Hi guys! 

Iam currently creating a homebrew world for my players to play in since it was my dream for quite some time now, and my players seemed to enjoy my homebrew campaigns until now. 

Now for the situation, i created a player race that has a granted starter pet, being a tiny stone Golem. That tiny stone Golem is lore wise already bound to that race via a special connection (a gem on their forehead they're born with). The pet is obedient to the player but has its own will and is its own entity. 

Ability wise, it has the creature size tiny, 14 STR and 14 CON with an average health of 18, the other stats are either 1 or in another minus category modifier. It also has an AC of 14 (which is quite high, but its a tiny cute Golem made of stone so why not). It can walk and climb amazing 10ft. And has the normal stone Golem immunities. Though i did add some elemental resistancies like fire (am still think about this). The Golem can also be ressurected with a ritual which is quite expensive. 

Actionwise, it can use an action to go into a sphere mode, which is basically a standby mode. It is incapacitated besides the fact that it can come out of the sphere mode again and can be rolled around. 

Furthermore it can use an action to interact with anything around it, not involving an attack. 

All the big background-info to reveal the final trait, it has 5 ft. of Tremorsense.

Now... I would like it to be some kind of little helper for the race, given that I dont have much experience in balancing, nor in actually using Tremorsense with anything. Iam yet to find out how good or bad this is and I would really appreciate some critique as well as advices, if any. 

One big problem I see at the moment is the interaction, how can the Golem tell the player that there is a trap ahead for example? -> sensed with tremorsense? 

Is It even realistic that it can point something like that out? -> Is it even somewhat acceptable that it has tremorsense?! 

Originally I would've liked the golemn sphere mode to be a trap disarmer like the little helper in Raya the last dragon, but Iam also anxious players just won't use it in fear of it being killed in action...

And last but not least, how do I make this feature useable across all levels... is it already useful? -> besides it being a cute pet companion. 

If you've read this, thank you so so much for taking the time. This is my first post here and I am also happy to hear a bit of formulation/writing advice. Thank you!! 

-- might've chosen the wrong topic for this, since it's homebrew? --

Sounds like an interesting idea, my intial reaction is if you want this to be a racial benefit then give the race the find familiar spell and have the stone golem pet as an option they can summon with it, this would also give you the mechanic to re-summon it should it be used in the trap disarming way you mentioned.

Here's a link you might find useful: https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/monsters/

you can search moneters by type and size, if you filter it to show Tiny Constructs it'll give you the stats for an Homuculus which would be a decent stat block to use for the stone pet, change the flying speed to climbing speed, add your tremoresense and you're good to go. A note on tremorsense though, it'll detect things via vibrations in the ground so it won't be able to detect flying or incoporeal critters and probably won't detect traps unless they have parts that are already moving and a range of 5ft would not give much, if any, warning that a trap is present.

Oh, thank you so much for your feedback!!


I have created a homebrew tiny golem monster sheet in the meantime. 

I also had indeed a hard time on how to revive it and find-familiar would be a quite nice solution to take away the fear of losing the pet (or rather minimizing it). 
But wouldn't this also mean there's a possibility to sense through the golem, taking away the communication difficulty? -> besides also maybe conflicting with classes that grant find familiar?

With tremorsense however, I was just very hesitant with making it a reasonable range. I have near to no experience with it, which is also the reason i started this thread.
I've read of stories where DM's gave a playerchar tremorsense and had quite OP outcomes, though having given it a deeper thought, a pet that has rather minimalistic communication skills could maybe have an increased tremorsense of something like 15ft.? Enough to notice a trap triggering or similar things in walls around. Happy to hear opinions and experiences on this!

I don;t think it'll interfer with other classes that get Find Familiar as it would be no different to a Variant Human starting off with Magic initiaite and taking Find Familiar as part of it, the only difference really would by this race you created would have a special option of creating this little construct critter instead of the normal fey spirit in animal form.

You might find this is a porblem that can only be solved through some play testing. If you gave them tremorsense (whether it be 5ft or 15ft) then how would your players use it? How would you, as DM, communicate to the player what the golem found? If it can't speak, do you want to go through a long game of charades or 20 questions everytime it detects something? Would it be easier or more entertaining for your player to be able to merge their senses with the golem and go off exploring?

Tremorsense can be quite useful, but it can;t tell you what something is only where it is. So to use the trap situation, the golem could detect a vibration behind a wall the golem was touching but it could not tell the player characters there was a trap there, it could only communicate there was something moving there. Tremorsense would also not be alble to prevent people walking over traps such as pit traps or triggering trip wires as there is no moving parts until the trap is triggered so it probably would not have a chance to warn anyone of the trap triggering.

If you really do want it to be some sort of trap detection ally for this particular race, then I would probably ditch the tremorsense and instead take some inspiration from the Dungeon Delver feat and say when the golem and the player character are both within 5ft of each other they can search for traps at a normal speed instead of the usual half speed and as long as they are both with 5ft of each other they get advantage on the saving throws made to resist or avoid traps.

Oh this is an interesting concept. I will look into the Dungeon delver feat since I didn't even know one searching for traps is a specific ruling, always threw it behind some investigation check to give some hints if rolled successfully.

Though i do have to say having the possibility of "something moves in the wall" as Info is fine enough. I also did register that some traps only move when being triggered, which doesnt necessarely need the tremorsense, but since the pet can be rolled around, the could be "defused" by being triggered that way, still working towards it's intended usecase of being a little helper. 

I do have to say that having the PC's play charade is indeed a problem. Until now i've figured it as a little helper with nearly no communication, not intended for direct scouting and giving intel. Maybe I will specify that more clearly, just pointing out that this might be a bottomless pit. Will give this some deeper thought.
However, I very much still enjoy the communication problem, giving it the possibility to be sensed through would, in my opinion, take away creative playroom with classes -> why take find familiar including class choices when the race already give a somewhat helpful pet. Happy to hear if that's just me.

In the end there's no way around testing everything homebrew related out, always. Just want to minimize risk to have to nerf player related abilities mid-game since that's very frustrating. Not so much would be buffing, but could also envy some other player i guess. 

Thank you for taking your time!