Thematic slime-people's magic?

[SangoProduction]

Aside from "goo-based effects", like grease, which aren't all too interesting a choice, what type of magic would an intelligent gelatinous cube use? Or what theme / general effect would one aim for?

You know how elves are typically nature/life magic, while dwarves are (if magical at all) more aligned with earth magic.

[Eldan]

I could see healing magic being quite thematic. Not in D&D so much, but a lot of gooey monsters regenerate.

Shapeshifting, maybe?

[unseenmage]

Acid I would think considering most oozes propensity for dissolving their prey.
Water to Acid from Stormwrack comes to mind.

Awaken Ooze from Dragon mag for making friends.

Hurl Slime(?) I think its called would thematic too.

[Zaq]

Thematically, when I hear "gelatinous cube" I immediately think "DUNGEON!" So anything that feels dungeon-y (Guards and Wards, Passwall/Phase Door, Detect Secret Doors/Find Traps/Detect Snares and Pits, Find the Path, etc.) kind of makes sense to me there.

Realistically (er, insofar as picking spells for an intelligent gelatinous cube is realistic), an intelligent gelatinous cube would know that it doesn't have hands, and that would prevent it from interacting with things made by non-ooze people in quite the same way. So if it were interested in doing that sort of thing, spells to facilitate that would be in order. Unseen Servant, Mage Hand, summons with hands, maybe Spider Climb to navigate certain areas, Polymorph, Reduce Ooze (which isn't a spell but which an intelligent ooze-based caster could/would probably research based off of Reduce Person), etc.

If we look at printed PC-facing ooze material like Thrall of Juiblex and Slime Lord, oozes are associated with shapechanging (Polymorph, Alter Self, etc.) and with doing ability damage, so there's some room to play around there.

[Psyren]

Definitely Transmutation - they would probably be interested in the world around them being as mutable and flexible as they themselves are. Shapeshifting would be useful for interacting with society at large (for benevolent or nefarious purposes) and being able to change the properties of the objects around them would be fairly useful for a being that can inadvertently dissolve its surroundings.

[Nifft]

Aside from "goo-based effects", like grease, which aren't all too interesting a choice, what type of magic would an intelligent gelatinous cube use? Or what theme / general effect would one aim for?

You know how elves are typically nature/life magic, while dwarves are (if magical at all) more aligned with earth magic.

Illusions, to dress itself up and give itself "body language" -- or one big facial expression. Also to create sound so it can talk to people.

Divinations, to gain more conventional senses -- you can't appreciate a great novel or painting through Blindsight.

Stone and Glass creation & manipulation spells, to create walkways for itself so it's not absorbing people.

Flight, because everyone wants to fly, and because lunch just flies into you.

Teleportation, because it moves slowly and doors are annoying.

Lightning immunity => spell damage affinity.


Putting it together, an intelligent Gelatinous Cube might look at how it's transparent (like the air), immune to electricity (like a storm giant), and erodes things (like the rain) -- so it decides that it's basically distressingly-solid, square cloud.

So it casts overland flight and puts on an illusion of being a happy little cloud, and flies around not eating people (because it's in the air). This is such a good experience that it becomes a habit, and soon all the people of the land are happily waving at Hank, the Happy Cloud Garbage Removal Service.

[ShurikVch]

Well, there are such domains as Ooze and Slime
Ooze belong to Juiblex and Zuggtmoy; Slime - to Ghaunadaur, Ilsensine, and Laogzed

Ooze Domain Spells:
Grease
Web
Poison
Rusting Grasp
Oozepuppet
Transmute Rock to Mud
Slime Wave
Befoul
Implosion
Slime Domain Spells:
Grease
Melf's Acid Arrow
Poison
Rusting Grasp
Evard's Black Tentacles
Transmute Rock to Mud
Destruction
Power Word Blind
Implosion
Initiate of Ghaunadaur feat (Champions of Ruin) also give some spells, but most of them aren't so useful for Gelatinous Cube (except for Corrosive Grasp)

Also, Ghaunadaur and Juiblex - IMHO, the most slimy of them all - are sharing Corruption domain
Corruption Domain Spells:
Doom
Blindness/Deafness
Contagion
Morality Undone
Feeblemind
Pox
Insanity
Befoul
Despoil
Also, because of Alien Gelatinous Cube (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20060922a), how about some cerebrotic spells - such as Call Amoebic Crawler, or Welcome the Amoebic Sea?

Also, Babau Slime and Caustic Mire


Thematically, when I hear "gelatinous cube" I immediately think "DUNGEON!" So anything that feels dungeon-y (Guards and Wards, Passwall/Phase Door, Detect Secret Doors/Find Traps/Detect Snares and Pits, Find the Path, etc.) kind of makes sense to me there.Good point!
Ghaunadaur have Cavern domain
Cavern Domain Spells:
Detect Secret Doors
Darkness
Meld into Stone
Leomund's Secure Shelter
Passwall
Find the Path
Maw of Stone
Earthquake
Imprisonment