Gelatinous Cube

[Zeromage1]

I really like the Gelatinous Cube, but it's tough to come up with a good encounter for one. Has anyone had a cool encounter involved a GC?

[Vhaidara]

Arms and Equipment Guide introduces the amulet of Ooze Riding, which creates a force bubble when one of them engulfs you. Then you steer by either telepathy or by pounding on the side.

Mind Flayer Cavalry riding in GCs.

This is assuming your problem is that your group is too high level for the GC to be a threat of any kind.

[Zeromage1]

The main problem being it's speed.

[Vhaidara]

What level/class set/optimization level is your group? Just to give us/me an idea of how much there is to work with?

[CTrees]

Awakened Gelatinous Cube Ninja.

Surprise!

[MonochromeTiger]

Awakened Gelatinous Cube Ninja.

Surprise!

awakened gelatinous cube gestalt wizard/ninja lich with an undead army.

[unseenmage]

Party finds a Portable Hole as treasure.
Inside is a very hungry Gelatinous Cube.


More seriously, Gelatinous Cubes aren't supposed to chase down their prey. They hide and lay in wait. In dim conditions a character is supposed to blunder and walk right into the side of the Gelatinous Cube.

Stick it to the ceiling and let it drop on prey (in our gameworld all oozes have a climb speed), it can make mundane climb checks without having a climb speed. It can take 10 even.

Hide it under a false or rotting floor where it's "learned" prey tends to drop.

My point is, Gelatinous Cubes are more of a trap than a monster, you gotta place them with that in mind.


Or just open up the Savage Species book and stick the Flying Template on them. That oughta speed it up some.

[TroubleBrewing]

Half-Dragon Gelatinous Cube with the Sentry Ooze template.

It flies, breathes fire, engulfs, and hunts.

[Vhaidara]

Pit trap where you fall into a gelatinous cube

[MonochromeTiger]

very well fed gelatinous cube. you think that wall is just slimy? no. the DUNGEON is the gelatinous cube and it's too late to get out now...

[Particle_Man]

Pit trap where you fall into a gelatinous cube

At which point the ceiling opens, dropping a 2nd gelatinous cube, making you the meat in the gelatinous cube sandwich.

Also, bring the poor things outdoors. Have a foggy terrain, party sees something in the distance (whatever is being digested - so be creative), and maybe they don't figure it out in time.

[MonochromeTiger]

At which point the ceiling opens, dropping a 2nd gelatinous cube, making you the meat in the gelatinous cube sandwich.

Also, bring the poor things outdoors. Have a foggy terrain, party sees something in the distance (whatever is being digested - so be creative), and maybe they don't figure it out in time.

ooh, ooh! they're in a foggy swamp in which gelatinous cubes are randomly spaced in the water they have to wade through to get to the other side.

[SimonMoon6]

In addition to the cube at the bottom of a pit, the things I've experienced have included: cubes hidden in total (magical) darkness (though after 3.0, I don't know if there is such a thing anymore). And then there's the trick of having cubes turned to stone (and therefore looking like walls) in areas where PCs are planning to use "stone to flesh" to bypass walls.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Pit trap where you fall into a gelatinous cube

10-ft. wide hallway, 10x10 pit trap 50 ft. deep, there's a small size opponent fleeing down the hallway to raise an alarm and he's too light to trigger the trap.

The walls of the pit are slick from the cube reaching out with its pseudopod in search of food. The base DC to climb out is for brick walls, easier for climbing a corner but more difficult due to being slippery, for a total Climb DC of 25. Creatures large enough to brace against opposite walls would instead have a DC of 20.

Anyone who falls into the pit is automatically engulfed by the cube, as though they had stumbled into it, but take no falling damage. Being engulfed by the cube counts as total immersion in acid (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#acidEffects) which deals 10d6 damage per round. Engulfed creatures also risk drowning (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#drowning). Anyone who manages to escape the cube must also manage to climb/fly/levitate way from it in the same round, otherwise they simply fall back into it. Note that natural flight via wings cannot function in an area narrower than the creature's wingspan, such as a 10x10 pit.

If you want to be nice, put a hole in the wall of the pit which is used as a trash chute, close enough that anyone escaping the cube can use it to help climb away. In that case the initial Climb DC would be 10, due to a ledge to hold onto and stand on. Keep in mind that the cube will lash out with a pseudopod trying to knock them back in.

If you want to be mean, have an enemy Cleric inhabiting the dungeon who casts a (Extended and/or Heightened) Deeper Darkness at the top of the pit. The darkness effect is blocked until the trap is triggered, and if it's Heightened then they'll need to use a light spell with at least an equal spell level to overcome it. You can be super mean by having him cast Deeper Darkness twice, so a single casting of Daylight will cancel out only one and the other will still have its full effect.

[A Tad Insane]

Half dragon half vampire ranger cube. It now has the means and desire to hunt

[Mcdt2]

I like fiendish gelatinous cube monk. (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20060922a) (keep scrolling, it's pretty far down).

[MonochromeTiger]

I like fiendish gelatinous cube monk. (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20060922a) (keep scrolling, it's pretty far down).

half-celestial half-fiend half-fae half-dragon vampiric elemental (all the elements) invisible gestalt ranger/wizard flying gelatinous cube.

[Kane0]

Our DM once got fed up with us running away from slow enemies so he made a Gelatinous Sphere replace the Gelatinous Cube we were supposed to find.

[MonochromeTiger]

Our DM once got fed up with us running away from slow enemies so he made a Gelatinous Sphere replace the Gelatinous Cube we were supposed to find.

"well we run down the hill" "it's a sphere..." "we...ok just give us a few days to re-roll.."

[Telok]

I recently ran an encounter with an 11th level party in a ruined fort encountering a huge, 24 hit die, cube with 300+ hit points. I lured them in by putting a glowing magic sword (+1 acidic) under the cube, one person ran over and into the cube immedately.

That cube sucked up four out of the five characters and were saved by the soulknife, who was smart enough to stay out of range or line of sight.

[TroubleBrewing]

That cube sucked up four out of the five characters and were saved by the soulknife, who was smart enough to stay out of range or line of sight.

But who wasn't smart enough to avoid playing a Soulknife. :smallbiggrin:

[jaydubs]

Being engulfed by the cube counts as total immersion in acid (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#acidEffects) which deals 10d6 damage per round.

I disagree with that interpretation for two reasons.

1) The gelatinous cube entry doesn't mention the immersion rules. And the difference between 1d6 and 10d6 acid damage seems too large for them to just casually leave out. The listed 1d6 acid damage seems the more reasonable interpretation, considering it's CR. And a gelatinous cube is not necessarily equivalent to a vat of pure acid.

2) 1d6 damage just works a lot better for story purposes. If a party member wanders into a 1d6 cube, you have a tense moment where the party has to kill the cube before the engulfed party member gets digested.

10d6 is basically death for most characters that are level appropriate to fight gelatinous cubes. So instead of a tense moment and a life in the balance, you get a player angry at you for instagibbing them based on a failed spot check.

But, to each their own. That is certainly one way to make the GC more dangerous.

[Phelix-Mu]

In a classic, if blunt-instrument, way of making things stronger, consider a plague of thousands of gelatinous cubes rolling across the countryside. Throw in some kind of rate of reproduction (after they eat a certain amount or some such), and now that is starting to sound like a threat worthy of even a higher level party (or at least higher level than the CR suggests).

Also consider how these creatures eat through all but a few types of things. Then add in other slimes/oozes/folugrubs or whatever that do eat those things. Hehe.

Anyway, props for trying to have a creative way to use these classic monsters.

[Baroknik]

I second the use of GC's as pit traps. To make it more fun, have them sit on a small lip 5 feet from the bottom of the pit. These bottom five feet have either spikes or water in them. If it's spikes, a character would fall and hit spikes as a pit trap; if it's water they have drowning risks as there is no air space between the water surface and the GC. Either way, on the decent down, they fall through the GC and take 1d6 acid damage and are forced to save vs paralysis (the fun part of the water version).

Assuming they survive the fall, they have to solo the GC before climbing out, which is difficult from 5 ft away and underwater(which makes attacking a bitch).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I disagree with that interpretation for two reasons.

1) The gelatinous cube entry doesn't mention the immersion rules. And the difference between 1d6 and 10d6 acid damage seems too large for them to just casually leave out. The listed 1d6 acid damage seems the more reasonable interpretation, considering it's CR. And a gelatinous cube is not necessarily equivalent to a vat of pure acid.

2) 1d6 damage just works a lot better for story purposes. If a party member wanders into a 1d6 cube, you have a tense moment where the party has to kill the cube before the engulfed party member gets digested.

10d6 is basically death for most characters that are level appropriate to fight gelatinous cubes. So instead of a tense moment and a life in the balance, you get a player angry at you for instagibbing them based on a failed spot check.

But, to each their own. That is certainly one way to make the GC more dangerous.

"Corrosive acids deals 1d6 points of damage per round of exposure except in the case of total immersion (such as into a vat of acid), which deals 10d6 points of damage per round."

The 1d6 for being struck by its slam is consistent with exposure, whereas being engulfed by it would entail immersion within its acidic form. If just being hit by a slam deals the normal exposure acid damage, then being engulfed by it should deal the normal immersion damage.

[Kane0]

"Corrosive acids deals 1d6 points of damage per round of exposure except in the case of total immersion (such as into a vat of acid), which deals 10d6 points of damage per round."

The 1d6 for being struck by its slam is consistent with exposure, whereas being engulfed by it would entail immersion within its acidic form. If just being hit by a slam deals the normal exposure acid damage, then being engulfed by it should deal the normal immersion damage.

Id be inclined to agree with jaydubs here. Its a CR 3 monster, and the Gelatinous Cube has its own acid outlined. If it were to use the immersion rule (and by extension, the contact and poisonous fumes as well) it would certainly have said so somewhere.

[Uncle Pine]

What about throwing an id augmented gelatinous cube bard (http://rustyandco.com/wallpapers/cube_of_rock_800x600.jpg) at your players (replace id with awakened if you don't have the Advanced Bestiary)? I once built such a BBEG and put him in a cave surrounded by swarms of living Hypnotic Pattern (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/hypnoticPattern.htm) and other shiny oozes. My players still remember Blob Marley with much respect.

[Cirrylius]

In a classic, if blunt-instrument, way of making things stronger, consider a plague of thousands of gelatinous cubes rolling across the countryside. Throw in some kind of rate of reproduction (after they eat a certain amount or some such)
I smell a Dragon Quest homebrew.

[Thrudd]

I really like the Gelatinous Cube, but it's tough to come up with a good encounter for one. Has anyone had a cool encounter involved a GC?

I feel like gelatinous cubes are more environmental hazards/traps than combat encounters. They are dungeon scavengers, an organic cleaning crew which slowly scrape the hallways of detritus. I think they work best when they fill the entire passageway. The cube blocks the area the players want or need to go, no way around except through the cube. It can be fun if they are being chased by another monster and run into a cube slowly coming at them from the other direction that is blocking their escape. Even better if someone misses their perception check and runs headlong into it.

[Zeromage1]

In a classic, if blunt-instrument, way of making things stronger, consider a plague of thousands of gelatinous cubes rolling across the countryside. Throw in some kind of rate of reproduction (after they eat a certain amount or some such), and now that is starting to sound like a threat worthy of even a higher level party (or at least higher level than the CR suggests).

Also consider how these creatures eat through all but a few types of things. Then add in other slimes/oozes/folugrubs or whatever that do eat those things. Hehe.

Anyway, props for trying to have a creative way to use these classic monsters.

Great idea.

[Particle_Man]

In a classic, if blunt-instrument, way of making things stronger, consider a plague of thousands of gelatinous cubes rolling across the countryside. Throw in some kind of rate of reproduction (after they eat a certain amount or some such), and now that is starting to sound like a threat worthy of even a higher level party (or at least higher level than the CR suggests).

There is a tetris joke in there somewhere. :smallsmile:

[unseenmage]

Once I combined an Ogre Mage with a Gelatinous Cube via lycanthropy. I was all sorts of surprised to find that the Gelatinous Cube very seriously drug down the Ogre Mage's combat abilities.

In the end it didn't even really matter, I was a newbie DM back then and the players pulled See invisibility on me and shot my Ogre Mage Were-Gelatinous Cube to death with plain old arrows from afar as it tried to get away.

For sheer absurdity though me and my players have always remembered that creature and it makes it into each new campaign I run as an homage to sillier days.

[Slide]

The biggest thing to remember is that they're transparent and hard as hell to see.

I've put one in a 10 foot wide lava chimney. Without decent light, the first time many PCs will pass the Spot check is when they climb down into it.

Another was below the jakes. The PCs wandered into the sewers and saw a piece of fecal matter hovering in mid-air, in the dim shadowy light. One WTFed and walked over for a closer look. Much screaming and acidifying ensued.

[Cirrylius]

The PCs wandered into the sewers and saw a piece of fecal matter hovering in mid-air, in the dim shadowy light.
Interesting new spin on the ol' "floating turd" illusion.

[catsora]

Maybe a series of rooms explicitly narrated as 10x10x10 cubes making the party expect the GC, then have a differently shaped room with a magical trap and a GC fixed to the ceiling. Said trap activates from stepping on a pressure plate in the center of the room and casts an enlarge monster spell on the GC causing it to flood the room.