D&D General Slaads are failures as exemplars of Chaotic NEUTRAL

[Voadam]

I also think Slaads are a poor design. Aside from their chaotic evil behaviour, I just think they don't seem "chaotic" physically - they are too predictable. They ALL look like toads - why? What's chaotic about a toad?

Frogs are a mythological symbol of change and transformation. They go from eggs to limbless waterbound tadpoles with tails to adults with legs and no tails who are comfortable on land.

For example see the Ogdoad, eight primordial gods of really ancient Egypt who arose out of chaos, half of whom are frog headed.

 

[Stalker0]

While we're criticizing the slaadi, does it bother anyone else that a race that is meant to be chaos made flesh is color coded in a strict hierarchy of power and ability? I understand having different types and such, but you can do that without making it so.....orderly....bleh.

Slaads were a big part of my current campaign, and I fundamentally changed them. I gave them various chaotic stats and ability because I completely agree, book Slaadi are as ordered as they come, certainly not the epitome of chaos. No color coding, there is no way to tell a Slaads ability just by looking at them. I also gave them things like:

Chaotic Resistance: When a slaadi is hit with an energy type for the first time, roll a d6:

1-2: Normal Effect
3-4: Slaadi is resistant to that energy type
5: Slaadi is immune to that energy type
6: Slaadi is vulnerable to that energy type

This effect last until the Slaadi does a short rest.

When my players ask about Slaadi stats I'm like "every Slaadi is a snowflake, completely different from the next".

 

[Bohandas]

I also think Slaads are a poor design. Aside from their chaotic evil behaviour, I just think they don't seem "chaotic" physically - they are too predictable. They ALL look like toads - why? What's chaotic about a toad? Why should chaotic creatures look similar to each other at all?

IIRC The in-universe explanation involves the vain and jealous slaad lords Ssendam and Ygorl (who DO look like weird random crap) cursing the slaad race to never again spawn beings as powerful as themselves, which had the effect of locking the race into its current forms (whereas before it HAD been weird random forms.)

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Current lore says that Slaadi came around due to a Shard of Order in Limbo limiting them. There is a reason for their fixed form. And the powerful actually evil Death Slaadi lead them towards violent action to expand their race.

 

[Anoth]

Current lore says that Slaadi came around due to a Shard of Order in Limbo limiting them. There is a reason for their fixed form. And the powerful actually evil Death Slaadi lead them towards violent action to expand their race.

That’s cool lore for them to be chaotic and in Limbo. But i would rather see another race as the paragon of Limbo.
And I really wish they had not named the plane Limbo. That is the first circle of hell in Dante’s inferno.

 

[Bohandas]

That’s cool lore for them to be chaotic and in Limbo. But i would rather see another race as the paragon of Limbo.
And I really wish they had not named the plane Limbo. That is the first circle of hell in Dante’s inferno.

Yeah, but IIRC in Paradise Lost its the formless nothing that preceeded creation

 

[Bohandas]

I had an idea a while back to have chaotic neutral exemplars that are basically zany cartoon characters, of the sort you get on shows like Spongebob, Loony Toons, Bonkers or Animaniacs. They would be technically incorporeal but with bodies made out of stabilized limbo and their society would be nonsensical parodies of every other planar civilization

 

[Son of the Serpent]

I had an idea a while back to have chaotic neutral exemplars that are basically zany cartoon characters, of the sort you get on shows like Spongebob, Loony Toons, Bonkers or Animaniacs. They would be technically incorporeal but with bodies made out of stabilized limbo and their society would be nonsensical parodies of every other planar civilization

I like it

 

[Anoth]

I had an idea a while back to have chaotic neutral exemplars that are basically zany cartoon characters, of the sort you get on shows like Spongebob, Loony Toons, Bonkers or Animaniacs. They would be technically incorporeal but with bodies made out of stabilized limbo and their society would be nonsensical parodies of every other planar civilization

make it happen

 

[Son of the Serpent]