Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

This is part of a series! Go here to see the other entries.

Jellies, slimes, molds, puddings. Collectively known as “oozes”, these are likely the most iconic D&D monsters not exempted from the OGL. Talk about dragons all you want, but I’ll bet you far more adventuring parties have faced (and died to) some kind of ooze than they did dragons. They’ve been in the game since the beginning, and their variety has only increased as time went on. Here they’re present in both books.

The Lore

Talking about “oozes” is like talking about “animals”. There’s so many types that you can’t really describe them as a whole in anything but the most general terms. They’re goopy, they’re mindless, they like damp and/or dark places, and they eat just about any type of organic matter by dissolving it with their acidic secretions.

As far as the inhabitants of 4e’s implied setting are concerned, oozes are just a fact of life, like animals or plants. They’re natural creatures that have been around forever and everyone knows they exist. Learning how to keep your basement or root cellar ooze-free is probably a basic life skill.

The most sensible advice for any regular person who spots an ooze is to turn around and leave. This is complicated by the fact that sometimes these creatures wait in ambush. Also, adventurers are neither regular nor sensible, and they like to delve into exactly the sort of place oozes thrive in, so they end up running into these creatures much more often than civilians.

Oozes are drawn to heat and movement, so they often try to eat living creatures, but they don’t have a preference for them over any other organic matter and can subsist on dungeon crud just as well. Finding an unusually clean room or corridor is a sure sign that you’re approaching an ooze lair.

In addition to the no doubt large variety of natural species, these things are also quite likely to form as the result of botched magical experiments, or to spontaneously form in piles of magical waste. They’re even easy to summon, so your PCs might end up fighting them when they go up against the sort of wizard who’s into that.

The Numbers

Oozes are Natural Beasts of varying size, with the Blind and Ooze keywords. They always have some sort of blindsight or tremorsense they use to perceive their surroundings.

The Monster Vault adds an Ooze trait that all of its versions have, which allows them to ignore all penalties for squeezing. Normally, while a character squeezes past an opening smaller than themselves, they move at half speed, grant combat advantage, and attack at a -5 penalty. Oozes ignore all of that. I think the Ooze keyword implies the same rules for the MM oozes, it’s just less explicit.

Ochre Jelly (Both)

This Large ooze is a Level 3 Elite Brute with 102 HP and 5 acid resistance. It crawls at speed 4, and the MV also gives it a climb speed of 4.

Both versions attack with pseudopod Slams that do physical damage and ongoing acid damage (save ends). As a move action they can use Flowing Form to shift their speed, which means they pretty much never make normal moves. I think their Ooze trait also means they can squeeze between adventurers if the party surrounds them but leaves a small gap.

When first bloodied, an ochre jelly Splits into two jellies with half the original’s HP. So a jelly that hits exactly 51 HP would split into 25 and 26 HP halves. Both of these individuals act independently, and the new one doesn’t have any of the conditions that applied to the original.

If the fight ends with the two jellies alive (e.g., if the PCs ran away or died), they eventually recombine.

A pair of ochre jellies makes a nice mini-boss fight for level 1 adventurers! And you could easily make higher level versions that start out Huge and split more often to challenge more powerful parties.

Green Slime (MV)

Green Slimes split the difference between a monster and a hazard, with different editions treating them in different ways. Here, they’re monsters.

These green, runny slimes are Medium Level 4 Lurkers with 47 HP. They have 5 acid resistance and 5 vulnerability to both fire and radiant damage. Their basic slams target Reflex and do 5 immediate and 5 ongoing acid damage (save ends), which is notable because it’s a flat amount and not a damage roll.

They also have a special Engulf attack that also targets Reflex, does a bit of immediate acid damage, and initiates a grab with escape DC 18. This is the 4e version of the classic “a green slime drops on you from the ceiling” attack, so it will likely be made with combat advantage due to surprise. Until the target escapes the grab, they take 10 ongoing acid damage (a lot at heroic tier), and any attacks against the slime deal half damage to the monster and half to the victim.

This is not quite as bad as the “you’re dead in 1d4 rounds” of the old-school version, but if an unlucky level 1 adventurer runs into one of these the result will be pretty much the same.

Gelatinous Cube (Both)

Ridiculous, or ridiculously awesome? These Large translucent oozes are shaped like 10-foot cubes, fitting precisely in any Gygax-standard dungeon corridor. They’re Level 5 Elite Brutes with 156 HP, who crawl along at a ground or climb speed of 3.

In addition to the Ooze trait, they are Translucent, which makes them invisible until they’re spotted (a DC 25 Perception check!) or until they attack. I think it’s still true that they can’t digest metal or bone, so even if you fail to spot the cube you might still see a floating pile of coins, a skeleton, or a suit of armor. That’s not exactly a disadvantage: watch as the impetuous barbarian or paladin charges the foul “construct” or “undead” and walks right into the cube!

If you fail to spot the cube and walk (or charge!) into it, you’re automatically hit by its Engulf attack and sucked into its corrosive and anesthetic insides. This is a grab, and a grabbed victim is dazed and takes 10 ongoing acid damage until they escape (DC 15 in the MV, 16-18 in the MM).

Gelatinous cubes can also be more proactive in chasing their meals! Once the fight is joined, it will attack with Slams (Melee 1 vs. Fortitude) that deal acid damage and immobilize (save ends), and make active Engulf attempts (Melee 1 vs. Reflex).

Gelatinous cubes are still exactly as much fun as they were in older editions. Aside from the corridor, “pile of treasure” or “skeleton” setups, you can also put them at the bottom of pit traps and the like.

Black Pudding (MV)

The top of the food chain when it comes to classic oozes. This is a Large, Level 8 Elite Brute with 218 HP and 15 acid resistance. Their ground speed is 4, their climb speed 3.

Black puddings are super-aggressive. The pudding’s Slams do quite a bit of acid damage, and the thing can shift up to its speed before or after the attack. They’re more like lunges than slams.

The pudding can also engulf (close blast 3 vs. Fortitude), which does the same damage as a slam to everyone in the area and grabs them (DC 16). The pudding can them use a standard action to melt one of its grabbed victims, dealing a nice chunk of automatic acid damage and eating a healing surge. If the victim has no healing surges left, they take 10 extra acid damage instead.

Defense-wise, black puddings are less of a puzzle monster than they used to be, but they still retain some of that in their Split trait. When they’re hit by a weapon attack, a piece of them splits off and becomes a Black Pudding Spawn in an adjacent square.

Spawn are Medium Level 8 Minion Brutes whose slams have the same “shift your speed” rider as their parent’s and do minion-level acid damage. There is no limit to how many spawns may be in play at any given time, so the party is going to be in for a nasty surprise if they have a Twin Strike ranger or are all-martial.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

Being dumber than even mundane insects, oozes don’t “ally” with anyone. Still, some creatures might keep them in a convenient corner of their lair to deter intruders, or they might join an ongoing fight as opportunistic predators. And of course, as the lore text said you can have a wizard with Pokemon trainer aspirations summon oozes and direct them through magic.

The sample encounter covers the first case: level 3, 1 ochre jelly and 3 orc raiders.

This is another instance where you lose nothing by ignoring the Monster Manual entries and going all in on the Vault’s versions. They have almost the full set of classic oozes, and despite the many attempts by 3e to prove otherwise, they’re enough for the vast majority of campaigns. It’s not D&D if it doesn’t have some icky goo in it somewhere.