Oozing with potential, learn to optimise a Plasmoid character with our guide.
What are Plasmoids?
Plasmoids are ooze creatures and the only playable race with an official designation as an ooze. Like other oozes, they’re amorphous beings that can alter their shape however they want, but often appearing as a humanoid for convenience when among other humanoids.
Unlike other oozes, Plasmoids are intelligent beings that aren’t just ruled by impulses and instincts. They’re also a spacefaring race, most commonly encountered in the Spelljammer setting (though they can show up throughout the planes).
Plasmoids have been around since 2nd edition, but D&D 5e is the first time Plasmoids will be a playable race. As a space-faring race, they’ve appropriately been included in Spelljammer: Adventures in Space. Our guide will tell you everything you need to know to play as one of these very squidgy characters.
Is a Plasmoid the right race for me?
Dungeons and Dragons lets you take a flexible approach to building a character, but if you’re going to stick to typical culture and the best-optimised build for a Plasmoid you might consider the following:
Choose a Plasmoid if you like…
- Sneaking around places
- Being extremely malleable
- Enjoy controlling little pseudopods
- Being an alien
- Want some extra resistances
A Plasmoid might not be for you if…
- Care little for sneaking about
- Prefer being more solid
- Prefer being something a little more terrestrial
If you think a Plasmoid isn’t for you, not to worry, there are dozens of playable races for you to pick from, just check out our races guide to find out about all of them. For an alternative sneaky race, you could consider a Changeling or a Tabaxi.
Plasmoid racial traits
| Ability Scores | +2 to one ability score and +1 to another or +1 to 3 different ability scores |
| Creature Type | Ooze |
| Size | Medium or Small |
| Speed | 30ft |
| Languages | Common and one other language |
| Traits | Amorphous, Darkvision, Hold Breath, Natural Resilience, Shape Self |
| Proficiencies | None |
| Resistances | Acid, poison and poisoned |
| Darkvision | Yes |
| Innate Spellcasting | None |
| Book found in | Spelljammer: Adventures in Space |
Tactics
The big appeal of a Plasmoid are the stealth elements. Being able to squeeze through bars, grates and other small spaces. You also get some extra resiliences for greater durability and make a great grappler. As such, I’d recommend the following tactics:
Hard as jelly: With resistance to poison and acid damage and advantage on poisoned saving throws, you’ve got a great bunch of resilience abilities! This lends itself well to tanks and other classes that get in the thick of danger giving you some extra durability.
Sneaky slime: Your ability to change your form and squeeze through gaps is great for stealth based moments. On top of this, a detachable pseudopod is a great way to investigate danger making Plasmoids great at stealth, despite their lack of proficiency.
Grapple masters: Plasmoids get advantage on grapples (both initiating and escaping them) making them great grapplers. Make the most of this by going big on strength. Extra attacks will help here too as you can use a grapple as one of your attacks and attack with advantage with the rest. The action economy here is great too as it takes a full action to escape a grapple.
Which classes work well for a Plasmoid?
Plasmoids have some broad utility that works reasonably well for most classes. Extra durability is always great and stealth capabilities are often useful. Having said that, advantage on grapples is a waste on a character with low strength and few attacks. This does leave a conundrum on whether to invest more in strength for grapples or dexterity for stealth.
Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with a Centaur based on how well the racial traits work with each class:
Artificer⭐⭐⭐
Barbarian ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bard ⭐⭐
Cleric ⭐⭐
Druid ⭐⭐
Fighter ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Monk ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ranger ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rogue ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Warlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wizard ⭐⭐
*Star ratings scored out of 5
Best classes for a Plasmoid
Fighters and monks are the stand out options here with multiple attacks to take advantage of grapples and some decent stealth capabilities. Monks don’t use armor and are pretty stealthy so make a great option for sneaking around places. Fighters can easily utilise some dexterity to fulfill this role. Both classes benefit from the extra durability offered by a Plasmoids resiliences, though monks probably need it more as they aren’t as tough as a fighter.
There are a bunch of other solid options too which do great at other roles. Barbarians and paladins make solid grapplers, but only get the 2 attacks. Rogues and rangers utilise stealth elements well.
Worst classes for a Plasmoid
Wizards and bards don’t really need extra durability, clerics and wizards are poor at stealth (plus rely too much on armor and spellbooks to squeeze around places). Druids on the other hand, can accomplish similar things by shapeshifting. All of this means Plasmoids do less for these classes.
About Plasmoids
Appearance
Plasmoids are amorphous oozes meaning they can take whatever shape they want. Most Plasmoids stick to being humanoid shaped when around humanoids but can transform their shape whenever necessary. If they need to squeeze through the bars of a jail cell, they can manage it, if they need to stretch their body up tall, they can do that too (though a Plasmoid is officially small or medium sized). A Plasmoid can even separate a pseudopod from itself to act independently.
While squidgy, Plasmoids can maintain a firm form or can make themselves very pliable. They also aren’t limited by internal organs of the sort Humans and other races need to worry about allowing them to squeeze their body into a space as thin as 1 inch.
In terms of colour, Plasmoids are translucent beings that are naturally grey but can alter their colour by absorbing dyes to make themselves whatever colour they want.
Personality
Spelljammer: Adventures in Space is light on details about Plasmoid culture and personality giving you an opportunity to create this for yourself. It’s worth noting though that Plasmoids are a particularly alien race and likely are not driven by the same drives as many other playable races. They breathe by absorbing oxygen, consume food by osmosis and don’t need to worry about getting stuck in small spaces (normally). This means that some of the typical fears that most Humanoids might be concerned by are not concerns for Plasmoids. Equally, some of their habits may seem odd or even disturbing for other races.
How to roleplay as a Plasmoid
This is difficult as Wizards of the Coast have given us so little to work with on what Plasmoids are like. I’d say though, that’s it’s worth leaning into the alien nature of Plasmoids and focusing on what might differentiate your character from some of the more “normal” playable races. What quirks might you exhibit (such as absorbing food through your skin, does it then just un-absorb when you need to excrete).
You might also want to focus on your motivations. Why are you an adventurer and how have you come to be where you are. If in the Spelljammer setting, this might not be too unusual an occurrence, but if your campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms for instance, then why are you there?
