D&D 5E Help Me Grok Slaad

[Gradine]

Well, definitely not like the crappy example. Show them it's chaotic, don't tell. Just improvise and come up with some action. At first the slaad's busting some sweet dance move like Michael Jackson, after the PC attacks he screams furiously like a little girl and claws at the attacker furiously, after killing the PC he's teabagging over the corpse.

So Slaad are basically thirteen year olds on XBox live?

That actually makes a lot of sense...

 

[Mouseferatu]

Well, definitely not like the crappy example. Show them it's chaotic, don't tell. Just improvise and come up with some action. At first the slaad's busting some sweet dance move like Michael Jackson, after the PC attacks he screams furiously like a little girl and claws at the attacker furiously, after killing the PC he's teabagging over the corpse.

Not in any way meaning to pick on you, Ravenheart, but this is exactly what I don't want to see. Slaad need to be chaotic and unpredictable, but not silly. Chaos, anarchy, entropy, uncontrollable urges, the id over the ego and superego... That can all be terrifying, or it can be goofy, and in this instance, I vastly prefer the former. Even the non-evil slaad ought to be nightmarish, IMO.

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

When I was being taught to play DnD by 2E and 1E vets, they had this piece of wisdom on slaad: If you understood what the slaad was doing or what motivated it, the DM was playing it wrong.

Basically, they're chaos incarnate. They have a reason for what they do, they have a motive... but trying to comprehend that is like trying to comprehend Cthulhu. It'll only drive you insane in the end.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Grey Slaadi are still Chaotic Neutral. Only Death Slaadi which are Slaadi corupted by the Negative Energy Plane are Chaotic evil.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Not in any way meaning to pick on you, Ravenheart, but this is exactly what I don't want to see. Slaad need to be chaotic and unpredictable, but not silly. Chaos, anarchy, entropy, uncontrollable urges, the id over the ego and superego... That can all be terrifying, or it can be goofy, and in this instance, I vastly prefer the former. Even the non-evil slaad ought to be nightmarish, IMO.

I used the Slaad in a campaign a few years ago, they showed up every now and then, I never really made up what there end goal was, but they helped the PCs over throw the vampire, and then opposed them when they tried to stop the mindflyaers...

 

[TarionzCousin]

They're like Planescape's Xaositechts, except big frogs.

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

I used the Slaad in a campaign a few years ago, they showed up every now and then, I never really made up what there end goal was, but they helped the PCs over throw the vampire, and then opposed them when they tried to stop the mindflyaers...

My group had an interesting campaign where slaadi would regularly show up and randomly help the players or ask the players to do something, which was invariably a lot easier than expected and heavily rewarded.

When it came to helping, they would sometimes join in defeating a tough foe, handing over a potion that turns out to be needed, or helping the party bypass some obstacle.

When it came to things asked, sometimes it was as simple as stopping a particular thief, buying a bunch of bananas, giving a sack full of gold to a random beggar... basically, things that made no sense and which anyone could do.

Eventually, a bunch of modrons showed up, informed the PCs they had set up the entire plot the PCs were foiling specifically to create heroes who could help fight against the Slaad, and were ending it because the Slaad were helping them not only accomplish it, but do a better job than expected. And the Modrons couldn't figure out why. See, it turned out that everything the slaad had asked the PCs to do was in some way foiling one of the BBEG's plots.

The PCs, when they confronted their slaad contact about it, merely got three times the pay they were promised for the latest mission they were sent on, congratulated for doing a good job, and left. The PCs spent the rest of the campaign trying to figure out if the slaad had honestly wanted them to succeed, or if the slaad were trying to make it appear so in order to mind screw the modrons.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

The folks over at www.planewalker.com included this description of slaad psychology in the authorized fan-made 3e Planescape Campaign Setting:

"The slaadi are ―purple. Bubbly. Good with children. Extra crispy.‖ At least if you ask
one those are the answers you may get. Slaadi are the exemplars of chaos. They are entirely
unpredictable and care little for the well being of others around them. At the same time of
course, they don‘t go out of their way to hurt them either. Really, any particular slaadi may
have whatever agenda it has in mind at the moment and where a character falls in with that is
entirely up to its interpretation of the situation. They may respond favorably to mortals of a
chaotic alignment, but they will almost inevitably react poorly to those of lawful – unless they
choose at the moment to champion the rights of the oppressed individual in a spirited debate."

To download your own free 700+ page copy of mostly non-mechanical material on Planescape, head over here: http://mimir.planewalker.com/sections/30-35-pscs

But don't all do it at once and crash the server.

 

[Ravenheart87]

So Slaad are basically thirteen year olds on XBox live?

That actually makes a lot of sense...

I don't think thirteen year olds know much about Michael Jackson nowadays, but he can be. Depends on the mood. Or something else. It's complicated, like the many faces of the Joker from the first Batman comic to the latest.

 

[Henry]

I get what you're saying, but this is hardly helpful advice. ....

It does not exactly a thrilling encounter make.

Sounds like H.P. Lovecraft as a DM, when he was a kid.