Flesh golem
' flesh golem 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 10 |
| Attacks |
Claw 2d8, Claw 2d8 |
| Base level | 9 |
| Base experience | 186 |
| Speed | 8 |
| Base AC | 9 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1400 |
| Nutritional value | 600 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | Fire, Cold, Shock, Sleep, Poison |
| Resistances conveyed | Fire (12%), Cold (12%), Shock (12%), Sleep (12%), Poison (12%) |
|
A flesh golem:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2070 |
A flesh golem, ', is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The flesh golem is a much stronger type of golem that is the only one to leave behind a corpse rather than a set of items upon death.
A flesh golem has two claw attacks, and possesses fire resistance, cold resistance, shock resistance, sleep resistance, and poison resistance. A flesh golem that is subjected to stoning will become a stone golem.[1] If a flesh golem would take shock damage, it instead heals the golem for an amount of HP up to 1⁄6 of the damage that would have been inflicted (calculated before shock resistance, with a minimum of 1); a flesh golem that takes fire or cold damage will slow down.[2] Stoning a flesh golem will turn it into a stone golem; a hero in the form of a stone golem that casts the stone to flesh spell at themselves will become a flesh golem.
Eating a flesh golem corpse or tin has a 3⁄5 chance of granting fire resistance, cold resistance, sleep resistance, shock resistance, or poison resistance, with an equal probability of each property.
Contents
Generation
Randomly-generated flesh golems are always created hostile. Flesh golems are always generated with 40 HP.[3]
Flesh golems can generate as a result of polypiling if there are enough worm teeth and/or fleshy comestibles in a pile of items.[4] Casting stone to flesh on a stone golem or on a statue or figurine of any golem will turn it into an animated flesh golem.[5]
Flesh golems are not a valid target for genocide.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Worm teeth are made of bone and no longer contribute to the creation of flesh golems from polypiling.Strategy
Though flesh golems hit fairly hard, their poor 9 AC and low speed of 8 are unimpressive enough that a savvy hero can reliably outmaneuver and overpower them - although they resist fire and cold damage, both can slow them down even further. Flesh golem corpses are a good source of resistances, and in particular they are the earliest safe source of potential shock resistance: earlier sources that grant it are acidic (i.e., globs of black and brown puddings), while other safe sources are generally not seen until much later in the dungeon (e.g., storm giants). Flesh golems are also a sizeable 600 nutrition per corpse, making them a filling meal for non-vegan and vegetarian characters.
Turning hostile stone golems and golem statues into flesh golems via stone to flesh is a good method for both obtaining useful intrinsic-granting corpses and weakening harder-hitting golems (e.g. by stoning them and then casting the spell). For certain roles that have a wand of polymorph and can cast stone to flesh reliably, it may be worthwhile to intentionally create flesh golems by polypiling several meatballs and other food items.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Pets that eat corpses can now gain intrinsics from them, making flesh golem corpses ideal food for carnivorous pets.History
The flesh golem first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, flesh golems are the subject of some bug fixes and other adjustments:
- A hero in stone golem form that casts stone to flesh at themselves while wielding a footrice corpse without gloves will become a flesh golem as expected, but will not be affected by the wielded corpse - this is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit b99f8a0e so that the hero will immediately become a stone golem again in this case.
- 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; animating a figurine of a leather golem with the spell will also produce a leather golem rather than a flesh golem, though animating a statue of one produces a flesh golem as intended. This is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit d8a0f734 so that using stone to flesh on golem figurines and statues always produces live flesh golems.
- A flesh golem hit with shock damage heals itself for the full amount of damage that it would have taken, rather than 1⁄6 of that damage as intended - this is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit a5153177.
Origin
The flesh golem also appears in Dungeons & Dragons, debuting in the first Monster Manual. Flesh golems were typically ghoulish, macabre Frankenstein-esque horrors assembled from the body parts of various once-living creatures, usually human, that are stitched and bolted into a new and gruesome humanoid form. These parts are collected from several different corpses that are not abnormal or too thoroughly decayed: one each is used for the torso, head (including the brain) and each of the limbs; the minimum used was six, though sometimes more are needed. Special unguents and bindings were needed to keep the flesh bound together during creation, and constructing the body required skills in medicine, surgery, or leatherworking.
The flesh golem is based on the concept of the monster from Frankenstein, as indicated by the encyclopedia entry below. The titular scientist brought his monster to life through the use of electricity; both this and the depiction of Frankenstein's monster as a cobbled-together monstrosity are both owed to James Whale's popular 1931 film adaptation of the story, as well as other early motion-picture works based on the story.
The average flesh golem is 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall and about 500 pounds (230 kilograms) in weight, and has a slight lingering smell of dead flesh and fresh-turned soil; it moved and walked stiffly, and was unable to speak except for hoarse roaring. A flesh golem's possessions consisted of whatever its creator wished to give it, and at minimum would have a tattered pair of trousers. Flesh golems are very strong durable, though their relative lack of defense tends to leave them ineffective in combat; they are also vulnerable to adamantine weapons, as well as being slowed temporarily by magical cold and fire. A flesh golem is often paired with a source of magical electricity, which not only healed them but made them more durable and undid any slowing effects.
Like many other golems, a flesh golem engaged in battle could well go berserk, with a small-but-increasing risk the longer a fight went on. While berserk, a rampaging flesh golem will attack the closest living creature, resorting to smashing smaller objects if none were in reach, and eventually moving on to find something else. The creator can regain control by approaching within 60 feet (18 meters) and firmly persuading it to stop for at least a minute. Later editions introduce various subtypes of flesh golems as well, including brain golems created by illithids and "cadaver golems" that could absorb other beings.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, flesh golems generate with 120 hit points, hit as a +2 weapon and require a +1 weapon or better to be hit.[6]
Frankenstein's Lab is a special level in Gehennom that contains four flesh golems and Frankenstein's Monster, a unique and strong flesh golem-like monster.
All of the above information also applies to SlashTHEM.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, flesh golems may appear among the court of a throne room ruled by a vampire lord or vampire lady.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, eating flesh golem meat increments one or more of the hero's fire resistance, cold resistance, shock resistance, sleep resistance, and poison resistance by a certain amount, and will additionally cure stoning.
Encyclopedia entry
With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected
the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark
of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was
already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against
the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the
glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow
eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive
motion agitated its limbs.
How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how
delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I
had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I
had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!--Great God!
His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and
arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and
flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances
only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that
seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in
which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight
black lips.
References
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2525
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4038
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1983
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1312: "there is no flesh type, but all food[sic] is type 0"; worm teeth also use type 0
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1728
- ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 2250
