Crystal golem
' crystal golem 
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|---|---|
| Difficulty | 36 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 8d12, Random breath weapon 6d8 |
| Base level | 32 |
| Base experience | 1271 |
| Speed | 15 |
| Base AC | 3 |
| Base MR | 60 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 2000 |
| Nutritional value | 0 |
| Size | large |
| Resistances | fire, cold, shock, sleep, poison, magic resistance, reflection, drain resistance (SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM only), acid resistance (Hack'EM only) |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
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A crystal golem:
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| Reference | SLASH'EM_0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line3611 |
A crystal golem, ', is a type of monster that appears in the Lethe patch, SLASH'EM, SpliceHack, SlashTHEM, and Hack'EM. The crystal golem is the strongest non-unique type of golem in these variants, and is made of various gemstones - it is strong, thick-skinned, and will seek out weapons and other items to pick up. In Hack'EM, the crystal golem's glyph changes color each turn.
Crystal golems have a powerful weapon attack, and a strong breath weapon that selects a damage type at random akin to that of the Chromatic Dragon - in Hack'EM, the weapon attack is changed to a claw attack. Crystal golems possess fire resistance, cold resistance, shock resistance, sleep resistance, poison resistance, magic resistance, and reflection; in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, they also possess drain resistance, while in Hack'EM they possess acid resistance. A crystal golem that is subjected to stoning will become a stone golem.[1]
A crystal golem is poisonous to consume, which primarily comes up if it is digested by another monster.
Generation
Randomly-generated crystal golems are always created hostile. Crystal golems are always generated with 300 HP.[2]
Crystal golems leave behind 2-8 random valuable gems upon death instead of a corpse.[3] They are not a valid target for genocide.
Strategy
Crystal golems can deal massive amounts of physical damage with their weapon attack, their breath weapon grants them magic resistance from the magic missile breath, and they all but necessitate reflection to deal with since they can also roll blasts of disintegration. They also have the same 15 speed and MR score of 60 as the comparably difficult steel golems.
The primary saving grace is that a hero is unlikely to encounter crystal golems until they have secured sources of speed and reflection, along with a source of high non-magical and non-elemental damage - as with the other gemstone golems, isolating one before engaging it is the ideal approach. If encountered during the ascension run, the smartest approach is to simply zap a wand of teleportation and avoid it altogether. Should all else fail, the crystal golem is as subsceptible to stoning (e.g. from a footrice egg or corpse) as any other golem, which turns it into a far weaker stone 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 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 crystal 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." ...
