D&D Ideas — Oozes, Slimes and Jellies
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is oozes, slimes and jellies, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of oozes, slimes and jellies what if a normally nonspellcasting creature had access to a spell or spell like effect and creates a mystical shell game with one ooze and one item? You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.
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Delving Dave’s Dungeon
Oozes, slimes and jellies are terrifying monsters and hazards in Dungeons & Dragons that have been in the game since the very beginning. I have to believe they were inspired by the 1958 movie The Blob starring Steve McQueen. It’s this idea of an implacable foe that can’t be reasoned with, which hungers and keeps going until it is no more or there isn’t anything left to devour. Nerdarchy has even created a couple of oozes of its own. I am very proud to say I came up with the blood rime and booze oozes.
Before we go any further let’s look at the numbers on D&D Beyond. We’ve got 24 ooze type monsters and three hazards with green slime, brown mold and yellow mold. Ooze happens to be the smallest creature type in 5E D&D. If you want to use these types of creatures in your game the bad news is you don’t have a lot of options. I’ve got good news for you though — there is a ton of room to homebrew your own oozes type monsters.
“Oozes are gelatinous creatures that rarely have a fixed shape. They are mostly subterranean, dwelling in caves and dungeons and feeding on refuse, carrion, or creatures unlucky enough to get in their way. Black puddings and gelatinous cubes are among the most recognizable oozes.” — from the 5E D&D Monster Manual
Some common traits shared by oozes, slimes and jellies is blindsight and many have the Amorphous trait. Some other traits that are common but less prevalent across the board are some type of camouflage, climb speeds and spider climb, and slow movement. When crafting your ooze type creature you’ll want to keep those things in mind. Give it blindsight and if it is of the goopy variety give it the Amorphous trait.
Amorphous. They can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
If you are looking for inspiration for homebrewing 5E D&D ooze type monsters you need look no further than popular media. The symbiotes from Marvel Comics could make an interesting take on an ooze. The Thing horror sci-fi book and later movie is another possibility.
Molds and slimes aren’t monsters per say but hazards. Again we only have a few types of official content on these. So just like monsters this leaves tons of room for us as DMs and content creators to make new molds and slimes. Brown mold is reactive to fire and heat. A simple tweak to a different energy type would totally change the dynamic.
What about a black mold reactive to necrotic and radiant energy? It could be found where undead are found or even growing on zombies and skeletons.
Black Mold
Black mold is drawn to necrotic energy and feeds on radiant energy, drawing life from anything nearby. A patch of black mold typically covers a 5 foot square and the area within 30 feet of it dampens radiant energy and holy power.
- Undead within 30 feet gain Turn Resistance
- Undead have advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead
- Radiant damage dealt to a creature within 30 feet of the mold takes 22 (4d10) less damage
- Creatures healed by magic heal 22 (4d10) less healing
Black mold is immune to radiant and necrotic damage, and any source of radiant energy expended within 5 feet of a patch causes it to instantly expand outward in the direction of the radiant energy, covering a 5 foot square area (with the source of the radiant damage at the center of the area). A patch of black mold exposed to an effect that deals necrotic damage is instantly destroyed.
From Ted’s Head
Oozes are one of the go to monsters when you want to guarantee combat in 5E D&D. They are unthinking and uncaring entities. Looking at D&D Beyond I show there are 24 oozes ranging from CR ¼ to CR 10. Nerdarchy likes to think Outside the Box and if you have been around a while you might know about our booze ooze and intoxication rules.
I am going to take things even weirder. Allow me to introduce you to the fruit jellies. There are many naturally acidic fruits. What if some over enthusiastic alchemist-chef mixed some wrong ingredients and made a creation that smells sweet but certainly does not act that way?
Fruity Jelly
Medium ooze, unaligned
- Armor Class 8
- Hit Points 33 (6d8 +6)
- Speed 10 ft., climb 10 ft.
- Strength 13 (+1)
- Dexterity 6 (-2)
- Constitution 13 (+1)
- Intelligence 2 (-4)
- Wisdom 6 (-2)
- Charisma 1 (-5)
- Damage Resistances Acid
- Damage Immunities Lightning, Slashing
- Condition Immunities Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Exhaustion, Frightened, Prone
- Senses Blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), Passive Perception 8
- Languages —
- Challenge 1 (200 XP)
- Proficiency Bonus +2
Sweet Smell. Fruity Jellies give off a strong sweet smell to all within 60 feet. Choose or roll a d6 to determine the jelly’s qualities.
d6 roll — Scent and Color
- Lemon scent and yellow colored
- Orange scent — orange colored
- Lime scent — green colored
- Raspberry scent — red colored
- Blueberry scent — blue colored
- Grapefruit scent — pink colored
Attracted to Fruit. The sweet smell of fruit is impossible for the fruity jelly to ignore. If not engaged in melee it will use its movement to go towards a strong smell of fruit.
Amorphous. The jelly can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
Actions
Pseudopod. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d6 +1) bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) acid damage.
Reactions
Split. When a jelly that is Medium or larger is subjected to lightning or slashing damage, it splits into two new jellies if it has at least 10 hit points. Each new jelly has hit points equal to half the original jelly’s, rounded down. New jellies are one size smaller than the original jelly.
After we played the very food themed ngest Quest campaign over on the Nerdarchy Live channel I felt making a food related monster a very appropriate thing. If you use this ridiculous creation please let us know.
From the Nerditor’s Desk
It’s a toss up whether I like oozes or plants more when it comes to 5E D&D monsters. We already covered plants and now we’re getting all slimed up, which makes for a contented Nerditor Doug.
Oozes, slimes and jellies bring a certain kind of creepiness to an adventure. Even better there’s little to no chance any characters undergo a moral dilemma about how to deal with these sorts of creatures and hazards. Destroy them!
As a creature type there’s a longstanding tradition of oozes sharing a connection to the demon lord Juiblex too, so there’s ample opportunity to weave some far reaching implications into the presence of oozes in a campaign too. And then there’s the oblex, which makes for an amazing campaign villain.
One of the defining traits shared by several ooze monsters is they split into multiple oozes when dealt certain kinds of damage. I’ve borrowed this trait more than once for different kinds of creatures and it’s a lot of fun. The adventurers might not think so but for me as the DM it’s the case and generally players get a kick out of it too — once the horror of the situation subsides!
Split. When a pudding that is Medium or larger is subjected to lightning or slashing damage, it splits into two new puddings if it has at least 10 hit points. Each new pudding has hit points equal to half the original pudding’s, rounded down. New puddings are one size smaller than the original pudding.
The Split trait is super easy to slap onto any creature — including the player characters! Exercising a bit of caution is worthwhile though. It’s one thing for an ochre jelly to split into two and quite another for something more dangerous even at the same challenge rating. Take a gibbering mouther for example (a creature I’ve given the Split trait in the past).
While I haven’t yet used Split on a player character I think it could be quite a memorable scenario. Imagine a magical hazard or trap that deals a bit of damage to a character but also causes them to Split into two creatures. In a combat encounter this could quickly get out of hand but as an exploration challenge now the adventurers must find, capture and merge with their split duplicates, who of course scatter into the dungeon.
*Featured images — A gelatinous cube traps heroes then uses mirror images of itself to terrorize and confuse. There must be a way out! Check it out here. [Art by Kim Van Deun]
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