Ooze Dungeon [3.P]

[Otherworld Odd]

'Ello playground. I was interested in running an ooze-themed adventure for my play-group. It would be around EL 12 most likely. The length is around one regular paizo module.

Basically, what I'm asking:

1.) Are there any in current existence? In this case, level doesn't matter.

2.) In the case the answer to 1 is no. Are there any interesting ooze creatures? Any, really. Also, what could I do for the big boss of the module? Any ideas will be awesome.

Edit: Note, they can be ooze-related. They don't all have to be oozes.


An idea I had was to have a room that's just an ooze. If the players don't see it (I think it's a perception check or something), they would probably walk into it.

[Bakkan]

The Monster Manual III has the Arcane Ooze and the Living Spell template, both of which are very interesting ooze creatures.

Also, I would suggest that you either let your players know that this is going to be an ooze-themed adventure beforehand or take a look at their character concepts to make sure that they will be effective. Oozes are immune to many classic character builds, including precision damage dealers and spellcasters using mind-affecting spells. There are of course ways to get around this, and if one of your players really wants to play a rogue, there is an ACF (I'm sure someone can give a reference) that gives up trap sense for the ability to deal half Sneak Attack damage to things that are normally immune.

[FelixG]

One interesting idea could be the ooze dungeon is really a creature that they venture into, the oozes act like antibodies, they end up waking the creature, have to fight their way out then fight it once outside :smallbiggrin:

[Darrin]

1.) Are there any in current existence? In this case, level doesn't matter.


The Zargon section in Elder Evils involves a lot of oozes. That's all I can think of that's "official".

The problem with an entire dungeon full of oozes is that they work more like terrain features or traps than monsters. They're only dangerous if they surprise the PCs. If the PCs see/detect them first, they can usually just walk away and kill it with ranged weapons or come back later with explody-stuff.



2.) In the case the answer to 1 is no. Are there any interesting ooze creatures? Any, really. Also, what could I do for the big boss of the module? Any ideas will be awesome.


Fiendish Monk Gelatinous Cube (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20060922a)

More Elite Opponents: Oozes (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20040521a)

Intelligent Oozes:
Reason Stealer (MMII)
Conflagration Ooze (MMIII)
Summoning Ooze (MMIII)
Cesspit Ooze (Cityscape)
Assassin Jelly (WotC Article (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040916a))
Sentry Ooze template (Dungeonscape)

WotC also did a series of articles on Living Spells (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archeb/ls). You may also want to track down the Spell Sovereign in Dragon Magazine #357, which is an Eberron PrC designed around creating living spells. I could easily see a high-level Spell Sovereign dedicating his entire life's work to researching Living Spells, and creating a lair/dungeon/tower to study them.

There are also a few of "ooze-like" aberrations/outsiders: Chaos Beast, Gibbering Mouther, Aoa (Fiend Folio), anything with the gelatinous template (Savage Species) or pseudonatural template (Complete Arcane or Lords of Madness).

As far as "interesting" oozes, the Summoning Ooze is just begging to be a BBEG, particularly an advanced 15HD version, or something with spellcaster levels + Thaumaturge or Malconvoker.

The best way to make oozes more interesting is give it a ranged attack (for example, the Bloodfire Ooze's Negative Energy Ray) or something that makes them stronger if you use the "wrong" attack. Arcane Ooze's Spell Siphon comes to mind, or any ooze with the Spellwarped template.

For a "Final Boss Fight", a Teratomorph could be pretty interesting, although it would be a little like fighting an epic-level nuclear-powered Rod of Wonder: "Ok, this round, the ranger grows three tentacles out of his left earlobe. The druid was plane-shifted to the elemental plane of candy. The rogue got polymorphed into a ham-flavored watermelon with abandonment issues. The barbarian is still stuck hip-deep in the mud on the ceiling, which is now the floor again, and oh yeah... the mud is also on fire. Everybody save vs. trombones."

[Psyren]

Thirding Living Spells; Oozes don't get more interesting than that, as there's a thousand different directions you can take them in. You could even theme the dungeon around them - say, and the Arcane Experimentation Wing of a school of magic, where a freak accident occurred, the faculty have lost contact with everyone inside, and nobody sent to find out what the deal is has made it back. You can even have good-aligned oozes side with the party for awhile, like a Living Holy Word or Living Vigorous Circle.

Note that Living Spell can actually be applied to a combination of spells. You could have a boss monster be, for example a Living Blasphemy+ MCA Good + Desecrate, somehow controlled by the corrupt former headmaster trying to fulfill the "unspeakably evil act" required to become a lich.

[veven]

A Thrall of Jubilex might be a cool boss encounter. Jubilex is the demon lord of oozes and the PRC is from the book of vile darkness.

[Quietus]

Worse - living Mindrape.

Gives a whole new terrifying meaning to "In one ear, out the other" :smalleek:

[Zaydos]

Also Ooze Paraelementals from Manual of the Planes (just be careful they have equipment destruction powers), and a Dragon Magazine (I forget which one) has an Ooze Paraelemental creature template.

[Psyren]

Worse - living Mindrape.

Gives a whole new terrifying meaning to "In one ear, out the other" :smalleek:

You'll never have to worry about it, because Living Mindrape is impossible. :smalltongue:


A Thrall of Jubilex might be a cool boss encounter. Jubilex is the demon lord of oozes and the PRC is from the book of vile darkness.

There's also an Oozemaster or something in a Faerun book I think, and also some ooze stuff in one of the Dragon mags, IIRC.

[potatocubed]

Fiendish Monk Gelatinous Cube (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20060922a)

The fiendish gelatinous cube monk is one of my favourite monsters ever.

If you can, grab yourself an old AD&D Monstrous Manual and check out the bewildering variety of oozes in there. You might have to do some conversion work, but the selection is plentiful.

[Curious]

The Shoggoth would make an awesome, but possibly overpowering final boss. You can find the stats for it on the Pathfinder SRD.

[Quietus]

You'll never have to worry about it, because Living Mindrape is impossible. :smalltongue:

I'm pretty sure that's just what it WANTS you to believe...

[Dalek-K]

I pitted some players up against the Ooze Monks that wizards had on display a while back... Also letting the Ooze become a UA variant Druid is nasty :smallcool:

[potatocubed]

The gelatinous creature template from Savage Species?

[Psyren]

I'm pretty sure that's just what it WANTS you to believe...

...Oh god. (said in a voice of horror)


Just for clarity's sake though, I'll quickly summarize the requirements for Living Spells:

1) The spell(s) cannot be targeted (This is the one that kills Mindrape.)
2) The spell(s) must have either an "Area:" or "Effect:" line (or both.)
3) The "Effect:" cannot already be a creature. (So no Living Summon Monster.)

Any spell or combination of spells that meets all three of these is fair game.

[Gadora]

Your bringing back unpleasant (but fun) memories. I'll I'm going to say is that it helps if you have some underwater passages for combat to take place in, and it helps if your opening words of your description of what an ooze looks like can also apply to finding a pool of water. Also, for some reason, mimics worked pretty well.

[flabort]

One of the links that Darrin posted, specifically the articles on living spells, had about 12 living spells statted out, and at least 4 of them specifically broke the Area/effect/no targeted rule.
The idea was that other spells may throw the balance off too much, but certain spells are OK.
So, I don't see too much wrong with a living mindrape (But save it for the horror themed wing, please :smalleek:).

[Otherworld Odd]

I've heard of living 'cure' spells where the players just touch the ooze and get a cure.

The living spells are definitely interesting to me. I think this could go well with the school/university/wizard study gone wrong type of thing (Which seems like a lot of fun).

What book can I find the Terratomorph in? I love Rod of wonders and think this could be a very fun encounter based on the description I got here. >_>

[Psyren]

One of the links that Darrin posted, specifically the articles on living spells, had about 12 living spells statted out, and at least 4 of them specifically broke the Area/effect/no targeted rule.

Which ones?

The only one I see in those links that breaks the rules outright is Living Flesh to Stone, and the article specifically stated the base spell was a modified Flesh to Stone. Living Confusion is sort of iffy but you can drop the "Target" line from the spell without changing its effect at all (i.e. wording it like Deep Slumber instead.)

[flabort]

Sorry, I was sort of-kind of wrong.
I was referring to Web, flesh-to-stone (which you pointed out is modified), confusion (which you also pointed out), and... Well, I saw 1 each in each of the ones I read, I assumed there'd be one in the fourth.

My apologies.

[Psyren]

Living Web is also fine; the spell has no target and creates a non-creature effect.

I crucify WotC over statblocks all the time, but I try to give them credit where it is due as well :smallwink:

[Qwertystop]

What book can I find the Terratomorph in? I love Rod of wonders and think this could be a very fun encounter based on the description I got here. >_>

Yeah, I want to know this too.

[Darrin]

Yeah, I want to know this too.

Teratomorph is in MMII. CR 16, 28 HD, 324 HP. It only gets one slam attack, but anything it hits has to make a Fort save DC 29 or it gets morphed/mutated in some way: physical mutation, tissue annihilation, polymorph any object (DM's choice), bonding (automatic grapple + constrict damage), or absorption (instant death, ooze gains 1 permanent HD). Every round, one creature chosen at random within 120' must make a Ref save DC 19 or get plane-shifted to a random plane. Also, whenever it moves or attacks, a 120' emanation of reality-warping chaos energy ripples out from its body, imposing a -4 circumstance penalty on all attacks and Dex checks, and there's a 10% chance that a more dramatic effect is triggered on top of that: roll 1d20 and apply two spell effects to the 120' emanation, which starts out with entangle + obscuring mist and goes all the way up to earthquake + prismatic spray.

[Otherworld Odd]

Teratomorph is in MMII. CR 16, 28 HD, 324 HP. It only gets one slam attack, but anything it hits has to make a Fort save DC 29 or it gets morphed/mutated in some way: physical mutation, tissue annihilation, polymorph any object (DM's choice), bonding (automatic grapple + constrict damage), or absorption (instant death, ooze gains 1 permanent HD). Every round, one creature chosen at random within 120' must make a Ref save DC 19 or get plane-shifted to a random plane. Also, whenever it moves or attacks, a 120' emanation of reality-warping chaos energy ripples out from its body, imposing a -4 circumstance penalty on all attacks and Dex checks, and there's a 10% chance that a more dramatic effect is triggered on top of that: roll 1d20 and apply two spell effects to the 120' emanation, which starts out with entangle + obscuring mist and goes all the way up to earthquake + prismatic spray.

That's... terrifying...


It's perfect! >_> Of course, I'll probably provide an oust for my players so they won't be too harmed by the encounter...

[flabort]

:smalleek: :smalleek: :smalleek: :smalleek: :smalleek:
You weren't kidding when you said "epic level nuclear powered Wand of Wonder."

Yeesh, that can't be CR 16. :smalleek:

[Qwertystop]

I suppose by Level 16 they somehow expected the "standard" unoptimized party of Wizard, Cleric, Fighter/Barbarian, and Rogue to each individually have methods of Plane Shifting and Teleporting numerous times daily? And still be not particularly optimized? Wow...

[Tyndmyr]

IIRC, MM2 has some terrible random CRing in general. It's a problem that comes and goes throughout WoTC stuff. Some is great. Some is terrible.

[Otherworld Odd]

So around what CR would you peg this guy at?

[Qwertystop]

After seeing it, I want to play an Intelligent Rod of Wonder with levels in Wild Mage. Preferably after asking the DM to let the Rod of Wonder have more effects, at roughly equal power to the original, but 290 different ones, with 289th being Roll Twice, and 290 being Roll Thrice.
A roll of 00 brings you to the second table of 100, and another brings you to the table of 90, where 91-95 are the Roll Twice, and 96-00 are Roll Thrice.



That's... terrifying...


It's perfect! >_> Of course, I'll probably provide an oust for my players so they won't be too harmed by the encounter...
As one possibility for the way out, make the Tetramorph exist on equivalent spots in all planes at once, and make the Plane Shift go to that equivalent place. Similarly, allow PS-ing to focus on the exact location of the Tetramorph, as it warps reality so much it's almost impossible to miss. Therefore, the Plane Shift would not be a "you're out of the encounter for a while", and more of a "you're separated from the party, still fighting this thing, but lots of natural hazards to match the new plane".

[Steveotep]

The Complete Guide to Doppelgangers from Goodman Games had a web enhancement with a living dungeon that generated oozes out of its walls. I will see if it is still available.

If you are wondering what the connection with doppelgangers is, the book has a complex lifecycle with doppelgangers becoming mimics and then a living building called a "doppelstadte", which produces more doppelgangers. Sometimes a doppelstadte goes insane and creates unintelligent oozes instead. As both the doppelstadte and its offspring are telepathic they can react to what the adventurers are thinking.

"That sounds like a dragon ahead."

"I hope we don't meet any beholders."

[Otherworld Odd]

As one possibility for the way out, make the Tetramorph exist on equivalent spots in all planes at once, and make the Plane Shift go to that equivalent place. Similarly, allow PS-ing to focus on the exact location of the Tetramorph, as it warps reality so much it's almost impossible to miss. Therefore, the Plane Shift would not be a "you're out of the encounter for a while", and more of a "you're separated from the party, still fighting this thing, but lots of natural hazards to match the new plane".

That's a great idea. It's very boss like and much better than just handing them a scroll or two of planeshift before-hand. =D. I think I'll use this.




The Complete Guide to Doppelgangers from Goodman Games had a web enhancement with a living dungeon that generated oozes out of its walls. I will see if it is still available.

If you are wondering what the connection with doppelgangers is, the book has a complex lifecycle with doppelgangers becoming mimics and then a living building called a "doppelstadte", which produces more doppelgangers. Sometimes a doppelstadte goes insane and creates unintelligent oozes instead. As both the doppelstadte and its offspring are telepathic they can react to what the adventurers are thinking.

"That sounds like a dragon ahead."

"I hope we don't meet any beholders."

That sounds quite fun. If it's still available I'll definitely look it over.

[Steveotep]

The print version of The Complete Guide to Dopplegangers is D&D 3.0. There are four web enhancements for it available legally and free here:

http://www.goodman-games.com/3000preview.html

There is a 3.5 version only as a pdf, which includes all the extras, and doubles the size of the original book. It is available from DrivethruRPG and similar. Well worth the cost.