Fun with Green Slime

[Jowgen]

Green Slime is a dungeon hazard that kinda got shrived in 3rd edition (used to be a creature before, now basically a plant).


This dungeon peril is a dangerous variety of normal slime. Green slime devours flesh and organic materials on contact and is even capable of dissolving metal. Bright green, wet, and sticky, it clings to walls, floors, and ceilings in patches, reproducing as it consumes organic matter. It drops from walls and ceilings when it detects movement (and possible food) below.

A single 5-foot square of green slime deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage per round while it devours flesh. On the first round of contact, the slime can be scraped off a creature (most likely destroying the scraping device), but after that it must be frozen, burned, or cut away (dealing damage to the victim as well). Anything that deals cold or fire damage, sunlight, or a remove disease spell destroys a patch of green slime. Against wood or metal, green slime deals 2d6 points of damage per round, ignoring metal’s hardness but not that of wood. It does not harm stone.

So at the base we have a substance that does no save Con damage. And takes at least a standard action to remove for continued damage. Going by the Oozemaster MotW PrC, the damage it deals to objects is Acid typed, although that is a secondary concern.

Now by itself it seems tricky to get use out of, but there are two tidbits that can help.

Dungeon 146 p. 32 has rules for using it as a weapon.


With a bit of ingenuity, player characters might be able to use green slime as a weapon. Assuming they make a DC 12 Dexterity check to avoid contact with it and have a suitable container with which to scoop it up, they could use it to make a splash attack simiilar to an attack with holy water. A hit deals 1d2 points of Constitution damage per round as it slowly consumes organic matter and grows. There is no splash damage, but in the event of a miss, creatures within 5 feet must succeed on a DC 15 Reflex save to avoid contact with it.

Now the obvious issue is finding a "suitable container" that serves as a delivery mechanism, but Dragon 304 p. 56 has you covered.


Clearstone: This alchemical substance has the properties of glass (such as hardness, hit points, and so on), but it reacts to other substances exactly like stone. This means that a chest made of clearstone can hold green slime, allowing the manufacture of the green slime chest describ3d above. It also means thatclearstone flasks cannot store acid. Cost: 10 gp per pound,; Alchemcy DC to Create: 25

As for the creation of Green Slime, the even if no natural occuring substance is at hand, the Touch of Jubilex spell (3rd level, corrupt, BoVD) turns creatures into green slime, providing an ample supply. Once you have some, any creature consumed makes more.

So, at the very least, it is possible to produce copious amounts of Green Slime, fill it into clearstone flasks, and fire them at enemies that have Con scores and aren't standing in sunlight. That's a touch attack to invariably deal 1d2 of Con damage, possibly repeating, which stacks over multiple hits, and a Gnome Calculus (A&E) can help with range.

It might also be possible to produce sling bullets with the stuff in it (akin to the Priest Bullet, A&E), although the utility of that beyond using flasks is unclear to me. Also, how this stuff affects undead and constructs is a bit debatable, with any ruling having further implications.

So that's my 2 cents on how to make use of this fun stuff (which any user should be certain to have countermeasures to).

Any other ideas anyone? :smallsmile:

EDIT:
For purposes of spells and other special effects, all slimes (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/dungeons.htm), molds, and fungi are treated as plants.

[Fizban]

Cast Slime Hurl into a shard of Chardalyn Stone, cast Launch Item, watch dragon bones fall from the sky. My anti-dragon "missile" from the industrializaton (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?522922-Industrializing-a-Setting&p=21972733&viewfull=1#post21972733) thread. That was a good thread.

Relies on a minor ruling that when the Charalyn Stone releases the contained spell "centered on a point," that means the three slimes created by Slime Hurl just land on whatever the stone hit. Also relies on the disgustingly overpowered Slime Hurl spell from Champions of Ruin, which is restricted to clerics with a specific deity and feat (not that it stops char-op Archivists), and a fairly open ended spell storage item from the More Marches web enhancement. As detailed in the post.

I don't see why you'd need a special alchemical "clearstone" to hold Green Slime, when there's no mention that Green Slime deals any damage to glass in the first place. If glass counts as anything for acid, it should count as stone, and it's already used as the default for every weird alchemical acid anyway.

[ViperMagnum357]

The Thrall of Juiblex PRC, also from the BoVD, can summon Green Slime at will, though it disappears in a few rounds per usual summoning effects. Based on the description for the Summon line of spells the ability acts as, you can make an argument for summoning Green Slime ON an opponent, since summoned things appear where you designate and attack the same turn.

[Goaty14]

Isn't Slime Wave a 7th level spell that creates Green Slime?

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Fizban
My anti-dragon "missile" from the industrializaton thread. That was a good thread.

Somehow I missed that one, regrettably.

At one point you linked to something called "Medieval Demographics Made Easy," but apparently that graphic has been removed from the hosting site. Do you happen to have a copy of that graphic? I'd be interested to see it.

[Jowgen]

The Thrall of Juiblex PRC, also from the BoVD, can summon Green Slime at will, though it disappears in a few rounds per usual summoning effects. Based on the description for the Summon line of spells the ability acts as, you can make an argument for summoning Green Slime ON an opponent, since summoned things appear where you designate and attack the same turn.

Seems like a lot of investment where there's items and spells that can get you permanent slime, not to mention the dysfunction of Summon Monster apparently summoning something that isn't even a creature. But is is something.


Isn't Slime Wave a 7th level spell that creates Green Slime?

Yeah, but the created slime doesn't last, and the level is way higher than it needs to be.


Cast Slime Hurl into a shard of Chardalyn Stone, cast Launch Item, watch dragon bones fall from the sky. My anti-dragon "missile" from the industrializaton (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?522922-Industrializing-a-Setting&p=21972733&viewfull=1#post21972733) thread. That was a good thread.

Relies on a minor ruling that when the Charalyn Stone releases the contained spell "centered on a point," that means the three slimes created by Slime Hurl just land on whatever the stone hit. Also relies on the disgustingly overpowered Slime Hurl spell from Champions of Ruin, which is restricted to clerics with a specific deity and feat (not that it stops char-op Archivists), and a fairly open ended spell storage item from the More Marches web enhancement. As detailed in the post.

I don't see why you'd need a special alchemical "clearstone" to hold Green Slime, when there's no mention that Green Slime deals any damage to glass in the first place. If glass counts as anything for acid, it should count as stone, and it's already used as the default for every weird alchemical acid anyway.

Could Chaaralyn be subsituted for Shalantha's Delicate Disk? Seems easier to source.

As for the containment thing, I guess they figured that the slime could eat anything that isn't explicitly stone? I was sure there are other effects that explicitly make stuff green slime resistant... in Dungeonscape maybe? If so, maybe it might be possible to use the A&E Sprayer with the slime?

On that note, using Breaker Bottles (Song&Silence) might be fun.

[Goaty14]

At one point you linked to something called "Medieval Demographics Made Easy," but apparently that graphic has been removed from the hosting site. Do you happen to have a copy of that graphic? I'd be interested to see it.

Yes. Here (https://takeonrules.com/assets/downloads/medieval-demographics-made-easy.pdf), and credit to this guy (https://takeonrules.com/2018/11/05/medieval-demographics-made-easy/) for hosting it.

[Blackhawk748]

Ya, i don't see why glass wouldnt work as its just heated up sand, which is in turn tiny bits of rock (at least some types are). Beyond that its certainly a solid way to inflict Ability damage at lower levels.

[Jowgen]

Found two other titbits:

Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk (p. 160) specifies that creatures who drink the stuff can only be saves by a remove disease spell, lest they die horribly from being eaten inside out. I'd assumed as much, but its nice to have in writing.

Dungeon 152 p. 44 has Virulent Green Slime, which is a variety that just deals 2d6 Con damage (4d6 to metal/wood) and can not be scraped off (needs to burn/freeze/remove disease).

[Fizban]

At one point you linked to something called "Medieval Demographics Made Easy," but apparently that graphic has been removed from the hosting site. Do you happen to have a copy of that graphic? I'd be interested to see it.
I noticed it was gone the other day too, and was wondering if I might run into this request-

Yes. Here (https://takeonrules.com/assets/downloads/medieval-demographics-made-easy.pdf), and credit to this guy (https://takeonrules.com/2018/11/05/medieval-demographics-made-easy/) for hosting it.
But hey, that's even better than sending an email! Thanks.


Could Chaaralyn be subsituted for Shalantha's Delicate Disk? Seems easier to source.
The main power of the delicate disk is that it's disgustingly cheap (disgusting is a nice descriptor for things I don't like :smalltongue:). Chardalyn stones have an appropriate cost (in the lower thousands of gp) for what they do. That said, the disk is also more specific and permissive in what can be stored, how it takes effect, and how easy it is to break. The advantages of Chardalyn are that it has a version that can go to 6th or even 9th level, while the disk is capped at 5th, and as an item rather than a permanent spell it can't be dispelled.

Quite obviously the reason I didn't think of it is because I cratered the spell straight into the ban list (or was it?). But there's also the problem that the disk only releases targeted spells at the person who breaks it, and Slime Hurl is a targeted spell. So even though it will fit, you can't Launch Item it at someone unless the DM bothdeclares that sufficient to break the disk on impact in spite of it's very specific break stats (rather than the Chardalyn's "throwing it against a hard surface"), and then also says that getting a disk broken against you counts as if you're the one who broke it. So the specificity of the disk makes it potentially a lot harder to weaponize targeted spells. Slime Wave would work just fine, except it's a higher level- if you can't get Chardalyn Slime Hurl to work you can to up to Slime Wave instead, but those stones are so expensive and Slime Wave is a non-cheesy enough spell that you'd be better off making a simple custom magic item. Which might be why I went to Slime Hurl in Chardalyn, if I previously found the disk wouldn't hold the wave or deliver the hurl and chardalyn wave was too expensive.


As for the containment thing, I guess they figured that the slime could eat anything that isn't explicitly stone? I was sure there are other effects that explicitly make stuff green slime resistant... in Dungeonscape maybe? If so, maybe it might be possible to use the A&E Sprayer with the slime?
The constant reference to organic/metal/stone is a pretty terrible way to classify things, especially when they turn around and have glass flasks full of all sorts of stuff. What about glass, pottery, or rubber? Organic materials that are labeled as acid resistant, or scales "as hard as" or made of metal? I'm sure that whoever wrote that "clearstone" was quite certain green slime would go right through glass, quite possibly because they had some imaginary amount of acid damage in mind that would go straight through the 1 hardness,. Nevermind that 10gp acid stays in there just fine. Probably the same sort that says 10gp acid goes through locks.

There are plenty of other ways to get a durable container, but the real question is how the DM is interpreting the slime's destruction against a given object. Even without that, casting Hardness for +7 on wood will do the job at one cost. But you can just carve or Stone Shape thin stone jars even if pottery doesn't count.

[Jowgen]

So Chardalyn is likely the best Slime Hurl delivery options, and suitable containers for the basic item are not likely to be hard to make/come by.

I doubt there is much left, but it might be worthwhile to look into other delivery mechanisms for the basic item.

The A&E sprayer can turn any liquid (incl. oil, alchemists fire and acid) into a 10 by 5 cloud, so I don't see why it wouldn't work for slime. Of course this does again come with the issue of durability/material.

The best thing would be to find a way to make creature drink/swallow the stuff, as to make remove disease the only counter, but I can't for the life of me think of anything to accomplish this. At best Prestidigitation could make it look and taste like something else for the purposes of a particularly nasty assassination, but that's about it as far as I can tell. Any other thoughts?

[unseenmage]

So can we make the slime a creature so it can deliver itself somehow?

Pretty sure Awaken only works on trees and that Animate Objects doesnt work on living materials... what's that leave us with?


If we are forced to resort to a custom spell is there anyone here familiar enough with previous editions to do a faithful conversion of the creature version of the slime?

[noob]

The only good way to deliver green slime is to make a demiplane with enough green slime for it to reach insanely high pressure from gravity(basically enough green slime to make something as big as a planet) and making a gate going from that plane to the target planet you want to fill with green slime.

[Fizban]

Aside from the fact that Gates don't transport non-creatures.


So can we make the slime a creature so it can deliver itself somehow?
It already delivers itself to a degree: dropping off the ceiling. You can start by futzing with gravity so they can drop in other directions. More than that depends on what you actually mean by "deliver itself." Turning 3.5 green slime into a creature would essentially be statting up an ooze with a con damage ability instead of the usual acid damage. You could give the patch a creature makeover with hit dice and a bunch of "-" entries like a Shrieking Fungus, but there's not much point.

[unseenmage]

Aside from the fact that Gates don't transport non-creatures.


It already delivers itself to a degree: dropping off the ceiling. You can start by futzing with gravity so they can drop in other directions. More than that depends on what you actually mean by "deliver itself." Turning 3.5 green slime into a creature would essentially be statting up an ooze with a con damage ability instead of the usual acid damage. You could give the patch a creature makeover with hit dice and a bunch of "-" entries like a Shrieking Fungus, but there's not much point.

If it were a creature it could play reindeer games. Like being Gate-able for example. Or getting creatively templated.


Hmm, does Slime Hurl or any of the other green slime creating spells here qualify to be a Living Spell ooze?

[noob]

Which is why I spoke of making a gate(the magical item) rather than using the gate spell

[Jowgen]

Well, if you wanna make the stuff a creature, Minor Servitor should get the job done. I think it's begging for a slime-pocalypse, but it would work.

[Fizban]

Hmm, does Slime Hurl or any of the other green slime creating spells here qualify to be a Living Spell ooze?
Slime hurl is an effect, Slime Wave is an area, have at it.

Also- wait, Slime Hurl is an Effect. Which means when I said it was targeted and thus didn't work right in Delicate Disk, I was wrong. You still need a ruling that throwing the disk at someone will break it when the disk is given only hp and str DC (if it had 1hp and hardness 1 then you could explicitly compare it to glass), but if you have that then you can use the disk just fine. :smallsigh: I dunno if there's anything in the game with a listed break DC of 5- some spells have break DC formulas but those are spell effects that happen to look like normal matter. But whether you use Chardalyn or Delicate Disk is pretty much up to you since they both require only the same small amount of fudging at that point.

Which is why I spoke of making a gate(the magical item) rather than using the gate spell
What "gate"? Portals also pass only creatures. There are two specific "Ring Gate" items, which are physical rings of metal that the slime would corrode almost instantly, and have a limited daily capacity.

[Jowgen]

What "gate"? Portals also pass only creatures. There are two specific "Ring Gate" items, which are physical rings of metal that the slime would corrode almost instantly, and have a limited daily capacity.

Actually, there is such a thing as non-living only portals. They specifically get used to supply underdark settlements with water from the elemental plane thereof.


The opposite of creature-only portals, non-living-only portals transport only inanimate matter. This feature supersedes the general rule of portals stating that unattended objects cannot pass through a portal. Making a portal non-living-only quadruples its cost.

Expensive as all get-out of course (even by portal standards) but it is doable.

[Darrin]

The A&E sprayer can turn any liquid (incl. oil, alchemists fire and acid) into a 10 by 5 cloud, so I don't see why it wouldn't work for slime. Of course this does again come with the issue of durability/material.


You can make the sprayer out of riverine for 8000 GP.



The best thing would be to find a way to make creature drink/swallow the stuff, as to make remove disease the only counter, but I can't for the life of me think of anything to accomplish this.

If the slime looks like a potion/beverage, then suggestion might work: "Hey buddy, you're looking very parched... better take a drink."

[Fizban]

Actually, there is such a thing as non-living only portals. They specifically get used to supply underdark settlements with water from the elemental plane thereof.
Expensive as all get-out of course (even by portal standards) but it is doable.
Sauce? Because I haven't found anything to support those other than "DM fiat" entries, and it sure would be nice to compare them to all the other industrial transportation methods I checked.

[Jowgen]

You can make the sprayer out of riverine for 8000 GP.

I've had a look for cheaper alternatives and may have found two. Elukian Clay from A&E is 200 gp/lb should work as its stone but can be shaped into other stuff and has the hardness of steel.

The other would be Glassteel, which is half that price and looks real cool, though there seems to be some inconsistency as to its stats. The CoV version has hardness 20, so as long as it doesn't count as metal it should work.


Sauce? Because I haven't found anything to support those other than "DM fiat" entries, and it sure would be nice to compare them to all the other industrial transportation methods I checked.

Underdark p. 52, as in the title of the relevant quote.

[Fizban]

Well I'll be, so it is, right there. With an unambiguous modifier, we have 1st party sauce. Even with that price there's probably a spot for them in the overall transportation network- in fact, the creature prohibition makes them the safest way to haul iron out of the Acheron cube mines. Glad to know they actually made it legit somewhere, thanks.


As for alternate sprayer materials, I don't find the description or picture all that useful. The picture clearly has a hose of some sort, which you're not gonna be able to make out of some weird substance, it's gotta be hose material. The description lets you turn an unknown amount of liquid (it doesn't say how much) into a fine mist- the effects of holy water are quite easily adjudicated, as would be acid or a flamethrower technique, but green slime is not a liquid. It's a thick slime that clings to the ceiling until it reacts to movement and drops off. It's described primarily as "patches," not "puddles," even if there's a "Slime Wave" spell and it can be poured out of a Slime Pot. If all the sprayer components are allowed hardness and you used Hardening or Augment Object (Stronghold Builder's Guide), or some other custom magic to protect it, I'd still say trying to pump thick sludge through a fine mister results in a clogged mister.

[Jowgen]

Well I'll be, so it is, right there. With an unambiguous modifier, we have 1st party sauce. Even with that price there's probably a spot for them in the overall transportation network- in fact, the creature prohibition makes them the safest way to haul iron out of the Acheron cube mines. Glad to know they actually made it legit somewhere, thanks.

Happy to help, I did a thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?526091-Efficiently-creating-a-Portal-Network)on the topic a while back, might be something else of interest in there too.



As for alternate sprayer materials, I don't find the description or picture all that useful. The picture clearly has a hose of some sort, which you're not gonna be able to make out of some weird substance, it's gotta be hose material. The description lets you turn an unknown amount of liquid (it doesn't say how much) into a fine mist- the effects of holy water are quite easily adjudicated, as would be acid or a flamethrower technique, but green slime is not a liquid. It's a thick slime that clings to the ceiling until it reacts to movement and drops off. It's described primarily as "patches," not "puddles," even if there's a "Slime Wave" spell and it can be poured out of a Slime Pot. If all the sprayer components are allowed hardness and you used Hardening or Augment Object (Stronghold Builder's Guide), or some other custom magic to protect it, I'd still say trying to pump thick sludge through a fine mister results in a clogged mister.

I don't think the hose portion should be a big problem, depending on how much detail one needs to get into. Disregarding common sense in favour of pure RAW, afaik the rule is that special materials have their effects apply to the whole item as soon as they are the "most prevalent" material, so as long as most of the sprayer is made out of X, the hose portion technically also gets that benefit.

If one goes more into common sense territory, wherein the hose portion is modular, then it should also be possible to make engineering tweaks to fix that weakpoint. Like alter the design to replace the flexible hose with a straight rod, since the flexibility of the thing isn't mentioned to be required for function. Or use Bone Fungus (Dungeonscape 140), which is naturally acid immune, to insulate or construct the hose. Personally, I'd let stuff like Acid-breathing dragon guts work as well.

As for the viscosity of the slime, it is liquid enough to be drunk, and while it does commonly form patches due to its ability to stick to stuff when it wants, it has also been described as existing as puddles in location descriptions (e.g. Dungeon 146 p. 32). So it should be accurate to class it as liquid, which technically is all that is required for the sprayer to work.

Going into physics territory, whether it can be aerosolised enough to create mist depends on it's viscosity, pressure in the drum and the design of the spout. Getting oil to make a mist is pretty hard without industrial machines, and the standard D&D oil (going by the oil price table in A&E cross referenced with the PHB price) is rapeseed oil, which amongst the most viscous vegetable oils (Diamante & Lan, 2014) even with modern processing. So the sprayer ought to be pretty efficient.

Either case, the only advantage of using the sprayer is that spraying it might let you hit 2 creatures without an attack roll instead of one creature with a ranged touch attack; so at best it is a very situational minor upgrade. I personally just like the cool factor of hosing a guy with flesh eating slime instead of just lobbing it at him.

[unseenmage]

See, now I'm wondering if a real world slime could be applied to an area via a sprayer.

The idea is horrific, yet oddly fascinating.

[meschlum]

The proper way to deliver green slime is, of course, to pour it over your zombie army and send them out to hug everyone they meet.

What Constitution damage?

[Jowgen]

The proper way to deliver green slime is, of course, to pour it over your zombie army and send them out to hug everyone they meet.

What Constitution damage?

This is something that irks me.

Undead have no Con scores, plus physical ability score a damage. As written, they are immune like you say.

On the other hand, this makes zero sense. While the slime doesn't require a fort save, it does affect objects and specifically eats organic material. Why would it eat corspes but not zombies? Constructs have much the same question-mark, with living constructs having Con scores but still having disease immunity, while relates to the slime.

Any time this has come up at a table I've been at it was ruled that they take the acid damage instead. Which makes sense, but also irks me because they are written as immune.

All I want is a single god damn piece of text, a single example of an undead or construct either being unaffected or taking some other kind of damage.

Just one line from some obscure web article, adventure or dungeon mag side bar... I'd even taken a 3e sage advice. Please?

[Blackhawk748]

Undead don't make Fort saves unless an object would, doesn't an object have to make a save vs green slime? If so, so does any Undead.

[Goaty14]

Undead don't make Fort saves unless an object would, doesn't an object have to make a save vs green slime? If so, so does any Undead.

Well, yes, but the point is that even if the undead fails the save, nothing happens.

[Jowgen]

And the point remains that the slime doesn't allow any saves, which is kinda its main selling point.

Touch of Jubilex allows a fort save, but since it's a target: creature touched, doesn't work for objects the spell doesn't work on undead either. Slime wave is reflex negates and Slime Hurl is just a ranged touch attack, no save.

[Blackhawk748]

Well, yes, but the point is that even if the undead fails the save, nothing happens.

Then how does it do anything to an object?

[Jowgen]

Then how does it do anything to an object?


Against wood or metal, green slime deals 2d6 points of damage per round, ignoring metal’s hardness but not that of wood. It does not harm stone.

So objects that class as metal have a weakness while those that class as stone have immunity. Now if it doesn't fit into either category, you could either read it as it not damaging it (goes against the Dragon mag material stating that glass is damaged), or dealing damage against which hardness applies, or if you consider Oozemaster to set a precedent, deal damage as acid would.


EDIT: Okay, I found one small thing. The Greater Mummy from Deities and Demigods p. 161 has the Symbiosis (Ex) ability through which slimes, molds and Gray Oozes can live in its body. The ability has the line "The mummy is immune to the symbiont creature’s special attacks, including the acid of green slime and gray ooze.", implying that undead are normally subject to the acid of green slime.

EDIT 2: Found something else that isn't enitrely on the Green Slime topic, but related and too cool/potentially useful not to share.

Dragons of Faerun p. 105 has Shadow Slime, which is corrupted Green slime growing around shadow dragon/creature lairs. Stuff sucks the life out of targets, dealing 2d6 cold damage and 1 Negative Level per round (DC 17 Fort negates the negative level, immune to cold does not negate the negative level). The stuff has total concealment at all times (DC 30 spot check to notice, Daylight spell also reveals). It is destoryed by: fire, sonic, electricity, remove disease, sunlight, or deathward. Unlike the regular green stuff it does not affect metal, only wood, bone, leather such natural materials.

The kicker: undead explcitly heal 5 points of damage from each negative levels, and while it doesn't seek out non-living prey, it should be easy enough to keep it on hand. Get some cold resistance and your undead can drink the stuff for fast healing 5. Just swallow a rat once in a while to keep it fed. It's like a better Black Sand. :smallbiggrin:

[unseenmage]

Question... If plants are objects and slimes are plants and you can animate objects a green slime...

Would a Construct Green Slime be immune to sunlight because sunlight kills green slime but constucts cannot be killed, only destroyed?

EDIT: Nevermind, slimes and molds are 'destroyed' just like Constructs and undead.