I've looked through this a few times and there are a few bits I find very confusing. It is an interesting monster, but I need to work out what the author was intending. I don't think it is written very well.
Shade said:
Aruchai (alternatively Fleische Kleckse, Blobs of Flesh, Sea of Flesh)
ORIGIN: Limbo
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 10-1000
ARMOR CLASS: 10
MOVE: ¼”
HIT DICE: 4+1
% IN LAIR: See below
TREASURE TYPE: See below
NO. OF ATTACKS: See below
DAMAGE/ATTACK: See below
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Paralyzation + see below
SPECIAL DEFENSES: “Weapon-sticking” + see below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 75%
INTELLIGENCE: Semi-low
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Neutral
SIZE: S (4’) + see below
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
No real problems with this apart from the excessive amount of "see below".
Shade said:
Aruchai are creatures native to the plane of Limbo — absolute Chaos. The gods there first created the Aruchai (sing. Arucha) for amusement, but accidentally endowed them with slight intelligence. An Arucha’s one purpose in life is to get OUT of Limbo. When a group of Aruchai has killed all of its enemies, and when the number of the enemies was equal to half or more of the number of Aruchai fighting, the corpses of the enemies immediately begin corrupting into new Aruchai. Meanwhile, the Aruchai are instantly transported to the enemies’ native plane, where they terrorize the inhabitants for one day. They may not be slain in the shape of Aruchai on this new plane, but after the one-day period is up the Aruchai reform into the creatures they were before they were defeated by a group of Aruchai. However, the reformed creatures will now all have Chaotic Neutral alignment.
Wow. This paragraph reads like the legal blurb on the back of a credit card application.
If I understand correctly, if 4 aruchai are on the plane of limbo and attack and kill two three or four orc (on the plane of limbo) they are transported to the material plane. They then somehow become immortal for one day. And on the second day they turn into orcs (but keep their chaotic neutral alignment).
Meanwhile the bodies of the two three or four orcs turn into new aruchai and wander around the plane of limbo.
However, if the 4 aruchai only kill one orc none of this happens.
There are several different things going on here. They are all good ideas, but this whole thing is tied up in knots. It is really clunky.
For example, do the aruchai turned into orcs gain the stats and abilities of orcs? Do they gain the abilities of the very orcs they killed? Do they look exactly like the orcs they killed or do look different?
What would happen if the aruchai killed some orcs, hopped over to the material plane and then killed a fire elemental before they finished transforming into orcs? Do they stop turning into orcs and hop over to the elemental plane of fire? Do the dead elementals turn into aruchai on the material plane?
My understanding of this creature is that:
* = It has some sort of doppelganger like ability to copy the form of its victims. For some reason this process takes 24 hours, during which the aruchai seems to be agressive and much harder to kill than their original (first) form. Then it takes on a third form - the form of its victim on its home plane.
* = Something the aruchai does to its victims make them turn into aruchai after they die. (This would seem to suggest that the number of aruchai on the plane of limbo would remain fairly static, with dead victims being mostly equal to the aruchai that vanish.)
Shade said:
Aruchai appear as formless blobs of rotting, yellow flesh. Their bodies may be seen to be crawling with little red parasites, who greedily slurp up the many fluids the Aruchai excrete at odd times. The Aruchai also excrete a viscous glue which causes them to stick to the ground (thus their slow movement rate). Aruchai are always moving, albeit very slowly. They never stop for rest, and only slow down a little to absorb foods.
I wonder what the little red parasites do. Maybe they infect people killed by aruchai and make their bodies turn into new aruchai.
The little red parasites are obviously immune to the aruchai's glue.
Do these parasites need their own monster entry?
Shade said:
Weapons of +3 or less will stick to the Aruchai’s glue-coated bodies if the modified “to hit” roll is below 18. The weapons can be pulled out of an Arucha as per a Web spell. Each round a weapon is stuck the Arucha’s body acids will eat away at it, so it loses a “plus” each round (normal weapons will go into the negatives). If a weapon reaches -5 it will explode, not harming the Aruchai but doing 2-16 pts. damage to all others within a 6” radius.
This is an interesting ability (or should I say set of abilities), but it doesn't seem to fit in with any other monster I've seen.
Maybe the stickyness of the weapons could be done by making any attack on the aruchai grant it an attack of opportunity that can only be used for attempts to grab weapons.
Or maybe it would be easier drop that and just have its skin act like a web spell.
The acid effect that makes weapons explode reminds me of the silatic in some ways. But this creature doesn't seem to feed on any particular type of weapon. (So both a whip and a mace would do the same amount of explosive damage.)
Shade said:
An Arucha will reach out with shapeless “fingers” at its victim, paralyzing them as per a Gelatinous Cube. It will then proceed to devour its captive by engulfing it and eventually (1 round) suffocating it. The Arucha then digests the enemy and excretes it as pre-Aruchai mess — which will become Aruchai under the conditions detailed above. Aruchai fingers can reach a maximum of 1” from the body.
The fingers are good, but how many does it have? Or do the fingers act as a mass and form one single attack? Or does this ability just give us a 1 inch "paralization zone" around the creature?
The actual absorption sounds pretty similar to what a gelatinous cube does, but with the overun being a lot slower. I'd guess that part could just copy the cube.
Shade said:
When there are 100 or more live Aruchai present, they can meld and flow together into Aruchai-Kamoit — a sea of writhing flesh. Their fingers may then reach 2”, they gain +3 “to hit”, and 3 is subtracted from the enemy’s saving throws vs. paralyzation.
This sounds a bit like those shape changing creatures from Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
They could merge together. I think the aruchai-kamoit might need a second set of stats.
The blurb doesn't actually say if the aruchai-kamoit is a one way process or if the creatures can split off and turn back into a standard aruchai.
Shade said:
Aruchai are invulnerable to cold-based attacks, and weapons of +1 or less do only one point of damage to them per hit. Weapons of +2 or better do as many pts. of damage as their “plus” (i.e., a +3 sword does three points of damage). Normal damage adjustments (due to high strength) do not apply to Aruchai. Damage penalties incurred because of low strength do apply, however. Fire does triple damage vs. the Fleische Kleckse, and so does acid.
This uber-damage reduction (combined with the sticky-weapon disolving acid) probably means that you would be better off throwing two dozen logs at this creature. It is bizarre that a giant can't do more damage to this creature than a goblin.
Immunity to cold and vulnerabilty to heat work (although this creature already has too many effect going on). The vulnerability to acid is a bit weird considering that it gives off its own acid. (Maybe it actually gives off alkali instead of acid. I could see that causing a reaction that damages the creature. However, I don't know if D&D uses alkaline as well as acid. Maybe a less scientific explanation could explain this vulnerability.)
Shade said:
Aruchai are treated as size “L” in “Kamoit” state.
That can go into the second stat block.
Shade said:
Gods and other creatures of Chaos often utilize seas of Aruchai as treasure guards in caverns with low roofs.
A "sea" would seem to be the second (larger) form of the creature. (I would guess that "sea" would be the collective noun used to describe a group of these creatures (instead of tribe, clan or gang).
This creature is really like a bunch of random abilities that were rolled up on some sort of monster generation table. I think that half the battle with this monster is going to be getting past the really bad design and working out what the "spirit" of this creature is.