Golem
The golem is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the apostrophe glyph ('). Golems are designated internally by the macro S_GOLEM.[1]
The monster class contains the following monsters:[2]
- ' straw golem
- ' paper golem
- ' rope golem
- ' gold golem
- ' leather golem
- ' wood golem
- ' flesh golem
- ' clay golem
- ' stone golem
- ' glass golem
- ' iron golem
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Common traits
Golems are large nonliving humanoid monsters that are neutral-aligned, and are all unbreathing and mindless. Golems typically attack using 'claws' - the iron golem is the only one that can wield weapons and attack with them. Many of the weaker golems up to the wood golem lack any MR score, while the stronger golems have significant MR scores ranging from 30 for flesh golems to 60 for iron golems.
Golems possess sleep resistance and poison resistance - any golems subjected to stoning will turn into stone golems if they are not yet extinct (with the obvious exception of the stone golem itself), and will otherwise be unaffected.[3]
Generation
Randomly-generated golems are always created hostile.
Polymorphing enough items of a particular material or set of materials has a chance of causing them to form a golem, destroying those items in the process.[4] Golems always generate with a set amount of HP, and except for the flesh golem they do not leave corpses on death - many of these golems leave behind special death drops as a "corpse" that are based on their material, in the same circumstances as a regular corpse would be left[5][6][7]. Each golem's material, death drops and starting HP are described in the table below:
| Monster | Corpse[5] | Hit points[6][7] | Material(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ' clay golem | 51-69 rocks[8] | 50 | copper, silver, platinum, gemstone, mineral[9] |
| ' glass golem | 2-8 random pieces of worthless glass[10] | 60 | glass[11] |
| ' iron golem | iron chains[12] | 80 | iron, metal, mithril[13] |
| ' leather golem | 2-8 sets of leather armor[14] | 40 | leather[15] |
| ' paper golem | 1-4 scrolls of blank paper[16] | 20 | paper[17] |
| ' rope golem | (none) | 30 | cloth[18] |
| ' stone golem | statue of a stone golem[19] | 60 | copper, silver, platinum, gemstone, mineral[9] |
| ' straw golem | (none) | 20 | liquid, wax, veggy, dragon hide, plastic[20] |
| ' wood golem | 2-8 quarterstaffs[21] | 50 | wood[22] |
| ' gold golem | 101-199 gold pieces (dependent on luck)[23] | 40 | gold[24] |
| ' flesh golem | flesh golem corpse | 40 | flesh, undefined[25] |
While not considered a golem, skeletons can be created in a similar manner by polymorphing enough items made of bone.[26]
Casting stone to flesh on a statue or figurine of any golem will turn it into an animated flesh golem, while applying their figurines will create the depicted monster as normal.[27] Golems cannot be selected as a target for genocide of any kind.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Per commit 6c22520b, statues of golems can no longer generate on Medusa's Island or in cockatrice nests.
Per commit 9e666b75, rope golems drop leashes and bullwhips upon death.
Changes have been made to some golems' starting HP values and death drops, as listed in the table below with the accompanying commits:| Monster | Corpse | Hit points (changes per commit a1b76593 in bold) |
|---|---|---|
| ' clay golem | 51-69 rocks | 70 |
| ' glass golem | 2-8 random pieces of worthless glass | 80 |
| ' iron golem | iron chains | 120 |
| ' leather golem | 2-8 sets of leather armor | 40 |
| ' paper golem | 1-4 scrolls of blank paper | 20 |
| ' rope golem | 2-3 leashes and/or bullwhips (per commit 9e666b75) | 30 |
| ' stone golem | statue of a stone golem | 100 |
| ' straw golem | (none) | 20 |
| ' wood golem | 2-8 of any of the following: quarterstaves, small shields, elven spears, clubs, and boomerangs (per commit e5c73d01) |
50 |
| ' gold golem | 101-199 gold pieces (dependent on luck) | 60 |
| ' flesh golem | flesh golem corpse | 40 |
History
The golem monster class is introduced in NetHack 3.0.0 along with most of the golems - the paper golem, gold golem and glass golem are introduced in NetHack 3.3.0.
In NetHack 3.4.3 and previous versions, including some variants based on those versions, golems are subject to some bug fixes and other adjustments:
- Casting stone to flesh at a statue of a golem or a figurine of a non-leather golem produces a single meatball, since any golem other than the flesh golem or leather golem is considered "vegetarian" due to not being composed of normally-edible material - leather golem figurines animated by the spell produce leather golems rather than flesh golems as intended. This is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit d8a0f734 so that animating golem statues and figurines always produce a live flesh golem.
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 from clay gathered at the banks of the Vltava River, which he brought to life to defend the Prague ghetto from anti-Semitic attacks and pogroms. Golems in this and various other tales are inscribed with Hebrew words that animate them; one particular example is the word emét (אמת, "truth" in Hebrew), which could be used to deactivate the golem by removing the aleph (א) from the word, changing the inscription to mét (מת, "dead").
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. Fantasy media such as Dungeons & Dragons and science fiction works popularized various types of this modern 'golem', such as the iron golem and stone golems.
Messages
- <The golem> expires!
- A golem was destroyed by a life drain attack.
- The blade draws the animating force from <the golem>!
- A golem was hit with Stormbringer.
- You feel empty inside.
- You genocided your original race while in the form of a golem.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds several new monsters to the monster class:
- ' wax golem
- ' plastic golem
- ' Frankenstein's Monster
- ' ruby golem
- ' diamond golem
- ' sapphire golem
- ' steel golem
- ' crystal golem
SLASH'EM also makes adjustments to the initial HP of the golems from NetHack, and gives all golems drain resistance.
UnNetHack
UnNetHack adds a few new monsters to the monster class:
dNetHack
dNetHack adds several new monsters to the monster class:
- ' dancing blade
- ' brain golem
- ' living lectern
- ' spell golem
- ' semblance
- ' treasury golem
- ' grove guardian
- ' argentum golem
- ' green-steel golem
- ' retriever
- ' living doll
- ' parasitized doll
- ' sentinel of Mithardir
- ' ford guardian
- ' chain golem
- ' Arsenal
- ' zhi ren monk
FIQHack
FIQHack changes the glyphs of some of the golems retained from NetHack:
| Monster | Vanilla glyph | FIQHack glyph |
|---|---|---|
| straw golem | ' | ' |
| rope golem | ' | ' |
| wood golem | ' | ' |
| clay golem | ' | ' |
| glass golem | ' | ' |
SpliceHack
SpliceHack adds several new monsters to the monster class:
notdNetHack
notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack retain the monsters added in dNetHack and add one new monster to the monster class:
GnollHack
GnollHack adds a few new monsters to the monster class:
SlashTHEM
SlashTHEM retains the monsters added in SLASH'EM and adds some other monsters to the monster class:
Encyclopedia entry
The following encyclopedia entry is returned when searching "golem" or the name of any golem monster that lacks their own 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." ...
References
- ↑ include/monsym.h in NetHack 3.6.7, line 69
- ↑ src/monst.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2040
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2525
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1271: create_polymon function
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 297: golem cases are handled as part of make_corpse
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 990: is_golem(ptr) in newmonhp
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1967: golemhp
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 389
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1306: equal chance to produce clay or stone golem
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 383
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1335
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 380
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1298
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 407
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1320
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 418
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1340
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1324
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 395
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1345: straw golems act as fall-through for making golem out of materials that are not listed in specific cases
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 400
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1316
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 413
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1324
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1312: "there is no flesh type, but all food is type 0"
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1328
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1728
