As long as the DM wants. I don't think there's anything in the MM or other official lore stating otherwise. If you go with the spawn of Jubilex theory of origin, that could explain some near endless longevity.
It's not uncommon to populate crypts that haven't been disturbed for centuries with oozes, molds and the like. If you wanted to be "science" you could just say they sustained themselves on insects and microbes. However, if you harken back to a clear progenitor of oozes, The Blob of the 1950s horror movie, that one came to earth riding through the vacuum of space on a meteor, possibly on a journey that took millennia to find a feeding ground. So you have precedent for species that can stay relatively dormant till an opportunity to feed arises.
In other words, at least in my game, oozes aren't the sort of things you can just quarantine away and hope will go away or starve into torpor or a diminished state. When you break the quarantine seal, it will still be there, hungry.
I can picture cultish NPCs of the fiendish CE on CN persuasion argue or fervently believe that the ooze is the endpoint of all things we consider "reality." However structured or intricate by nature or art, all things eventually get broken down into a mindless simple goop ... if the lore suggestion is right, in propagating ooze, Jubillex is simply accelerating what it sees as the natural end of all things.
I would think an ooze was more like yellow mold. It isn't a single organism, but a pile of tiny organisms that have some rudimentary capability of acting like a coherent blob.
But, I don't have an authoritative source to back that up.
And it doesn't live very long once I start burning the <stuff> out of it!
I suspect oozes reproduce by binary fission (like an amoeba), which gets into an issue of what lifespan even means when one ooze has turned into a thousand.
I think this is the standard death certificate for oozes.
Oozy McSludge ????-1221 HE Cause of Death: Adventuring Party Location of Death: That Hellhole Dungeon Gender: N/A Known Relatives: 16,892 Final Words: "Blurple BLURPLE blurple blur-" Place of Burial: N/A, body was disintegrated
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All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
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See title.
I don't have an authoritative source at hand, but the usual answers seem to agree oozes can live forever - as in, they don't die of natural causes.
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As long as the DM wants. I don't think there's anything in the MM or other official lore stating otherwise. If you go with the spawn of Jubilex theory of origin, that could explain some near endless longevity.
It's not uncommon to populate crypts that haven't been disturbed for centuries with oozes, molds and the like. If you wanted to be "science" you could just say they sustained themselves on insects and microbes. However, if you harken back to a clear progenitor of oozes, The Blob of the 1950s horror movie, that one came to earth riding through the vacuum of space on a meteor, possibly on a journey that took millennia to find a feeding ground. So you have precedent for species that can stay relatively dormant till an opportunity to feed arises.
In other words, at least in my game, oozes aren't the sort of things you can just quarantine away and hope will go away or starve into torpor or a diminished state. When you break the quarantine seal, it will still be there, hungry.
I can picture cultish NPCs of the fiendish CE on CN persuasion argue or fervently believe that the ooze is the endpoint of all things we consider "reality." However structured or intricate by nature or art, all things eventually get broken down into a mindless simple goop ... if the lore suggestion is right, in propagating ooze, Jubillex is simply accelerating what it sees as the natural end of all things.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I would think an ooze was more like yellow mold. It isn't a single organism, but a pile of tiny organisms that have some rudimentary capability of acting like a coherent blob.
But, I don't have an authoritative source to back that up.
And it doesn't live very long once I start burning the <stuff> out of it!
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I suspect oozes reproduce by binary fission (like an amoeba), which gets into an issue of what lifespan even means when one ooze has turned into a thousand.
In the wild or in captivity?
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
I think this is the standard death certificate for oozes.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
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Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
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If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.