Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion Stone Golem – Overview & Strategy Guide

Hi and welcome to the fourth article of the series Overview & Strategy, where I write about the monsters you can encounter in Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion.
This time around the article is focused on Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion Stone Golem, a strong (and rare) creature that can be found starting from the tutorial scenarios.

If you missed the previous ones, I talked about Vermlings, Giant Vipers and those very annoying Zealots.

There will be spoilers ahead, so if you arrived at this page by mistake I’d suggest you stop reading right now.

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Stone Golem

The Stone Golem is an oversized enemy that firstly appears in the 4^th dungeon of the campaign and it is one of those very tanky monsters for which it could take up a few turns to kill.

They can absorb some of your attacks using their shield and they hit very hard thanks to their above-average strength.
Depending on what ability card they draw, they could potentially exhaust your character in a very few turns. This is true mainly for when you are at low levels, watch out!

Where you can find this monster? Scenario: 4, 10, 18, 22, 23.

Stone Golem Stat Cards

The first thing to notice here is the hit points value. If you take the average number on its own it doesn’t seem that high; even more, if compared to other enemies such as the Vermling Raider.
This is because the Stone Golem starts with 10 health at level 0 and reaches a mediocre number of 16/21 at level 7, meaning that the hit points value is more of a problem when you’re at a low level.

They also have a Shield, which increases their average hit points value by a few points and makes every battle against them even longer.

What is really high across the board though is their attack. With an average of 4 and 6 for normal and elite types, these monsters could easily defeat your character in a few turns if you get too close to them.

This brings us to the last point of discussion: movement.
Very, very low. It will be almost impossible that they will ever come close to your character if you don’t want to.

Stone Golem Ability Cards

Average Initiative value: 53.

The Stone Golem’s ability cards deck could seem not very interesting at first glance, but when you actually fight these enemies the feeling is completely different.

6 cards out of 8 have a “move + attack” ability, which complements very well the very low base movement of the Stone Golem. (Still, if you carefully plan the position of your character it won’t be that easy for the monster to reach you).

You can also be damaged from distance, and thanks to the long range of those attacks, you’ll likely be hit.
On this matter, be very careful when the Stone Golem performs Runic Draw. It’s a devastating ability that pulls your character by 2 hexes and immobilizes it.
Most of the time this opens up to a following melee attack unless you kill the Stone Golem on that turn.

Another very annoying ability is Runic Feedback. This stalls the fight completely, forcing you to waste 2 cards.
If it’s the last monster on the map you can of course try to perform the attack anyway, if you can take those 3 damages.

Strategy against Stone Golem

• Inflicting negative statuses will help the fight. Wound will be your best ally as the shield can’t prevent that damage.
• Another very useful strategy is dragging them into traps. It’s basically free damage that can’t be blocked by their shield. Scenario 10 revolves entirely around this mechanic and that was one of my favourite ones to play.
• As always try to fight them one at a time and keep your distance because they hit really hard. Once you managed to lower their hit points, attack with all you’ve got.
• Equipping a shield to your character will help you to mitigate the Stone Golem’s strong attacks.

Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion Stone Golem could be a difficult enemy to fight without the right strategy. If you carefully plan your moves to play around with their very high damage output you’ll overcome the enemy without any problems.

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in:

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion Classes – Overview & Rank
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion – Monsters Overview