Properties of gemstone golems...ideas wanted

I'm planning to send my gaming group to explore the laboratory of a wizard specializing in gem magic. I've got some gem-based puzzles worked out already and I'm now working on the more mobile defenses, which I've decided will include gemstone-based golems.

Now I've got a few ideas already (amber golem would have electric attacks, for example, while a quartz golem might be able to regulate its refractive index and effectively turn invisible) but hey, the more the merrier.

What kind of ideas do you have to make my players really really hate that wizard? :P

Halite golem and a pool of water.

I actually remember Gem Golems being a proper monster in Faerun. Ruby was fire, Emerald was poison, and Diamond was cold.

Quartz using invisibility is clever.

In Ancient Rome, amethyst giblets were used because it was believed drinking from them would prevent a hangover. Perhaps inverting that might be a good idea?

Sunstone golems would probably use The Power of the Sun to blind people or burn them alive, and moonstone golems would probably use some form of Living Shadow powers to put people to (permanent or not) sleep.

edited 12th Nov '17 2:39:11 PM by Sharysa

One thing you could do, regardless of the type of gem golem, is that, upon being reduced to zero hit points, their bodies shatter into a billion fragments, with the shards lacerating anyone with ten feet of them.

Cinnabar or Serpentine, then. (Can contain mercury or asbestos, respectively.)

One of the traps I'm planning to put in is an obsidian pillar with a magical bomb in it for some razor-sharp shrapnel fun, so that's covered .

Golems so far:

Amber - Electricity

Quartz - Stealth

Diamond - There's exactly one of these and it acts as the "brain" of the laboratory's defenses. Basically its power is It Can Think.

Ruby - Laser (magical fire ray. Close enough .)

Opal - Confusing illusions (swirly colors...)

edited 14th Nov '17 12:09:58 AM by MattStriker

Why not make diamond golem just plain tough and hard to kill?Diamond is the hardest material after all so why associate it with cold? Give a lot of descriptions of swords bending and bludgeons flattening.

Worth pointing out that diamond is hard but it's also brittle. It will turn off anything that tries to cut or abrade it, but hit it at just the right angle and you'll crack it clean through or even shatter it depending on the exact configuration.

Edit for some additional thoughts. Diamonds also have a couple of other odd properties. One, their not actually stable at standard temperature and pressure. Their zone of stability involves much higher pressures (part of which is the reason natural ones are so rare). Heat them up (essentially bake them) at 1 atmosphere or there abouts and they'll start turning into graphite. Or you can turn the heat up higher for a shorter period of time and they'll burn. They're pure carbon and will react with oxygen the same way when exposed to an ignition source (though I am given to understand that their crystalline structure does give them a higher ignition point than something like graphite).

edited 10th Dec '17 11:54:20 PM by KnightofLsama

The other side is that diamonds are incredible thermal conductors. In electronics they're used in high grade thermal paste to transfer heat to the heatsinks.