Hmmm. I see your concern with making Illithid fights easier. Well I leave it to you as this is your mod.
I noticed my Maggot golem was killed by a finger of death spell. Shouldn't golems be immune to death magic?
Also, I think that bards and thieves should have a 4 - 8 level handicap. My suggestion is 6. This is because by 1.5 million XP, the bard has the lead for levels to craft golems for the rest of SoA and ToB with the current -2 levels. Doesn't feel right that the Bard (and thief after UAI) is the ultimate golem crafter for the 16+ level golems.
Golems in unmodded games are not immune to death spells. They are indirectly protected from it because of their high magic resistance. Maggot golems and some of the lesser golem variants have a lower magic resistance, so they can actually be affected by a number of spell effects.
Golems should always be immune to sleep, fear, panic and morale failure, as well as charm, domination, backstabs and poison. The golems from my mod are also immune to stat and level drain. I would justify their vulnerability to death effects by the fact that they are animated by an elemental spirit which can be destroyed by death spells.
Also, I think that bards and thieves should have a 4 - 8 level handicap. My suggestion is 6. This is because by 1.5 million XP, the bard has the lead for levels to craft golems for the rest of SoA and ToB with the current -2 levels. Doesn't feel right that the Bard (and thief after UAI) is the ultimate golem crafter for the 16+ level golems.
You have a point. I haven't thoroughly playtested the mod with a bard or thief yet. I will look into it again. Maybe I can add a higher level requirement to the more powerful golem variants.
Higher for bards/thieves only, correct? The mage already can't get to the perfect Adamantite golem due to the 8 million XP cap (and hard to get to 8 mil anyway). Only bards and thieves can make the top golem in ToB currently since they hit level 40 much earlier than mages reach 28 level.
Bummer that mage can't make top golem without a mod to change the cap. Even with a mod it would take 2 play throughs to reach 34 level.
I made the Adamantite Golems primarily for solo or small parties. Especially the perfect adamantite golem is too powrful for a full party (even though you can only build a single one in the whole game). When properly buffed it can probably take on Melissan in the final battle without breaking a sweat.
Bummer that mage can't make top golem without a mod to change the cap. Even with a mod it would take 2 play throughs to reach 34 level.
I didn't account for the 8M XP limit since the XP level table in unmodded BG2EE goes up to level 41. It looks like level 31 is the top for a single class mage. I will adjust the level requirements for the perfect adamantite golem accordingly, so that specialist mages will be able to build them.
In unmodded BG2EE a Perfect Adamantite Golem can only be built by Transmuter specialist mages because of the 8M XP cap. Everything else can be built by every supported singleclassed character. Multiclass characters may also hit a wall sooner or later.
With the old way, I was temped to build a human cleric and dual over to theif. I could have 7th lvl cleric spells plus golem building by 3 million xp. Could easily solo at that point with golem tanks.
When I entered the asylum, I lost the golem I had (Clay Golem). Is this suppose to happen? As soon as you enter, the golem wont respond (it is there just wont respond to clicking on it). This is a big bummer, because it means the underdark portion of the game cannot use golems (unless the asylum thing is a bug). Would be nice if the Drow city would allow construction of golems.
Yes, that's intended. You'll know the reason when you try to talk to the golem. You can pick it up again after dealing with Irenicus in Spellhold.
The primary reason for doing this is of technical nature as there is no other way to prevent the golems from following you to the dream Candlekeep map.
No. Currently mages (single class and dual/multiclass combinations) are always checked against mage levels. Thief levels are only checked for single class thieves or dual/multiclass combinations without mage part.
Next version will use more sophisticated level checks, so that the better level requirement will count for mage/thief class combinations when constructing golems. It will also fully support any mage(pure/kit)->thief dualclass combinations which are currently severely restricted.
For the distinctive golem colors you can already use the aTweaks component "Distinctive creature coloring" which does exactly the same, but for even more creature types. My own implementation has originally been inspired by that mod.
Replacing golem animations can probably be done without too much effort. I'll see what I can do.
I don't think adding a separate component which only improves golems from the original game is really needed. The effort to do it is higher than I initially thought, but installation size and time would be pretty much the same. New creature animations, spells, scripts and many other resources would have to be installed in any case. Just ignore the golem building tomes (or sell them) if you don't want to create golems by yourself.
The next release will improve coloring and animations of even more golems from the original game.
There is indeed a limit. You can only command up to three golems to follow your party. Splitted golems will automatically continue to follow you if the "parent" golem followed you as well, so you can still increase the number quite a bit.
I have added this limit mainly for practical reasons. You'll sooner or later get into trouble with a greater number of followers when you try to exit maps, since everyone must be within a certain range.
I'm planning to release a new version of the mod soon. Among other changes and fixes it will feature a new set of creature animations for the various Flesh Golem variants.
The current version uses a recolored Clay Golem animation which is also shared by Stone Golems, and (imo) doesn't resemble a golem made of flesh, bones and other humanoid body parts:
The new animation will be a recolored and slightly modified version of a golem animation ported from PST. The creature moves in a more rigid and stiff way which is probably fitting for a flesh golem:
Comments
I noticed my Maggot golem was killed by a finger of death spell. Shouldn't golems be immune to death magic?
Also, I think that bards and thieves should have a 4 - 8 level handicap. My suggestion is 6. This is because by 1.5 million XP, the bard has the lead for levels to craft golems for the rest of SoA and ToB with the current -2 levels. Doesn't feel right that the Bard (and thief after UAI) is the ultimate golem crafter for the 16+ level golems.
Golems should always be immune to sleep, fear, panic and morale failure, as well as charm, domination, backstabs and poison. The golems from my mod are also immune to stat and level drain. I would justify their vulnerability to death effects by the fact that they are animated by an elemental spirit which can be destroyed by death spells.
You have a point. I haven't thoroughly playtested the mod with a bard or thief yet. I will look into it again. Maybe I can add a higher level requirement to the more powerful golem variants.
Bummer that mage can't make top golem without a mod to change the cap. Even with a mod it would take 2 play throughs to reach 34 level.
I made the Adamantite Golems primarily for solo or small parties. Especially the perfect adamantite golem is too powrful for a full party (even though you can only build a single one in the whole game). When properly buffed it can probably take on Melissan in the final battle without breaking a sweat. I didn't account for the 8M XP limit since the XP level table in unmodded BG2EE goes up to level 41. It looks like level 31 is the top for a single class mage. I will adjust the level requirements for the perfect adamantite golem accordingly, so that specialist mages will be able to build them.
Lets give it a whirl.
With the old way, I was temped to build a human cleric and dual over to theif. I could have 7th lvl cleric spells plus golem building by 3 million xp. Could easily solo at that point with golem tanks.
When I entered the asylum, I lost the golem I had (Clay Golem). Is this suppose to happen? As soon as you enter, the golem wont respond (it is there just wont respond to clicking on it). This is a big bummer, because it means the underdark portion of the game cannot use golems (unless the asylum thing is a bug). Would be nice if the Drow city would allow construction of golems.
There is also a short message in the log windows and as floating text over the golems when you enter Spellhold the first time.
New version: Golem Construction for Spellcasters v2.3
Changes in v2.3:
- Improved creature animation for Brain Golems
- Rebalanced level requirements for building golems and level adjustments for bards and thieves
- Fixed duplicate reply options in golem construction dialog when used by mage/thief dual or multiclasses
- Improved level checks for constructing golems which provides better support for mage/thief class combinations
- Fixed incorrect mage level check for perfect adamantite golems
The new Brain Golem animation is now closer to the original AD&D description:Especially, these components:
~A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION/SETUP-A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION.TP2~ #0 #20 // Golems for enemy spellcasters: 2.2
~A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION/SETUP-A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION.TP2~ #0 #25 // Greater variety of enemy golem types: 2.2
Thanks for the hard work!!
Replacing golem animations can probably be done without too much effort. I'll see what I can do.
That's great! Thanks.
I don't think adding a separate component which only improves golems from the original game is really needed. The effort to do it is higher than I initially thought, but installation size and time would be pretty much the same. New creature animations, spells, scripts and many other resources would have to be installed in any case. Just ignore the golem building tomes (or sell them) if you don't want to create golems by yourself.
The next release will improve coloring and animations of even more golems from the original game.
TIA
The first bundle of pages can be found somewhere in Watcher's Keep.
The second bundle of pages can be found in Amkethran
I was wondering how many golems I can have in my party? Given the splitting potential it must be at least 2, but wondering if there is a limit?
I have added this limit mainly for practical reasons. You'll sooner or later get into trouble with a greater number of followers when you try to exit maps, since everyone must be within a certain range.
The current version uses a recolored Clay Golem animation which is also shared by Stone Golems, and (imo) doesn't resemble a golem made of flesh, bones and other humanoid body parts:
The new animation will be a recolored and slightly modified version of a golem animation ported from PST. The creature moves in a more rigid and stiff way which is probably fitting for a flesh golem:
I hope you like it.
Thanks for your efforts!!
New version: Golem Construction for Spellcasters v2.4
Changes in v2.4:
- Added French translation (big thanks to @Gwendolyne )
- Added new creature animations for Flesh Golems
- Added option of listing learned golem types to construction dialog
- Added customized ground icons for a number of items
- Worked around an issue of not having a weapon equipped after being released from Imprisonment
- Fixed a bug which removed yellow tint from enemy brain golems after death
- Traified two remaining dialog lines
- More fixes and minor improvements
The Flesh Golem screenshot in the first post of this topic has been updated.