Gear Golem Issues

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MintoCloudpaw
Posts: 46
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2023 5:09 pm

Gear Golem Issues

Post by MintoCloudpaw » Sat May 27, 2023 1:56 am

The Gear Golem is an interesting gate summon, but it's just flat by far the weakest of the gate summons.

Comparing:
Gear Golem has:
38AB, 21-41 damage on a 20x2 attack
27/23/20 saves
47 ac, 474 hp
Immunity to spells below 3rd level, 32 SR, immunity to paralysis, slows
Regeneration, 6DR, and some unknown damage immunities and a weakness to electrical
Flesh to stone spell

Deva Has:
38AB, 21-46 damage on a 17-20x3 attack with a stun chance on hit
28/20/25 saves
44 AC, 449 hp
22 SR, immunity to spells third and lower
6DR, immunity to cold/acid and DR vs electrical/fire
Word of faith spell
Protection from evil aura

Verdant Prince has:
38AB, 20-49 damage with 10-20x3 attack
Less fort but otherwise similar saves/hp/AC to devas
22 SR
Nature's balance/imp invis spells

Issues with Gear Golem:

  • Flesh to stone is a waste of a spell, it's DC isn't high enough and it stand around doing nothing useful for a round
  • Weakness versus electrical and lower will save make it a lot less tanky
  • Surprisingly for a golem, it lacks construct immunities
  • It has the weakest attack damage of all summons
  • It appears to generally be slower, but that might be perception bias

Positives:

  • It's immune to acid fog/grease/entangle which no other summons get
  • 32 SR protects from WoF scrolls pretty well - not any better than 32SR on planar conduit T6 summons though.

Possible improvements?

  • Gear Golem is niche at countering spells, it could have higher SR, like 40, making it really hard to get rid of. This makes up for it being generally weaker, because it's very hard to remove
  • Gear golem isn't going to do much damage in a fight because it's rounds/level; maybe it can be the only gate spell that lasts longer - especially as it's a unique golem and this would be fun to RP rather than having formians
  • The gear golem could have some on-hit effect, such as a stun like the deva, to help make it more viable in battle
  • Definitely please remove the flesh to stone so it can fight instead of stand there
  • Give it construct immunities so it doesn't die to crits/death magic

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-XXX-
Posts: 2113
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2016 1:49 am

Re: Gear Golem Issues

Post by -XXX- » Sat May 27, 2023 5:49 am

Gear Golem is hands down the weakest Gate summon and it's not even close.


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WanderingPoet
Posts: 759
Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2017 5:51 am

Re: Gear Golem Issues

Post by WanderingPoet » Wed May 31, 2023 11:25 pm

-XXX- wrote:
Sat May 27, 2023 5:49 am

Gear Golem is hands down the weakest Gate summon and it's not even close.

I agree, their only really niche is that they have enough SR to greatly reduce chance of WoF nuking them. But given they're so weak, they're still hard to really make use of; their first round is wasted and they're no better than an ancient elemental.

Path_of_Play wrote:Fear, intimidation, anger - All these, the tyrant's tools.
Laughter, encouragement, play - not simply just for fools.
These tools reveal,
More is learned,
From another in an hour of play,
Than in a year of contention.

Kalthariam
Posts: 261
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2020 6:13 pm

Re: Gear Golem Issues

Post by Kalthariam » Fri Jun 02, 2023 12:40 am

Honestly if I was to put my two cents in.. I'd say:

Make it have a friendly zone of slow around it so that it either slows you or cancels out haste effects around it while it charges people down (It itself has haste so it should be fine), it's lower damage is fine if you have a harder time getting away from it, also hindering Melee people in the proccess.

Alternatively..

Make it have a chance to redirect damaging spells to it, and give it super high SR, so that it can be a protective summon against the plethora of infinite casters that are now around.


Aog
Arelith Silver Supporter
Arelith Silver Supporter
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2020 2:17 am

Re: Gear Golem Issues

Post by Aog » Wed Jun 07, 2023 10:25 pm

I agree with the sentiment that it's the worst gate summon. It really needs a look over.

Misc correction; verdant prince has woodland stride so is immune to grease/web/entangle


chris a gogo
Posts: 473
Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2017 6:41 pm

Re: Gear Golem Issues

Post by chris a gogo » Thu Jun 08, 2023 11:44 am

Maybe I'm miss remembering but didn't it used to spam chain lighting?


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