Rope golem
' rope golem 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 6 |
| Attacks |
Claw 1d4 physical, Claw 1d4 physical, Holding 6d1 grab |
| Base level | 4 |
| Base experience | 44 |
| Speed | 9 |
| Base AC | 8 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 450 |
| Nutritional value | 0 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | Sleep, Poison |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A rope golem:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2208 |
A rope golem, ', is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The rope golem is likely to be the first dangerous type of golem that a hero encounters.
Rope golems have two claw attacks and a holding attack that chokes the target unless they are headless or otherwise cannot be strangled.[1] Rope golems possess sleep resistance and poison resistance like all golems. A rope golem that is subjected to stoning will become a stone golem.[2]
Contents
Generation
Randomly-generated rope golems are always created hostile. Rope golems are always generated with 30 HP.[3]
Rope golems can generate as a result of polypiling if there are enough cloth objects in a pile of items.[4]
A rope golem does not leave behind a corpse upon death. They 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 the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Per commit 9e666b75, rope golems drop 2-3 leashes and/or bullwhips upon death.Strategy
Though the rope golem is slow at 9 speed and its claw attacks and AC are weak, its primary danger lies in the choking grab attack. A hero that cannot pick a rope off with ranged attacks before it closes in and grabs them should be prepared to engrave a quick Elbereth (which they can still do while grabbed) or scare the rope golem away through other means (e.g. bugle, tooled horn, etc.) - the rope golem will release them once scared into fleeing. An oilskin cloak or greased outer armor can also protect against the golem's grabbing attack.
History
The rope golem is introduced in NetHack 3.0.0.
From NetHack 3.0.0 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.
From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.6.1, a rope golem's holding attack affected monsters that are immune to being strangled, and can immobilize an entire long worm if the attack hits against one of the tail segments - this is fixed in NetHack 3.6.2 via commit deed117e.
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.
Variants
Some variants give rope golems a special death drop to match other golems.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, rope golems generate with 60 HP, possess death resistance and hit as a +1 weapon.[5]
FIQHack
In FIQHack, the rope golem's glyph is changed to '.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, rope golems drop leashes and bullwhips upon death.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, rope golems drop leashes upon death as part of the incorporated biodiversity patch.
Encyclopedia 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." ...
