[D'sP] Strange Golem Nonsense - Chapter 302 (Patreon)

Instead of using clay, Doyle found a way to use quartz. Well, any of the gemstones would likely work, but basically all his crystal patterns were various quartz varieties. Anyway, it had to be a non-magical crystal.

What needed to be done was you had to get a relatively large crystal. One that if added to the clay would equal around one percent of the mass. Easy enough for a small golem, but if you wanted something man sized was going to get silly quite quickly.

That crystal needed to start as one piece and get carved down. You need to reduce the crystal by half during this carving and every piece taken off needs to be saved. Then you powder all the bits you removed and mix it in with the clay before inserting the carved crystal.

The connection between the core and the dust added to the clay works just like using a piece of the clay so that isn’t a problem. Though the reason Doyle decides to go forward with this method is because the crystal better holds the golems sentience. Not sapience, mind you, but rather the natural reactions a creature should have.

The lump of clay method, of course, wasn’t worthless. There was just something about the crystalline structure of a gem that held the golem’s nature in a much clearer form. This was why the mystical options didn’t work. While using this method, they could animate the golem, it was even clumsier and less able to react to what was happening than even the clay.

There just wasn’t as much free space within something meant for storing mystical powers. The very thing that allowed the storage options to store was like a canvas where a good bit of the border was already filled in. A regular crystal, on the other hand, was like a blank canvas where you could draw all the way to the side.

Satisfied with what he has discovered, Doyle gathered together his three most successful golems. One of pure clay, another with the piece of fired clay, and of course one made with quartz. Gathered together like that, the differences were stark.

All clay and the golem was a true one-trick pony. It could only do one simple task at a time. No conditionals and actual fighting was beyond them. Even mining was too hard for them without supervision. They’d just end up standing in the same place, harmlessly swinging their pick through the air, unable to comprehend the need to move forward. Doyle was mostly certain they wouldn’t even rate having mind stats.

Once you add in the bit of solid clay, the golem becomes more responsive, though still very limited. At this point, they can fight and mine to a degree. Orders such as “stand here and attack anyone that comes by” becomes possible.

Then when the quartz was added in, you finally get the classic golem. Of course, through his experiments, Doyle knew this all was for only the most basic of designs. With golems, it seems, craftsmanship was core to their function.

Admittedly, a golem made purely of wet clay was a little too loose of form and so tended to always be about the same. Once you start adding in solid elements that can hold a shape? All bets are off. Of course the caveat being that you have to actually craft the golem, so Doyle’s attempt to make a clay rabbit with all the details of a real one got nowhere.

For this, the best example was one of Doyle’s more whimsical tests. With great care, he shaped and formed a golem to match what he remembered the guards of a certain eastern tomb looked like, then fired the clay. This resulted in a golem that, while clumsy, seemed to have an innate skill at not only guarding, but fighting in a manner reminiscent of the area the design came from.

Suffice it to say, golems were everything Doyle had hoped for. A sort of poor man’s angel. So, with the three most basic and refined examples picked out, he absorbed them.

{Golem Patterns acquired}

Doyle waited a moment longer, but nothing else showed up so he did a quick check.

{Dungeon Patterns: weapon patterns lv52, food patterns lv43, mystic energy storage patterns lv33, gem patterns lv32, potion patterns lv30, material patterns lv30, wooden goat lv30, ant lv27, vial lv27, plant and fungus monster patterns lv23, room patterns lv22, goat lv21, water lv21, array patterns lv21, windcutter axebeak lv20, kobold trap patterns lv14, wooden hinged box of preservation lv12, armor patterns lv11, wolf patterns lv8, shrubbery lv7, kobold lv7, cattle patterns lv7, axebeak lv6, grass lv6, horned rabbits lv6, prey insects lv5, clothes lv5, vines lv3, horned lizard lv2, seaweed lv1, golem patterns}

{Golem Patterns:}

Yep, there it was at the very bottom, golem patterns without even a mention of a level and an empty sub table. Doyle wasn’t sure what was up with that and so tried to pull up the monster entry.

{Golem

Required Skills: Magic Resist lv1

Available Skills: Magic Resist lv1

Cost:}

Which ends up being less than informative. Though at least the whole “resistant to magic” bit came through. It even ended up being a required skill. And the only skill. And really the only information.

Not really knowing what to do with this, Doyle decides that maybe he needs to absorb some more golems. With that in mind, he pulls in all the other test models. And nothing changes. He had really wanted to see how far he could get with this project and it seemed he had finally found that wall. Which, considering the fact that he had made literally hundreds of test golems could be considered to have made it pretty far. As it is though, now was the time to check in with Ally and see what she had to say.

Ally wasn’t completely out of the loop on this, mind you. It is kind of hard to hide when the core room is filled up with golems. In fact, she had helped with his tests. After all, even if the monster entry was annoyingly blank, it isn’t like they weren’t going to take up points. Sure, the first few were small and cheap, but any attempt after the few remaining points were used up had failed right off the bat. To fix that, Ally’s suggestion was simple enough, just break the finished golems.

And they had to be broken, not just powered down, which very much felt like a system restriction. After all, Doyle could feel that while they still needed a trickle of power, it was over a magnitude less power needed. If instead the golem was deactivated in a manner that meant they couldn’t just be turned back on by or automatically reactivated if put back together? Then and only then would the points be freed up.

Doyle could see why the system would do this, though. If the system wasn’t limiting it like that, he could in theory have ten times as many golems on a floor as should be. The only limit being how many could be active at a time, which as a dungeon didn’t particularly matter. He could see it now. Room after room, full of deactivated golems. Then when entered the golems would activate and the doors close, only allow people to proceed once the room was cleared.

Doyle was drawn away from his power fantasy when Ally sighed. ‘So, looks like you found even more tutorial content. Basically, golems are stupidly adjustable and the system hates you for it.’

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘Hate is a pretty strong word.’

Ally nodded, ‘And when a dungeon plays with golems might be one of the few times the supposedly unbiased and emotionless system comes close to it. See, when a normal person makes a golem, there is a ton of personal crafting involved.

‘Each golem is unique and so instead of a golem pattern, people who make them gather a bevy of skills used to make them. There is no one “golem maker” skill. Not even the skill used to activate them is specific to golem making as you can use a number of skills for that. Carving, shaping, smithing, sewing, life magic, electricity magic, necromancy, and so on can all be used to make a golem.

‘Unlike a fire mage, being a golemancer involves either multiple people or a complete focus on it. Most don’t even manage to fit in a skill to command their golems and is one of the crafts that near requires you to cycle through a bunch of class paths. You don’t have any of that.

‘You conjured up a lump of clay, forced it into shape, and jammed world energy in. Then after that, given the normal way things work, you deconstruct it and then can just conjure in copies of said golem. You weren’t wrong in your guess, this could give you an unlimited number of potential golem forms and the system isn’t going to sit back and take it.’

Doyle laughs, ‘Fair enough. Though I still have the golem patterns entry. What do I get instead?’

Ally shrugs, ‘A limited number of golem pattern slots. Now, the system isn’t going completely off mad with power. This doesn’t mean you only get so many golem forms, but rather a limited number of archetypes. So, for example, you could have the clay quadruped pattern and it won’t care if you have any number of shapes that fit the pattern’

Doyle, ‘Then how is it a pattern? It isn’t like I have the kobold patterns and can make dog-like kobolds.’

Ally, ‘First of all, you sort of do. Maybe not to that extreme, but the kobold pattern contains both male and female kobolds who are each specialized in a certain power. Then there are the weapon patterns.

‘You can make so many different styles of dagger with the dagger pattern. Sure, you could get a more specific pattern and master making just punch daggers, but even then there would be a ton of styles to choose from. The golem patterns are like that.

‘Besides that first bit, though, there is one more mechanical limitation to an archetype, stats and skills. Oh, and general size as well I guess. Can’t have a hamster golem and a giraffe golem sharing the same stats.

‘Anyway, you get the quadruped clay golem pattern and whether it looks like a cat or a dog, it will have the same skills and stats.’

Doyle sighs, ‘Let me guess, with a normal golem, each one could potentially have unique stats and skills based on what it looks like and how well it is made?’

Ally nods, ‘Got it in one. Though more than that, a specific type and size of golem will tend to only ever require a certain amount of power to run. A high level golem crafter can make a strong golem that uses the same amount of power as the clumsy work of a beginner that isn’t even strong enough to stand up.’

Doyle dims, ‘Ouch, I can see why the system would hate dungeons getting golems. Given enough time and skill, a dungeon could probably make a truly absurd golem that could still easily fit on the first floor.’

Ally, ‘Yep, and so the system standardizes it. You can carve out the most amazing stone lion and the system will force it to have the right stats. That leaves enough room for creativity while also locking you down.

‘So since the golem slots are limited, you have to actively choose to use one of the slots. Though on the bright side, it does allow you to summon in the golem completely customized. No need to craft the golem how you want it. Imagination is enough. Which, considering the fact that dungeons generally don’t have more general crafting skills, is quite the boon.’

Doyle nods, ‘So how many slots do I have?’

Getting Clay - Chapter 301

It Really Doesn't Like Them - Chapter 303