Stone golem

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The stone golem is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is one of the stronger types of golem.

Generation

Stone golems are always generated with 60 hit points.[1][2] In addition to random generation, stone golems are created if any other type of golem is turned to stone, e.g. from being hit by a cockatrice egg or attacking a live footrice (typically via conflict).[3][4][5]

When a stone golem is killed, it leaves a statue of itself behind as its "death drop", and its inventory becomes the contents of the statue (which is usually empty)[6][7] Casting stone to flesh on a statue of a stone golem will create a single meatball, because the golem is not considered a fleshy monster.

Strategy

Stone golems are have a fairly powerful attack, but are very slow and lack most resistances outside of the sleep and poison resistance shared with other golems. Casting stone to flesh on a "live" stone golem will turn it into a flesh golem, which is somewhat faster, more resistant and can hit twice for more damage—a flesh golem also has weaker AC and base HP, and players meeting stone golems through normal generation are well-equipped to handle their fleshy counterparts. This can also be used to try and gather intrinsics that you lack once you kill the resulting flesh golem.

Of note is that, including the above, performing these actions while you are polymorphed into an appropriate golem will turn you into a stone golem:

  • Snatching a wielded footrice corpse from a monster with a bullwhip and catching it.[8]
  • Kicking a footrice corpse.[9]
  • Throwing a footrice corpse upward, which causes it to fall back down onto your head.[10]
  • Eating the meat or egg of a footrice, or eating the meat of Medusa.[11][12]
  • Hearing a footrice's hiss after it lands a touch attack on you, or meeting the gaze of Medusa without reflection.[13][14]
  • Touching a footrice corpse with your bare hands.[15][16][17]
  • Attempting to saddle a live footrice.[18]
  • Trying to untrap a live footrice, or falling through a hole or trap door while wielding a footrice corpse.[19][20]

Breaking the statues of stone golems after killing them is usually not worth it, as they are mindless and do not pick up items; finding any items in a stone golem's possession is usually an indicator that it was created via polymorph. Randomly-generated statues of stone golem in the dungeon may still contain one spellbook.

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." ...

[ The Golem, by Gustav Meyrink ]

References