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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9624910" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Z7vMbLB.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 418px" />Most slimes are mindless creatures, but nature and magic still finds a way for some of them to develop self-awareness. Sapient slimes usually come about this way as a result of natural evolution, and often among colonies of their non-sapient brethren. The intelligent slimes thus seek out the companionship of other intelligent beings out of curiosity and intellectual stimulation, and can further evolve in a variety of ways.Slimes come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, but what they share in common is a nucleus that serves as the sole major vital organ which is surrounded by an amorphous gooey layer. A slime's body isn't fixed upon creation, and they are capable of growing and changing over time as their nucleus develops new powers. Slimes reproduce asexually via mitosis, and slime "children" are capable of developing entirely different abilities than their parent, making their species incredibly adaptable. Slimes of every alignment can be found, although they have a bias towards neutral alignments rather than the four extremes. Their religious beliefs are usually the first deity they learn about, or whatever faith is most popular among their cluster.Intelligent slimes usually gain sapience alone, so their societies are most often "found families" which can include non-slimes. Broad tendencies among slime societies are known as clusters. There are seven types of clusters listed in this book, three of which have D&D backgrounds. The ones with backgrounds include Bondforgers (seek to create their own societies and settlements made up of like-minded people), Devourers (slimes who wish to partake of as many different experiences as possible), and Mysteria (focus on intellectual stimulation and scientific innovation). The backgroundless ones include Apallites (seek to disguise themselves as humanoids), Fractals (offspring are born with a near-duplicate mind as their parent, use this uniformity to create their own societies), Inheritors (slimes whose sapience is heritable but can develop independently unlike fractals, and their societies often have a single ancestral "founder"), and Melded (slimes who can incorporate the properties and personalities of dissolved sustenance into themselves). While many of these fractals sound less like cultures and more like biology, we do have some societal fleshing out for the various entries. Such as inheritors, who often make use of goods and services both they and humanoids enjoy to foster trade, such as massages, saunas, and hot springs. Although in the slimes' case, their idea of a good massage might include being slowly compacted into small spaces that reshape their bodies.Thoughts: The slime strongly reminds me of the mimic earlier in this book, being a highly morphic being who tends to be isolated from others of their kind. While both have internal change as a recurring theme, the slime's change isn't necessarily the core mechanic or cultural default. This is because slimes tend to settle into a preferred form or society, but said options differ widely between types of slimes.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Pm9bwz7.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 383px" />As an ancestry, slimes get a bonus to Constitution and either a free ability boost of choice in Pathfinder or a boost dependent on their subspecies in D&D, are either Small or Medium* have the ooze instead of humanoid type, a slow walking speed, resistance to nonmagical piercing damage or precision damage depending on system due to having only a single vital organ, can change between their natural form or an obviously-ooze humanoid form and squeeze through tight spaces in both forms (1 inch wide in D&D or as one size smaller in Pathfinder), can grow pseudopods that can manipulate objects like normal limbs, and have either blindsight or imprecise motionsense depending on system.*Barring the Tiny Slime subspecies, listed below.Slimes have five subspecies/heritages to choose from. They include Agile Slime (has a normal instead of slow walking speed), Amphibious Slime (are amphibious and gain a swim speed), Fractal Slime (gain proficiency in 2 skills of choice in D&D, or gain training in one skill and become expert at 5th level in said skill in Pathfinder), Tiny Slime (are Tiny size and proficient/trained in Stealth, gain the Terrain Stalker feat in Pathfinder), and Twilight Slime (gain either low-light or darkvision depending on system).Thoughts: The base slime ancestry's most potent ability is its motionsense/blindsight, which despite its short range makes them very good at sensing invisible and visually hidden targets. Their lack of low-light or darkvision barring the Twilight subspecies makes it difficult for them to function as scout types in typical dungeon crawls, given they will need a light source or other means of seeing in the dark. But their ability to fit through tight spaces can be situationally useful. When it comes to subspecies, the Fractal Slime and Twilight Slime have the most widely-useful abilities for most builds, while Agile Slime might be less appealing in that it's merely making the slime have a normal speed rather than a truly fast movement.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/q1EOd5U.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 280px" />Slimes have 33 feats in D&D and 36 in Pathfinder. The 1st-level feats center around consistent enhancements to their forms and abilities, such as Bouncy Slime (reduced damaging from falling in D&D or immune to fall damage in Pathfinder), Convincing Face (humanoid form looks indistinguishable from an appropriate humanoid), Energy Slime (deal bonus energy damage with unarmed strikes and being grappled, gain resistance to energy type chosen in D&D), Engulfing Container (can store objects within itself), Heal Slime (slime has healing properties that it can apply by touch), Magislime (gain bonus arcane/occult cantrips), Metal Slime (+1 AC when unarmored or treat body as medium armor depending on system), and Slimy Grappler (can more easily grapple targets with unarmed strikes, gain training in Athletics and can grapple without a free hand in Pathfinder, successfully grappled targets who escape have reduced movement speed in D&D). The D&D book has quite the number of exclusive feats: they include Compress (can become one size category smaller but weight remains the same due to increased density), Dissolve (deal increased unarmed damage vs objects), Slime Familiar (cast Find Familiar but the type is ooze and uses octopus stats), Stretch Out (can interact with objects up to 30 feet away), and Toxic Slime (resistance to poison damage, can deal bonus poison damage with unarmed attacks and when being grappled/swallowed).The 4th/5th level feats are almost entirely different depending on the sourcebook. The only one they both share is Second Evolution, where they gain the benefits of another subspecies that isn't fractal, as that one is more 'innate' in being determined by parent rather than developed later in life. The D&D-exclusive feat is Slime Spit, which turns the bonus damage type from Energy/Toxic Slime into a ranged attack with a bonus debuffing effect, the latter of which refreshes every short rest. The Pathfinder-exclusive feats include Energy Spit (like Slime Spit but no bonus debuff effect, is treated as being in the sling weapon group but is unarmed), Minor Pseudopod (gains a bonus pseudopod that can perform basic tasks), Resilient Slime (DC to remove persistent damage effects is 5 less than normal), Slime Hug (creatures the slime grapples take penalty on movement should they escape), and Split (activated as a reaction up to once per minute, can split into two selves upon taking slashing or piercing damage, are treated as separate targets but the first one to take damage dissolves into nothing, also dissolves if one turn passes).The 8th/9th level feats represent more direct and active applications of their anatomical abilities. They include Energy Surge (deal persistent damage of an energy type of their Energy Slime feat upon dealing a critical hit with an unarmed attack), Massive Consumption (can automatically heal damage when consuming large quantities of food, much like the mimic's Rejuvenating Gorge), Ooze's Resilience (gain +1 hit point per level, in D&D has a chance to turn a critical hit into a normal hit and in Pathfinder reduces the DC of recovery checks when dying), and Ooze Shape (polymorph into an ooze monster once long rest/day, is the Ooze Form spell in pathfinder). Pathfinder has the Medicinal Slime exclusive feat, where they gain their choice of the Herbalist or Poisoner dedication feat even if they have their maximum amount of dedication feats. That feat requires both the Heal Slime feat and either Battle Medicine or Natural Medicine feats as prerequisites.The 12th/13th level provides major changes to the slime and broad uses of their ooze form. They include Big Slime (become permanently Large size and bonus melee damage) and Superbounce (requires Bouncy Slime, further reduces fall damage and triples jump distance in D&D, grants +2 bonus on Acrobatics checks to Tumble Through an opponent's space in Pathfinder, both systems allow them to bounce back into the air half the distance they fell and continue to bounce until they bounce less than 20 feet). Both books have exclusive feats. The D&D one is Engulf (can blind, restrain, and suffocate a single grappled target), while the Pathfinder-exclusive feats include Amorphous Protection (has a chance of turning a critical hit into a normal hit via a flat DC 17 check, gains increased resistance to precision damage), Omnidirectional Vision (immune to being flanked by a creature of equal or lower level), Sacrifice Nucleus (automatically turns a critical hit into a normal hit as a reaction once per hour), and Slimy Replica (can form temporary objects of simple functionality out of their own slime).The 16th/17th level feats represent powerful once per long rest/day abilities. They include Energy Avatar (can transform into a Huge-sized form for 1 minute with increased reach and melee damage, and deals energy damage appropriate to the Energy Slime feat), Misleading Split (turns invisible for up to 1 minute and creates two illusory fakes), and Ooze Surge (transforms into a line-shaped AoE tide of ooze dealing bludgeoning or energy damage if has the Energy Slime feat, materializes at the end of the line in an unoccupied space)The feats of variable level include Confounding Split (4th level in D&D and 9th in Pathfinder, can split into multiple versions of which only one slime is the "real" slime much like Mirror Image and is once per long rest in D&D and once per hour in Pathfinder), Ooze Climb (4th in D&D and 9th in Pathfinder, gain a climbing speed), Ooze Empathy (1st level in D&D and 9th in Pathfinder, can communicate simple concepts to oozes), Transparentize (9th level in Pathfinder once per hour and 12th level in D&D Proficiency Bonus times per long rest, can cast Invisibility but shorter duration by becoming transparent), Motion's Revelation (12th level in D&D and 17th level in Pathfinder, can cast True Seeing once per long rest, also grants constant See Invisibility in Pathfinder while in D&D the True Seeing functions within the blindsight radius), Ooze Aegis (12th level in D&D and 17th level in Pathfinder, D&D spends an action to gain resistance to a non-physical damage type until it's used again, Pathfinder grants resistance 5 to a broad variety of energy damage types), and Ooze Shifter (16th level in D&D and 13th level in Pathfinder, can assume higher-CR ooze forms in D&D and once per short rest, can cast Ooze Form once per hour and a 5th-level once per day version in Pathfinder).Thoughts: A lot of the lower-level feats tend to be situational at best, suboptimal at worst. However, there are some standouts in the form of Energy Slime, which provides a good means for monk and unarmed warrior types to deal non-physical damage with their attacks, and Metal Slime is a pretty good means of giving an AC boost to unarmored builds. Slimy Grappler's Pathfinder version opens the slime up to some creative combos in not requiring a free hand, from sword-and-board fighters to two-handed raging barbarians. The fact that Energy Slime plays off of or serves as a prerequisite for higher-level feats enhances its appeal even further. I'm not sure why Toxic Slime is D&D-exclusive. Confounding Split is another useful defensive feature for slimes who get into the fray, and Massive Consumption can make great use of the Goodberry spell as mentioned with the mimic-equivalent feat earlier in the book. Ooze Aegis is a pretty useful defensive feat to take, and Motion's Revelation grants access to a very good spell. Transparentize is rather weak in a party with the Invisibility spell in that it comes in rather late to replicate a lower-level spell, although its ability to be used frequently can help set the ooze up for ambushes and to sneak around better. Ooze Empathy is going to be rarely used in most campaigns, given the scarcity of oozes as a creature type.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/3uEOV8F.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 383px" />The slimeheart is perhaps the most unusual of the Versatile Species in this book, in that the prior ones covered at least made some sense from a reproductive perspective. Slimehearts originate from any number of strange origins. What slimehearts share is that they appear like normal members of their ancestry save that they are partially made of ooze which can be concealed with a lot of clothing/armor. Most slimehearts survived an encounter with a hostile ooze that partially melded with them, and despite what is commonly believed their condition isn't contagious. The next most common origins for slimehearts are as the result of magical and scientific experiments, or who form a symbiotic link when either or both the slime and non-slime is at risk of death and merging together ensures survival. Finally, the rarest kinds were born that way, coming from when a slime consumes a creature just before dividing to reproduce.Like the other Versatile Species in this book, playing a slimeheart is represented as a feat in D&D or a rare heritage in Pathfinder. They are treated as a slime for the purposes of meeting prerequisites, and gain that ancestry's resistance against nonmagical piercing/precision damage. They also gain access to two new feats: Slime Form, which lets them change into a slime form that can fit into tight spaces and grow pseudopods for manipulation, and Motionsense (prerequisite being at least 4th/5th level) which grants the slime's sense type depending on system.Thoughts: I don't have much thoughts to share on the slimeheart, besides that their base feat isn't very powerful in comparison to the other Versatile Species. Fitting into tight spaces will be less situationally useful than darkvision/low-light vision, or being able to adopt different kinds of humanoid disguises.Thoughts So Far: The slime's a nifty little species, and its various special features and feats are unique while remaining relatively balanced. I will say that a lot of the feats feel like they veer quite a bit into encouraging unarmed builds, although there's still a good bit of other feats that can be useful for other classes and roles.Join us next time as we finish up this book with the petrifyingly dangerous sthenos!</blockquote>

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