| Climate/Terrain: | Arctic |
|---|---|
| Frequency: | Very rare |
| Organization: | Solitary |
| Activity Cycle: | Nil |
| Diet: | None |
| Intelligence: | Semi- (2-4) |
| Treasure: | Nil |
| Alignment: | Neutral |
| No. Appearing: | 1 |
| Armor Class: | 6 |
| Movement: | 9 |
| Hit Dice: | 12 |
| THAC0: | 9 |
| No. of Attacks: | 1 |
| Damage/Attack: | 2-24 |
| Special Attacks: | Cone of cold |
| Special Defenses: | Immune to cold- and water-based attacks |
| Magic Resistance: | Nil |
| Size: | L (11' tall) |
| Morale: | Fearless (19-20) |
| XP Value: | 6,000 |
A snow golem is a weak version of a greater golem. It is created in the same manner as any other golem (described below). It can be sculpted in any appearance of the creator's choosing, and usually is portrayed wearing armor and a helmet. It never carries a weapon and does not have the power of speech. Although it is the same size as other golems, it is considerably lighter because it is created from snow.
Combat: Snow golems conform to the strategies of other golems listed in the Monstrous Compendium, with the addenda that follow. Snow golems have a Strength of 19 for purposes of lifting, throwing, or smashing objects. Snow golems are immune to all water-based and cold-based attacks. They regain 1 hit point for every die of damage that a water or cold-based attack would have caused.
If a snow golem is touching any creature when it is struck by an electrical attack, the current flows through the golem and into the captive creature. The golem suffers no damage from the attack; his captive suffers full damage. If the golem is not in contact with another creature when struck by an electrical attack, it suffers damage normally.
Snow golems can be struck only by magical weapons. They suffer the effects of fire attacks as if they were 12-HD human fighters (including saving throws).
The snow golem is able to breathe a cone of cold once every five rounds as if it were a 10th-level mage.
Transmute stone to snow slows the snow golem for 2d6 rounds.
Habitat/Society: Snow golems are automatons capable of following a few simple commands. They cannot think on their own and are under the complete control of their master. They have no society and do not breathe, eat, or sleep.
Ecology: Only a wizard of at least 15th level can create a snow golem. The body may be sculpted of snow and then turned to stone by use of a transmute snow to stone spell, or a block of snow may be turned to stone via the spell and then the body sculpted. If the body is sculpted of snow, the sculpting takes about four weeks. If the body is sculpted of stone transmuted from snow, the process takes six weeks. The resulting body weighs about 600 pounds. Materials and spell components for creating the golem cost 45,000 gold pieces. Required spells are transmute snow to stone, wish, polymorph any object, cone of cold, and permanency.
Archivist's footnotes
- This is the original printing of the snow golem from RS1 9321 Ship of Horrors, and differs in a few significant ways from the later printing in 2153 MC3 Ravenloft Appendix, so they were separated into Greater and Lesser.