So, quite a few years ago, I started running a high-seas, fight-the-power type campaign for a group of my regular friends/players. The PC's were all pirates or got sucked into it, and the main bad guy was an elven lich known as Illbeard. His ship had a massive cannon on it, among other things. When a friend of mine and I found out that there was a cannon golem in Pathfinder, I immediately thought of rolling up Illbeard's ship as a creature that is actually a special cannon golem that can transform into a ship.
And lo, Terrorem was born. Terrorem is classified as a "Transforming Cannon Golem," a N Colossal construct (shapechanger).
My first thought was to make the creature colossal size. Technically, I think it's "logical" dimensions would far exceed this limitation, but since d20/Pathfinder caps out at this size, that's where we'll go. xD
To reflect its great size and power, rather than simply tack on the Giant simple template three times, I've given the creature additional hit dice. So Terrorem has a vast pool of HD - 50 to be exact. I just followed the rules for increasing size by adding to the HD of a creature. 15 HD is the standard for a cannon golem, so to make it huge I added 7. At 22 HD, to make it huge I added 11 more. Finally, at gargantuan with 33 HD, I added another 13 to get 49; originally. I figured I'd round it up to an even fifty just to appease my OCD tendencies. For obvious reasons, I'm going to avoid raising it's ability scores based on additional HD. :P
Being a construct, I won't have to worry about too many extra features as I increase it's HD. I'm thinking of giving it a few extra bonus feats - maybe two or three, but not that many. Still have to calculate it's new weapon damage, but with a Strength of 54, that slam attack is just going to be murder. Literally, I might add.
Of course, the PC's are in no way intended to directly fight this monstrosity. It will only revert to its true golem form at the endcap fight of the campaign at level 20, more as a race against time to stop it, utilizing every trick and advantage the player's now, rather than a direct confrontation. After the PC's sink Illbeard's vessel and believe the nightmare to be over, just imagine the horror as they feel almost as vividly as they hear the sound of it changing shape beneath the waves, and see it's shining black form rise out of the water to march onwards towards populated coastal areas. :D
So if anyone can think of a small number of bonus feats this thing could benefit from, please let me know.
Oh, and if anyone can tell me; the golem's cannon attacks. If it takes a full attack, does it get to make these cannon attacks AND its slam attacks? Even if the cannon is considered "manufactured" the slam is still a natural weapon, which can be combined with a manufactured weapon on a full attack as normal, right?
This sounds all kinds of awesome, so partly this post is just a Dot. I do have a few suggestions though. First, if they've already "sunk" the ship, then having it significantly damaged might give them a better shot. Maybe end a long series of encounters to hamper it with a final, climactic, direct confrontation with the injured golem. Maybe have several sites that contain focuses of the golem's power that can serve as individual encounters to weaken it.
If you can wait a bit, too, I believe Bestiary 4 is going to contain some Kaiju monsters. This sounds like a good contender for such rules.
Only if it has jaegers in it as well.
Only if it has jaegers in it as well.
SNK?
This sounds all kinds of awesome, so partly this post is just a Dot. I do have a few suggestions though. First, if they've already "sunk" the ship, then having it significantly damaged might give them a better shot. Maybe end a long series of encounters to hamper it with a final, climactic, direct confrontation with the injured golem. Maybe have several sites that contain focuses of the golem's power that can serve as individual encounters to weaken it.
If you can wait a bit, too, I believe Bestiary 4 is going to contain some Kaiju monsters. This sounds like a good contender for such rules.
Those are some interesting suggestions, actually. Have it only at half HP. And one of my visions for the end fight was to have them battling up the thing to get to the guy controlling it anyway - not that it matters, but it actually won't be Illbeard at this point, who the party will most likely have dealt with and either destroyed or recruited. XD
It would make sense that along the way they can attack key sites of the thing and weaken its frame somewhat, before having to make their stand against it at the shore. I'm thinking maybe that after htey kill the guy controlling it, it goes berserk and that's why they have the last fight with it anyway. That way killing the controller doesn't just make it stand there. xD
And I'm comping at the bit to get my hands on that book, make no mistake. I won't be running this campaign for a long time anyway, so it's no worries waiting for that. xD
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You have to play this sound whenever it turns into the ship.
So here's what I'm thinking.
After Terrorem transforms, it will attack the ship that the PC's are on and basically splinter it into toothpicks with it's massive slam attack. The PC's will be among the few survivors, along with a handful of crew members to serve as cannon fodder (heh, see what I did there?) and tactical assets.
The heroes will have to work their way inside of Terrorem - I'm thinking that I want it to function kind of like a portable siege weapon or vehicular weapon, so there will be hallways and ladders, and all that inside where the survivor's of Illbeard's crew (since they are undead as well) will be working to pilot/maintain Terrorem.
Working their way up to the observation platform where the new enemy controlling Terrorem can be found, they will have to disable several key features of the creature. So far, I'm thinking that they'll have to disable it's locomotion, it's cannon, and it's "shielding" (thereby eliminating or at least reducing it's magical immunities).
Once they make it to the top and defeat the BBEG, Terrorem will begin to collapse and the heroes can leap to the safety of the waves, where they will be picked up by allied pirate vessels.
You have to play this sound whenever it turns into the ship.
DEFINITELY.
I'll need to see if I can find a program to make it sound like it's happening underwater. :)