Rising Colossus

This spell calls into being a large humanoid torso (head, shoulders, and arms) that seems to rise up out of the ground in front of the caster, facing away from its creator. The colossus can be up to 100 feet in height, with a reach of up to 80 feet. It can turn all around, but its base cannot move from the location in which it first appeared. It is AC -2, has 99 hit points, and attacks targets (chosen by silent will of the caster) with its fists. It can strike once with each fist in a round using the caster's THAC0 and it deals 6d8 points of damage per successful blow. It cannot pick up anything (for example, to lift someone or something safely up to a high place) except the caster and beings and items touching the caster. It cannot grasp or constrict things otherwise, only smash them.

A colossus looks like a bald-headed human with no recognizable features except a mouth. It seems to be made of the same substance as the ground it appears from, although it is purely a spell manifestation. It can roar out a word or a phrase of up to six words that are whispered by the caster during the spell's casting, as often as desired. These words cannot be a spell incantation, and they do not issue forth if they are words that trigger or activate any magic.

The usual use for a colossus is to smash a way into or out of a structure or to shield the caster from harm. Its sheer bulk can block volleys of arrows, and it magically attracts to itself all magic specifically meant for the caster such as magic missile, feeblemind spells, and so on. The spell effects are then visited on the colossus, not the caster. Spells that normally rebound from solid forms or burst, such as fireball and lightning bolt, are drawn into its body so that they do no harm to the surroundings.

Any blow landed on a desired target by a colossus shortens the duration of its spell “life" by one round. Any spell that strikes the colossus also shortens the spell's life by a round, even if the spell does not destroy the colossus form by cumulative points of damage. When the spell duration runs out (possibly in a considerably shortened period), or the colossus is destroyed by accrued damage, the colossus simply fades away.

The material components of this spell are a ball of clay that fills the caster's palm and a bit of string wire, or natural fiber.