Vote up an Ooze! Now Voting: Ability bonuses/penalties

[Drogorn]

I was suddenly possessed by the desire to make something amorphous, so lets vote up an Ooze!

At any point during voting, you may propose as many special abilities as you like. Feel free to be vague or specific. You will vote on them later if I get enough.

Since you voted for Augmented, we are now creating a template.

Fifth vote: Special Abilities

In this vote, you get three votes, one for the number of special abilities you want the template to grant, and two for those special abilities you want it to possess. These special abilities are subject to change when I am building the template, but their basic form will be the same.

Environment: Any City/Ruin
{table=head]Climate|Votes
Any|3
Cold|1
Temperate|1
Warm|0
[/table]

{table=head]Terrain|Votes
Any|0
Aquatic|0
Desert|1
Forest|0
Hills|0
Marsh|1
Mountains|0
Plains|0
Planar|1
Underground|0
Urban/Ruin|4
[/table]
Subtype: Swarm and Augmented{table=head]Subtype | Votes
None | 0
Air | 0
Aquatic | 0
Augmented | 5
Chaotic | 3
Cold | 0
Earth | 1
Evil | 3
Fire | 0
Good | 0
Incorporeal| 3
Lawful | 1
Shapechanger | 4
Swarm | 5
Water | 0[/table]
Additional movement types: Climb and Burrow
{table=head]Type | Votes
Flight | -2
Swim | -2
Burrow | 3
Climb | 3[/table]
Ability Bonuses and penalties:
{table=head]Ability | Votes
Str | -1
Dex | 4
Con | 2
Int | 0
Wis | -1
Cha | -2[/table]
{table=head]Special Ability | Votes
Ego Drain | 1
Pseudopodia | 0
Inhabit Body | 1
Shock | 0
Engulf | 1
Ability Acquisition | 0
Reactive Armor | 1
Force Sneak Attack | 0
Squeeze | 0
Burrow | 0
Absorb Sentience | 0[/table]

{table=head]Number | Votes
1 | 0
2 | 0
3 | 2
4 | 0
5 | 0
6+ | 0[/table]


Special ability propositions:

Ego Drain: contact deals no-save 1d6 charisma drain, which cannot be recovered except through a deity's intervention or epic magic. The ooze gains 1 HD every time it deals this damage.
Pseudopodia: the ooze may weild up to six manufactured weapons.
Inhabit body: the ability to take over physical control of a subjet by seeping in through its pores and controlling the subjects muscle reactions, by giving them small jolts of electricity. The subject would be conscious of everything that was happening, but unable to do anything. This should require a high Fort save to resist.
Shock: deal damage with electricity.
Engulf: You all know what this does.
Ability Acquisition: when engulfing an enemy, the ooze may attempt to acquire any special (Ex, Su, Sp) ability or attack which the engulfed enemy possess and which is tied to a body-part of the creature. The engulfed creature may resist with a Fort save with a DC of X (likely an arbitrary number plus the ooze's constitution modifier + plus a function of HD). If the ability or attack is successfully acquired, then the creature from which it was acquired from looses it, and may only regain it from an effect which restore the body-part to which it was tied, such as certain forms of the Regeneration ability. An acquired ability functioned as it did on the creature from which it was acquired, except that it is always based on the ooze's constitution modifier.
Reactive Armor: When the <creature> takes damage, it's membrane toughens up immediately, restricting it's movement but giving it greater resistance to harm.
When it takes damage from an attack, it takes a -1 penalty to any Dex based checks or abilities. Further attacks may lower it further. For each -1 penalty to Dex it sustains, it gains DR 1/- and a +2 bonus natural armor, both of which stack with themselves. It can only have a sum -5 maximum penalty to Dex based values from this ability, and therefor only a maximum of DR 5/- and +10 natural armor from this ability. Each penalty, and the bonuses with it, wear off 2d6 rounds after receiving them.
The new AC and DR the <creature> gains from this ability do not affect the attack that produces this, but it does affect further attacks received afterward.
Absorb Sentience: deal 1d4 damage to Charisma, Wisdom, and Intelligence with a Will save for half damage. The ooze then gains 1 Hit Die and 1 point of Charisma, Wisdom, and Intelligence for each time it deals this damage.
Force Sneak Attack: As rogue, but can be used by any attack made by the ooze. Also, the damage would be force, not precision.
Squeeze: can squeeze through small spaces.
Burrow: You know what this does.

[Sodalite]

Any climate and Urban/Ruin terrain.

[radmelon]

Another vote for any climate and urban/ruin/whatnot terrain.

[RedWarrior0]

Another vote for Urban/Ruin

Also, special ability: Absorb Sentience: contact deals no-save 1d6 charisma drain, which cannot be recovered except through a deity's intervention or epic magic. The ooze gains 1 HD every time it deals this damage.

[Tanuki Tales]

Another vote for Any Climate and Urban/Ruin.

And I know you only said throw out special abilities this early into it, but may I suggest this Ooze potentially be on the lower end of the CR scale? We don't have nearly enough of those.

[Drogorn]

And I know you only said throw out special abilities this early into it, but may I suggest this Ooze potentially be on the lower end of the CR scale? We don't have nearly enough of those.

That will be a later vote.

Votes tallied.

[flabort]

My vote is for cold and desert

I'm going to assume any special abilities may not get in, depending on how many you get, but how about the ooze can wield up to six manufactured weapons? :smallsmile: Let's call it pseudopodia until a better name for the ability can be found.

[The Underlord]

I vote for planar terrain. Why? because I havent seen any planar oozes ever.

[Reaper_Monkey]

Temperate and Marsh get my vote.

[Drogorn]

Votes tallied! The winner is Any City/Ruin.

Next vote: subtype.

[SamBurke]

Swarm, Shapechanger, and Lawful get my votes.

[radmelon]

I vote for earth as a subtype.

[Drogorn]

Swarm, Shapechanger, and Lawful get my votes.

Which two of those do you want to be your vote?

[SamBurke]

Derp.

Swarm and Shapechange. The thought of dozens of tiny little cubes squealing towards characters with tiny chitters amuses me to no end.

And the thought of Jacob as a Gelatinous Cube also amuses me. Especially as it would leave Edward powerless... his enemy can't do anything either!

[ideasmith]

I vote for chaos and swarm.

[flabort]

Augmented + Swarm

Imagine those hundreds of little oozes coming at you, towards you, sometimes "Oozing" together, sometimes splitting apart. Frequently.

Now, imagine those tiny oozes look like rats, or beetles, or something, when they get close. Or have a similar shape to that. :smallwink: And have little tiny teeth.

[EdroGrimshell]

Augmented Outsider & Chaos, preferably an intelligent ooze

[Lord Vampyre]

I vote for Incorporeal and Evil.

As for a special ability: You should give it the ability to take over physical control of a subjet by seeping in through its pores and controlling the subjects muscle reactions, by giving them small jolts of electricity. The subject would be conscious of everything that was happening, but unable to do anything. This should require a high Fort save to resist.

It should also have some sort of natural electricity attack. Perhaps something like Shocking Grasp at will.

[The Underlord]

Shapechanger and swarm.

[Sodalite]

Augmented (Construct); Shapechanger

A hold-over from other oozes: Engulf

A new ability: Ability Acquisition, when engulfing an enemy, the ooze may attempt to acquire any special (Ex, Su, Sp) ability or attack which the engulfed enemy possess and which is tied to a body-part of the creature. The engulfed creature may resist with a Fort save with a DC of X (likely an arbitrary number plus the ooze's constitution modifier + plus a function of HD). If the ability or attack is successfully acquired, then the creature from which it was acquired from looses it, and may only regain it from an effect which restore the body-part to which it was tied, such as certain forms of the Regeneration ability. An acquired ability functioned as it did on the creature from which it was acquired, except that it is always based on the ooze's constitution modifier.

[EdroGrimshell]

A new ability: Ability Acquisition, when engulfing an enemy, the ooze may attempt to acquire any special (Ex, Su, Sp) ability or attack which the engulfed enemy possess and which is tied to a body-part of the creature. The engulfed creature may resist with a Fort save with a DC of X (likely an arbitrary number plus the ooze's constitution modifier + plus a function of HD). If the ability or attack is successfully acquired, then the creature from which it was acquired from looses it, and may only regain it from an effect which restore the body-part to which it was tied, such as certain forms of the Regeneration ability. An acquired ability functioned as it did on the creature from which it was acquired, except that it is always based on the ooze's constitution modifier.

I would like to second the use of this ability

[Fearan]

My vote goes to Incorporeal&Evil Ectoplasm, anyone?

[radmelon]

If we each get two votes for this, my second is Chaos.

[Drogorn]

Votes tallied!

[Tanuki Tales]

Shapechanger and Augmented.

[Lateral]

I'll go for Incorporeal and Evil; a shapechanger ooze swarm has already been done.

[EdroGrimshell]

Can i change my vote to Symbiont & Swarm?

[flabort]

It'll have the top two subtypes, right?
What happens if there's a tie for "Second" place? three+ subtypes? Just one?

Also, another ability proposition:
Reactive Armor: When the <creature> takes damage, it's membrane toughens up immediately, restricting it's movement but giving it greater resistance to harm.
When it takes damage from an attack, it takes a -1 penalty to any Dex based checks or abilities. Further attacks may lower it further. For each -1 penalty to Dex it sustains, it gains DR 1/- and a +2 bonus natural armor, both of which stack with themselves. It can only have a sum -5 maximum penalty to Dex based values from this ability, and therefor only a maximum of DR 5/- and +10 natural armor from this ability. Each penalty, and the bonuses with it, wear off 2d6 rounds after receiving them.
The new AC and DR the <creature> gains from this ability do not affect the attack that produces this, but it does affect further attacks received afterward.

Terribly worded, but it gets the point across, I think...

[Drogorn]

Can i change my vote to Symbiont & Swarm?

No, symbiont isn't on the list and I'm wanting to make a monster anyway. That does, however, sound like an interesting idea that I may make later.

Votes tallied!

[Lateral]

Guys, again, there's already at least one shapechanger ooze swarm (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=177397&page=6) on this forum, and I'm fairly certain I've seen another.

[Tanuki Tales]

Guys, again, there's already at least one shapechanger ooze swarm (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=177397&page=6) on this forum, and I'm fairly certain I've seen another.

Maybe then, when the time for voting on subtype is over, if there are any ties we do a sudden death vote with only the most popular being chosen for subtype?

[flabort]

Sweet... I like that thing.

Hmm... Just for the lulz, I think when the vote for Ability scores comes, I'll vote for Intelligence to be the highest. That hasn't been done for an ooze swarm yet. :smallwink:

Edit: Re-read your link. It has 21 Int. I thought it was mindless. :smallconfused:
Nevermind the struck through.

[Lord Vampyre]

I'd like to recommend a slight variation to the Absorb Sentience ability. Absorb Sentience should deal 1d4 damage to Charisma, Wisdom, and Intelligence with a Will save for half damage. The ooze then gains 1 Hit Die and 1 point of Charisma, Wisdom, and Intelligence for each time it deals this damage.

This way the ooze gets smarter every time it absorbs the sentience of another creature.

[Lateral]

I'd like to recommend a slight variation to the Absorb Sentience ability. Absorb Sentience should deal 1d4 damage to Charisma, Wisdom, and Intelligence with a Will save for half damage. The ooze then gains 1 Hit Die and 1 point of Charisma, Wisdom, and Intelligence for each time it deals this damage.

This way the ooze gets smarter every time it absorbs the sentience of another creature.

I'd also like to recommend that the bonus Hit Die goes away after 24 hours, but the mental stat bonuses do not. Also, if it ends up being mindless, then just have it be CHA/WIS bonuses.

[Knaight]

Guys, again, there's already at least one shapechanger ooze swarm (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=177397&page=6) on this forum, and I'm fairly certain I've seen another.

There was also the incorporeal ooze swarm (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94090) a while back. Granted, its basically forgotten, I probably wouldn't remember it if I hadn't managed to slip in an ability of my own. Which I can now see is completely worthless mechanically, though conceptually sound.

[Lateral]

There was also the incorporeal ooze swarm (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94090) a while back. Granted, its basically forgotten, I probably wouldn't remember it if I hadn't managed to slip in an ability of my own.
Yeah, that was it. Still, an ooze swarm has been made a bunch of times already.

[137beth]

Swarm and augmented. Swarms are awesome:smallsmile:

[flabort]

Only thing better than swarms are templates :smalltongue:

And so what if a n ooze swarm has been done before? It's obviously what the people like, so give it to them :smalltongue:

[Drogorn]

Votes tallied!

[Fluffy Gryphon]

Lawful.

I'd love to see how that would pan out.

[Drogorn]

The subtypes are Swarm and Augmented.

Next vote: Additional movement types

In this vote, you get both an up vote, which adds one to the count, and a down vote, which reduces the count by one. The template will add all movement types greater than zero. You must use your down vote, or your vote will not be counted.

[Lateral]

Hmm... let's see if I understand

Up Climb speed (spider climb)

Down Fly speed

[Drogorn]

Hmm... let's see if I understand

Up Climb speed (spider climb)

Down Fly speed

Correct. Now climb has one vote, and Fly has negative one votes.

[The Underlord]

Up flye
Down swim.

[Tanuki Tales]

Up Climb (Spider Climb)
Down Fly

[Howler Dagger]

+1 Flight. Flying oozes!
-1 Climb.

Special Ability: Sneak Attack: As rogue, but can be used by any attack made by the ooze. Also, the damage would be force, not perscision.

[Drogorn]

Votes tallied.

Keep those special abilities coming people! You can propose as many as you like!

[Lateral]

I just kind of feel that a lot of swarms have a Fly speed, and both of the homebrew ooze swarms had a fly speed, but they didn't have climb speeds- it'd be more different.

[ideasmith]

Up: Burrow
Down: Climb

[EdroGrimshell]

Up: Swim
Down: Fly

[radmelon]

+Climb
-Swim

[Knaight]

+Burrow
-Fly

The mental image of a bunch of tiny oozes emerging from the ground and forming around someone is just too good to pass up. Also, lots of houses have dirt floors, which helps it be a stealthy killer.

[flabort]

+Burrow
-Swim

[SamBurke]

+1 to Burrow,-1 to Fly.

Special abilities: able to squeeze through small spaces? IE, a door, a wall, etc?

[Lateral]

If Burrow does end up being a speed, then I move for the Burrow speed to be able to go through rock. It's more badass that way.

[EdroGrimshell]

If Burrow does end up being a speed, then I move for the Burrow speed to be able to go through rock. It's more badass that way.

Earthglide, like an earth elemental

[Lateral]

Earthglide, like an earth elemental

That actually sounds about right, except also remove the metal restriction- I think that that would give it an awesome 'inexorable slime killer' feel. Yeah, I'll second that.

[137beth]

+1 to burrow,
-1 to flight

[Knaight]

That actually sounds about right, except also remove the metal restriction- I think that that would give it an awesome 'inexorable slime killer' feel. Yeah, I'll second that.

I like it. Or perhaps it can't burrow through metal via earthglide, but can eat through it. The metal won't save you, but it will indicate where the thing that ate you came from.

[Lateral]

I like it. Or perhaps it can't burrow through metal via earthglide, but can eat through it. The metal won't save you, but it will indicate where the thing that ate you came from.

Only if it's an acid-secreting ooze. It probably will be, since most oozes secrete acid, but if it isn't then this doesn't make sense.

It would be awesome, though.

[Knaight]

Only if it's an acid-secreting ooze. It probably will be, since most oozes secrete acid, but if it isn't then this doesn't make sense.

It would be awesome, though.

You still have time to change your vote to Burrow instead of Climb.

[Lateral]

You still have time to change your vote to Burrow instead of Climb.

Why? The votes increase how fast the speed is; you can have a Burrow speed and a Climb speed, and Burrow already has plenty of votes.

[Drogorn]

Why? The votes increase how fast the speed is; you can have a Burrow speed and a Climb speed, and Burrow already has plenty of votes.

This was not my intention. The votes only control which movement types it has. It is, however, a good indicator of interest for me, so I'll be able to tailor the critter accordingly.

Votes tallied!

[Lateral]

This was not my intention. The votes only control which movement types it has. It is, however, a good indicator of interest for me, so I'll be able to tailor the critter accordingly.

Votes tallied!

Oh. Okay, well, the point remains.

[Lord Vampyre]

-1 Burrow

+1 Swim

[Rafinius]

+1 Climb
- 1 Burrow

[Drogorn]

Votes Tallied! The winners are Burrow and Climb.

Next vote: Ability bonuses/penalties.

[flabort]

Up Con
Down Cha

Edit: OK... vote changed.

[Drogorn]

Up Con
Down Int (We've already had an intelligent ooze swarm)

Remember, this is going to be a template, since you guys voted for augmented. If you apply it to something with int, it'll have int.

[EdroGrimshell]

Up Dex
Down Con

I want a skirmisher ooze

[137beth]

Up WIS and INT, 'cause I don't know of too many intelligent oozes.

Also, the table currently has "INY" instead of INT. You might want to fix that.

[Drogorn]

Also, the table currently has "INY" instead of INT. You might want to fix that.

Oops. Fixed.

Votes tallied.

[flabort]

Might I point out that when someone was complaining there already was an incorporeal (or was it SS?) ooze swarm from a VUaM thread, the ooze linked to was intelligent?
But, on the other hand, you don't see many templates good for casters. :smallwink:

Will the next round be as to what creatures this can be applied to?

[Knaight]

Up Dex
Down Strength

[Rafinius]

+1 CON / -1 WIS
An ooze template giving wisdom is too absurd to not focus on it. And I don't feel like having to see that this time.

[DracoDei]

+Dexterity
-Intellegence

[Lord Vampyre]

+ Intelligence
+ Wisdom

We simply need a Tier 1 ooze build.

[Lateral]

-1 Wisdom
+1 Constitution

[137beth]

When will the voting be over?

[Commissar]

+ Dexterity
- Charisma


I expect oozes to be flexible, not particularly charming do to being a liquified mess... albeit they should be a very strong liquified mess. Seeing as most ooze monsters are fairly intimidating until upper mid levels, and the charisma penalty will hurt lots of spellcasting options.

[Drogorn]

Votes Tallied!

The template will increase Dexterity and Constitution, and decrease Strength, Wisdom, and Charisma.

Next vote, Special Abilities!

[flabort]

I was wondering if this was going to proceed :smalltongue:

Reactive armor
Inhabit Body
3

:smallcool:

[Sodalite]

Ego Drain, Engulf, Ability Acquisition; 3

[Drogorn]

Ego Drain, Engulf, Ability Acquisition; 3

Which two of these abilities would you like to vote for?

[Sodalite]

I apologize for not reading more carefully, and will retract my vote for Ability Acquisition.

[Drogorn]

I apologize for not reading more carefully, and will retract my vote for Ability Acquisition.

That was a bit more formal than necessary, but votes tallied!