It crawls... It creeps... It eats you alive!
-The tagline for The Blob (1958)
Beware oozes! These fragments of the demon lord Juiblex are often overlooked by Dungeon Masters in favor of enemies that actually have limbs, but they’re arguably some of the most fearsome foes a group of low-level D&D adventurers can face. Why? Because unlike a normal monster that might be satisfied with killing a character, oozes are motivated by the undiscriminating desire to consume everything in their path!
Big blobs of death
Before we break down the four different oozes located in the Monster Manual, let’s outline a few key aspects of their behavior.
- Assimilation machines drawn to organic matter - The Monster Manual states that all oozes have blindsight within 60 feet and are drawn to movement and warmth. Aside from more sentient variants under the control of Juiblex, they have little sense of tactics or self-preservation. This means that oozes will not know to target the healer amongst a group of heroes - they’ll simply go where the nearest humanoid is as soon as they sense something within range, and they’ll push through whatever obstacles lie before them to reach that target.
- Shape-shifting, wall-climbing, and all-destroying - Three of the oozes in the Monster Manual possess the Amorphous ability, meaning they can move through tiny spaces as narrow as an inch wide. Two also have Spider Climb, and all oozes deal some degree of corrosive acid damage upon impact that can potentially wreck both characters and their items.
- Self-replicating amoebas - Inspiration for D&D’s oozes may have come from the 1958 sci-fi film The Blob - featuring a mass from outer space that runs rampant in a small American town - but these creatures are also reminiscent of the unicellular organisms known as amoebas, particularly with their ability to asexually reproduce. Two of the oozes in the Monster Manual can create smaller versions of themselves when subjected to certain damage types, and this ability can be a real headache as adventurers struggle to figure out what sort of damage actually caused the splitting.
An unyielding drive to feed combined with the ability to stick to surfaces, manipulate one’s form, destroy weapons and replicate. That’s a lot for just one monster genus. Now, let’s look at each ooze in detail.
Gray Ooze - Corrosion and camouflage, in one gooey package
Gray Oozes are the simplest oozes on the totem pole, and in many ways, they’re the foundation for all their disgusting cousins.
- They’ve got an Armor Class of 8, an average of 22 Hit Points, and a speed of 10 feet. This means they’re easy to attack, but their Corrode Metal ability will be a pain for characters relying on non-magical metal weapons. Their Pseudopod action, which is shared by all oozes, can also permanently damage metal armor upon repeated impact, and if you choose to use the Psychic Gray Ooze variant, they have a Psychic Crush ranged attack from afar.
- Unlike other oozes, the Gray Ooze has a +2 Stealth skill, which seems out of place until one notices its False Appearance trait, which renders the ooze indistinguishable from a wet rock or oil pool as long as it stays still.
- With this in mind, the best way to play Grey Oozes is to litter them along dungeon walls as silent, barely noticeable growths that can’t be seen unless players have high Passive Perception scores. Alternatively, you could rely on their Amorphous trait and stick them within the walls themselves - like living, hungry cement - and have them stay immobile until players get within 60 feet. Obviously, characters relying on non-metal weapons will shine at taking down Gray Oozes, as will magic users, but it’s important to note that these gooey creatures are resistant to acid, cold and fire damage, so anyone trying to use Ray of Frost is going to end up disappointed.
Ochre Jelly - Slinking along the ceiling, about to split into two...
Instead of harassing adventurers with corrosion, the mustard-looking Ochre Jelly focuses on mobility and replication, the other dangers within the ooze repertoire.
- Ochre Jellies have the same Armor Class and speed as Gray Oozes, but they boast an average of 45 Hit Points. They too are Amorphous with a Pseudopod action, but their version won’t harm weapons or armor - besides leaving them dripping in yellow goop, that is.
- The ability of Ochre Jellies to Spider Climb and Split makes up for this seeming deficiency. These globs can crawl upside down to get the drop on unsuspecting heroes, and any slashing or lighting damage administered to a Medium or larger jelly will cause it to split into two new jellies, as long as it has at least 10 Hit Points. These tinier oozes have half of their parents’ hit points and are one size smaller. Considering that Ochre Jellies are classified as Large creatures, that means that a wayward slash from a longsword is going to create two Medium jellies. And if those Medium jellies are slashed, you’ve got four Small jellies.
- The strategy here is to have Ochre Jellies emerge from holes and follow prey along walls and ceilings before launching out with Pseudopod attacks - potentially getting a surprise round on players, who might then need to contend with an annoying mess of additional jellies on their hands if they attack with the wrong damage type. Combine Gray Oozes on the floor with Ochre Jellies on the walls to create chaotic combat where players will be forced to deal with corrosion from one side and splitting slimes from the other.
Black Pudding - The fusion of the Gray Ooze and the Ochre Jelly
If the Gray Ooze and the Ochre Jelly are the grunts of the ooze hierarchy, the Black Pudding is what you’d get if you meshed the pair together in one revolting package.
- The Black Pudding actually has a lower Armor Class than its smaller cousins, but its average Hit Points of 85 and elevated speed of 20 feet make it hardier and faster. It’s completely immune to acid, cold, lightning, and slashing damage, and the latter two types will make it replicate just like an Ochre Jelly. Its Amorphous, Spider Climb, Pseudopod, and Split traits are a combo of the best of the Gray Ooze and the Ochre Jelly, so the tactics used to run those foes can work here as well.
- Black Puddings have a trait entitled Corrosive Form that’s slightly different from the Gray Ooze’s Corrode Metal. While the latter only affects weapons that hit the ooze, Corrosive Form does acid damage to both the weapon and the creature wielding it. The Monster Manual also states that any creature simply touching the pudding will suffer damage, which opens up possibilities for making a Black Pudding’s dwelling a place with uneven, treacherous terrain. One sloppy step could lead to a failed Dexterity Save - and the next thing you know, a hero’s fallen prone atop the pudding and is in for a world of hurt.
- The flavor text describing these sludge piles from hell states that they resemble little more than a blot of shadow. Play them as such, sticking them in murky corridors where characters without Darkvision or torches will be at a disadvantage. Imagine a party carefully maneuvering through the darkness, only to discover that the darkness is not only alive but slimy as heck and ready to devour every inch of them.
Gelatinous Cube - An engulfing killer, consuming all in its way
Finally, we reach the Gelatinous Cube, the most iconic ooze of all thanks to its unique size - an ode to D&D’s early days where dungeons were mapped out on grid paper and the sight of this giant block of Jello, taking up an entire space, was enough to send adventurers running for their lives!
- The Gelatinous Cube’s Armor Class is the lowest of the lot at 6, perhaps to emphasize that its immense size makes it easy to hit. Its average Hit Points of 84 and speed of 15 places it behind the Black Pudding, though it does have the most powerful Pseudopod attack of any of the oozes.
- The cube shines in other ways, though. First off, it’s transparent. Even when in plain sight, characters must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check to spot it, which can lead to fun roleplay possibilities when the area in front of the heroes suddenly jiggles and becomes sentient. Secondly, the cube can enter other creatures’ spaces and use its Engulf action, which requires a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw. If the roll is successful, that creature can choose to be pushed 5 feet back or to the side of the cube. If they fail the roll, the cube will gobble them up instead, and an engulfed creature is restrained, can’t breathe, instantly takes 3d6 acid damage, and will take an additional 6d6 acid damage at the start of the cube’s turns - which can very easily permanently kill a character who goes unconscious and begins failing multiple Death Saving Throws. A conscious character can of course attempt an escape with a DC 12 Strength check, and other players can free trapped party members with the same check, though they’ll take 3d6 acid damage in the process. In the meantime, as the cube moves, anyone stuck within will be transported along with it.
- There’s a great scene in the Pixar movie Onward that shows the protagonists navigating a narrow, trap-lined corridor when a Gelatinous Cube suddenly drops from the ceiling, forcing them to throw caution to the wind or risk being engulfed. This is the perfect template for playing a Gelatinous Cube - treat it as a hazard instead of just an enemy, and toss it at your players in a claustrophobic environment that can potentially push them into other hazards. Are they willing to risk taking damage from that spike trap to avoid becoming one with the cube?! Speaking of risks, are there any brave souls in your party willing to pull that +1 magic weapon - obviously a remnant belonging to the cube’s last meal - out of this terrifying wad of ever-advancing goop?! It can be done if the dice are willing, and what a tale that would be!
Oozing into your D&D campaigns
Oozes are as versatile as their bodies are amorphous, and can easily be placed into any campaign. Here are a few ideas:
- An alchemist experimenting with illegal formulae ends up creating a Black Pudding that digests him and lurches out into the city to find further prey. Players have to hunt this unique brand of serial killer...and their task becomes all the more complicated as the pudding slowly multiplies thanks to frantic attacks from dumbfounded guards.
- Players are tasked with infiltrating the maze-like family crypt of a very eccentric mage who just happened to put a Gelatinous Cube in the hallways on cleanup duty. After all, oozes are technically unaligned creatures who could conceivably act as sentient vacuum cleaners, keeping corridors free from pesky vermin! And you best believe that this cube is going to lurch forward once it senses the warmth of tomb raiders…
- Oozes have been spotted in a garbage zone next to a large metropolis, feeding on the never-ending supply of organic refuse created by the city’s residents. As players venture forth to literally take out the trash, Gray Oozes and Ochre Jellies can wriggle out from tiny cracks in mountains of rubbish to make the party’s life miserable.
For an official campaign that features oozes-a-plenty, check out Out of the Abyss. There, players will delve into the Underdark, meet one of the sentient oozes connected with Juiblex, and perhaps even duel the demon lord himself.
Or if you’d rather create homebrew adventures that emphasize the terror of dealing with the creatures inspired by The Blob, take a look at Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, which features rules for crafting horror settings and emphasizing suspenseful thrills in a game of D&D. Can you imagine a Domain of Dread that’s an apocalyptic wasteland, predominantly inhabited by Gelatinous Cubes and Black Puddings that have eaten nearly everything? The mind can only ooze with the possibilities!
Jeremy Blum (@PixelGrotto) is a journalist, gaming blogger, comic book aficionado, and fan of all forms of storytelling who rolled his first polyhedral dice while living in Hong Kong in 2017. Since then, he's never looked back and loves roleplaying games for the chance to tell the tales that have been swirling in his head since childhood.
Is there a way to put monster stat block(s) in here? I don't have Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, and I'm really curious about the Oblex.
Those are very good points.
True, and it seems like D&D Beyond worked the way you're thinking for a while. I think that Raghnall_Of_Ty, legolasgreenleaf333, and I are just guessing that D&D Beyond would stick to modern tradition.
Awesome article! I’ve read about oozes in the monster manual, and in Keith Ammann’s “The Monsters Know What They’re Doing”, but you shed a helpful light on interesting and fun ways to use them. I’ll definitely be referring here should I use them in one of my next campaigns!
I think oozes are really fun to play because they have the Corrode Metal feature and immunity to lots of magic-caused conditions, plus resistences to some of the most common types of magic damage. This really allows for players to get creative with their tactics - maybe if they know about (or discover) their ability to corrode metal, and they have a monk in the group, they could try martial arts. But with that comes the difficulty of the ooze often attacking whoever is closest to it, which is why martial arts or melee weapons can be challenging. IMO, I think it would be best to use a bow and arrow or crossbow when fighting an ooze, because (A) you get to keep at a safe distance and (B) if your arrow contains metal, it won't matter too much because you often won't be getting the arrow back.
A long, narrow hallway...with two Gelatinous Cubes on either end.
Granted, it's a very long hallway...so the party will have to work fast.
Or maybe the local Thieves Guild keeps a trapdoor in their main chamber...JUST in case a pesky adventurer somehow manages to infiltrate their compound, and tries to confront their boss...just flip the switch and WHOOSH...down into the trapdoor you go.
Luckily, there is a nice, soft cushion which softens your fall...except it feels a bit soggy...and now your skin feels a bit tingly...now burning...INTENSE burning...oh, gods, that ain't no cushion...!
It's like the Rancor scene in "Star Wars"; except that it's a Gelatinous Cube.
MAKE A HOW TO PLAY MONSTERS FOR VAMPIRES I'M BEGGING YOU PLEASE
Good article and not too bloated with ads. Good job!
I agree. Vampire article of some sort.
So, since the article pitched the idea for a dread domain of slimes, I'd like to just throw this idea out there. Instead of using free roaming monsters aplenty. I'd suggest going for a plot based on the D-reaper from Digimon.
Imagine for a moment having your party riding down a heavily forested path towards a village. Perhaps they're heading there for a quest, or maybe they just want a place to stay for the night. Either way when they arrive they find it already consumed by a truly gargantuan slime. The people of the village are nowhere to be found, the buildings themselves are already sinking into the mire. The party can do nothing but watch as a large mass of the stuff just shifts upwards before crashing down on one of the bigger structures left. Crushing it and causing it to disintegrate right before their eyes!
At this point I'd personally have a npc step out from behind a tree or something to offer exposition. First, he is a villager that survived the sudden appearance of this thing. It came for them during the night. By the time anyone noticed enough to raise the alarm it had already traveled through most of the village. Effectively trapping people in their homes, if it hadn't already flowed in under the doors and walls to devour them whole.
Secondly, the Ooze has already grown to a size that it cannot be stopped by conventional means. To emphasize the point, have a tree crack and fall in the distance on the opposite side of the village. As it slams into the ground the tremors cause several more around it to sway unsteadily. During any conversations that follow, any player that wants to look back towards the tree should see it slowly beginning to sink into the ground just like the village. To further help emphasize the creatures size, anyone that tries to skirt the village and investigate just how deep into the woods it goes should quickly hear a wet squelch underfoot. By the time they can make it back to the party their boots should be smoking from the acid damage.
Thirdly, the villager npc suggests that since it cant simply be hacked down to size maybe a spellcaster could help? It's here that we would have the first step of the adventure. The party must flee the area and bring word of this ever growing and all consuming monster to any who will listen. Perhaps there's a retired wizard living on the outskirts of the last village they passed through. Maybe they have to instead ride all the way to the capital to find someone. Either way the answers the same, it's grown to big for anyone to stop it.
For clarifications sake, the reason it cant be stopped is the time the players spent traveling. If they ran to a village and recruited a spellcaster of relatively average strength then he will be to weak to stop the thing at its current size. If they instead made a longer trip to find a truly peerless master of his craft, then the slime has grown to such huge proportions that it's eaten the entire forest and left them unprepared to even try.
This leads into the second step of the adventure. Do you try to stop it anyway, or do you instead focus on evacuating people from the path its travelling? Just cause the party's new wizardly friend cant stop it with what he brought on him doesn't mean he cant do it with some preparation. If the party chooses to continue helping him they must now race across the map. Seeking out the spell casters old colleagues, and tracking down rare ingredients to help them all empower their spell casting. Choosing instead to evacuate the area leads to much the same thing. With added emphasis on convincing people that the threat is real and coming for them.
Either way, have the party be pursued by creatures that smell of rotting eggs. Each trailing a long cord of ooze back towards the slime. The Oblex connection should be as obvious to the players as the connecting tendril is to the creature. What's worse, when slain the creatures paths should still be clearly marked by the now inert ooze. Paths that the greater whole will now slowly follow.
Finally, we come to the end of the adventure. Can the monster be stopped? Does the party succeed in their mission, and if they do what is left? The slime should have eaten anything it came in contact with by this point. So even if its defeated can the land even recover, or will it be forever cursed with the monsters barren footprint?
I don't have all the answers. But its been fun to think about.
Oozes are just so much fun.
I just ran an invasion of an ancient forest by Oozes sent through a tiny Gate by an aspect of Juiblex.
I used some standard oozes but I also just oozed up some other creatures - I made an oozy amorphous humongous spider that shot swarms of spiders instead of web. I made a Giant scorpion reskinned as a puddle leading to the head of a stag, head of an alligator and a serpent — which horrified my players when it animated and poisoned one of them.
The aspect of Juiblex was just a CR 5 demon that I re-skinned described as oozy, drippy and gave legendary actions and lair actions which oozed
As DM I once had a party trapped between two gelatinous cubes both moving towards them. A party member sadly perished.
Cool article. My first thought though, was "but oozes ARE body devouring terror"
I'd argue that the spell makes it make smaller ones which then become their regular size when the spell ends
"There’s a great scene in the Pixar movie Onward that shows the protagonists navigating a narrow, trap-lined corridor when a Gelatinous Cube suddenly drops from the ceiling, forcing them to throw caution to the wind or risk being engulfed."
This is brilliant! I love how you illustrate your tips with clever exampels like this.
I once used a gray ooze psychic variant and gave it 8 int
They're as smart as apes (6 int naturally) so they could learn tool use
Imagine a gray ooze using beads of fireball as makeshift traps under the floorboards
"An alchemist experimenting with illegal formulae ends up creating a Black Pudding that digests him and lurches out into the city to find further prey. Players have to hunt this unique brand of serial killer...and their task becomes all the more complicated as the pudding slowly multiplies thanks to frantic attacks from dumbfounded guards."
NOW THAT'S AN AWESOME IDEA!
Homeless start disappearing but no one notices until someone of status doesn't come home from the pub one day. The party is hired to find out what happened. Mix in a few factions of power and you could have the start to a house war all caused by an unknowing ooze.
Very Cool! This is a fantastic article as DM whos been running for a few years, and who loved the idea of Oozes and Cubes, but needed a bit of inspiration on how to run them as scary as they can be!
The Blob, originally Titled the Molten Meteor, is from space, and is an alien "lifeform." The original film doesn't do an excellent job of covering this however.
But then, B movies very rarely excel at exposition.
Amazing article! I personally liked it a lot because when I am the DM a dungeon=tons of oozes