Golems are gigantic humanoid figures, made mostly from clays and stones. Buried within their tough frames are magickal plates that grant them the ability to move autonomously.
Its dimensions are decided by its creators, but most tend to top twenty feet (Height >= 610). Golems are often created to guard important places, treasures, or people, and they follow orders loyally and without question.
Golems are a powerful force to be reckoned with, considering their overwhelming physical strength and defensive advantages, but if you can destroy the magickal plates within them that grant them life, they will cease to exist and return to dust.
Since golems are little more than puppets obeying the orders of their creators, they do not possess wills of their own, nor emotions or even a sense of self. Accordingly, they are not capable of any type of communication. Thanks to their artificial nature, golems do not have pain receptors and will not be stopped by bodily damage. They also lack sight and detect enemies by life force alone. Tactics intended to impair their vision will thus be meaningless.
The glowing magickal plates on the Golems' bodies that grant them life, also serve as their weak points. While most of the plates are scattered around the body, some are hidden in harder to reach places such as under the sole of its foot or in its palm. Note that one of the plates will glow more brightly than the others, and if that particular plate is destroyed, The Golem will immediately "shutdown" and freezes on the spot, giving your team ample time to attack any other plates. Word of warning though, after the Golem becomes frozen for a while, if you're on its body when it starts to shake, it's best to get off right away, as it will reactivate itself and "roar" sending everyone flying off its body. The colour of the plates then switch to a red/magenta-esque, signalling that the Golem has entered the Berserk Rampage mode, which causes its attack speed to increases significantly. This can catch unwary or over confident players off guard who are used to its big, slow lumbering movements. If you're able to destroy several more of the plates on it, it will revert to its previous form.
Swipes its arms at a target. It may also hit people climbing its lower back or the arms.
Pound
Phys
Smashes its fist into the ground in a one-two punch action. Knocks you down.
Laser Beam
Mag
Fires a Laser beam that causes explosions on the ground in its wake. The initial laser beam doesn't hurt you, but the explosions will knock you into the air and can juggle you. It can sweep the laser in an arc or track down a target's location.
Jump
Phys
Jumps into the air, crushing anyone it lands on.
Grab
Spec
Its arms glow purple before grabbing a target and proceed to crush and suck the life force out of them, which heals the Golem. Attack the arms or a plate to quickly free the captured victim.
Berserk Rampage
Phys/Spec
After the shutdown period has expired, it will roar, damaging and knocking down anyone nearby and turn red/magenta-esque. It will then go berserk which will speed up its attack time and swipe at random targets for a short time.
The only way to take down a Golem is to destroy its plates. Use physical attacks as the plates have extremely high resistance to all magick attacks.
A Golem will always have one plate on its body which glows brighter than the others. Once this plate has been shattered, the Golem will freeze and turn dark. Take this opportunity to run away, heal or continue attacking the other plates. When the Golem reawakens, it will release a magickal blast with a thundering roar that deals a great amount of damage to the people on it or around it. It will then turn red/magenta-esque and go berserk for about a minute. Once the Golem has turned purple again, it is safe to attack once more.
A well timed strike on its head while it shoots laser beams or charges its laser attack will topple it most of the time.
Destroying the plate on its lower back will usually cause it to drop and kneel down on all four, granting access to the plate on the sole of its foot, which was hard to reach before.
Another hard to reach place is inside the Golem's palm, as the Golem often swings its arms about, attacking the players, it can be rather difficult to grab onto the hand to attack it. Even then you have to climb to the palm's side, as hitting from behind the hand will not reach the plate, but Warriors can overcome this problem easily as they can do moves like a jumping attack that does multiple hits and penetrates the hand, reaching the plate in the palm, provide the player has a good aim.
It is recommended to use blunt weapons like hammers against the Golems.
Warriors are really good against Golems, as they can deal high physical damage that can fell the monsters in no time. Though they must be wary of the Laser Beams as warriros lack in magick defense, a couple of clean hits from the Laser Beams can easily kill even a seasoned warrior.
The explosions which comes after the Laser Beam hits the ground can be jumped over.
The Sorcerer spell High Exequy can be used on the Golem, provided you have the stamina to continue the spell until it's completed, which can insta-kill the target. (It is possible to enter the item menu and use stamina recovery items like mushrooms, or Liquid Vim to stop your stamina consumption altogether for a while, as long as you make sure to hold the button once unpausing the game). Although this option requires for you to be in a safe place that the Golem cannot reach, or hoping that the Pawns can distract it long enough and that the spell takes a long time to complete.
Dark/Abyssal Anguish allows a Mystic Knight to hit two or even three plates at the same time, dealing massive damage and staggering the Golem.
It seems that the Golems cannot fire its Laser Beam higher than itself, so jump onto a rock or something and go wild (with ranged or magick attacks like High Exequy or Gicel). Also it loves going after YOU when it's on its last plate, so be sure to tell your Pawns to go after it. And for the most part, there usually are some conveniently placed exploding barrels around the area, so watch for those when you're trying to shoot its back.
The Sorcerer spell High Lassitude can slow the Golem's movement down, allowing for easier approach.
The Sorcerer spell Bolide & High Bolide can inflict damage to the plates, if you're lucky enough to score a hit.
If you're taking on the Golem as a melee fighter, DO NOT include a Sorcerer Pawn that can use Maelstrom spell in your party, as this wind spell does no damage whatsoever to the Golem and only acts as a hindrance by blinding you completely when you're clinging to the Golem.
Although breaking the brightest plate allows you to freeze the Golem, it is advised that you leave the brightest plate until the Golem has about 2 normal plates left, which after freezing the Golem, should give you ample time to break the last 2 plates and kill it before it reactivates and enters the berserk state.
It is best to break the plates in the hard to reach places first, which includes the one on the chest, the palm and under the sole of the foot. The rest of the plates are much easier to deal with, even with the Golem in the Berserk state.
The Golem protecting Selene in Witchwood is likely a homage to the Golems in Bersek manga by Kentarō Miura, where the Golems rise up to protect the young witch, Schierke, from the intruders. The settings are also similar with the events happening at enchanted forests that most people cannot find their way through and the witch's homes which is built right into a great tree. However, the Golems in Berserk are made from soft earth and are much smaller in size. Their core/power source also works differently, with Berserk's Golem having a smaller entity embedded inside, which if not destroyed, can continue to regenerate the outer body. These Golems can also be used to help with household chores, whereas Dragon's Dogma's Golems seem to be made purely for combat purpose.
The Golems appear to have no particular features at first, but upon closer inspection, one can see a tormented, agonizing facial expression on the Golem's head.
There are several "hibernated" Golems in Witchwood, which never comes to life when approached. There's one in Selene's garden and a lot more in the marsh behind her house, although only one comes to life and never respawn (except the Metal Golem).