Flesh golem
' flesh golem 
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|---|---|
| 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. It is unique among the golems in that, if it takes any kind of shock damage, it can heal itself for 1⁄6 of that damage, while fire and cold damage will slow it down.[1] It has resistance to all three types of damage regardless (along with sleep and poison); these resistances are applied separately from the aforementioned slowing effects.
Stoning a flesh golem will turn it into a live stone golem. Flesh golems leave corpses upon death unlike most other golems, and eating flesh golem meat can convey any one of the five resistances mentioned above, with a 12% chance for each one.
Contents
Generation
Flesh golems are always generated with 40 hit points;[2] as mentioned prior, they are also the only golem to leave an actual edible corpse upon death instead of a special death drop.
Flesh golems can be created by casting stone to flesh on a stone golem, or by polypiling enough fleshy items in a single pile.
Strategy
Though flesh golems hit fairly hard, their AC (9) and speed (8) are unimpressive enough that a savvy player can reliably 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 - in particular, they are the earliest safe source of potential shock resistance, as the other corpses that grant it are either acidic (e.g. black and brown puddings) or else generally not seen until much later in the dungeon (e.g., storm giants). They are also a sizeable 600 nutrition per corpse, though eating one obviously breaks vegan and vegetarian conducts.
Turning hostile stone golems into flesh golems is a good method to both obtain a useful intrinsic-granting corpse and weaken a harder-hitting foe. It may be worthwhile for certain roles that have a wand of polymorph and can cast stone to flesh reliably to intentionally create flesh golems by polypiling several meatballs.
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 golems that you kill ideal to feed them.History
Flesh golems first appear in NetHack 3.0.0.
Origin
As indicated by the encyclopedia entry below, Frankenstein serves as the basis for many of the flesh golem's traits. The monster created by the titular scientist was brought to life through the use of electricity, which is why shock damage heals flesh golems; this particular trait 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 and other early motion-picture works based on the creature.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, flesh golems generate with 120 hit points, hit as a +2 weapon and requires a +1 or better weapon to be hit.
Four flesh golems and Frankenstein's Monster, a strong flesh golem-like monster, appear within Frankenstein's Lab in Gehennom.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, flesh golems may appear among the court of a vampire lord-ruled throne room.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, eating flesh golem meat increments one or more of your fire resistance, cold resistance, shock resistance, sleep resistance, and poison resistance; it 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.
