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The Cacophony Golem Sits Still

The Cacophony Golem (encounter seed, DCC) reads scarier than it plays. It hurls magic missiles for 1d4+1, DC 13 Reflex to dodge, out to 100 feet, and it can rattle a mind toward insanity. On paper, a caster’s nightmare. In practice, its threat is front-loaded and its legs are missing.

The tell is the movement line: 0’. This thing does not chase. It anchors in place unless something drags it, which means the entire encounter is a range problem the party controls. Its cacophony ability rewards distance more than the golem does, because closing to melee walks you into the effect that actually hurts. Its spell resistance is a wall only for spellcasters. Arrows, bolts, and sling stones ignore that wall entirely. A stationary target with resistance to exactly the wrong kind of damage becomes attrition, and attrition favors whoever is standing 90 feet away not casting.

The overconfident play is to answer magic with magic. That is the one lane the golem defends.

At the table: Judges, when players ready spells against it, remind them of DCC’s spell failure and the golem’s resistance, then let the bow-users step up and plink it from outside the cacophony’s reach.

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