Gelatinous Monk?

[Danin]

Hi all,

I suppose you can guess by the title of this thread what its about. I'm going to be playing in a... less than typical campaign fairly soon and I was hoping for a little help. You see, I want to play a Gelatinous Cube. I was wondering if there is any way to make an awakened Gelatinous Cube a viable character, or if this is just some over the top wacky idea that has just gone too far.

To put things into perspective, my party members will be either an animated pot-bellied stove or an Ent, a Werewolf of some sort (bard?), a Myanid (Sentient mushroom) Psion and potentially some more interesting stuff. Nevertheless, I'm quite enthused about my ooze.

I was hoping someone could give me some advice on building an ECL 9 Gelatinous Monk or, if that is not viable, a Gelatinous Warlock (Because the image of a flying gelatinous cube shooting lasers and screaming praise Jubalix is also fun). The DM has already agreed that the cube would have a +2 level adjustment along side its 4 racial HD. I'm also looking for a way to re-size myself from huge to large in order to be slightly more mobile. As you may have guessed, this is not exactly going for optimization, but I would prefer not to be useless or die a horrible death too quickly.

I have already rolled stats, 10, 12, 14, 14, 15, 17 before racial modifiers, and the gelatinous cube comes along with +0 Str, -8 Dex, +16 Con.

So, long story short, please help me make my ooze!

[Telonius]

I don't have Complete Champion, but I know that Fist of the Forest can get you CON to AC. No idea if a ...er ... gelatinous cube ... can qualify for it though.

[Flickerdart]

Yes, you'll want CON to AC. Get Steadfast Determination for CON to Will Saves, as well. Then get Kung Fu Genius for INT to AC instead of WIS, or Carmendine Monk for CHA to AC. You can easily dump WIS at this point, since it no longer does anything.

Now, you'll only have 3 levels of Monk, so your unarmed damage will suck. What won't suck, however, is your Grappling, so take Improved Grapple and go to town. You'll be starved on feats, though...have you considered going Fighter instead? With two flaws and three Fighter levels, you'll have 6 feats instead of the two free feats you would get if you went Monk. Then grab Improved Grapple anyways. You'll have the better BAB to show for it, too. Take Improved Initiative to mitigate your penalty from having no DEX.

[Fax Celestis]

I'm quite enthused about my ooze.

Please never say that again.

So, long story short, please help me make my ooze!

That either.

[Human Paragon 3]

I thought gelatenous cubes were large. Does Awaken increase size or something?

Anyway, I would highly recomend the warlock root, both because the image of the flying cube raining down lasers made me LOL and because you will need the evasive abilities of the warlock (fell flight, invisibility) to remain alive with your crappy, crappy AC.

[Danin]

One of the key reasons I am considering Monk over Fighter is because I won't exactly be catching much with a 15 foot move speed. If I go the Monk rout, eventually I'm a mass of giggling jelly that speeds towards foes at 75ft a round! Similarly, if I go warlock, I can fly above people and drop down, all the while invisible.

Ooh, and I'm beginning to suspect that Vow of Poverty may be the way to go, seeing as I can't actually use any items any way. Besides, that too creates a wonderful mental image, preaching to the masses about the dangers of wealth. Would help with my AC too! (At level 9 I'd have +6 to my ac at least)

[Triaxx]

Of course you should also be a Lecherous cube, simply for the fun factor.

[Asheram]

One of the key reasons I am considering Monk over Fighter is because I won't exactly be catching much with a 15 foot move speed. If I go the Monk rout, eventually I'm a mass of giggling jelly that speeds towards foes at 75ft a round! Similarly, if I go warlock, I can fly above people and drop down, all the while invisible.

Oh gods... Perhaps it's because it's almost 1am here, or because it's just so damn silly, but I can't get the thought of a Warlock ooze or a Sorcerer ooze out of my head... *jiggle* *jiggle* *jiggle* *lightningbolt!*

[xPANCAKEx]

Ooh, and I'm beginning to suspect that Vow of Poverty may be the way to go, seeing as I can't actually use any items any way. Besides, that too creates a wonderful mental image, preaching to the masses about the dangers of wealth. Would help with my AC too! (At level 9 I'd have +6 to my ac at least)

i can imagine the scenes now, with the wondering ooze monk preaching to a mob of commoners

"material wealth is useless"
"bit rich coming from a blob who can't wear anything"
"but posessions are useless - covetting them has a negative influence on your soul"
"why do you have a small armory floating round in you then"
"i got peckish, ok?!?"

[Danin]

Well, I suppose he would have no wealth because he would eat it all... and I'm totally maxing out diplomacy on this guy.

I looked at fist of the forest and it would be perfect, save for 2 problems: Needs ranks in handle animal, and you must be approved by existing members of the order, a group of druids. I somehow doubt that a druid is going to approve of a magically animated ooze.

I also like the warlock idea for the ability to fly around invisible and drop onto people. Its technically not an attack, just an effect of my movement, so I don't think I would appear. Tee hee.

And yes, apparently Gelatinous Cubes are indeed huge. Came as a shock to me too.

And Triaxx? I love that idea. "I took a vow of poverty, not a vow of abstinence. Eeh? Eeh?"

[Tokiko Mima]

Can you fit in enough Dragonfire Adept levels to get their Humanoid Shape invocation? Because that would be fun! Here's how I imagine it: you get your enemy gets close to you in medium sized human guise. He's gives his requisite pre-battle intimidation speech, and you say he's already lost, because you've swallowed him. *cue the return to huge ooze form*

Plus, breath weapon + ooze simply can't lose.

[Skaven]

1, Go Bard! Max bluff!

2, Take Glibness!

3, ?? profit?

[Istari]

1. Go Bard! Max bluff!

2. Take Glibness!

3. ???

4. Profit!!

fixed it for you

[Talya]

Well, I suppose he would have no wealth because he would eat it all...

Perhaps in this case, the vow of poverty might be a good choice.

Anyway, it's been done before.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/eo/20060922a

[UserClone]

"Please don't call me an ooze, I'm just a halfling. And I'm pretty sensitive about my weight."

[Zeful]

You could pick up two levels of Psychic Warrior to get Expansion and Dissipating Touch, as well as a bonus feat you can put toward Speed of Thought to deal with the inevitable lack of speed. Also you could get Up the Walls later for a Drop Ooze Attack (fall damage+Engulf)

[Starscream]

Ever consider just taking the gelatinous template from Savage Species? Technically its not appropriate for PCs because it is supposed to make your intelligence drop to one. Still, if you can awaken a gelatinous cube you can awaken a gelatinous creature.

[xanaphia]

Awesomest idea ever.

Also, is falling on somebody an attack? You could use fly, invisibility, and then drop on people, causing 15000 lbs of falling damage to someone, and they can't see you, then take off again with them inside you, then drop them. I can imagine that for a PC. "Suddenly, what feels like a giant piece of jelly falls on you, but you can't see it. Then you go up into the air and are dropped to the ground.

Also, can Gelatinous Cubes even see?

[Danin]

They have already made a Gelatinous Monk?! Well that is just plain upsetting. I suppose now I'll have to go for the warlock... Or if anyone has any other ideas that are equally awesome I'm more than willing to listen. I am greatly considering the Psionic cube...

[TheCountAlucard]

...is falling on somebody an attack?

Not really an attack, as it doesn't use an attack roll - instead, there's simply a DC 15 Reflex save for half damage, with the damage being based off of the weight of the falling object and the height it fell from. There's already been a build that uses rule to great effect, involving being a Warforged with the Obese flaw.

[Inhuman Bot]

They have already made a Gelatinous Monk?! Well that is just plain upsetting. I suppose now I'll have to go for the warlock... Or if anyone has any other ideas that are equally awesome I'm more than willing to listen. I am greatly considering the Psionic cube...

Gelatinous cube paladin or Blackguard.

"The ooze smites you"

"oka- Wait, what?"

Or wizard, same result.

[Innis Cabal]

Best battlecry ever.

"There is always room for jello!"

[xanaphia]

So you can drop on people invisibly and stay invisible, weighing 15000 pounds. Do they get stuck inside you?

Also, I'm working on statting out a character like this as we speak.

[Lemur]

Please never say that again.



That either.

Not exactly oozing with excitement about this, are you Fax? Don't worry, it may sound strange, but you'll get oozed to it.

[Fizban]

What rules are you using for the awakening? The wizards link uses the fiendish template to get int 3 automatically (for some reason you can't use celestial, which would be so much funnier) and goes from there. You could also use the Sentry Ooze template to get up to 2 int, then use a temporary int bonus to learn to read, and read a tome of int for permanent 3+int. If you don't like being large size, fudge the Dungeonbred Creature template restrictions to bring yourself down to medium. Remember that an engulfed creature counts as grappled automatically, so you can just run over a spellcaster and stop them cold (there's a spell in Drow of the Underdark that conjures a gelatinous cube: without the summoned creature restriction on placement, you could drop it on a caster to stop them without fail!). They also have to make a reflex save instead of a grapple check to avoid it, so if you find something that could out grapple you, you can engulf it instead. Come to think of it, how do you get out of an engulf anyway?

[Demons_eye]

Try to get SuS and improve natrual attack if you are large.

[Talya]

(for some reason you can't use celestial, which would be so much funnier)

I don't see why you can't use celestial creature. Then, once you're good, you can take Vow of Poverty, which will start giving you enhancement bonuses to ability scores.

Anyway, the base stats of a gelatinous cube represent a baseline NPC with 10s and 11s rolled...with Int being 0 because it's mindless.


But even a Celestial Gelatinous Ooze PC would have the following adjustments:
Dex -10, Con +16, Int -8, Wis -10, cha -10.

I think to make that playable, you're really going to need to find a way to replace the mental scores with another creature's scores...like a polymorph of some kind.

[monty]

I don't see why you can't use celestial creature.

"Celestial"...can be added to any corporeal aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, plant, or vermin...

Sorry, no ooze.

[Darrin]

Gelatinous Cubes are already size large. MM (3.5) had them as Huge, but this was a mistake. Check the errata. The 3.5 SRD has them as Large.

Sorry, no ooze.

Dragon #304 has a spell, Awaken Ooze. Sor/Wiz 8.

Other than that... if you need to give the cube an intelligence, use the Pseudonatural template. Gives you an Int of 3 to start with. It can be applied to any corporeal creature. It doesn't have a Level Adjustment listed, but it eyeballs to around LA +1. And hey, a little SR/DR and true strike 1/day isn't too shabby.

(I've had an unnatural urge to play a gelatinous cube character for a while.)

Even more awesome: Pick up a cohort, like a halfling or kobold paladin. Give him an Amulet of Ooze Riding (Arms & Equipment Guide p. 85) so he can ride you like a mount. Max out ride, and they can spend a move action to "spur mount", +10' speed for 1 round, 1 hp damage.

Want to get even weirder? Add the Half-Fey template. Fly speed = 2x land speed, charm person at will, and some excellent SLAs 1/day.

[monty]

Dragon #304 has a spell, Awaken Ooze. Sor/Wiz 8.

Other than that... if you need to give the cube an intelligence, use the Pseudonatural template. Gives you an Int of 3 to start with. It can be applied to any corporeal creature. It doesn't have a Level Adjustment listed, but it eyeballs to around LA +1. And hey, a little SR/DR and true strike 1/day isn't too shabby.

(I've had an unnatural urge to play a gelatinous cube character for a while.)

I know it's doable. Fiendish works, too, for that matter. I was just showing why you couldn't use celestial, in reference to the post I quoted.