Control Golem (sage ability)
Control golem is an amateur-status sage ability in the study of Golems. The ability makes a clear distinction between the 'control' of a golem and the 'mastery' of a golem. Control merely indicates that while the golem's creator is present and paying attention to the golem, its actions can be directed and the golem restrained from randomly causing harm. Mastery, on the other hand, indicates that the creator is fully able to compel the golem to behave even when the creator is not immediately present and acting to dictate the golem's actions.
So long as a golem's creator is present and not seriously distracted (in combat, out of sight for a minimum of four minutes, engrossed in memorizing spells or emotional discourse), a controlled golem can be expected to behave — that is, not wander off, cause damage, purposefully hurt anyone or otherwise become occupied with a desire to do harm. Golems should be expected to shift from being controlled to full independence in a series of stages:
- Curiousity: The golem moves to investigate something within sight (roll randomly), remaining within sight for at 3-12 minutes before growing curious about something a bit further on, that would take it within calling distance - where it will remain for at least another 5-20 minutes. After this time has passed, the golem must be searched for.
- Experimentation: Starting at the same moment at which the golem becomes curious, roll 3d6 determine how long it will take before the golem begins fiddling with whatever it went to investigate. If still in sight, this might be the party's wagons, animals, a tree growing in the area, a pile of rocks, etcetera. This fiddling will probably result in causing minor damage within 1d6 minutes, such as wrecking a wheel, causing a harmless small avalanche, scaring a horse half to death, breaking a tree off at the stump, etc. There is a 9 in 10 chance that this will be heard by members of the party.
- Malevolence: If the golem is not brought back under control after causing damage, roll 4d8 to determine the number of minutes that pass before the golem maliciously decides to increase the amount of damage done, fully wrecking the wagon, starting as many avalanches as possible, tearing up multiple trees, killing a horse and so on.
- Running Off: If no effort is made to control the golem after it acted out of malevolence, then it will simply leave after 1d10 more minutes pass. From that point it will run amuck as it pleases until it is brought under control again. If control is attempted and it fails, the golem will attack its creator.
During battle, golems will tend to want to destroy as many enemies as possible. If, however, a golem has been continuously in battle for more than 30 rounds, there is a 1 in 10 chance that it will — if adjacent - use one of its attacks to strike a member of the party that is not the golem's creator. This attack will not be repeated unless the 1 in 10 chance is rolled again.
Naturally, once mastery over the golem is accomplished, there is no chance that the golem will grow curious or follow any other of the above actions indicated above.
The chance for control or mastery over a golem is shown in the table below:
| Golem Type | Golem Knowledge Points | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 17 | 24 | 31 | 38 | 45 | 52 | 59 | 66 | 73 | 80 | 87 | 94 | 101 | |
| mandragora | C | C | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M |
| gingerbread | 18 | 16 | C | C | C | C | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M |
| flesh | — | 20 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 4 | C | C | M | M | M | M |
| wood | — | — | 20 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 5 | C | C | C | M | M | M |
| clay | — | — | — | 20 | 17 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 4 | C | C | C | M | M |
| stone | — | — | — | — | 20 | 17 | 13 | 10 | 6 | 3 | C | C | C | M |
| iron | — | — | — | — | — | 20 | 16 | 13 | 9 | 5 | C | C | C | M |
The number shows the amount the creator must roll to bring a golem back under control, once a golem has reached the point where it has become malevolent (golems may be automatically brought back under control so long as they have not passed the curiosity/experimental stage). 'C' indicates that control is automatic. 'M' indicates that the golem can be mastered.
This same number also applies to non-creators who nevertheless have knowledge about golems - but only from one round to the next, and with severe restrictions with regards to what actions a non-creator can dictate. On rounds that the character rolls the number indicated, the golem can be forced to take a defensive stance. This will not mean that the golem is being 'held' or 'charmed.' It is merely defensive; if attacked, it will defend itself fully. However, if undisturbed, the golem will answer questions about its birthplace, the location of its creator (to the best knowledge of the golem), its creator's name and the orders it has been given. It will be unable to give any other answers. If the orders can be satisfied (something given, someone killed, etcetera), the golem can be encouraged to depart.
If the non-creator is capable of mastering the golem, the possession of the golem can - at the will of the non-creator - be fully transferred. If the creator and the non-creator are both present, then each round that domination over the golem is in question (that is, both golem masters are alive and capable of controlling the golem), each master seeking control must roll a d100. The master whose result is the most under their total golem points will master the golem . . . but only for that round. The next round, the roll must be made again. Note that if stunned or casting a spell, mastery of the golem cannot be tried for, but otherwise — even if in combat — the potential is there. Mastery can be tried for during a round when a spell is discharged.
To provide an example, two would-be masters, Claburn and Dreck, attempt to master a gingerbread golem. Claburn has 71 knowledge points and Dreck has 59. Both roll a d100, Claburn rolling a 56 and Dreck rolling 41. Claburn's total is 71-56=15. Dreck's total is 59-41=18. Note that mastery is guaranteed to one or the other, so that if both persons roll over their knowledge points, the highest final result (even if both are in the negatives) still indicated mastery.
