No other creature, not even powerful Fiends and Celestials, have a blanket immunity to most spells... but Golems do! WHY? If the creator of a Golem could confer such power onto a Golem, why woudn't he use it on HIMSELF? Or if only Golems can hold such magic-immunity, I can see a clever berk transfering his own soul into the thing rather than using a Elemental... What spell(s) exactly confer this power? I see Limited Wish listed in the creation process, but that seems like a rather weak spell to confer such power...
Why are Golems so magically-immune?
Here is my idea (for D&D golems that is): creation of golems involves binding elemental spirit in crafted body... For example we bind earth elemental spirit in clay body, and elemental spirit treats its golem body as it would treat body created from ordinary earth, in other ways golem is effected by magic but elemental spirit repairs magical damage (and effects) as soon they are is dealed.
There is also arcane explanation for this ability: creation of golems is costly and time cosuming feat. Rulebooks mention prices and gold costs of body and materials and spels required for golem creation. But they don't describe the actual process of creation. So I guess is that in the cost of creation also include warious mystical oils, formulas, talismans and warding (and binding) spels and rituals that will protect the golems body and its animating spirit from harm. Without that golem is nothing but basic elemental... (you can look at elementals as golems without aditional protection).
That is my option.
One-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people eater says: "Monsters are nature's way for keeping XPs fresh."
I always figured it was because golems are supposed to be hard to kill, like, really hard to kill. They have such high DR and spell immunity so that you can't just smack them around, you have to find a more clever way to beat them or get the hell out of their way. They're really supposed to be a juggernaut of sorts. They aren't always used that way, but I think that was the logic behind it.
I have think more about this topic and have reached conclusion that golems differ by their creation. So we have "arcane" golems (Iron golem) that are created by wizards and their resistances come from whatever wards they put on them. "Divine" golems (Clay golems) are on the other hand are created by priests and in tone and spirit are closer to original golem legend.
To recap: rabbi creates golem using the art of Quabbalah (which is deals in finding ways how to commune with God). So original golem was probably animated by the Gods will. In that way golem became servant of god on earth.
So in terms of D&D golems of divine spellcasters are actualy animated by sparks of divine essence, which would explain their immunities to magic. But that would also make golem some sort of gods avatar, which would mean that the their creators would treat their "servant" differently. (In some versions of golem story golem is treated as friend and ally not as slave or servant).
One other idea how to explain golems might: The word that animate golem EMETH represent The Truth, universal Truth which is enough to protect golem from unstable and inconstant waves of "false" magic.
So in that way EMETH becomes something like word of power, universal word that is one of the foundation of reality. Who knows: maybe the "Last Word" wich Tenebourus used to kill gods was actualy METH, word that means Death...
Sorry for the rant, but this is dangerously closing to no-no topic of religion so I will stop while I still can.
One-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people eater says: "Monsters are nature's way for keeping XPs fresh."
Yes, I get you! I have read about the original real-world Golem legend, and I got a kick out of your suggestion that "Meth" was the Last Word Orcus/Tenebrous used! I still think that they have too much magic immunity for non-Artifact level creations, though...
So does an antimagic field
Then perhaps Golems should be limited in their magical immunity?
So it would be like casting minor globe of invulnerablility upon it and so forth. But I still think that its just that golems are in fact difficult to created\. But everything has a weakeness. Golems just take a certain kind of touch to crumble.
Remember, golems aren't immune to things that don't require SR. That isn't actually an incredible ability at the levels you're suppoused to be fighting golems at.
Some spells bypass spell resistance entirely.
BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!
Practically any conjuration spell that requires an attack roll can hurt a golem.
Add environment manipulation spells to that. A golem in a pit created by move earth or in a bubble of ice is useless too.
I think that evenualy in the end golems are pretty balanced out. They are immune to most of magic and they are formidable in close combat, but they have one weakness that people seem to overlook and that is INT:-. Yes, not even a 0, and that means that anything smarter than brick could outwit golem, secondly golems require specific orders to work, so that is also thing PC can expoit.
Example: typical golem guards dungeon with orders to kill all intruders, and what typical PC do? Thay charge golem and they get beating of they lives (they probably deserve that), but if PC relese fly (or cast summon swarm on the golem) they can take anything they want witout bruise. Why? Becaouse while golem is ocupied with killing fly intruders, PC are free to do what ever they want.
So, to sumarise: golems are someting like puzzle boss monsters that can be defeated with litlle thinking rather than brute force. In the end I think that they are rather balanced monsters (great power and 0 inteligence), and as for why they have such huge magical imunities any explanation could work: from magical protection or divine influence... only designes of D&D know that for shure.
One-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people eater says: "Monsters are nature's way for keeping XPs fresh."
Couldn't have put it better myself.
Warmages fry golems. All thier orbs hurt golems just fine.
Are you familiar with the original mythology of the golem? That origin story may give you more insight into why the designers (not just for 3rd, but also for previous editions) designed the golem the way they did.
Beyond that suggestion to do the background research, I couldn't tell you exactly what the designer's thought processes were - you'd have to ask them.