Optimizing the Gelatinous Cube

[RndmNumGen]

I was reading through this, and came up with the rather silly idea of having a Celestial Cube(Instead of a fiendish one) take Vow of Poverty and become the ultimate evildoer eating machine. So what is the best way we can optimize a cube to ingest as many fiends and undead as possible?

[Tvtyrant]

Give it levels in monk and let is make unarmed strikes :D Because of its size it will do a fair amount of damage and its tremendous HD would get a bonus from the monks wisdom AC (if you can get it wisdom).

[Zaydos]

You need to find a way to deal Good damage if you want it to eat fiends proper... and unfortunately the only one I can think of with VoP requires 15 Charisma.

[Vknight]

Well the cube should get +3Charisma.
Why

Have you not noticed the tremendous amount of 'Half-Dragon, Gelantinous Cubes'

[Eldan]

First off, you start with giving it levels in Totemist. Then, bind a totem that gives you claw attacks or arms.

[Eurus]

First off, you start with giving it levels in Totemist. Then, bind a totem that gives you claw attacks or arms.

A celestial gelatinous cube totemist with Girallon Arms and Vow of Poverty. That's an... interesting mental image.

[Eldan]

Actually, thinking about it now...

Must you have a slot/body part in order to meld something to it?

[Eurus]

Actually, thinking about it now...

Must you have a slot/body part in order to meld something to it?

I, uh. Have no idea, actually. I don't believe Magic of Incarnum mentions anything about it. Looking at it logically, I would guess that it probably can't access any chakra whose bind would occupy a magic item slot that it can't normally use. So no Hands chakra binds for armless creatures, etc. But that's just a guess.

[Zaydos]

Actually, thinking about it now...

Must you have a slot/body part in order to meld something to it?

Unfortunately.

[Amphetryon]

Nobody's suggested Oozemaster yet for a Gelatinous Cube? For shame!

[SurlySeraph]

I'd start with Invisible Fist Monk 2, to make it easier for people to walk into it.
Fist of the Forest for unarmed strike progression and Con to AC would be great.
Maybe Kensai, I forget whether VoP is compatible with Kensai or not. But you can't tell me that a Gelatinous Cube wearing a hakimachi and serenely announcing that it is the perfect weapon before flinging its +1 Throwing Holy Axiomatic Self at you isn't awesome.
If we don't massively increase its Wisdom, Steadfast Determination is a real good idea.
Work on raising Con a lot to increase its Paralysis DC, and Str to raise its Engulf DC.

Unfortunately.

Pseudopods count as every body slot and I will keep saying this over and over even if I am proven wrong because Gelatinous Cube Totemist!

Nobody's suggested Oozemaster yet for a Gelatinous Cube? For shame!

We... we put gelatinous cubes on your gelatinous cubes so you can engulf evildoers while you engulf evildoers?

[RndmNumGen]

Fist of the Forest for unarmed strike progression and Con to AC would be great.

Omg... yes.... so much yes... That's a raw +13 to AC without even increasing it's CON score.

[Ajadea]

Bizarrely, by RAW, you can add the Fiendish Template to an ooze, but you can't add the Celestial Template to one. So this technically isn't entirely legal, but who cares? It's awesome!

Draconic Creature Template adds +2 Str, +2 Con, +2 Cha. That's basically all the important stats right there.

Adding that, I think the creature becomes:

Spoiler

Show

Size/Type: Large Ooze (dragonblood, extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 4d10+36 (60 hp)
Initiative: -5
Speed: 15 ft. (3 squares)
Armor Class: 5 (-1 size, -5 Dex, +1 natural), touch 4, flat-footed 5
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+7
Attack: Slam +3 melee (1d6+1 plus 1d6 acid) or claw +3 melee (1d6+1 plus 1d6 acid)
Full Attack: Slam +3 melee (1d6+1 plus 1d6 acid) and 2 claws +1 melee (1d6+1 plus 1d6 acid)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Acid, engulf, paralysis, smite evil 1/day
Special Qualities: Blindsight 60 ft, DR 5/magic, darkvision 60 ft, lowlight vision, immunity to electricity, ooze traits, resist acid and cold 5, spell resistance 9, transparent
Saves: Fort +9, Ref -4, Will -4
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 1, Con 28, Int 3, Wis 1, Cha 3
Skills: 4 Skill Points, arrange as desired, +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Spot
Feats: Get two (the example Celestial Draconic Cube has Multiattack and Improved Natural Attack (claws))
Environment: Underground
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: 1/10th coins, 50% goods (no nonmetal or nonstone), 50% items (no nonmetal or nonstone)
Alignment: Always good (any)
Advancement: 5-12 HD (Large); 13-24 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: —

Yeah. Automatic claws, regardless of if the creature has arms. I think it's funny, personally.

[Waker]

Bizarrely, by RAW, you can add the Fiendish Template to an ooze, but you can't add the Celestial Template to one. So this technically isn't entirely legal, but who cares? It's awesome!

No, but you can add the Half-Celestial template if you can get it's Int to 4. I know Half-Dragon adds +2 int, but you gotta find the other 2 somewhere else first.

[Eldan]

Fiendish Half-dragon Half-celestial.

Done. And what a weird family tree that would be...

[Kobold-Bard]

Play this?[/subtle]

[flabort]

Eldan, the only way that could be more... ''pass the brain bleach" worthy, is if you somehow fit illithids into the mix. I think I'll need a #67 brain bleach after this...

[Tvtyrant]

Give it levels in Thrall of Jubilex to gain the ability to summon oozes and demons?

[bloodtide]

Don't forget the Sentry Ooze Template(From Dungeonscape). The ooze gets spell resistance and a +10 to Wis and Cha!

And then you just need to add two points of Int from something....and the Ooze can be a Half-Celestial.

[Waker]

If I could remember where the table was for stacking templates I could expand on this idea further, but you could add the Half-Fey template (Fiend Folio) and then add either the Seelie Court Fey if its type changes to fey or if it doesn't the Unseelie Court Fey (both from Dragon Compendium).

[Cieyrin]

Give it levels in Thrall of Jubilex to gain the ability to summon oozes and demons?

How exactly does being a Thrall and Exalted mesh, exactly?

[Eldan]

Okay...

So a Fiendish, Half-celestial, Half-dragon Sentry Cube has...

STR 22, DEX 3, CON 32, INT 7, WIS 17, CHA 17.
Immunity to Electricity and one other element, mind-affecting abilities, visual effects, poison, sleep, polymorph, stunning, critical hits, disease
Resistances: acid 10, cold 10, and electricity 10, fire 5, Spell Resistance 20, DR 10/magic...

It's challenge rating is 8+the adjustment of sentry ooze, which I don't know.

[bloodtide]

Oh...an Awakened Sentry Ooze, would get 3d6 Wis and Cha +10! So 13-28 in both Wisdom and Charisma!

An awakened ooze gets the abberation type so then you can add the celestial template.

The awaken ooze spell is in Dragon 304.

[Keld Denar]

Once you optimize your cube, you need to stat up his adventuring companions...a sarcastic mimic and a rust monster with an epic Cha score.

[Skorj]

From a fluff perspective, Awakened seems just as useful - this ooze needs to be a predator, not a bumbler, after all.

[Kaww]

You need to find a way to deal Good damage if you want it to eat fiends proper... and unfortunately the only one I can think of with VoP requires 15 Charisma.

IIRC VoP allows your attacks to be treated as +2 good weapons once you reach 10 HD...

Also sentry ooze - dungeonscape might help with stats and abilities...

[RndmNumGen]

Bizarrely, by RAW, you can add the Fiendish Template to an ooze, but you can't add the Celestial Template to one. So this technically isn't entirely legal, but who cares? It's awesome!

Wait, you can't??

*Checks SRD*

Huh. Well look at that... Celestial doesn't apply to Oozes, but Fiendish does. Weird. I always thought Celestial was an exact counterpart to Fiendish...

[Jair Barik]

Fiends will do it with anything, so will dragons and humans.
Clestials have 'standards'

[Keld Denar]

There is a feat in LM called Improved Paralysis. Its like a double strength Ability Focus, but only works for Paralysis. Its not undead only though, so ANY paralysis ability you have would benefit from it. Thus, a GC could take both and net a +6 on his paralysis DC, not bad for an investment of 2 feats.

[Darrin]

Bizarrely, by RAW, you can add the Fiendish Template to an ooze, but you can't add the Celestial Template to one. So this technically isn't entirely legal, but who cares? It's awesome!

Sentry Ooze (Dungeonscape) increases Int to 2. To get any other Int increases, though, you have to change the type to something else. Fiendish or Pseudonatural works, bringing Int up to 3. From there you can add Half-Dragon (Int +2) or Half-Fey. After that, Spellwarped (MM3) can get you another Int +4, and Phrenic (XPH) adds Int +2.

You can skip some of those templates by changing your type to Aberration, though... Sentry Ooze, then Corrupted by the Abyss (EttDP, 3.5 update for Corrupted template), for example, followed by Spellwarped.

The easiest way to get a Celestial Cube is probably Sentry Ooze (or Pseudonatural) -> Half-Dragon -> Celestial (roughly, LA +5). Something I've been toying with occasionally:

Spellwarped Dungeonbred Corrupted Sentry Ooze Gelatinous Cube, which gives me a medium-sized cube with 4HD, LA +3, and the somewhat playable ability scores:

Str 14, Dex 9, Con 34, Int 6, Wis 9, Cha 9

From there, something like Frozen DwarfCube Hulk Smash! might be interesting, but to get into Stoneblessed it needs to be giant, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid... easy enough to do with Half-Troll, but that's another LA +4.