How do I deal with the Golems in De’Arnise Keep?
ZeroxSP7
Member Posts: 55
Here’s my current party
Me: human fighter. 5 in longswords. 2 in Bastard swords
Jaheira. 2 in scimitars. 2 in clubs
Minsc. 2 in 2h swords. 2 in mace. 2 in 2h style
Yoshimo
Aerie. 1 in Mace. 1 in Flail. 1 in Quarterstaff
Nalia
Average party level right now is level 10 or 11. I can kill the stone golems and flesh golems by casting Haste and Bless. I have Aerie cast DUHM and Stoneskin before equipping the flail of ages and plate armor. But when it comes to fighting the Clay Golem and Iron Golems, my guys start dying quickly one by one. What can I do?
Me: human fighter. 5 in longswords. 2 in Bastard swords
Jaheira. 2 in scimitars. 2 in clubs
Minsc. 2 in 2h swords. 2 in mace. 2 in 2h style
Yoshimo
Aerie. 1 in Mace. 1 in Flail. 1 in Quarterstaff
Nalia
Average party level right now is level 10 or 11. I can kill the stone golems and flesh golems by casting Haste and Bless. I have Aerie cast DUHM and Stoneskin before equipping the flail of ages and plate armor. But when it comes to fighting the Clay Golem and Iron Golems, my guys start dying quickly one by one. What can I do?
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Comments
I beat them but I feel like I could’ve done better so comments are still appreciated.
I did what I said before, but I equipped my main guy with the Kneecapper because it’s one of the weapons you get from the statues in the room. A Warhammer user such as Anomen would’ve be nice to take more advantage of the weapon’s effectiveness. The weapon gave me a +4 weapon to use against the Clay and Iron Golem and it was very effective on them when combined with Haste and Bless. Maybe once I’m done with this area I’ll replace Nalia with Anomen. Her personality isn’t really much of a fit with the group and Aerie has the mage spells covered.
Flesh golems: any magic weapon.
Stone golems: any +2 or better weapon.
Clay golem: any magical blunt weapon.
Iron golem: any +3 or better weapon.
The golems count as "giant humanoid", so the hammer in the alcove is a +4 weapon against them. Note also that you can pick up the flail head without offending the golems, so you can forge the complete Flail of Ages and then come back with it. Picking up the bow, axe, or hammer? Those will wake two golems each.
The iron golem in the keep is unusually tough; while most iron golems have 20% physical resistance, that one has 75%. It's a very dangerous foe, and there's no shame in using the environment against it; if you have a ranged weapon that can hurt it (such as Azuredge), then you can stand outside the door and plink away safely. Just watch out for the gas cloud; that's a lot of poison damage, so you might need to retreat when the golem uses that ability.
I love the quest, and since it almost always is my stronghold, it is taken on early and with a very small party.
I always take the golems out one by one. The iron golem - as stated - is the toughest, so I take it last.
The sand golem goes first, then the clay golems , stone golems and lastly the iron golem.
If I have a party, I surround the golem before I take anything. That way I can take them out one at a time. The immunities as stated above have to be observed and can be a hassle in the early game with profficiencies and weapons and stuff. If you need weapons, you can take the weapons in the alcoves, by remembering which golems are angered by which alcove (the part for the flail of ages (FoA) is free to take, and the FoA is great for the fight, since its +3 blunt damage with a 1/3 chance of slow on target..).
The iron golem is tricky, and I ALWAYS retreat out of the door after I have angered the Iron golem. If you haste your party, then surround the golem, and all attack the golem you should get some good hits before it angers. As soon as the first attack hits, make haste for the doorway, and take a breather in safety. If you have a long reaching weapon (greatsword +3) you could try and hit it from a distance. Otherwise its hit and run tactics where your best armered figther goes toe to toe with the foe.
The FoA is great for the fight with its slow on hit. Give that to your best fighter and not to Aerie - it should be either you or Minsc who wields it. Minsc should have a good thaco, so give it to him while you give the golem a go with the talking sword from the slavers quest. If you add Anomen, it should be good
The iron golem weapon has reach 2, the same as the two-handed weapons you have. It also has speed (initiative) 0. If you can hit the golem in melee, it can hit you back. The only way you're getting the first swing in is if you strike from stealth, and even if you do that the golem has a very good chance of a retaliatory strike before you can get away. For 4d10+12 damage.
The iron golem's only real weakness in melee combat is that it only gets one attack per round. A party can overwhelm it with large numbers of attacks - but only if they're all tough enough to engage, or you can draw the golem's attention onto a tank character. And then, it still has that gas cloud attack to poison everything around it.
Take it on head on I say. The added distance from the 2 handed sword gives you time to dodge the gas cloud.
If you want to go with no risk, then get rid of the genies in Trademeet and buy the +3 bow with magical arrows. You can take out the golem without worry. But I still prefer the tanking game.
stronghold after you have a few +2 or +3 items. For instance, taking daystar
from the lich is quite easy I think, since you can run in and out. I then kill
the lich very early on after having run out a few times.
Is it a good weapon for everything else? Sure, but it's not anything special. I'd prefer a flaming sword to fight the trolls - either the basic +1 flaming longsword you can buy, or the Burning Earth (Druid Grove/import from BG1 to starting dungeon). And for the yuan-ti mage you fight at one point, there's Namarra with its activated silence ability - hits for just as much damage as Daystar, guarded by a much less scary monster. All that without changing proficiency at all.
And if you want a longsword that can hit the iron golem, buy the Blade of Roses from Bernard.