This is a mini-guide to the golem construct found in the original campaign.
It is a character available to be used as a party-member when you hit around
level 15, about 70% through the game.
It is a fighter with some unusual rules.  It has high STR, CON and is a good
warrior.  However, it can NOT be equipped at all!  Plus, it has no personality
as you would kind of expect.  I am unsure if it is immune to mind/death or
not, and will update if I find out.

The good news is that it is a strong warrior and you do not have to equip it.
PLUS, it can be buffed up with spells to be fairly decent, and adds a free
 bonus party member during the endgame fight.

Unfortunately, it seems to have several bugs that prevent it from being a
premere quality warrior.


I. Should you get the golem?
II. How to get the Golem
III. Golem Improvements
IV. Golem Stats
V.  Golem buffs
VI. Leveling your Golem
VII. Contact Info.



I. Should you get and use the golem?

This depends on several things.  First, you need the patience (or rod of
party buffing UI mod from nwvault) to buff it up.  You also need the
appropriate spell access.  If you run with two casters, including yourself,
then you probably are set.

Also, you will need to not mind sacrificing some personality.  Golem doesn't
have opinions and things that make the game interesting.  It is a good
candidate for when you have done the campaign several times.

If you like the idea of a large golem running around slaughtering things,
 moreso than a paladin or dwarf, then Golem is a good fit.
Finally, it may depend upon what class you are.  A wizard may desire more
warrior power, than if you are a warrior type yourself.

It certainly does not hurt to activate it, since it helps you endgame.


II. How to get the golem.
-------------------------

1. At the part where you attack Crossroad Keep and get to Aldanan, look at the
bookcases.  There will be a Manual on Constructs there.  Looting it will
create a journal entry.   This is the first step of three towards getting
the golem.
  If you bungled this, I believe the book will be available in your library.
In this case, hit Z in your library and start scanning through.

2. Once you are given your keep and chat with Kana for the first time, do the
following for the second part of the golem:
a) Organize men to Training.
b) Lower taxes to zero.
c) Exit keep and talk to Vernan to build the Smithy.
d) Re-enter keep, talk to Kana again for a report.
e) Exit keep, build the market.
f) Leave the keep WITH GROBNAR AND ELAINE.

g) Travel to EMBER and enter the well.
h) Go to the area where you found the glowstone.
i) Walk over to the glowing puddle.  This is NOT next to the glowstone!!!
   Instead, there is a second puddle about 30 feet away on the opposite
   side of the glowstone in the same cave chamber.  Grobnar will take a
   sample of the puddle in a cut-scene.  This is so you can take the sample
   without angering the goblins, if you chose to be nice to them.

(next two are just recommended optional steps, NOT related to golem)
j) While you are there, go talk to the big spider, Kestrel in the same cave.
  With ELAINE in party, you can understand it, feed it the Insect Collection.
k) Make the rounds, grabbing all NPCs you need to take to the keep. These are
  - the 2 miners (port llast and owl well)
  - wpnsmith,armorsmith (hightown and fort locke)
  - Deekin from Neverwinter merchant area
  - Orlen from west harbor
  - Katriona seargent at owl well.


3. Continue doing keep stuff until you are ready to go to the Purification
  area, which is the Illefarn Ruins.
  Do the different areas in whatever order.   When you enter the GEM MINE,
   do a close lookout.   You will find a room with a Cauldron in it.  I
   believe the room also has some crafting stations.
  Loot the Cauldron for a Rune-Inscribed Iron piece.
  Finish ruins area as normal and return to keep whenever you are ready.


Now, get SAND in your party.  Remove Deekin.    Go downstairs to your keep's
basement.  Talk to Deekin who is standing next to the golem.
Use the dialogue option and tell him you have something for the golem.
Repeat 3 times until you have turned in all 3 things.

Golem is now functional!  It may be added to your party just like any other
party member.  It DOES take a party-member slot though!


III. Improving the Golem
------------------------

Here is the bad news.  You CAN NOT upgrade the golem, except 
 for one method.   Sad, but true.
This is how you theoretically upgrade the golem...

With SAND in your party, examine the golem.  Sand will step in and correct
a problem he finds, and that buffs the golem.   As of 1.05, this has no
effect whatsoever.

Next, you can use Craft Alchemy, Weapon, Armor skills to pump up the golem!
The bad news is that YOU have to have the skill, not your allies.
The worst news is that all three "upgrades" do not have any effect!

There are a few ways to get around the requirement for you personally to
have to have the needed skills.

You can find gloves of greater artificing by the time you get the golem.
Ive found them 2 out of 2 times on the campaign.  Hold onto them.
Thats a +6 to all the skills.
Note that combining items such as the luckstone, etc does not work!  Only the
 highest +skill value item works.

You can also let grobnar use competence aura for +4 (+6 lategame).
Once again, a bard aura does NOT stack with +skill items used.

Your second buff is to increase your intelligence.  Use a spell to get +4.
OR, if you have a better crafted helm of intelligence, even better!
This DOES stack with the previous ways of buffing your skill.

Your third stacking buff is to cast Greater Heroism on yourself.   This gives
you another +4 to skill checks.

All told, you get up to +14 to all skills with all these active, plus whatever
INT bonus you may happen to have naturally.

Your final dirty option is to use the console to give yourself 150000XP and
level to 20, taking the appropriate craft skill.  Then pump golem, then
subract XP, and repeat for each pump.


The three upgrades possible are as follows.  Each requires YOU to have 15
in the appropriate skill.

Craft Weapon Skill
Craft Armor Skill
Craft Alchemy Skill

None of these upgrades seem to actually DO anything, however except apply
 a resist cold,fire,electricity feat pseudo-randomly.


And finally, once you beat up on the second Shadow Reaver and get the Tome
 of Ilthikar or whatever, you can talk to Grobnar and he will upgrade the
 golem.   This one actually works!   Unfortunately, it does not do much.
 It adds +2 to STR,DEX,CON, except as an ITEM bonus.  Like it is using an
 invisible +stats ring.  If you use the golem, you will pump it up with
 +4 spells anyways, so it's a worthless upgrade.  Still, it beats the other
 options that don't even do anything! :-)


There IS a fix, if you have your heart set on playing with the construct:
Do the usual upgrades as mentioned previously.  Then do the following:

Type ~  (tilda) to bring up console.
Type DebugMode 1

Type givefeat 1796    (this upgrades HP as per craft alchemy pump)
Type givefeat 1797    (upgrades AC as per craft armor pump)
Type givefeat 1798    (upgrades strength as per craft weapon pump)
Type DebugMode 0
Type ~ to close console.

There!  Fully functional golem now.



IV. Golem Stats (at level 15)
---------------
STR 25
DEX 14
CON 22
INT 14
WIS 10
CHA 8

BAB = as golem level, just like a fighter.
AB = BAB +2 from both weapon focus feats +7STR
AC = 26 naturally, including DEX.
DMG = 2-24 +7 STR  +4 from both weapon specialization feats  +3 extra from wpn

So at level 20, assuming you take a point in STR, he has:
AC 26
AB 30/25/20/15
DMG = 2-24 +15


V. Golem Buffs
--------------

With the proper buffs, the golem is the best party-mate in the game.
Here is the list of buffs that are exceptionally good on the golem.

Remember that golem counts as having NO armor, shield, and
no deflection, natural, dodge AC modifiers.  Therefore, buffs that
are minimal or redundant on other party mates are key for the golem.

Buff List, with who can cast it.

Q=Qara - Note that she must know you will use golem ahead of time so that she
        may pick up the appropriate spells while leveling.  This will also
        likely cause problems in combat since she will be buffing people to
        no effect instead of casting fireballs,etc.
E=Elaine
Z=Cleric woman.
S=Sand - Since he is Divination Specialized, he lacks Transmutation.  Several
        buffs listed happen to be that school. :-(
G=Grobnar - As Qara, he must know ahead of time which buffs to get while
           leveling.  It can cause poor combat spell usage as Qara.
P=Paladin - Note his spells are only at 1/2 his level.  COnsider using
           Practiced Caster to give him +4 casting level.


*Mage's Armor - Q,Z(focus).  +4 armor AC.    Note that Sand can use Shades to
               achieve the same effect, since he can't cast it directly.
or better yet,

*Improved Mage's Armor - Q   +6AC (doesn't stack with Mages Armor of course)

*Shield - n/a = +4AC  Self-cast ONLY.  Can use UMD to use scroll, or use a
                     brooch of shielding to cast it on itself.

*Barkskin/Spiderskin - Q, E, S?  +5 natural AC

*Shield of Faith = +5 deflection AC (at lvl18 casting)

Cat's Grace = Q,E,G? - +4DEX = +2 dodge AC
Bull's Str - Q,E,Z,S?,G - +4STR = +2AB/Dmg
Bear's Endurance - Q, E, Z, S?, G?, P? - +4CON

Don't forget the usual spells that benefit everyone such as:
Heroism,Greater Heroism, Bless, Aid, Prot Alignment, Haste, Bardsong, etc.

The following spells DO NOT WORK, and several should work:

Greater Magic Weapon - Says it has no weapon equipped and fails.
Keen Wpn/ Wpn of Impact - Has no weapon equipped.
Magic Vestment - Has no armor equipped.
Nature's Avatar - Not a pet. No work.
Awaken - No Work
Greater Magic Fang - Casts, but has no effect whatsoever.
Jagged Tooth - No effect at all.
Flame Weapon - No effect at all.


Fully Buffed Golem at level 20 (with the special buffs listed, not
  including heroism,etc)
STR 31
DEX 18
CON 26

AB = 20 + 10str +2focus = 32
AC= 26 +6imp mage armor +4shield +2cats +5barkskin +5faith = 48
Dmg = 2-24 +10STR +4Spec +3 physical = 2-24 + 17


VI. Leveling your golem.

The golem levels up just like any other character.
Golem starts with special weapon feats, including focus and specialization on
"creature weapon".  There is nothing else you can do as far as improved crit,
 or Power Crit.

Assuming you get golem at 15, you get to do the following:

-- 2 attribute pumps.  STR is the way to go of course.

-- 3 fighter feats, 1 general feat at 18.   I would recommend some of the
  following:
 a) Expertise, Spring Attack, Whirlwind series.
 b) Knockdown, Improved KD. - probably your best option.
 c) Disarm, Improved Disarm.
 d) Dash


-- You also get 20 skillpoints to use over those 5 level-ups.
 a) 10 Tumble - With no armor penalty, you have an excellent chance of
    tumbling in combat successfully. With 10 Tumble, and 18DEX from Cats
    Grace, you automatically succeed!   Acrobatic golem...go figure.

 b) 6 UMD (5 after CHA) - Allows it to use scrolls.  If you stocked up on
    Shield scrolls (or use console to simulate it, or scribe them), this
    is a decent option for hard fights.  Gives a 3 minute +4AC buff.


VII.  Copyright, etc.

This guide is copyrighted by Randomsome1.  However, you may post it or
use it as you like as long as no contents are changed.

If you have any observations, questions, or comments, please email me at:
 [email protected] and add NWN2Guide in the Subject.
 Remove the spambegone part of course.
  (I would probably miss any email in my spam-filled regular email, hence
   the usage of my other account...)