Plastic golem

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A plastic golem, ', is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM, and Hack'EM. The plastic golem is a type of golem that is slightly stronger than a straw golem, but is otherwise among the weaker golems in those variants.

A plastic golem has two claw attacks, and possesses sleep resistance and poison resistance - in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, they also possess drain resistance. A plastic golem that is subjected to stoning will become a stone golem.[1]

Generation

Randomly generated plastic golems are always created hostile.

Plastic golems can generate as a result of polypiling if there are enough plastic objects in a pile of items.[2]

Plastic golems do not leave a corpse.

SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM

In SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, plastic golems are always generated with 60 HP.[3]

Plastic golems drop 2-4 credit cards upon death in place of a corpse, and drop 2-4 cheap plastic imitations of the Amulet of Yendor instead if the TOURIST compile-time option is not defined.[4]

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, plastic golems are always generated with 40 HP.

Plastic golems drop 2-8 plastic items which can be any of the following: credit cards, fly swatters, rubber hoses, eight balls, or very rarely a green lightsaber.

Strategy

Plastic golems are not especially strong even against an early-game hero, though their HP can take a while to cut through - they are a plentiful source of credit cards, which are especially useful in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM since unlocking tools in those variants have a chance of breaking on each use.

Origin

The gōlem is an animate, anthropomorphic being that originates from Jewish folklore, and is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud. The most famous golem narrative is "The Golem of Prague", which tells of the late 16th century rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel and his creation of a golem using clay from the Vltava River, which he brought to life to defend the Prague ghetto from anti-Semitic attacks and pogroms. In modern popular culture, the word became generalized to refer to any crude anthropomorphic construct that is made of inanimate material and brought to life by some means, with the method of animation and the resulting creation's sapience and/or sentience varying wildly.

Encyclopedia entry

The plastic golem shares the same basic encyclopedia entry with other golem monsters that lack a unique entry:

"The original story harks back, so they say, to the sixteenth
century. Using long-lost formulas from the Kabbala, a rabbi is
said to have made an artificial man -- the so-called Golem -- to
help ring the bells in the Synagogue and for all kinds of other
menial work.
"But he hadn't made a full man, and it was animated by some sort
of vegetable half-life. What life it had, too, so the story
runs, was only derived from the magic charm placed behind its
teeth each day, that drew down to itself what was known as the
`free sidereal strength of the universe.'
"One evening, before evening prayers, the rabbi forgot to take
the charm out of the Golem's mouth, and it fell into a frenzy.
It raged through the dark streets, smashing everything in its
path, until the rabbi caught up with it, removed the charm, and
destroyed it. Then the Golem collapsed, lifeless. All that was
left of it was a small clay image, which you can still see in
the Old Synagogue." ...

[ The Golem, by Gustav Meyrink ]

References