As a golem, the companion Shale is unable to use ordinary armor and weapons, instead using an assortment of crystals. If the Warden asks Shale about the crystals, Shale will explain that the crystals bestow the ability to alter the flow of surrounding magic. According to Shale, the use of these augmentation crystals was an art practiced when golems were more commonplace.
Shale's crystals come in two distinct sizes: Large Crystals, which act as armor and appear on Shale's shoulders and feet; and Small Crystals which act as weapons and appear on Shale's fists.
Sources
The golem can choose from among 50 different crystals, found in various locations:
- Large Clear Fire Crystal, in a locked chest in the Korcari Wilds.
- Random crystals are found in:
- Village of Honnleath
- Wilhelm's Cellar
- Cadash Thaig
- 4 Merchants offer a random set of six crystals each time you enter the area:
- Garin's Gem Store in Orzammar Commons
- (
only)Bella at the Redcliff Tavern (all items are free at this location depending on choices) - (only)Shopkeeper (Haven) at the Village Store in Haven.
- Old Tegrin (random encounter)
- Other merchants sometimes offer crystals for sale.
- Other sources
- Golem corpses
- Rubble and Cracked Stones
Types and quality
Crystals come in five levels of quality (from lowest to highest):
- Chipped
- Flawed
- Clear
- Flawless
- Brilliant
There are also five elemental types:
- Fire
- Ice
- Lightning
- Natural
- Spirit
- Main article: Shale-specific item sets
If you match a large and small crystal of the same elemental type on Shale, the golem receives a set bonus of +10% to the appropriate resistance. For example, two Brilliant Fire crystals offer 60% fire resistance (instead of the expected 50%). This bonus suffers from a slight bug where, to see and activate the bonus, you must unequip then re-equip both crystals. Note that you won't see an item set bonus icon in the "Status Effects" section of the Character Record, but you will see the bonuses under "Resistances".
Some crystals have effects applied to them, these may only appear at certain levels of quality, or increase in intensity as the quality increases.
Evaluation
Shale's crystals are some of the strongest single items in the game. For example, small, Clear, Spirit crystals will give Shale +15% spirit damage, +1 to each attribute, and +1 armor penetration. This is to compensate for the drawback that Shale can only equip one small crystal and one large crystal at a time.
Notes
- Small crystals convert all of Shale's basic attack damage, as well as damage from Slam and Killing Blow, to elemental damage corresponding to the type of the crystals. This, however, does not allow these attacks to bypass the target's armor.