Diamond golem

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A diamond golem, ', is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM, SpliceHack, SlashTHEM, and Hack'EM. The diamond golem is a type of golem that is made of its namesake gemstone - it is strong and thick-skinned, and will seek out weapons and other items to pick up.

Diamond golems have a strong weapon attack and a strong magic missile breath attack, and possess fire resistance, cold resistance, shock resistance, sleep resistance, magic resistance, reflection, and poison resistance; in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, they also possess drain resistance, while in Hack'EM, they also possess acid resistance. A diamond golem that is subjected to stoning will become a stone golem.[1]

A diamond golem is poisonous to consume, which primarily comes up if it is digested by another monster.

Generation

Randomly-generated diamond golems are always created hostile. Diamond golems are always generated with 270 HP.[2]

Diamond golems leave behind 2-8 diamonds upon death instead of a corpse.[3] They are not a valid target for genocide.

Strategy

Diamond golems are notably dangerous among gemstone golems, with an even stronger physical attack than the ruby golem and an MR score of 60: combined with their magic resistance and reflection, they are heavily protected against many forms of magical and elemental damage. A hero planning to fight one should ideally have great AC, a source of speed, their own sources of magic resistance and/or reflection, and a means of keeping the golem isolated from other hostile monsters to avoid being overwhelmed.

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 diamond 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