian Potter To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [MAGIC, sort of] "golems" that cast spells

In one of my campaign adventures, I was testing the all-around skills of the party. One of the conditions on the test was that, other than the party being tested, no living being was going to get hurt. I had a large room with various obstacles and platforms, and at one end of the room there were a number of artificial beings: golems that would engage in melee, constructs to fire missiles, and magical guardians to cast spells. These last were something I had to make up; there was nothing I found in the books to test the party's ability to cast or combat spells.

I thought that others might be interested in these, so the following is my description of Magical Guardians. They worked quite well, by the way, and the party was definitely challenged to respond to a carefully planned, 3-pronged attack.


Lesser and Greater Magical Guardians

Level: 5G or 8G			        Hits: 50C or 75C
Size/Crit: M/@			        AT(DB): 1(20)
Attacks: Spells*
Base Rate: 70				MS/AQ: MF/MF
Max Pace/MM Bonus: FSpt/20	        #Enc.: 1
Treasure: -				Bonus EP: D
Outlook(IQ): Varies (AV)		PP/level: 3 or 4
* - Magical Guardians get a +10/level directed spell bonus for all directed
spells
Like golems or constructs, magical guardians are artificial beings. They appear as silver-skinned humans, very fluid and graceful in their actions. They are formed using the spell Weak Elemental on the Arcane "Entity Mastery" list. Their substance is pure magical energy (essence). Just as a golem has a mission or task to perform, magical guardians obey the commands of their creator. Where a golem is mindless, however, a magical guardian can react intelligently to a situation. It is a much more formidable enemy.

All magical guardians have the following lists:

        Dispelling ways (Closed Essence)
	Elemental Shields (Open Essence)
	Light Law  (Magican Base)
	Mind Control (Mentalist Base)
	Repulsions (Cleric Base)

Greater Guardians also get the following four lists:

	Spell Reins (Closed Essence)
	Speed (Closed Mentalism)
	Armor (Essence, from p. 33 of Rolemaster Companion I)**
	Dancing Weapons (Mentalism, from p. 34 of Rolemaster Companion I)**

In addition, the creator may give a lesser guardian 2 additional lists, or a greater guardian up to 4 more lists. The creator need not know all of the spell lists noted above, but the additional lists must be lists the creator knows. All guardians know and may cast spells up to 10th level on the lists they know.

** If Rolemaster Companion I is not used, these lists may be replaced my the Closed Essence list Shield Mastery and the Open Essence list Essence Hand.


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