Summon Guardian Golem

Version 0.30: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Summon Guardian Golem
Level	3
School1	Hexes
School2	Summoning
Source(s)	Book of Callings Book of Dangerous Friends
Casting noise	3
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	100

Summons a protective golem. It redirects the injuries of its allies (but not the caster) to itself. When sufficiently damaged, it may fill with an inner flame, causing it to explode if destroyed. It gains more health at high power.

Summon Guardian Golem is a level 3 Hexes/Summoning spell which summons a guardian golem.

Effect

Summons a single guardian golem; it cannot attack, but it will immediately share damage done to other allies (but not the caster). When the golem is below 1/2 health and still alive, it will always gain the explosive Inner Flame status. Higher spell power increases the golem's durability.

The golem's hit dice is 4 + <power> / 16 (randomly rounded).

Duration of the summon is around 27 turns. It is not affected by spell power.

There is a summon limit of 1; casting the spell again will cause the old summon to very quickly time out.

Strategy

Guardian Golem serves two purposes. The first is defensive; the injury bond will increase the effective health of your summons. The golem can also take hits on its own. Even if you have no other allies, the golem still has enough durability to stand in a corridor and take a few hits while you retreat. It is also completely immune to Hexes and has resistances to several elements. Just be sure to keep a safe distance in case it explodes.

The second is offensive. When the golem is damaged enough, it will cause an Inner Flame explosion - a 3x3 explosion dealing 3d20 damage and creating flame clouds. Much stronger than any level 3 Conjurations spell, but it requires some set-up. You can summon a golem in a corridor or other convenient chokepoint, take a step or two back, and let the fireworks ensure. (Since your golem won't attack enemies, enemies will ignore the golem unless it is in their way)

Note that, in order for the golem to explode, you'll need to fight monster strong enough to kill it in time. Gnoll packs or ogres can kill a golem in time. Weaker monsters like basic orcs won't.

Tips and Tricks

• If you're next to a golem about to explode, you can summon another golem, causing the previous one to dissipate in a few aut.
• Gods that forbid harming your allies will not mind a Guardian Golem incidentally blowing up.

History

• Prior to 0.27, guardian golems only had a 1/4 chance to be lit with Inner Flame.
• In 0.17, the spell level was lowered from 4 to 3.
• Summon Guardian Golem was added in 0.14.