Homebrew Awakened Ooze Species Details

As the towering beast prepared to pounce on Josaline, her eyes were caught by the movement of water on its back. The elven paladin smiled – someone had been able to come for her. The transparent liquid quickly covered most of the bear-like behemoth, the fur slowly dissolving where the acid touched. It cried out in pain, an awful screech that blocked out all other noise from the battlefield. Not reliant on sound, a question reached Josaline regardless, as familiar voiceless thought-words bubbled forth in her mind.

< Are you well / unhurt / in fighting condition? >

A moment later the creature stopped its maddening blare. It tried to swing at Josaline but was restricted by the tendrils of goo wrapping around its arms and legs. It took her a moment to recognise that the beast had difficulty moving at all. Seeing the opening she had been looking for, she took her sword in both hands. “Hold it still!” she shouted and rushed forward, plunging her sword into the monster’s chest. It thrashed against its bond and let out yet another deafening cry, yet soon after, it slumped to the ground. Josaline let out an exhausted sigh of relief and scanned the surroundings, only to find the others had a handle on the rest of the beast pack. “Thanks, Samin” she said to the ooze, still reforming into a human-like shape. Only a moment later, she added softly “I’m glad you stuck around”.

< Your words / notion is appreciated / reciprocated. It is an honor to protect / assist you >

She smiled at Samin. It was hard to believe she had come to think of the the blob as part of the party, part of their little family, after so little time.

— Victoria Bune, Stories from the Valleyed Lands

Unlike most other races, awakened oozes are not a collective people, being few and far between. They awaken from a population of slime individually, usually the only self-aware being around in miles until either they venture out from their place of origin, or a band of adventurers crosses their path. Most people consider their existence is a myth, and even those who know the truth find it a mystery. Though some powerful wizards have been able to replicate the process and “create” awakened oozes of their own, it is still not known how the phenomenon happens naturally.

Featureless and everflowing

Awakened oozes are incredibly flexible, but do not have the dexterity to match. Any movement is done through continuously changing shape, a naturally slow process, with the only way to speed it up being to abandon details. While this can be mitigated with practice, for most oozes every action is a trade-off between doing it quickly and doing it precisely. It is for this reason that most awakened oozes have little to no features even in their preferred shape, and only form sub-appendages like fingers when needed.

While they have no “most formed” form, as more features can always be added, their least detailed form is but a pool of slime. This is by no means a binary state, rather it is a continuous spectrum of detail. During combat especially, slimes usually slide up and down this formedness-scale repeatedly, losing definition as they move around foes and obstacles, only reforming appendages as they are needed.

Awakened oozes come in every colour and vary in opacity, with a tendency toward a translucent green. When an ooze awakens, it usually comes with some change in appearance, but rarely a lot. An ochre jelly might turn from yellow to orange, or a gelatinous cube might go from transparent to translucent, etc.

Reclusive upbringing

Shy and scared, yet inquisitive and adventurous – awakened oozes understand that the world does not necessarily have the love for them that they have for the world. If they do not bond with a group of people through some happenstance, awakened oozes will travel the world undetected, stealthily navigating the underbrush of forests, and slipping through grated entrances to sewers of the cities. Having experienced many races and cultures, most will eventually make contact, if given a good enough opportunity to do so.

Underground passageways

From a small dungeon underneath an old castle, to the large dank caves and caverns of the Underdark, oozes can seemingly awaken wherever they are. It also seems to not matter how few or many there is, though there is a tendency to occur where there are many. They tend to have some sentimental value for their place of awakening, but curiously not out of a feeling of home, nor of belonging.

Curiosity and wonder

Metaphorically speaking, awakened oozes have the biggest eyes of any child, full of wonder and pure amazement. They often awaken with some understanding of the world around them, but with no memory or experience of any of it, most oozes have a great desire to go see this world that they know so much about yet at the same time so inherently little. Thus, if left to their own devices, they travel as far and wide as they can, keeping a low profile while taking in the world one sphere of proximity at a time.

However, if they bond early on in their life with an adventuring group, they will often be quite content to join them, trading the speed of seeing the world for good company along the way. They prefer experiencing places and events along other people to traveling alone, so long as the group does not settle down.

UNPREDICTABLE YET DEPENDABLE

Although they can be aloof and sometimes inconsistent in their reasoning, awakened oozes are usually very loyal to those they have chosen to bond with. They rarely look down on any individual, but it is easy for people in general to fall short of the ooze's high expectations of the world.

Humans. < When you see a human, you do-not / never know how they will behave / act. One might be fanatic for rules / law, where the one next one might be a kind soul / person. Their  individuality / diversity is as beautiful as their determination / dedication, but it's also the scariest / most-dangerous of their aspects / qualities: you never know if the next one you meet will want / desire to kill you >

Halflings. < They are good / honest / humble folk and they care a lot about their surroundings / those around them. 'Hearts of gold' as they / people say. But they put a lot of worth in homestead / settling down which is weird / not relatable. Who has time / patience for staying when the world is out / right there? When they do travel, though, they do it right / like us - Avoid notice, avoid attention, avoid offense. As smart as they are kind“

Dwarves. < Pride in / on their chest and a memory like no other race, Dwarves have so many wonderful / amazing stories to tell / entertain with. But they are too enraptured / captured by the concept / thought of their 'hearth and home'. Caring for one's family / clan is to be respected / recognised, but worrying about their massive wealth? Do they not see / understand that what matters can't be stored in coffers / hoards? You also need to be careful / watchful with your words / thoughts, for they are quick to reach for weapon / battle when dishonered / offended >

Elves. < Though Elves are slow / indecisive, they share our wanderlust / Fernweh, and appreciation for new experiences / interactions. Their diplomatic approach / insistence is commendable and benefit them / us / all, They see how the world / situation could be better, and strive to make it so.”

Names

Despite their self-awareness, awakened oozes often do not name themselves in a traditional sense unless prompted to by a person or a circumstance. They think and communicate in complex thoughts unconstrained by conventional language, and so will have a concept of themselves that need no word. Once something or someone prompts them to choose a name, they vary wildly in how they go about choosing it, from a nonsense string of consonants and vowels, through finding one from their inherent knowledge of the world, to a suggestion from their fellow adventurers.

Subrace

While i have not finished my thoughts on creating subraces for this race, feel free to make some of your own. Here are but one example of the many possibilities.

AWAKENED GELATINOUS CUBE

Stealthy, slow and tough, the gelatinous cube is a classic ooze.
Gets additional +2 to constitution, and -2 to dexterity. Base speed is reduced to 15. Size is increased to large.
Lesser Engulf and Partial Engulf replaced with Engulf.

Awakened Ooze Traits

Though sentient, awakened ooze are still oozes in most other respects, and thus share many of their common traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 2, your Strength score increases by 1 and your Charisma score is reduced by 2.

Age

Oozes that are not split fully grown, grow to full size within days of splitting from their parent. No-one knows the natural lifespan of Awakened Oozes, as none have been observed to die of old age. Awakened Oozes are mature from the moment they awaken.

Alignment

Awakened Oozes do not have any innate tendency toward good or evil. However, an independent nature inclines many toward a chaotic alignment.

Size

Awakened Oozes can either be an unformed puddle of slime, filling about 2½ – 3 cubic feet, indistinguishable from a regular ooze, or it can will its mass into shape, usually taking a humanoid form around 6 feet tall. Weighs about 180 – 220 pounds. Your size is Medium, however for purposes other than mass your size counts as Small while unformed.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a climbing speed of 30 feet. Both are reduced to 15 feet while moving without the use of limbs, such as when crawling through a very confined space.

Blindsight 60 ft.

You can see the world around you within 60 feet regardless of lighting conditions. You cannot see through solid walls, but you can see around corners. You are blind beyond this radius.

Condition Immunities

Your physiology as an ooze, that of sentient acidic slime, makes you immune to several statuses and conditions. You cannot be Blinded, Deafened, or suffer Exhaustion. Further, you cannot be made Prone, Restrained or Grappled unless you choose to.

Liquid Form

You can enter an enemy's space and stop there. You can also move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

Spider Climb

You can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.

Pseudopod

Melee weapon attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 3d6 acid damage.

Lesser Engulf

You move up to your speed. While doing so, you can enter Small or smaller creatures' spaces. Whenever you enter a creature's space this way, the creature must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw. On a successful save, the creature can choose to be pushed 5 feet back or to the side. A creature that chooses not to be pushed suffers the consequences of a failed saving throw. On a failed save, you enter the creature's space, and the creature takes 3d6 acid damage and is engulfed. The engulfed creature cannot breathe unless it can breathe water, is restrained, and takes 6d6 acid damage at the start of each of your turns. An engulfed creature can try to escape by taking an action to make a DC 12 Strength check. On a success, the creature escapes and enters a space of its choice within 5 feet of you.

Partial Engulf

One Large or smaller creature within 5 feet of you must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or be grappled and take 3d6 acid damage. Until this grapple ends, the target suffers the effects of being Engulfed except the escape check is a Dexterity check, and it only takes 4d6 acid damage at the start of each of your turns. While grappling a creature this way, you take only half the damage dealt to you, and the creature you are grappling takes the other half. You can grapple only one target at a time.

Languages

 Telepathy 60 ft., and you can understand spoken Common.