BX Monsters A to Z: Living Statue

 Before we had golems in the Expert Set, the Basic Set gave us living statues. There are some similarities, but also some important differences, in particular some tantalizing hints that living statues might, unlike golems, actually possess a degree of human-like intelligence and free will, and we'll get to those a bit later.

We start off the monster description with the declaration that a living statue is an enchanted animated creature made by a powerful wizard. So, it isn't natural, and it doesn't arise spontaneously (at least under normal circumstances.) That's a strong point of commonality with golems. A living statue may be of any size and any material, but only three are listed. What, exactly, this statement implies is not explored, but it would seem reasonable to assume that the stats listed for the three forms represent roughly man-sized statues, and that larger or smaller ones might have more or fewer Hit Dice and inflict larger or smaller amounts of damage. Finally, they are noted to appear to be normal statues until they start moving. While this might be surprising to new players, it's not "surprise" in the sense of getting a free round to act; living statues have standard chances to surprise opponents.

 Curiously, living statues are stated to be immune to sleep spells, but no other effects are mentioned at all. This seems to imply that they can be affected by spells such as charm person, charm monster, and hold person, to which golems are explicitly immune. (Mentzer clarifies in the spell description of charm person that living statues are not affected, but charm monster and hold person offer no such clarification. In any case, living statues are not explicitly immune to any of these spells in B/X.) They're also vulnerable to normal weapons (no mention of any immunity) which is another point of departure from traditional D&D golems, which require magic weapons to harm.

The fact that these creatures have variable alignments is a strong point of interest. Mindless beings are generally listed as Neutral, with the obvious exceptions of the minor undead (skeletons and zombies) which could be assumed to be animated by Chaotic magic. Taken together with the omission of charm and hold spells from the list of immunities, and it appears that living statues might possess human-like minds (if not human-like brains) capable of being influenced by so-called "mind-affecting spells". This may not be what the monsters' designer intended, but it's nonetheless a very interesting interpretation of the actual text, and sets them apart quite strongly from golems and other creatures that would eventually come to be lumped together as "constructs" in the Mentzer Companion Rules. 

All living statues have two attacks per round, and a morale of 11, which is all but suicidally fearless and/or determined, but nonetheless suggests that they have some will of their own. Beyond these common features, each listed type of living statue has its own stats and description, which we'll take a look at below.

Crystal living statues are given Armor Class 4 and 3 Hit Dice, the least robust of the three in both categories. They're the fastest, with a movement rate of 90' (30'), the same as a lightly encumbered human, suggesting they're not quite as limber or agile as their organic shape-sakes. Their attacks do 1-6 points of damage each, also weakest among their kind. Their Number Appearing is 1-6, in dungeon or wilderness. That, and their poorer AC and HD, seems to imply that they're the easiest/least costly of the three listed types to create and animate. Why are they Lawful? Crystalline structures feature well-ordered repeating patterns of atoms or molecules, as well as the more visible order of regular facets and vertices. Beyond that, who can say for sure but the person who wrote them up for the game? 

Iron living statues have Armor Class 2 and 4 Hit Dice, with no asterisks despite a clear special ability. They're ponderously slow at 30' (10') and their attacks deal 1-8 points of damage each. Number Appearing is 1-4 in dungeons or wilderness; it seems they may be the second-easiest type to create and animate among the three listed. While they're vulnerable to non-magical weapons just like the other two types of living statues, striking one with a non-enchanted metal weapon requires the wielder to make a saving throw vs. spells or the weapon becomes stuck in the statue's substance and can only be recovered by killing it. What happens if the statue is not killed? Does it forever bear random weapons or weapon parts sticking out of its iron frame? Does it eventually absorb them? That would be a plausible way for the statue to regain lost hit points, or even to increase its total, maybe at a rate of 1 hp per 10 cn weight of metal it absorbs in this fashion. Why iron living statures are Neutral in alignment, I have no guess, other than that the other two are Lawful and Chaotic, so there had to be a Neutral too.

Rock living statues are the toughest and most powerful of the three. They're listed with Armor Class 4 and 5 Hit Dice, with two asterisks despite not having any abilities beyond attacking for standard hit points of damage. They're stated to be made of rock, but with fiery magma inside, which they can squirt from their fingertips to attack. Despite sounding like a ranged attack form, no range is given. One could either assign a range (10/20/30, maybe) or work from an assumption that it's only effective within melee distance (5' or so). Either way, it deals an impressive 2-12 points of damage per attack. That's substantial, but it doesn't cause any additional effects, nor does the statue have any special defenses, so the two asterisks are a mystery. It does raise the question of whether the statue can run out of magma, and if so, how it replenishes. Are they able to ingest small rocks, gravel, and sand to be melted down in the statue's fiery inner furnace (presumably maintained by magic)? It would be kind of cool if the attacks cost them some of their hit points, which they'd have to restore by eating. Movement is a ponderous 60' (20') which is equal to a moderately encumbered human. From 1-3 rock statues can be encountered at a time in dungeon or wilderness; that and their high Hit Dice would suggest they might be the most difficult and costly form to bring to life. So, why Chaotic? Rock, after all, is often associated with stability, but they're molten on the inside, a tumultuous state. That seems as plausible an explanation as any to me.

Other than the tweaks/variations pondered above, I don't think I'd change much about living statues. The DM is left to decide such questions as whether they have minds of their own, whether they're really vulnerable to all the mind-affecting spells besides sleep, how Hit Dice and damage might scale for size variations, and how a high-level magic-user might go about creating his own if he wished to do so. All in all, they're pretty cool, a little mysterious, and flavorfully distinct from golems.