Golem

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​' Golems are a class of monsters in NetHack. As they are inanimate objects given life, their corpses are sometimes useful or valuable objects, especially in the case of paper and gold golems. Because they are artificial constructs, golems cannot be genocided.

List of golems

Symbol Monster Corpse[1] Hit points[2][3] Material(s)[4]
' clay golem rocks 50 copper, silver, platinum, gemstone, mineral
' glass golem pieces of worthless glass 60 glass
' iron golem iron chains 80 iron, metal, mithril
' leather golem leather armors 40 leather
' paper golem scrolls of blank paper 20 paper
' rope golem (none) 30 cloth
' stone golem statue of a stone golem 60 copper, silver, platinum, gemstone, mineral
' straw golem (none) 20 liquid, wax, veggy, dragon hide, plastic
' wood golem quarterstaffs 50 wood
' gold golem gold 40 gold
' flesh golem flesh golem corpse (edible) 40 flesh, undefined

Generation

Golems are randomly generated, and an appropriate golem can also arise when trying to polymorph large piles of objects at once, depending on the object material -- see the table above. (Clay and stone golems can be produced by the same objects; one is chosen at random. Polypiling many bone objects, such as unicorn horns, can produce a skeleton, which is not a golem.)

Stone golems can be created by stoning any of the other golems (e.g. with a cockatrice corpse). Stone golems themselves are stoning resistant, since it would be rather odd if stoning could kill them.

Casting stone to flesh at a stone golem or a statue of any golem will turn it into a flesh golem. Flesh golems are weaker in combat than stone golems, and their corpses can give almost any resistance in the game.

Mythology

Golems are creatures from ancient Jewish folklore. They are not derived from Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. The legendary golem was made of clay, but the word has also been used to describe similar creatures made from other materials.

Although the encyclopedia entry for gold golem describes their mythological counterparts as female, the NetHack monster is neuter.

Variants

SLASH'EM

Main article: Golem (SLASH'EM)

SLASH'EM features the following new golems:

Symbol Monster Corpse Hit points
' wax golem wax candles 40
' plastic golem credit cards; cheap plastic imitations of the Amulet of Yendor in older versions 60
' ruby golem rubies 250
' diamond golem diamonds 270
' sapphire golem sapphires 280
' steel golem iron chains 290
' crystal golem random gems 300

UnNetHack

UnNetHack includes wax golems, as described above.

In addition, the Sheol branch contains two new golem types, the ice golem and the crystal ice golem.

dNetHack

Main article: Golem (dNetHack)

dNetHack adds many new golems. Some drop rare and magical items, and some are unique monsters.

Encyclopedia entry

Several types of golem have their own specific entries in the encyclopedia. This entry is not shown for those.

"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

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.