Slime Lord and pseudopod

[Condé]

The Slime Lord PrC is not used often and even not very well known. However, I think this class is interesting and can offer some nice little things.

TL;DR at the end.

Its first feature is what I want to talk today: Its ability to paralyze whoever get hit by its pseudopods. Interestingly enough, this class has 2 features... For basically the same ability. But, because it is written this way, I think we can agree on something...

Here are the features:


A slime lord's pseudopods are coated with slime that can paralyze a foe. Any creature struck by a slime lord's natural attack must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + slime lord level + slime lord's Con modifier) or be paralyzed for 1d4+1 rounds.


The physical form of a slime lord is more mutable than that of a normal creature of his type. As a move action, a slime lord can transform his hands into pseudopods or back into normal hands. He can make two natural attacks with his pseudopods as a full attack action, or one attack as a standard action. Each successful attack deals 1d6 points of damage. The transformation lasts for up to 1 round per slime lord level, though the character can change his pseudopods back into hands before the expiration of the effect as a move action.

RAW, ANY natural attack from the Slime Lord can paralyze. RAI we can argue only the pseudopods from a Slime Lord can paralyze an opponent. The first sentence would be only here for flavor as many class features do have that sort of things.

Interestingly enough, being able to change your hands into pseudopods is a different class feature. It would have been convenient to have them be the same feature: You change your hands into pseudopods and now they can paralyze... The designers/editors made the decision not to. Sooo...

If we assume only pseudopods from a Slime Lord are coated with Slime... How do you get pseudopods natural attacks? Can you get pseudopods natural attacks?

There is some creatures with pseudopods but sometimes they are qualified as "Slam" and sometimes (rarely) pseudopods.

BONUS: The Slime Lord get acess at level 5 of this class to Alter Self at will. I looked in different handbook but didn't see any creature with pseudopods attacks. Correct me if I'm wrong... Otherwise, it would be fantastic too.

I looked into MM1 to MM5, and almost didn't see any pseudopods attack.

Do you know how to get some, or, if there is a rule saying a tentacle is similar to a pseudopod, for example, somewhere? Because tentacle are waaaaay easier to get...

TL;DR:

Does anyone know how to:
- Get pseudopod NA?
- If there is a pseudopod attack available from Alter Self?
- If there is a rule saying what qualify for a pseudopod or if a tentacle can be a pseudopod?

Thanks.

[Saintheart]

Could you just ab/use Warshaper even more than it already is in order to pick up pseudopod natural attacks?

I mean, there's already literally 101 different natural attacks through the MM1 to MM5 that the Warshaper can pick up, this could just make it 102.

[liquidformat]

Could you just ab/use Warshaper even more than it already is in order to pick up pseudopod natural attacks?

I mean, there's already literally 101 different natural attacks through the MM1 to MM5 that the Warshaper can pick up, this could just make it 102.

Yeah Seems like Slimelord 1/Warshaper 1 will give you pseudopods Natural Weapons anytime you want them. I would argue without Slimelord 1 even though you can grow pseudopods with Warshaper 1 they won't have the Paralytic slime since they are two different abilities.

[Condé]

Could you just ab/use Warshaper even more than it already is in order to pick up pseudopod natural attacks?

I mean, there's already literally 101 different natural attacks through the MM1 to MM5 that the Warshaper can pick up, this could just make it 102.

Yes of course, I guess you could. But I'm not a big fan of the Warshaper, to be honest. I mean, I love the concept and what the class has to offer, but it is so often cited for abuse that no sane DM would agree with.


Yeah Seems like Slimelord 1/Warshaper 1 will give you pseudopods Natural Weapons anytime you want them. I would argue without Slimelord 1 even though you can grow pseudopods with Warshaper 1 they won't have the Paralytic slime since they are two different abilities.

Sorry if I misunderstood, but are you saying you think the paralyzing ability will not apply to the pseudopos from the Warshaper because they are two different abilities?

[liquidformat]

Sorry if I misunderstood, but are you saying you think the paralyzing ability will not apply to the pseudopos from the Warshaper because they are two different abilities?

Yes and no, if I were a wild shape ranger 5/warshaper 1 I could have pseudopods but they wouldn't have the Paralytic slime since that isn't a standard part of pseudopods. However, if I was wild shape ranger 5/warshaper 1/slime lord 1 then yes my pseudopods would have the slime since the Paralytic slime ability says so.

On the other hand if the Paralytic slime ability was instead a part of the pseudopods rather than its own separate ability then there would be more of an argument that a warshaper could have pseudopods with Paralytic slime as default without taking levels of slime lord.

[Eurus]

My first thought was "get more hands", but with the way the ability is written, it doesn't matter how many hands you actually have, you get two pseudopods no matter what... I did some quick looking, and it seems like even though oozes are specifically described with the word "pseudopod", their actual statblock calls it a slam attack. Thinking about it, that might be why the Paralytic Slime ability doesn't refer to a specific natural attack type.

[remetagross]

Hmm off the top of my mind the Voidmind template nets you a pseudopod attack, though then again I'm not sure if it's explicitely called out as a "pseudopod attack" or just a "slam attack" or whatnot.

[Thurbane]

The Sandform spell gives you a pseudopod attack.

Would Flurry of Blows work here? From memory you can make a flurry with any body part, although maybe not with anything classified as a natural weapon.

If your race was an Aberration (Elan etc.), dragon etc, could you pick up the Rapidstrike feat?

[Condé]

Yes and no, if I were a wild shape ranger 5/warshaper 1 I could have pseudopods but they wouldn't have the Paralytic slime since that isn't a standard part of pseudopods. However, if I was wild shape ranger 5/warshaper 1/slime lord 1 then yes my pseudopods would have the slime since the Paralytic slime ability says so.

On the other hand if the Paralytic slime ability was instead a part of the pseudopods rather than its own separate ability then there would be more of an argument that a warshaper could have pseudopods with Paralytic slime as default without taking levels of slime lord.

Obviously, not all pseudopods have the paralytic slime ability. But I think we can argue that any pseudopod you get with a level in slime lord are coated with the paralytic property.


My first thought was "get more hands", but with the way the ability is written, it doesn't matter how many hands you actually have, you get two pseudopods no matter what... I did some quick looking, and it seems like even though oozes are specifically described with the word "pseudopod", their actual statblock calls it a slam attack. Thinking about it, that might be why the Paralytic Slime ability doesn't refer to a specific natural attack type.

Yes. I keep thinking it is oddly worded. Maybe they tried to prevent any form of abuse, but I think it is not really well written since this class was printed pretty early in the 3.5 era. (And was probably designed with 3.0 in mind...)


Hmm off the top of my mind the Voidmind template nets you a pseudopod attack, though then again I'm not sure if it's explicitely called out as a "pseudopod attack" or just a "slam attack" or whatnot.

Just checked it out, Voidmind template gives you a tentacle attack. Sadly.


The Sandform spell gives you a pseudopod attack.

Would Flurry of Blows work here? From memory you can make a flurry with any body part, although maybe not with anything classified as a natural weapon.

If your race was an Aberration (Elan etc.), dragon etc, could you pick up the Rapidstrike feat?

Because of the wording of the Pseudopods (Ex) class ability of the Slime Lord, I don't think so. That is why I'm trying to get a new pseudopod attack/weapon in order to be able to use this particular appendice, idealy up h24, in order to be able to use the Paralytic slime (Ex) ability.