Slaad [3.5]

[Tanuki Tales]

Are there any sources other than the Monster Manual and Manual of the Planes that go into any kind of depth on this chaotic race of murderous extraplanar toads? (Even if they're third party, an article in Dragon Magazine or from a different edition)

[Aeromyre]

Are there any sources other than the Monster Manual and Manual of the Planes that go into any kind of depth on this chaotic race of murderous extraplanar toads? (Even if they're third party, an article in Dragon Magazine or from a different edition)

Well I wikipedia'd it and found this

"Another new slaad lord, Bazim-Gorag the Firebringer, first appeared in Dungeon #101 (August 2003). Bazim-Gorag later appeared in the Forgotten Realms book, Champions of Ruin (2005)."

Also you may want to look in a epic level book with monsters, they may appear there as well

[*.*.*.*]

Also you may want to look in a epic level book with monsters, they may appear there as well

White and black, they should be in the srd

Fiend Folio has the Mud Slaad

[The Mentalist]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92837

The only source for them I've found useful myself.

[Eldan]

Would be difficult to get, but:

Planescape Monstrous Compendium and Planes of Chaos. Also, the books on fiends are partially written by Xanxost the Slaad, one of the greatest authors and investigators to ever live.

[arguskos]

AD&D has much more detail about the Slaadi than 3.5 ever did. For example, it details the Slaad Lords (Ygorl, Lord of Entropy; Ssendam, Lord of Madness; Chorst, Lord of Randomness; and Renbuu, Lord of Colors). Bazim-Gorag is the idiot bastard of the Lords, and the other four are so much more awesome. Renbuu is the best, being awesome and everything.

XANXOST THE SLAAD IS AWESOME, BTWS.

[HunterOfJello]

Battletoads

[Tanuki Tales]

Battletoads

What? (Stupid 10 word minimum.)

[Lhurgyof]

You don't know about battletoads!?

[Tanuki Tales]

You don't know about battletoads!?

It's a multi-system game that has nothing to do with this topic.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Of all the outsiders, I've never really known how to approach slaadi. I get the sense that they are just generically dangerous, but could you do a roleplaying encounter with them? How would they act? I guess demons and eladrin have the guidance of good and evil to give some drive and substance to their chaos, but slaadi just have chaos. It seems an innately dangerous and violent kind of chaos, though. The modrons and inevitables can be dangerous if certain laws are broken, but it's as if slaadi don't need a reason to be violent. Do they have reasons to do anything at all?

I guess I just have trouble wrapping my head around what a being of pure chaos would even do if it encountered mortals. Would it even care? Would it care one second, stop caring the next, then recite an epic poem, then invite everyone to a party, then elect itself president of the kingdom of Zoompimple, then eat one of your kidneys, then lomp on the fyornwran figwitz?

[The Cat Goddess]

Slaadi are not pure chaos... There is clearly a strong reproductive urge, based on the abilities of the race.

Slaadi are, apparently, like a cancer upon life. They convert what they can and subborn or destroy the rest.

Kind of like chaos-Borg.

[Tanuki Tales]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92837

The only source for them I've found useful myself.

Sorry, had to wait so I wouldn't be double posting and I didn't feel like just shoe horning you into another post.

Thank you greatly for linking to that.

[afroakuma]

afroakuma has much more detail about the Slaadi than AD&D ever did.

You are correct, sir!

[JonestheSpy]

Of all the outsiders, I've never really known how to approach slaadi. I get the sense that they are just generically dangerous, but could you do a roleplaying encounter with them? How would they act? I guess demons and eladrin have the guidance of good and evil to give some drive and substance to their chaos, but slaadi just have chaos. It seems an innately dangerous and violent kind of chaos, though. The modrons and inevitables can be dangerous if certain laws are broken, but it's as if slaadi don't need a reason to be violent. Do they have reasons to do anything at all?

I guess I just have trouble wrapping my head around what a being of pure chaos would even do if it encountered mortals. Would it even care? Would it care one second, stop caring the next, then recite an epic poem, then invite everyone to a party, then elect itself president of the kingdom of Zoompimple, then eat one of your kidneys, then lomp on the fyornwran figwitz?

I've said before, I think Slaad are absolutely the worst-conceived outsiders in the game. It partly comes from their origin - the 1st edition Fiend Folio, which was a collection of amateur-created monsters that was totally hit an miss, and the Slaad were obviously created to be just more monsters to kill by someone who equated chaos with bad guy - no thought seemed to be given as to their place in the cosmology, even though they were the prime residents of the plane of Chaos.

Lots of attempts were made later to shoehorn the slaad into the DnD mulitverse, but none of it ever seemed convincing to me - they always just came off as evil, and the more powerful ones were outright labeled evil. Why should chaotic creatures become evil as they grow in power? Where are the slaad who lean towards good? Residents of Limbo shouldn't be any more dangerous or malevolent than the modrons, when you get down to it.

Rant, rant, pant pant.


edit: Ranting aside, Afrokuama's definitely done the best job I've seen at turning the slaad into something appropriate for a race spawned from Limbo.

[For Valor]

I've said before, I think Slaad are absolutely the worst-conceived outsiders in the game. It partly comes from their origin - the 1st edition Fiend Folio, which was a collection of amateur-created monsters that was totally hit an miss, and the Slaad were obviously created to be just more monsters to kill by someone who equated chaos with bad guy - no thought seemed to be given as to their place in the cosmology, even though they were the prime residents of the plane of Chaos.

Lots of attempts were made later to shoehorn the slaad into the DnD mulitverse, but none of it ever seemed convincing to me - they always just came off as evil, and the more powerful ones were outright labeled evil. Why should chaotic creatures become evil as they grow in power? Where are the slaad who lean towards good? Residents of Limbo shouldn't be any more dangerous or malevolent than the modrons, when you get down to it.

Rant, rant, pant pant.

edit: Ranting aside, Afrokuama's definitely done the best job I've seen at turning the slaad into something appropriate for a race spawned from Limbo.

Um... Giant Frog.

That is all.

[Akal Saris]

I made a Slaad build once using the prestige class from Savage Species!

Mrygrl the Brooding:

Spoiler

Show

CN Red Slaad RHD 7/LA 5/Warblade 1/Slaad Brooder 7 (LA buyoff: 1 at 18th)

32 PB:
Str: 26
Dex: 16
Con: 20
Int: 12
Wis: 6
Cha: 6

Racial mods: Str +10, Dex +4, Con +6, Int -4, Wis -4, Cha -2

Racial abilities: Pounce, implant, stunning croak, summon slaad, fast healing 5, darkvision 60ft, immunity to sonic, resist others 5, +8 NA, large, Bite 2d8 and 2 claws 1d4

Feats:
1: Multiattack
3: Improved Multiattack
6: Improved Toughness
9: Rapidstrike
12: Improved Rapidstrike
15: Improved Critical (Claws)

[Steveotep]

Tome of Horrors from Necromancer Games has Slaad Lord: Lord of Entropy (CR 32) and Lord of the Insane (CR 30). Have fun!

[Lhurgyof]

I made a Slaad build once using the prestige class from Savage Species!

Mrygrl the Brooding:

Spoiler

Show

CN Red Slaad RHD 7/LA 5/Warblade 1/Slaad Brooder 7 (LA buyoff: 1 at 18th)

32 PB:
Str: 26
Dex: 16
Con: 20
Int: 12
Wis: 6
Cha: 6

Racial mods: Str +10, Dex +4, Con +6, Int -4, Wis -4, Cha -2

Racial abilities: Pounce, implant, stunning croak, summon slaad, fast healing 5, darkvision 60ft, immunity to sonic, resist others 5, +8 NA, large, Bite 2d8 and 2 claws 1d4

Feats:
1: Multiattack
3: Improved Multiattack
6: Improved Toughness
9: Rapidstrike
12: Improved Rapidstrike
15: Improved Critical (Claws)

How do you pay off LA? I've seen it somewhere before, but can't remember how to do it/how it works.

[Akal Saris]

It's an option from Unearthed Arcana. Basically there's a chart showing the LA bonus and what level you can buy off at. When you hit that level, you pay 1 level's worth of experience.

So if I had a +2 LA, when I hit level 6, I could pay all my experience from that level and go back down to 5th level and +1 LA. Then my party would still be ECL 7, but I would be ECL 6, so I would get more experience per encounter, eventually catching up with the party in 3-4 levels.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/ra...djustments.htm

[Lhurgyof]

Thank you very much! Bookmarked that.

[Xuc Xac]

Slaadi are not pure chaos...

The fact that they're all color-coded should be your first clue.

[The Cat Goddess]

The fact that they're all color-coded should be your first clue.

Psuedonatural beings... creatures with no stable form... shapechangers... these are beings of Chaos.

[Tanuki Tales]

Psuedonatural beings... creatures with no stable form... shapechangers... these are beings of Chaos.

I'd lump them more in with Insanity than Chaos. Just because something is beyond the comprehension of any rational, mortal mind doesn't mean its necessarily Chaotic.

[afroakuma]

edit: Ranting aside, Afrokuama's definitely done the best job I've seen at turning the slaad into something appropriate for a race spawned from Limbo.

Why thank you.

It should be noted, in fairness, that there are two significant reasons why standard slaadi act (or in truth, are) evil:

1) They are creatures of chaos from a discordant realm. Those that interact with others in any meaningful way outside of Limbo are therefore inherently unpredictable and unreliable, so good creatures tend to ignore them. Evil creatures (such as the tanar'ri) are far more likely to employ them to spread chaos and to use as self-replenishing fodder in the Blood War.

2) Death, white and black slaadi are evil because they are deliberate corruptions of chaos by evil. My update adds a "natural" trajectory for slaadi and shafts these aberrants completely.

The third reason was the standard 1e/2e spirit of the game that foisted the whole parasitic reproduction thing on them. I've partially removed that from the slaadi (at the cost of squicking some people ) and made them more... naturally chaotic.

Psuedonatural beings... creatures with no stable form... shapechangers... these are beings of Chaos.

Not necessarily. Pseudonatural beings are amoral and without ethic. "Chaotic neutral" merely best defines how to project their mentality into our morality. Many shapechangers are actually rather neutral.

[Rappy]

Tome of Horrors from Necromancer Games has Slaad Lord: Lord of Entropy (CR 32) and Lord of the Insane (CR 30). Have fun!

The same crew also made 3E versions of the Lord of Colors and Lord of Randomness (warning, they're 3.0, so you'll need to tweak them somewhat).

[Tanuki Tales]

The same crew also made 3E versions of the Lord of Colors and Lord of Randomness (warning, they're 3.0, so you'll need to tweak them somewhat).

Thanks. (Rassum Frassum 10 word...)

[Optimystik]

White and black, they should be in the srd

They aren't... but going by WotC's site, you're right that they should be.

Also, a more playable "slaad" is present in Planar Handbook - the Neraphim.

It's a multi-system game that has nothing to do with this topic.

Yes, but do you have it????

[Kish]

2) Death, white and black slaadi are evil because they are deliberate corruptions of chaos by evil.

White and black slaadi aren't evil. (Which means that, apparently, they go through being evil when they're death slaad, and then return to being Chaotic Neutral when they move beyond it.)

[afroakuma]

White and black slaadi aren't evil. (Which means that, apparently, they go through being evil when they're death slaad, and then return to being Chaotic Neutral when they move beyond it.)

My error; I recalled black slaadi being listed as evil, which is actually "Usually chaotic neutral, sometimes chaotic evil."