Straw golem
' straw golem 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 4 |
| Attacks |
Claw 1d2, Claw 1d2 |
| Base level | 3 |
| Base experience | 28 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 400 |
| Nutritional value | 0 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | sleep, poison |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A straw golem:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2034 |
A straw golem, ', is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The straw golem is one of the weakest types of golem in the monster class, and is likely to be the first one a hero encounters.
Straw golems have two claw attacks, and possess sleep resistance and poison resistance like all golems. A straw golem that is subjected to stoning will become a stone golem.[1] Fire damage that sets a straw golem aflame can cause them to burn up completely;[2][3][4] straw golems that take damage from fire traps, the fire effect of magic traps and the fire effect of container traps can lose maximum HP up to 1⁄2 of that maximum plus one.[5] A hero polymorphed into a straw golem can also burn up if they take fire damage, including losing up to half their current form's maximum HP plus one from the same traps;[6][7] dying in this manner returns them to normal form, even if they are wearing an amulet of unchanging.[8]
Contents
Generation
Randomly-generated straw golems are always created hostile. Straw golems are always generated with 20 HP.[9]
Straw golems can generate as a result of polypiling if there are enough liquid, wax, veggy, dragon hide, or plastic objects in a pile of items.[10]
A straw golem does not leave behind a corpse upon death. They are not a valid target for genocide.
Strategy
Hostile straw golems are not especially threatening with their weak claw attacks, unless the hero is low on HP and struggling to gain distance from one. In a pinch, any available source of fire damage (such as a wand of fire or a lit potion of oil) can be used to instantly destroy one.
History
The straw golem first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, casting stone to flesh at a statue or figurine of a 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 - this is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit d8a0f734 so that doing so produces 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 straw golem> burns completely!
- A straw golem was hit with fire damage that destroyed it instantly.
- You smell burning straw.
- As above, while you are blind.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, straw golems are always generated with 40 HP and hits as a +1 weapon.[11]
Polypiling enough plastic objects will instead create a plastic golem.
NetHack brass
In NetHack brass, straw golems leave behind multiple sheaves of straw upon death, unless they are burnt up completely by fire damage.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack, notnotdNetHack, straw golems that are not burnt up completely by fire damage leave behind 2-8 sheaves of hay upon death, with a separate 1⁄10 chance of dropping a sedge hat as well.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, the straw golem's glyph is changed to '.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, scythes have +6 to-hit and +20 damage bonuses against straw golems.
As part of the incorporated biodiversity patch, straw golems that are not burnt up completely by fire damage have a 2⁄3 chance of leaving behind one or more sheaves of straw upon death, and a separate 1⁄2 chance of leaving behind an eroded fedora.
Encyclopedia entry
Dorothy leaned her chin upon her hand and gazed thoughtfully at the Scarecrow. Its head was a small sack stuffed with straw, with eyes, nose, and mouth painted on it to represent a face. An old, pointed blue hat, that had belonged to some Munchkin, was perched on his head, and the rest of the figure was a blue suit of clothes, worn and faded, which had also been stuffed with straw. On the feet were some old boots with blue tops, such as every man wore in this country, and the figure was raised above the stalks of corn by means of the pole stuck up its back.
References
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2525
- ↑ include/mondata.h in NetHack 3.6.7, line 208
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1707
- ↑ src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1016
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2408
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1057
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3155
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1060
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1971
- ↑ 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
- ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 2244
