It occurs to me that I very much miss the original golems from AD&D. These monsters were absolutely terrifying.

Let’s take the clay golem, and recast it in 5E terms…

Clay Golem

Large construct, unaligned

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 133 (14d10+56)
Speed 20 ft.

STR +5 (20) DEX -1 (9) CON +4 (18) INT -4 (3) WIS -1 (8) CHA -5 (1)

Damage Immunities Acid, Poison, Psychic; Piercing and Slashing damage from non-adamantine weapons, Bludgeoning damage from nonmagical weapons that aren’t adamantine; see also below.
Condition Immunities Charmed, Exhausted, Frightened, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned.
Senses Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
Languages Understands the languages of its creator but can’t speak
Challenge 11 (7,200 XP)* or higher

Berserk Each melee round the clay golem is in combat, there is a 1% cumulative chance that it goes berserk. On each of its turns while the golem is berserk, it moves to and attacks the nearest creature it can see. If it cannot reach a creature, it attacks the nearest object instead. It remains berserk until it is destroyed or regains all its hit points.

Magic Weapons The golem’s weapon attacks are magical

Spell Immunity The golem is immune to effects from all spells that it is targeted by or is in the area of effect of, except as noted in Spell Vulnerabilites.

Spell Vulnerabilities
A move earth spell cast upon the golem inflicts 10d10 damage and forces it back up to 60 feet. A disintegrate spell acts normally, in addition it reduces the golem’s speed by 10 ft. for 10 rounds. An earthquake spell cast directly upon the golem inflicts 20d10 damage and stuns it until the end of the caster’s next turn.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. The golem makes two slam attacks.

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit 16 (2d10+5) bludgeoning damage. This damage may not be healed except by a caster of at least 17^th level.

Haste (Recharge 5-6). Until the end of its next turn, the golem magically gains a +2 bonus to its AC, has advantage on Dexterity saving throws, and can use its slam attack as a bonus action.

Comments

So, I’m sure a few of you are wondering “what on earth?” but yes, clay golems were incredibly dangerous in AD&D. That line about needing a 17^th level caster or more to heal? That’s pretty insane. In those days, 17^th level was so high that very few player characters ever reached those levels. This is still true today. I’d change that to the 5E text if I used this in my game.

The other part of it was that the golem was incredibly difficult to damage. Spellcasters had all of three spells that would affect it directly – most spellcasters wouldn’t have those available. Meanwhile, the fighters with their magical longswords were completely unable to damage it.

(Back then, it had AC 13 and 50 hit points, but hit point totals were generally lower).

Spell resistance for a golem was absolute. “Spells do not affect it”. This occasionally gave a few problems of interpretation, which is one reason for the kinder wording in 5E. (That, and these things were scary!) As a rule, I’d say that anything directly cast upon it or having an area of effect didn’t affect the golem – it could even pass through walls of force. Walls of stone, I’d allow to delay it, though it would destroy those with its great fists in a matter of rounds. A magic weapon cast upon a maul would be effective.

However, each DM would have their own interpretation.

There are times when leaving things up to the DM work very well.

Why would you want this in your campaign?

The reason for an old-school golem is not to defeat the characters in combat. It’s to provide a foe that they need to outwit or research to overcome.

The first time a party encounters one of these, it’s likely to win; however, its slow speed means the party can retreat.

Used as a guardian to a special treasure or area of the dungeon, it provides a great challenge for clever players. Do they figure it out themselves, or is a visit to the sage in order? The sage might request magic items in payment, which allows you to remove troublesome objects from the campaign. Or you could drain the party of cash and keep them wanting to adventure.

Visits to high-level clerics to restore health also drains funds and magic.

This isn’t something to put in a regular adventure. It’s something to use in a special situation, where the characters aren’t forced to defeat it immediately! Perhaps they have to “outwit” it and use other methods to get past. Or retreat and research a solution.

The Lore

The clay golem was inspired by the tales of the golem of Jewish folklore, in particular the golem of Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the rabbi of Prague. In AD&D, a high-level cleric was required to construct one. All other golems required a wizard (magic-user).

The flesh golem was inspired by Frankenstein’s monster, from the tale by Mary Shelley. It was hurt only by magic weapons; fire and cold spells would slow it instead of dealing damage, with electricity restoring hit points as in the 5E version.

The iron golem, as far as I’m aware, by the legend of Talos of Greek Mythology, who guarded the island of Crete. It required +3 or greater magical weapons to hit (a quirk of D&D up to and including 3E). Once again, most spells had no effect, except lightning would slow it, and fire would heal it.

I’m not aware of the direct inspiration for the stone golem; if anyone knows, please tell me! It required a +2 or greater weapon to hit, was slowed by rock to mud, and stone to flesh made it vulnerable to regular attacks for a round!

The most infamous of all old golems in AD&D would likely be the golem with the whip of cockatrice feathers, which so discomfited Mordenkainen. It’s described in the old adventure Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure!