93 replies to this topic

[Argent77]

Golem Construction for Spellcasters
A mod for BG:EE (with or without SoD), BG2:EE, EET (Enhanced Edition Trilogy) and IWD:EE.

Download latest release (25 MB)

Alternate download (GitHub) (25 MB)

 
 
You can encounter a great number of golems of various types throughout the game. They are strong, resistant, and utterly loyal to their master. Unfortunately they are mostly hostile towards you.

This mod makes an attempt to change it. It scatters a number of tomes across Faerûn containing the secret knowledge of how to construct golems. Reading these books allows you to build golems by yourself, provided you have enough experience, and all the required materials at hand. Only characters knowledgeable in the arcane arts are able to understand the complex theories behind the golem construction.

Golems can exist for a virtually unlimited time, or until destroyed. They can travel with the party all over the world and follow the commands of their master unconditionally.

The main component of the mod installs the "Manual of Golem Building" which comes in six volumes and can be found all over Faerûn. Each tome teaches you to build a different type of golem.

There are also rumors about a "Secret Manual of Golem Building" which teaches you to construct various exotic golem types.

Optional Tweaks include:

• Replace original Golem Manual: Replaces the now obsolete original Golem Manual with items related to this mod.
• Improve enemy spellcaster AI: Enemy mages and priests attempt to use more effective spells against golems.
• Golems for enemy spellcasters: Enemy mages may be accompanied by one or more golem servants.
• Greater variety of enemy golem types: Enemy golems will come in greater variety. Some fights may become more difficult because of it.
• Fighter Stronghold golems may continue to serve you: One or more golems that survived the siege may serve you if you accept de'Arnise Keep as your stronghold.
• Make golems vulnerable to specific spell effects: A number of spells can (positively or negatively) affect golems of certain golem types.
• Reduce weapon immunities and resistances for constructed golems: Nerfs constructed golems, so that more opponents have a realistic chance to defeat them.
• Identify all mod items: Identifies all items that are installed by this mod, which includes Golem Building Manuals as well as a number of special ingredients for building perfect golem variants.
• Add "Teleport" ability to golems: Adds the "Teleport" ability to all of your golem followers. It allows golems to jump to a party member in visual range instantly, but can only be used when no enemies are in sight.

 

Golem types taught by the Manuals of Golem Building:

1. Flesh Golems in lesser, regular, greater and perfect variants.


2. Clay Golems in lesser, regular, greater and perfect variants.


3. Stone Golems in lesser, regular, greater and perfect variants.


4. Iron Golems in lesser, regular, greater and perfect variants.


5. Mithral Golems in lesser, regular, greater and perfect variants.


6. Adamantite Golems in lesser, regular, greater and perfect variants.


7. Overview of (nearly) all available exotic golems.


8. Golems which can be commissioned during the BG1 part of the game.


The construction of golems takes time and has to be done in places with the right equipment. Golem may follow simple commands. You can instruct them to follow each of your command obediently, attack opponents on their own or guard a certain position passively or actively.

More details about the golems, the requirements to build them, their stats, traits and abilities can be found in the mod's readme.

Important: BG:EE and BG2:EE must be patched to v2.0 or higher to install this mod. IWD:EE must be patched to v1.4 or higher to install this mod.

Edited by Argent77, 14 July 2018 - 09:24 AM.

[Sergio]

You are an endless source of creativity. I applaud you for all you're giving the community. If you need anything in particular, just whistle me.

[Argent77]

Just give me some feedback and I'm happy. The key issue of these kinds of mods is balance, so that they're neither too underwhelming nor overpowered. Feedback helps me to fine-tune the mod even more.

In this mod I could try out all the neat stuff introduced in EE patch 2.0, so it was actually fun to code.

[Argent77]

New version: Golem Construction for Spellcasters v2.0

Changes in v2.0:

• Added several tweak components (see first post for more information)
• Fixed missing immunities for adamantite golems
• Made mod fully EET-aware

[Argent77]

New version: Golem Construction for Spellcasters v2.1

Changes in v2.1:

• SoD: Removed golems in front of Dragonspear Castle from the "Greater variety of enemy golem types" tweak because of scripting issues. They were initially hostile and could have turned everyone hostile if you were forced to attack them.
• Made item import script in SoA more compatible.
• Minor textual fixes.

I've put together a small mod which fixes the golem issue in front of Castle Dragonspear, in case you can't or don't want to re-install the tweak component "Greater variety of enemy golem types" of the Golem Construction mod. Important: It must be installed before you enter the Dragonspear Castle exterior map for the first time to see any effect.

Download: SoDGolemFix.zip

Edited by Argent77, 25 August 2016 - 04:46 AM.

[Argent77]

New version: Golem Construction for Spellcasters v2.2

Changes in v2.2:

• Added German translation
• Added Polish translation (big thanks to Cahir)
• Thieves with UAI can also build golems (using Bard level requirements)
• Rebalanced golem building requirements
• Minor adjustments of golem stats
• Improved overall EET compatibility
• Improved basic golem AI
• Adapted previously hardcoded strings regarding familiars not allowed to execute specific actions
• Fixed a bug that gave you duplicate golem-related abilities when continuing an EET game in SoA
• Fixed a bug regarding random treasures found in containers which sometimes contained unremovable items
• Fixed an issue which didn't properly keep track of the number of active golems
• Fixed the golem removal script at the end of the SoD plot which had serious side effects in later campaigns in EET
• Fixed accidental removal of a plot item in WK if "Replace original Golem Manual" tweak have been installed
• Fixed enemy golem behavior if "Golems for enemy spellcasters" or "Greater variety of enemy golem types" tweaks have been installed
• Several textual fixes and updates

[Argent77]

Added a screenshot of (nearly) all available exotic golems you are able to construct to the first post.

Preview:

Spoiler

[subtledoctor]

The brain golem looks a bit weird... a little too smooth to look like brains. What about recoloring and resizing the Shambling Mound animation? If I recall, that one looks a bit sloppier.

[Argent77]

Interesting idea. The clay golem animation is already used by flesh golems and stone golems (and vanilla game's brain golems). Then again shambling mounds are merely recolored earth elementals which I already use for the maggot golems. I'll test how it looks like with the right coloring.

Btw, brain golems in AD&D are supposed to look like the illustration on this page: http://www.lomion.de/cmm/golebrai.php

[Argent77]

The shambling mound animation doesn't look good for a brain golem.

 

However, the IWD earth elemental animation is very fitting to underline the wrinkled and sloppy nature of brain mass used to create a brain golem:

Spoiler

 

[Argent77]

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

[Miloch]

Great mod. I applaud your efforts, though I haven't looked into the technical details (we half-orcs have a small span of attention). Still, I like the idea, and your work has always been exemplary. However,

"The shambling mound animation doesn't look good for a brain golem." (Damn right of course). "However, the IWD earth elemental animation is very fitting." (Eh, not really.) "Btw, brain golems in AD&D are supposed to look like the illustration on this page: http://www.lomion.de/cmm/golebrai.php" (Eh, what? That is a bad rendition... literally Frankenstein's monster provided the impetus for this type of golem.)

https://upload.wikim...Flesh_Golem.JPG

See also Terry Pratchett's "Feet of Clay" (admittedly about a clay golem, but a damn good book nevertheless).

 

In another note, it's sad how BG used the flesh golem and ogrillon model interchangeably (you'd think they'd've had the common courtesy to recolor it at least).

[Argent77]

Unfortunately my 3D Studio skills are a bit rusty, so I have to rely on existing animations. Before that I used the stone golem animation for flesh, clay, stone and brain golems, just with different tints. There's also this alternate illustration for brain golems, but it doesn't look so much differently from the one from the AD&D page.

I'd like to replace the flesh golem animation as well, but couldn't find a fitting one yet (and no, I'll never use the Ogrillon animation, ever).

[Argent77]

I've been searching for a while for a replacement of the flesh golem animation (which is currently just another variant of the clay golem animation). Since flesh golems are sewn together from the pieces of dead bodies I would picture them as moving in a stiff and rather awkward manner.

I have found a creature animation in PST that could potentially be used for flesh golems. Thankfully Cuv provided a creature animation package some time ago, which saved me a lot of work:

Spoiler

Attack animation:

 
Walking animation:

 
In-game screenshot:

What do you think about it? Would it fit into the Baldur's Gate series without sticking out like a sore thumb?

 

Edit: Updated Gif animations.

Edited by Argent77, 01 December 2016 - 05:47 AM.

[agb1]

Works for me.

[Miloch]

I'm not really crazy about it for a flesh golem. It just seems kind of amorphous and oddly proportioned for what should look like Frankenstein's monster. Also, PS:T models are bigger than other IE ones (about 25% on average, varies by model), though the flesh golem should be a bit bigger than a human (7.5' to 6' or so).

The flesh golem stands a head and a half taller than most humans and weighs almost 350 pounds. It is made from a ghoulish collection of stolen human body parts, stitched together to form a single composite human body. Its skin is the sickly green or yellow of partially decayed flesh... It wears whatever clothing its creator desires, usually just a ragged pair of trousers.

http://www.lomion.de/cmm/golem2.php

 

Not crazy about the representation of it there either, but if you go with the PST model, I would advise tweaking the color a bit at least.

 

Another option is to export the NWN model, if there's a suitable one (haven't looked lately). We haven't done this sort of thing for a while, but there are other such models in Infinity Animations, so it is possible.

[Argent77]

I have tweaked color and contrast a bit to make the animation look more BG-like. Being all gray didn't really help though. A size of 80% of the original (and 60% for the small version) works pretty well in BG2. The new animation takes some getting used to it, but it doesn't really look out of place.

I don't know if there are any converted NWN models that would fit the bill. I've browsed through my local list of IA packages, but haven't found anything useful yet.
 

[subtledoctor]

For a flesh golem, could you just use TNO from PST? Kinda scarred and stitched-together, and bulky and massive.

[Argent77]

The Nameless One sounds like a good candidate. I will certainly try him out. Although I think his movements may be too natural for a magical construct.

I'm currently using a modified version of the "Male Stone Golem" animation from PST. It's actually the total opposite of the Nameless One, moving in a very stiffy way as can be seen in one of my previous posts. But that's probably expected from a "walking mass of dead flesh" (aka flesh golem).

[Argent77]

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:

Spoiler

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:

Spoiler

I hope you like it.