Oozes Confoozes

[kengar]

I was DM-ing last night and the party encountered a Grey Ooze. It slammed the barbarian and then the corrosion kicked in. Now, this is where I got confused. It states in the MM that the corrosion affects wood, metal & clothing so I ruled her Shield, her MW Greataxe, her Chain Shirt (+1 enchanted) and her Backpack (Heward's Haversack) were potentially affected. Her shield made the save but the other three didn't. Now, I ruled the ooze did TOTAL of 40 pts corrosion that round starting on the first item to miss its Reflex save and continuing along until the last HP of damage was used up. Is this right? Or is it 40pts per item that fails its save? That seems like an awful lot (It ate her axe, but didn't manage to quite destroy the chain shirt). What's the real deal?

 

[Macbrea]

Ok, you are correct the thing isn't written very well. This is the way i would probably run the Ooze.


First its 40 points of Acid damage to one item. Using the chart for failed saving throw to figure out which item to effect.

Order* Item
------ ----
1st Shield
2nd Armor
3rd Magic helmet
4th Item in hand (including weapon, wand, etc.)
5th Magic cloak
6th Stowed or sheathed weapon
7th Magic bracers
8th Magic clothing
9th Magic jewelry (including rings)
10th Anything else
*In order of most likely to least likely to be affected.

One thing you need to remember about all acids.


Quote from SRD

Energy Attacks

Objects take half damage from acid, fire, and lightning attacks. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the hardness. Cold attacks deal one- quarter damage to objects. Sonic attacks deal full damage to objects.

So, striking someone wooden shield (5/15) with an acid attack will destroy it using 25 points worth of acid damage to eat it.

Personally, I would only allow it to eat one item at a time. This allows the players to decide how long they wish to fight the creature.