Glass golem

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A glass golem, ', is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The glass golem is thick-skinned, and is one of the stronger types of golem.

A glass golem has two claw attacks, and possesses acid resistance along with the sleep resistance and poison resistance of all golems. A glass golem that is subjected to stoning will become a stone golem.[1]

Generation

Randomly generated glass golems are always created hostile. Glass golems are always generated with 60 hit points.[2]

Glass golems can generate as a result of polypiling if there are enough glass objects in a pile of items.[3]

Glass golems leave behind several pieces of worthless glass in varying colors upon death instead of a corpse.[4] 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 a1b76593, glass golems generate with 80 HP.

Strategy

Glass golems can be surprisingly hard-hitting when heroes first encounter them normally, but cautious and well-prepared heroes should have no problem with them. The worthless glass that they leave behind can be used to reliably identify any worthless glass in the hero's inventory and stashes via type-naming.

History

The glass golem first appears in NetHack 3.3.0. From this version 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.

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.

The glass golem is possibly based on the stained glass golem, a being that appears in the 2nd and 3rd editions of Dungeons & Dragons and debuts in the 2nd Edition Monstrous Manual. Stained glass golems are constructed to blend in with the decor of a temple or palace, and resemble flat, two-dimensional imitations of people; they remain hidden from view until unwanted visitors are seen, and the only sound they make is a tinkling sound like delicate crystal wind chimes that occurs while moving. Moving through light causes a stained glass golem to flicker and twinkle as the light refracted. Like many golems, glass golems possess a general immunity to most magic and spells, though they were extremely vulnerable to sonic and shattering spells; they healed rapidly on their own, but can also be repaired with mending spells.

Messages

<The glass golem> is getting soft!
A glass golem was hit by a flaming attack.
<The glass golem> melts away.
A glass golem was submerged in lava.

Variants

In variants with object materials systems, glass golems may drop additional items made of glass upon death alongside or instead of a pile of worthless glass.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, glass golems are always generated with 140 HP.[5]

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, glass golems have one of their claw attacks replaced with a weapon attack, and generate with one of the twelve following glass weapons (with an equal probability of each): a saber, a sickle, an axe, a stiletto, a crystal sword, a broadsword, a scimitar, a rapier, a long sword, a two-handed sword, a partisan, or a glaive.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, the glass golem's glyph is changed to '.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, glass golems are always generated with 80 HP.

Glass golems can drop various items with an object material of glass upon death, with worthless glass acting as a fallback to replace potions and other invalid items generated this way.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, glass golems can drop various items with an object material of glass upon death, with worthless glass acting as a fallback to replace potions and other invalid items generated this way.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, glass golems are instantly destroyed by sonic attacks, such as the rays from a wand of noise - a hero in the form of a glass golem that is killed this way returns to normal form, even if they have unchanging.

Glass golems can drop various items with an object material of glass upon death, with worthless glass acting as a fallback to replace potions and other invalid items generated this way.

Encyclopedia entry

Glass golems share the following encyclopedia entry with other golems that lack their own 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 ]

Hack'EM

The glass golem is very nearly a work of art. Built in the form of
a stained glass knight, the creature is often built into a window
fashioned from such glass. Thus, it usually acts as the guardian of
a given location -- often a church or shrine.
Glass golems, like most others, never speak or communicate in any
way. When they move, however, they are said to produce a tinkling
sound like that made by delicate crystal wind chimes. If moving
through a lighted area, they strobe and flicker as the light
striking them is broken into its component hues.
[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR inc. ]

References