Big Bad Guy Henchmen needed, if your DM drives a MarkVIII, please don't read

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Well, you all had your warning, spoil it if you must. Hopefully the whole forum doesn't drive all the remaining Lincoln MarkVIII's out there.

I'm looking for a good variety of bad guys to put in a dungeon a high level party I DM for is almost certain to enter next session. I think I'm short on the "cannon fodder minion" type of baddies which they love to slice through.

In this campaign I like having things which make sense but we don't follow all the traditional lore. The party loves combat. The big bad guy is Juiblex, Demon lord of oozing hunger. Its a new lair for the Juiblex, partially by necessity but he has been here for a week or so.

So far I'm thinking about:

Slithering Trackers (they met one already)

An Ooze Master (corrupted NPC wizard, won't getting his spell book be different)

An Alkilith

Green Slime

The ground is going to be a mix of slippery and regular difficult terrain.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Cygnia]

I don't know if they have 5e stats or not, but what about an oblex (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Oblex)?

[Unoriginal]

Well, you all had your warning, spoil it if you must. Hopefully the whole forum doesn't drive all the remaining Lincoln MarkVIII's out there.

I'm looking for a good variety of bad guys to put in a dungeon a high level party I DM for is almost certain to enter next session. I think I'm short on the "cannon fodder minion" type of baddies which they love to slice through.

In this campaign I like having things which make sense but we don't follow all the traditional lore. The party loves combat. The big bad guy is Juiblex, Demon lord of oozing hunger. Its a new lair for the Juiblex, partially by necessity but he has been here for a week or so.

So far I'm thinking about:

Slithering Trackers (they met one already)

An Ooze Master (corrupted NPC wizard, won't getting his spell book be different)

An Alkilith

Green Slime

The ground is going to be a mix of slippery and regular difficult terrain.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Cultists and Cult Fanatics, maybe with the Boon of Juiblex, would be good canon fodder for such events.

[Sorinth]

There are a number of oozes, Gray Ooze and Black Pudding can be terrifying if they don't have magical weapons/armour.

But if you are looking for more cannon fodder type stuff you could have an ooze that only eats flesh and then animates the body as a skeleton. That way you have a bunch of skeleton cannon fodder. Have some cultists who have been kidnaping people and feeding it to the ooze.

There's even a variant of the Gray Ooze that has intelligence, so you could similarly have this necromantic ooze have an intelligence and be in control of the skeletons giving them unexpected tactics such as having the skeletons grapple and try to feed the ooze.

In fact the Variant Gray Ooze can be particularly nasty since it can use the psychic attack while remaining motionless giving the party a hard time locating the ooze.

[Kvess]

If you want to throw a wrinkle into a confrontation, have it take place in an unholy altar where the pews, statues, and shrine are all mimics.

[OracularPoet]

Rot grub swarms.

[MrStabby]

Put a drainage system in place under the floor through which oozes can move and emerge.

Maybe a master, controlling ooze that is able to direct the others acting more tactically.

You could play on the hunger part of oozing hunger with some oozed that take the form/project the illusion of food - anyone that sees it must make a wisdom save or run forward to try and grab it.

And if you are looking for henchmenn they "love to slice through", a number of black puddings could be fun. For extra joy, put it in a confined space like a platform they need to go on to move betwen levels. Splitting black puddings in a lift could be a bit of a nightmare.

[Nagoroth]

Cultists with a bit of a twist.

Each cultist has a ooze inside them (probably a grey ooze, black pudding or slithering tracker or something) which comes out after they've been slain and continues fighting, basically giving every cultist a second phase. You can even have the oozes fuse together if enough cultists are slain within close proximity of each other, if you wanted to spice things up even more.

There's also the Priest of Osybus from VRGR, which can work as a good mini-boss of lieutenant for your BBEG. Their abilities can really easily be re-flavoured to fit the theme and they even have an Ectoplasmic boon, which makes them ooze slime, allows them to take the form of other creatures and slow them. It could definitely fit the vibe ;P