Deep Dive - The Helmed Horror
Think of the Helmed Horrors as the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz, except it was created by an evil mage who wanted to kill Dorothy, take her ruby slippers, and have their creation guard those slippers for all eternity. Also, instead of being a whimsical metal man with a dumb look on its face, it is a massive suit of plate armor with glowing flames inside the armor.
Well, maybe it’s nothing like the Tin Man. We are looking at a suit of animated armor whose very existence is a closely guarded secret by wizards who had to sacrifice much and more to create them... and a lot of gold.
2e - Helmed Horror
Climate/Terrain: Any
Frequency: Rare
Organization: Special
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Nil
Intelligence: High (13-14)
Treasure: V
Alignment: Neutral
No. Appearing: 1-20
Armor Class: 2
Movement: 12, Fl 12 (A)
Hit Dice: 4+1 per level of the creator
THAC0: 12
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: By weapon type, or 1-4
Special Attacks: Nil
Special Defenses: See below
Magic Resistance: Special
Size: M
Morale: Special
XP Value: 2,000
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd Edition, 1993 TSR Inc / Wizards of the Coast / Tom Baxa
The Helmed Horror is first found in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd Edition (1993) and reprinted in Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume One (1994). You have to do some digging to find these suits of armor—also known as Shadowguards—but they are worth the search. This empty suit of armor is more than meets the eye. From how they are created to their abilities and how they are going to slice your character is what separates these tin cans from your average hobgoblin.
Let’s start at the beginning of a Helmed Horror’s lifecycle. They don’t start out as baby suits of armor, with proud parents giving an infant suit of armor their first sword, but rather their creation is largely shrouded in mystery. That said, we do know a few things. A 7th-level priest is the primary creator, assisted by a wizard. It probably goes without saying that the material needed to create the creature is armor, and it must be non-magical armor. We figure the wizard is involved in casting levitation on the armor since it is how the Helmed Horror can stand and walk about. The priest probably prays a lot to their god, but again, no one knows for sure what these prayers are and why the divine has such an interest in armored guardians
Once created, a Helmed Horror is an intelligent creature that can think and act independently, but it has limitations. The priest who created the creature instills its marching orders within the Helmed Horror. These commands determine their personality and what they can and cannot do. Their commands are set in stone, but many have found certain ‘workarounds’ to further manipulate the creature. Word to the wise. Don’t push it too much when trying to get around the rules you put in place. The Helmed Horror may decide its loyalties now lie elsewhere. The text is quite specific, saying that placing orders onto a Helmed Horror is as delicate as wording a wish spell and we all know how cruel some Dungeon Master’s can be when it comes to words.
Once created and given instructions, the Helmed Horror goes about its tasks, usually as guardians who will never give up their task, no matter how long ago it was given to them. They can use practically any weapon. If a fighter can wield it, so can the Helmed Horror. It can also use magic items, such as potions, so long as they don’t need verbal commands or contact with living flesh to function. So yes, you can encounter a Helmed Horror wielding a +3 vorpal flamesword holy avenger.
A Helmed Horror is brutal to take down because it has a lot going for it beyond wielding magical weapons and being a master weapon fighter. If you lop off a Helmed Horror’s gauntlet, it can be scooped up by someone and re-attached. Never cast magic missile at the Helmed Horror, as it heals the creature. If the Helmed Horror is at full hit points, it reflects the magic missile spell back at the caster, and the caster takes the damage. It could possibly be the only time you’re mad that the spell automatically hits.
Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume One, 1994 TSR Inc / Wizards of the Coast / Tony DiTerlizzi
Though, we do want to take a moment and specifically call out what we said in that last paragraph. If you lop off a Helmed Horror’s gauntlet, it can be scooped up by someone else and re-attached to the Helmed Horror. Our little horror can not go around and collect bits and pieces of its armor from the ground after a fight. It needs someone else to gather those pieces and then place them on the Helmed Horror. We have no idea what the difference is between you grabbing a helmet off the ground and a Helmed Horror picking it up, but the only way they can re-attach their armor is by someone else do it for them. Either this is a weird bit of life magic empowering the connections or Helmed Horrors are just incredibly lazy and are implying to their creator they want a personal servant.
Back to their defense, Helmed Horrors can walk on air and water thanks to the constant levitation spell they use for mobility. They also, basically, have a permanent feather fall spell cast upon them. You can take pushing them off a cliff to kill them from your list of ways to defeat the creature. Mind control attacks, spells, and magic items will not work on them. You can try to talk to a Helmed Horror with telepathic abilities, but it comes at a cost. The creature can read your surface thoughts, so plans of a sneak attack go out the window.
In addition, when a Helmed Horror is created, the creator can list three spells that they become immune to. To no one’s surprise, heat metal is at the top of the list along with player-favorites like fireball and lightning bolt.
Finally, there are the Battle Horrors. As if the Helmed Horror wasn’t bad enough, the Battle Horror kicks it up a notch. They have all the powers and abilities of a Helmed Horror and get to cast spells, too! If you run away, the Battle Horror can cast dimension door. It can dance around the battlefield by casting blink. Even if you’re smart enough to stay out of melee range, the Battle Horror can cast magic missiles, firing off two of those never missing, always hitting missiles every three rounds.
Basically, if you think a suit of animated armor is a joke, the Battle Horror is here to make your fighter scared of their own breastplate.
3e/3.5e - Helmed Horror
Medium-Size Construct
Hit Dice: 13d10 (71 hp)
Initiative: +1 (Dex)
Speed: 30 ft., air walk 30 ft.
Armor Class: 19 (+1 Dex, +8 full plate armor)
Attacks: Greatsword +12/+7 melee; or heavy crossbow +10/+5 ranged
Damage: Greatsword 2d6+4; or heavy crossbow 1d10
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Weapon Power
Special Qualities: Spell immunities, air walk, feather fall, construct, see invisibility
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +7
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 13, Con -, Int -, Wis 16, Cha 12
Climate/Terrain: Any land
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 10
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 14–20 HD (Medium-size)
Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerun, 2001 Wizards of the Coast / Wayne Reynolds
Found in the Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerun (2001), the Helmed Horror is just as fearsome as the 2nd edition, and in some ways, more so. While your party may just be thinking it’s just a magically animated suit of armor, and while it may just appear to be, as you can tell from our previous edition, it has a host of abilities it can use to ruin your adventuring career.
Let’s start with the mystery of how to create these creatures. We still don’t know the recipe. However, we do know that it involves a wizard who creates the armor, and they must be really high level to do so. It even specifies that creating a Helmed Horror comes at a price most aren't willing to pay, once they realize what it costs. When someone says that, you start thinking less about gold and more about selling at least a part of your soul or borrowing the souls of others.
The Helmed Horror is still a suit of plate mail come to “life.” An ominous purple light sometimes oozes out from the joints between the plates. A bit ominous, but that doesn’t stop adventurers from assuming that they can easily defeat the Helmed Horror.
The wizard who creates the Helmed Horror must give it a job, which it will spend its existence trying to fulfill. Even after its creator is long dead - or its creator becomes a lich because that seems right for twisted mages who would create something named a Helmed Horror - the suit of armor will continue to do its assigned task.
This doesn’t mean the Helmed Horror will fight to the death. If fleeing the battle will allow it to continue its assignment, then it will. Unlike players who are too proud to run away.
Helmed Horrors are armed with a greatsword and a crossbow. Glad to see they have a ranged weapon. Being made of plate mail doesn’t mean you must always engage in melee combat. Of course, if it does enter into melee, it’s greatsword is a powerful magical sword. When created, the creator imbues the sword with one of twelve abilities, including flaming, frost, thundering, and wounding, to name a few. If you are hoping to add to your arsenal, the sword is only magical while the Helmed Horror is wielding it and ceases to function once it loses the armored gauntlets.
There are a few things to be aware of as you dodge its flaming sword in your attempt to slay the creature. A Helmed Horror has spell immunity to magic missile and three additional spells. Most wizards will have their metal minion be immune to the lightning bolt, ice storm, and fireball spells, with the last one causing opposing wizards to weep. The Helmed Horror can still walk on air, is constantly protected from falling to its death by feather fall, and can see all invisible stuff, whether it be a spellbook, a random trinket, or the rogue trying to sneak up behind it.
Our next sourcebook, The Lost Empires of Faerun (2005), presents a stat block for the Helmed Horror’s big brother, the Battle Horror. With some important information about the creation of Helmed Horrors, which we will get to. First, the Battle Horror is the big brother to Helmed Horrors in that it has more hit points, a higher Armor Class, and, most importantly, the ability to cast spells, like magic missile at will. A regular Helmed Horror has Challenge Rating 8, while the Battle Horror has Challenge Rating 12, which tells you plenty that most adventurers should go the other way if they ever see one of these walking death machines.
The Lost Empires of Faerun, 2005 Wizards of the Coast / Beet
Now, let’s get to the real topic we want. How do you create a Helmed Horror and bind the world to your will? What secret ingredient is required to build these armored minions that would make liches second guess their decision to build them? Masterwork full plate, an extended magical ritual that requires a 500 gp laboratory, and for you to have the Craft Construct and Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat, cast the air walk or fly spell, cast the limited wish and spell turning spell, and you have to spend 39,150 gp.
We aren’t sure what part of that makes people rethink crafting a Helmed Horror, but maybe it is the gold price after all. People would rather spend their money on avocado toast than buy a laboratory or build an armored best friend.
That said, if you want to build a Battle Horror, get ready as this requires you to bind an evil elemental spirit to the masterwork armor. Really, this seems like you are doing something good in the world by binding an evil elemental, but it’s not cheap to do good work. In addition to the rest of what a Helmed Horror needs to be crafted, you also need to cast the blink, dimension door, and magic missile spell, and spend 76,650 gp to build the Battle Horror.
4e - Helmed Horror
Level 13 Soldier
Medium elemental animate (construct) / XP 800
Initiative +11
Senses Perception +15; darkvision, truesight 10
HP 131; Bloodied 65
AC 19; Fortitude 28, Reflex 23, Will 24
Immune charm, disease, fear, poison, sleep
Saving Throws +5
Elemental Greatsword (standard; at-will) ✦ Weapon; Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder. +20 vs. AC; 1d10 + 7 damage plus 1d10 cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage (helmed horror’s choice).
Blade Sweep (standard; encounter) ✦ Weapon; Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder. The helmed horror makes an elemental greatsword attack against two different targets within reach.
Tactical Step (free, when the helmed horror hits with an opportunity attack; at-will) The helmed horror shifts 2 squares.
Alignment Unaligned / Languages - Common, Primordial
Skills Insight +15
Str 24 (+13) Dex 16 (+9) Wis 18 (+10) Con 19(+10) Int 10 (+6) Cha 4 (+8)
Equipment greatsword
Monster Manual, 2008 Wizards of the Coast / Franz Vohwinkel
With such an obscure creature, we imagine you are just as surprised as us when we found the Helmed Horror in the Monster Manual (2008). That’s right, not the second or third Monster Manual, but the first, which features other classic monsters in Dungeons & Dragons like the aboleth, death knight, and kuo-toa!
What else is great is that the Helmed Horror isn’t alone, but also has an older brother known as the Greater Helmed Horror, which is basically this edition’s version of a Battle Horror. But before you get too excited, there’s scant information or lore about the creature. This is a bit of an emotional roller coaster for us, but let’s start looking at what these creatures are.
Both Horrors are created by an evil elemental spirit to be bound to it, just like the Battle Horror of the 3rd edition. So once again, you have a royally ticked-off evil elemental who is shoved into a suit of armor and forced to do whatever the twisted mage who created it wants. In addition, someone gave it an elemental greatsword, flying, and all the benefits of a construct. We hate to tell you, but if you don’t come prepared, you’re screwed.
While that is also out of the Monster Manual, the emotional rollercoaster isn’t over as the Helmed Horror appears in Dungeon #159 (Oct 2008) in the adventure Ziggurat Beyond Time written by David Noonan. The Painwrought Helmed Horror is a powerful horror, even stronger than the Greater Helmed Horror, and is all about inflicting pain on its enemies. Unfortunately, it is basically just the Greater Helmed Horror stat block but increased in power to 2 levels higher. The only interesting thing here is that the Helmed Horrors speak Primordial, or at least are programmed to speak in a single phrase in Primordial where they tell the adventurers that they will soon suffer. What welcoming horrors.
The emotional rollercoaster refuses to stop as we dive into Dungeon #161 (Dec 2008) with the adventure Touch of Madness by Robert J. Schwalb. This new version of the Helmed Horror is called a Corroded Helmed Horror and is just a regular horrible armor but weakened, hence the corroded part of its name, and is 2 levels lower. It has all the same abilities, its stats are just a bit lower.
But this rollercoaster isn’t stopping as we pull up to the last adventure for this edition, the Halls of Undermountain (2012) which features the Helmed Horror Guard. While it’s name isn’t very exciting, we’re just going to say that this may be our favorite version of the Helmed Horror across any edition.
In this adventure, the heroes are exploring the mega-dungeon known as Undermountain, and on one level is the vampire-wizard Dayan. This vampire has done something rather devious with the dozen-plus Helmed Horrors they have created. Inside each Helmed Horror is a gold cylinder with grave dirt in it. If Dayan is killed, since he is a vampire, he will go mist mode, and flee for a Helmed Horror Guard where he can begin reforming, all the while protected by a suit of magical plate armor that only follows his orders.
This is a pretty dangerous problem for the adventurers as there are over a dozen of these Helmed Horrors and they will have to destroy them all or figure out how to keep a misty vampire from escaping their grasp. While the Helmed Horrors aren’t that scary, since they are only level 2, this edition ends on a big high note for us as now we have such a wonderful idea for Strahd.
5e - Helmed Horror
Medium Construct, neutral
Armor Class 20 (plate, shield)
Hit Points 60 (8d8+24)
Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft.
STR 18 (+4) DEX 13 (+1) CON 16 (+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 10 (+0) CHA 10 (+0)
Skills Perception +4
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with adamantine weapons
Damage Immunities force, necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, stunned
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 14
Languages understands the language of its creators but can’t speak
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2
Magic Resistance. The helmed horror has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Spell Immunity. The helmed horror is immune to three spells chosen by its creator. Typical immunities include fireball, heat metal, and lightning bolt.
Multiattack. The helmed horror makes two longsword attacks.
Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) slashing damage, or 9 (1d10 + 4) slashing damage if used with two hands.
Monster Manual, 2014 Wizards of the Coast / Mathew Stewart
Found in the Monster Manual (2014), we are first told that it resembles animated armor with some intelligence and an unwavering devotion to its creator. In addition, while the Helmed Horror requires a lot more resources to create than a boring animated armor, what you get is a creature with the intelligence to be able to adapt and learn, and does not need to be constantly told what to do. Beauty and brains. It’s the complete package.
How the creature uses its intelligence sets it apart from the Helmed Horrors of the previous editions. Yes, it’s unwavering in its loyalty to its creators and will never stop trying to fulfill that task it was told to do. However, the Helmed Horror uses those brains—well, what a Helmed Horror considers brains—to interpret the intent of its orders. Words matter, and while you probably have the best words, sometimes things get lost in translation. The Helmed Horror is smart enough to figure out how to get what you want done, even if it isn’t following the exact wording of what you asked for.
The Helmed Horror’s intelligence also allows it to be a fearsome foe. While it may not understand the intricacies of battlefield tactics, it is smart enough to know which of its enemies poses the greatest danger. Those glass cannon wizards are usually its first victims. They may be immune to a fireball or lightning bolt, but those aren’t the only spells in their repertoire. Besides, no one, even a Helmed Horror, likes little cowards wearing bathrobes and hiding in the back, too scared to get their hands dirty.
Monster Manual, 2014 Wizards of the Coast
A Helmed Horror zips into battle, flying through the air before landing in front of its latest victims and using its weapon to… swing and deal a tiny bit of damage. To be quite frank, this edition’s version of a Helmed Horror is a pretty boring fighter who is immune to a bit of magic but doesn’t have any special abilities or attacks beyond that. It just swings its sword twice a round, not paying attention to the pitiful attacks of adventurers.
Helmed Horrors pop up in several adventures, including Storm King's Thunder (2016), Tales from the Yawning Portal (2017), Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage (2018), Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (2019), and The Book of Many Things (2024) to name a few. In Yawning Portal, there is a Reduced Threat Helmed Horror, which seems a bit superfluous. This is already the weakest version of the Helmed Horror, why do you have to make them only as dangerous as animated armor?
We’d only forgive this grave sin against the Helmed Horror if this edition also had the Battle Horror… and it doesn’t. We are upset for the Helmed Horror, who can’t voice their displeasure at this grave slight against them.
Detention Drones / The Book of Many Things, 2024 Wizards of the Coast / Kai Carpenter
Forcing ourselves to look back at the sourcebooks and try to stay on track, in The Book of Many Things, there are drones in the Donjon Sphere who maintain the peace—which translates into deadly guards in a terrifying locale. These guards can take the form of several types of creatures, and we are graced with the Helmed Horror Detention Drone. The only difference between a regular Helmed Horror and this version is they can fire detention orbs. A detention orb is a magical sphere that traps you within it, which is especially useful for capturing those trying to escape from the sphere.
While it’s nice to see more Helmed Horrors, it’s kind of a let down for these powerful suits of armor. They are powerful, unstoppable creatures and they should be treated with more respect than the student safety patrol at your local elementary school. Perhaps in the upcoming Monster Manual (2025), they’ll finally get the respect that they deserve.
There are a lot of questions about the Helmed Horror’s existence. Is it a mindless slave to its creator or a horrifying guardian capable of autonomy and limited free will? It’s probably a bit of both. What it is for sure, is a creature you should be very weary of fighting. We know you won’t because its sole purpose is protecting some cool artifact from a millennium ago that you want because you’re ‘special’ or a ‘chosen one’. Don’t worry that the Helmed Horror has successfully fended off threats since it first picked up its sword.
You got this. We believe in you.
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