Ooze

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, an ooze is a type of creature. This category includes such monsters as slimes, jellies, deadly puddings, and similar mindless, amorphous blobs. They can be used by Dungeon Masters as enemies or allies of the player characters.

Many oozes dwell underground, and most secrete an acid from their skin that dissolves flesh and other materials rapidly.

Oozes are essentially blind, but more than make up for that with an ability called "blindsight", which allows them to discern nearby objects and creatures without needing to see them visually.

Publication history

Dungeons & Dragons (1974-1976)

The black pudding, the gelatinous cube, the gray ooze, the green slime, and the ochre jelly first appeared in the original Dungeons & Dragons set (1974). The slithering tracker first appeared in The Strategic Review #5 (December 1975).

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons contains a number of ooze-like creatures. The Monster Manual contains the black pudding, Juiblex, gelatinous cube, gray ooze, green slime, ochre jelly,^[1] and slithering tracker.^[2] The stunjelly first appeared in the original Fiend Folio (1981).^[3] The crystal ooze, the deadly puddings (the brown pudding, the dun pudding, and the white pudding) and the olive slime and slime creature first appeared in the adventure module The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (1982),^[4] and reprinted in the original Monster Manual II (1983) with the mustard jelly.^[5]

Dungeons & Dragons (1977-1999)

The gelatinous cube, the gray ooze, the green slime, and the ochre jelly appeared in the D&D Basic Set (1977, 1981, 1983), and the black pudding appeared in the D&D Basic Set (1977) and D&D Expert Set (1981, 1983). The creatures all appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991).

The 1994 release of The Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game contained a number of oozes, although at that time they were not defined as such by a creature type or keyword. The book contained the black pudding, gelatinous cube, gray ooze, green slime, and ochre jelly.^[6]

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)

The crystal ooze, the deadly puddings (the black pudding, the brown pudding, the dun pudding, and the white pudding), the gelatinous cube, the gray ooze, the green slime, the ochre jelly appeared in second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989).^[7] The slithering tracker appeared in Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (1989).^[8] The mustard jelly, the olive slime and slime creature, and the stunjelly appeared for the Greyhawk setting in the adventure module Greyhawk Ruins (1990). All of these creatures were reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993) under the "ooze/slime/jelly" heading, except for the deadly puddings which appeared under their own heading.^[9]

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition (2000-2007)

In both the 3rd and 3.5 editions of Dungeons & Dragons, ooze is a creature type. The black pudding, the gelatinous cube, the gray ooze, and the ochre jelly appeared in the third edition Monster Manual (2000) under the "ooze" entry,^[10] and the version 3.5 Monster Manual (2003). The green slime appeared in the third edition Dungeon Master's Guide (2000) as a dungeon hazard,^[11] and again in the 3.5 revised Dungeon Master's Guide (2003). The Monster Manual II (2002) contains the bone ooze, flesh jelly, reason stealer, and teratomorph.^[12] The Monster Manual III (2004) includes the arcane ooze, living spells (also in the Eberron Campaign Setting), snowflake ooze, and summoning ooze.^[13] The white pudding appears in Frostburn (2004).^[14] The bloodfire ooze appeared in Monster Manual IV (2006), and the graveyard sludge appeared in Monster Manual V (2007).

The Necromancer Games supplement, The Tome of Horrors (2002), contains the crystal ooze, diger, mercury ooze, mustard jelly, slithering tracker, and stunjelly.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)

In 4th edition, "ooze" is a keyword, rather than a creature type. The 4th edition Monster Manual contains the ochre jelly and gelatinous cube.^[15] The black pudding appeared in Monster Manual 2 (2009).

Ooze descriptions

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• Aballin: The aballin was introduced in the Fiend Folio Monstrous Compendium supplement book. In the game, they resemble large puddles of stagnant, jelly-like water. (They are actually oozes though, not elemental creatures of water, because their substance, though it resembles water, is actually an acid.) They were supposedly created in ancient times when a druid fell victim to an archwizard's curse and turned into the first aballin. All other aballins are thought to be descended from her. Like most oozes, aballins live underground. Unlike some oozes, however, most of which merely drag themselves around and engulf whatever they find, aballins have a more sophisticated way of feeding. They lie dormant until prey comes along, and the said prey notices coins and other treasures, the remnants of the aballin's previous victims, floating at the bottom of the creature. Thinking it to be merely water, they reach in to retrieve the treasures, and then the aballin lashes out with liquid pseudopods, grapples with the victim, and pulls them in and drowns them. Aballins cannot speak, and they are regarded as Neutral in alignment.

• Gray ooze: In the game, a gray ooze resembles a thick, viscous puddle of gray sludge, roughly 6 to 8 inches thick and up to 14 feet across, and often closely resembles wet stone or an amorphous rock formation. Like most oozes, they are underground dwelling, mindless scavengers who drag themselves around caves and sewers and absorb and digest whatever they find. Unlike some other oozes, it cannot move on ceilings or walls, and hence is left to slide its way along floors. The gray ooze attacks by striking like a snake until prey is either dead or unconscious, and it then moves on top of them to digest them from within. It is immune to cold and fire. The gray ooze's acidic secretions corrode metal at an alarming rate, and in addition to giving the creature a method of destroying opponent's weapons and armor, blacksmiths also sometimes use jarred gray oozes to meld ore into the right shape. Gray oozes reproduce by breaking small driplets off of themselves after a meal, which later grow into gray oozes themselves.

• Ochre jelly: In Dungeons & Dragons, the ochre jelly resembles a giant amoeba, consisting of a thick, porous, golden sludge stiffly built up into the amoeba shape. It lurks in dungeons, slowly sludging its way along floors, walls and ceilings alike, under doors and through cracks, looking for victims. When it finds them, it extends, latches onto them, and then proceeds to engulf and constrict them. The ochre jelly reproduces asexually, and can sometimes be found with several of its divided offspring.

References

Additional reading

• Greenwood, Ed. "The Ecology of the Ochre Jelly". Dragon #104 (TSR, 1985).
• Greenwood, Ed. "The Ecology of the Slithering Tracker". Dragon #86 (TSR, 1984).
• Richards, Johnathan M. "The Ecology of the Black Pudding". Dragon #219 (TSR, 1995).
• Richards, Johnathan M. "Ecology of the Gray Ooze: Ooze There?" Dragon Annual #4 (TSR, 1999).
• Aballin Monstrous Database listing, retrieved December 17, 2008.

External links

• Monstrous Database entries: Aballin Gelatinous Cube Gray Ooze