having trouble defeating these iron golems so i was wondering if anyone would share their strategy? , its a bit embarresing really - ive never had a party member die before and suddenly im being slaughterd:(

party is:
Cleric (11)
Fighter (12)
Rogue (12)
Ranger (12)
Druid (12)
Sorceror (12)

You do not have to kill the Iron Golems.

i know that but i havent skipped out on any kills yet and im presuming they give good exp?

Get better weapons in the underdark and come back.

Right. I understand not wanting to back down from a fight, but there's nothing dishonorable about better equipping yourself for it. Like Mathetais said, the underdark will give you the chance to get some better stuff (and higher levels).

I had a Cleric with Raise Dead and Resurrection spells, so all I did was run around trying to get one Golem isolated work on it until it poison gassed me or the other Golems came. Then I ran away again.

It's seems cheesy and hard, but it worked.

Use all your buff spells on your fighter.
Position your rogue on the narrow stairway leading to the exit.

Have your cleric, druid and sorcerer not too far behind.

With your hasted fighter, open the chest, and run back to the stairs, past the rogue.

When the golems are closing in, cast Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on the rogue. If you're lucky, some golems with have shifted target and are now going for the invulnerable rogue. Even if they don't, the rogue is still preventing the golems from surrounding your fighter (only two abreast can move up that stairway).

Move your fighter next to the rogue and start wacking at the golems.

Use your spell-casters to renew buff spells and heal the fighter as needed.

I got the better of the iron golems in the end with mass haste, stoneskin and half a dozen other spells that boost your stats. I still lost half the party though. Man, they're tough!

One of my favorite tricks to pull on enemies who hit really hard is to get the thing(s) to target someone, then have that character evade (run away). While the targeted character is evading I have untargeted characters attack the thing(s). Missile weapons help this strategy a lot. When the things(s) switch targets, I switch which charcters are evading and which are attacking. The program's AI is slow enough that you can usually keep from getting trapped. Of course, the iron golems make this sort of strategy a bit more difficult by emitting the poison gas clouds all over the place, but when I fought 'em I only lost one character (the thief).

The Iron Golem fight is a bit of a favourite with everyone because it is one of the ones that requires the most strategic thinking. As you can see, people have had fun working out the best ways to take them down and have come up with a variety of tactics. In addition to the points mentioned above you can steadily retreat to the Underdark exit and go through the door when you're almost dead - then come back when you've healed. However, the Golems heal as well in this time, so this plan only works if you can kill one of the Golems each time before retreating. Once they are down to 1 or 2, it becomes easier. Make sure you have at least a +3 weapon or you'll never damage them at all.

My tactic on defeating them would be to use the ledge just opposite to the entrance.
I would place all of my characters except my tank there and arm them with missile
weapons (+3 arrows/bolts/bullets and sure striking arrows/bullets).
Summon a couple of zombie lords to accompany the tank.
Buff up all characters (Bull's strength, cat's grace, bless, prayer etc)
Don't forget to stoneskin/improve invis. your tank and also the Zombies
(The zombie lords have a 10/- crushing resistance and with stoneskin - would
have a 20/+5 resistance to the Golem's attack. Also I think that they are immune
to their poison gas)
Place the zombies near the entrance and have your tank open the tomb - and immediately
move him to near the entrance of the platform. The other characters from the ledge can
attack the golems - one at a time and your tank can also join the fray (gulping potions
of healing time to time)

I put the entire party at the entrance to the underdark, summoned all of the undead and other creatures that I could, and lined them all up in front of the party...

I then equipped each of my party members with ranged weapons with greater than +3 enchantment

my rogue then went and unlocked and looted the tomb, and ran back to the rest of the party.

once the golems arrived, they ran into the wall of undead, and my party concentrated their ranged attacks on one golem at a time.

I believe that I killed 2 of the golems with ranged weapons before the undead were destroyed... so then it was my party (5 char) against only 2 iron golems.

My two characters capable of tanking then engaged one golem in melee, while the rest of the party continued to bombard it with ranged attacks

then once that golem was killed, the entire party destroyed the last iron golem.

I believe I needed to use one heal spell on my main tank, and none of the other party members ever went under half of their hit points.

I had also already completed the battlesquares, though, so I had some +5 arrows/bolts to use, as well as the brilliant short sword, throwing axe of shocking burst, and the mace of disruption available as weapons...

I think the golems have something like 50/+2 dmg resistance, so you need +3 weapons to even hurt them

the treasure is minor, the real reward is the exp from killing the golems... my party was probably at an avg level of 12.5, and the party got something like 2700 exp for each golem.

Interesting that you mention battle squares. I came back after battle squares to finish them off, not having played all of the battle squares my first time through. It made a *huge* difference, partly because of the higher levels of my party members and partly because of the nice kit you win.

Has anyone ever killed these golems without doing battle squares first? Or without coming back after finishing the underdark quests? Just curious. I really wonder what is the minimum level at which it's possible to win this battle.

This may be off the subject but "underthewronghat" reminded me how I defeated the guardian. I expected to take hours but it took 1/2 hr real time. I surrounded the altar with my two fighters in the front. For some reason the dragon fixed on my tank and pretty much ignored everyone else. All I had to do was keep him alive.

I was able to kill the golems without completing battle square or going to the Underdark. Although, I did do enough battle square to get the mace of disruption.

My technique was very similar to some of the others. I used quite a few animate dead. The thing that did the trick for me was I was able to convince three of the golems to chase after my two sorcerers. While my other four party members pounded on the last one. The true difficulty was making the sorcerers run fast enough, far enough, and often enough to avoid the golems. After one went down the rest of my party concentrated on the solo golem targeting one of the sorcerers. Once it was gone getting rid of the final two wasn't that difficult as my tanks (with help from the cleric) could survive the damage of two golems whereas they couldn't survive the damage of all four.

Now that I have finished the mind flayers I'm going back to try and finish the battle square. I have no idea how it is possible to beat battle square in HOF mode as I'm running out of time to kill them some of the demons already (when I can't disrupt them).