Lore, tactics and ideas for using oozes in your campaign.
Slimy, gooey and extremely deadly. Most oozes are simple large piles of goop made up of a nasty, often corrosive substance. What that substance is varies from ooze to ooze, but as a general rule, you don’t want to touch one, and you definitely don’t want to be absorbed by one either.
Most oozes are also unintelligent, acting by instinct alone. In fact their ability to sense rather than see and their instinctive rather than considered behaviour makes them similar to plants in intellect and behaviour (even if they tend to be far more carnivorous and mobile than most plants).
There are exceptions to this rule. Plasmoids, for example, are a type of intelligent ooze that can appear and even behave like a humanoid. They can even be used as a playable character. However, plasmoids are the exception rather than the rule in this regard.
How are oozes created?
Many believe that oozes were created by the demon lord Juiblex, though it’s unknown if this is true. This idea might simply come from the similarities in a appearance with Juiblex as well as his ability to control them.
In reality, it seems that oozes can form in many ways from wizardly experiments gone wrong (or sometimes right) to magically affected black dragon saliva (yes, that’s a real way to form a black pudding). In fact, some oozes are formed in the process of creating constructs or magically altering creatures with the process ending up going horribly wrong.
Some oozes can also split to form into new versions of themselves. A black pudding struck by lightning or a splashing attack will split to form 2 separate oozes!
Types of Oozes
Oozes aren’t a common type of creature in the D&D universe (which is to be expected considering they’re created by magical accidents and black dragon saliva), but there are a few different types to be aware of.
Standard oozes
The more typical oozes you might encounter include the likes of black puddings, gelatinous cubes, gray oozes and ochre jellies. All of these oozes are normally created through some accidental magical process of some kind or another.
Each will attempt to trap and corrode its victims, sensing their presence and consuming their corroded bodies. In the case of the gelatinous cube, it will literally engulf its prey in its transparent body as it slowly corrodes into just bones and eventually, nothingness.
Blob of annihilation – Colossal, all-consuming oozes
If you’re much unluckier, you might come across a blob of annihilation, this is a gargantuan ooze of mass destruction, capable of consuming entire cities. Normally only found in the relatively uninhabited depths of Wildspace, these titanic monsters are occasionally summoned by powerful wizards seeking great destruction.
Oblexes – mind flayer spawned oozes
Some oozes have been experimented on by enterprising mind flayers to create oblexes. These creatures feed on the memories of their victims, eventually being able to transform parts of themselves into such creatures. The more memories they consume, the larger and more powerful they become and the more memories they can draw from. Often, oblexes will use the copied forms of their past victims to lure more victims to a gooey doom.
Slithering tracker – Oozified humanoids consumed by vengeance
Created by sucking all the liquid from a willing body through an unholy ritual, slithering trackers retain the memories of their former life, filled with an insatiable desire to exact vengeance. As an ooze, these creatures can be subtle, creeping through pipes, cracks and waterways until they find their prey, wrapping themselves around their mouth and suffocating them while they drain their life force.
Plasmoids – Humanoid oozes
Plasmoids are the only type of ooze with humanoid intelligence. While made up of oozy substance and able to alter their shape, they actual live in societies, can communicate and even live among other humanoids. That’s not to say that they behave like other humanoids, they are still quite alien in their outlook and approach, but they’re humanoid enough to be a playable character and enlist (and even thrive) in daring adventures.
Using oozes in your campaigns
Oozes are excellent for causing unexpected effects on adventurers. They don’t act or react like many other creatures creating sort of puzzles and accidental problems for a party.
Below I’ve put together some ideas you can use:
- Corrode weapons and armor – Black puddings and gray oozes make a great way to reduce the effectiveness of martials as each hit to or from these items will reduce it’s AC/damage by 1 each time, eventually corroding it into nothingness. They make a great frontline force against a martial heavy group to then send in your elite creatures afterwards to deal with a severely debilitated group.
- Suffocate and engulf – Gelatinous cubes love to engulf unsuspecting adventurers into their body, inflicting the double danger of suffocation and melting in an oozy acid. Chuckle maniacally as your players attempt to pull one another out before they’re consumed by acid.
- Set traps – Gelatinous cubes (and other oozes) make great traps too. An enterprising wizard might have gelatinous cubes fall from the ceiling when a trap is triggered and potentially engulf several adventurers. Or you could just chuck several in a covered pit and watch the party try to escape a pit of ooze! In fact a gelatinous cube that just stands still could go unnoticed and be walked right into.
- Overwhelm with splitting oozes – Ochre jellies can split into multiple forms of themselves. This can quickly become overwhelming if you have several of these things sliding around.
- Create imposters with an oblex – If you’re looking for a more mysterious, story led monster, an oblex can be a great option. Have it begin to take over people the party know as it then tries to enact its own agenda upon the party. They’re also great if you’re looking for a slightly more challenging foe for mid-level parties.
- Apocalyptic oozes – Of course if you’re looking for something truly devastating, just send a blob of annihilation along. I’ve written a whole article about using the blob of annihilation in your games which you can check out for inspiration.
What ingenious ways have you used for oozes in your campaign? Let me know in the comments below.