Special Conversion Thread: Finishing off the oozes

[Shade]

Combat: Necromantic sludge can sense sentient humanoid life within 100 yards, and it attacks relentlessly with little regard for its own safety, seeking to feed on the life energy of its victims, This keen perception makes it impossible to surprise the monstrous goo.

Lifesense rather than blindsight?

Necromantic sludge is poisonous to the touch, and casual contact inflicts 1 hp damage per round.

Contact poison or acid?

In melee, the sludge lashes out with a pseudopod, inflicting 1d4+2 hp damage per successful strike. If the sludge slays an opponent, it attaches itself to the body to be absorbed through the skin, which turns dark gray within one round, regardless of the victim’s original skin color. The body becomes a zombie in all respects, under the control of the sludge. After a few months, the decaying zombie body is discarded, unless a fresh body is encountered earlier.

I think the normal zombie template should suffice.

Necromantic sludge reflects spells as a ring of spell turning, except that it reflects 100% of a spell’s or magical item’s effect.

Something like the nerra's reflective spell resistance?

The sludge is vulnerable to normal weapons, but magical attack and damage bonuses are not counted.

Interesting…

 

[freyar]

4HD Medium ooze. Gray ooze at 3HD has Str 12, Dex 1, Con 21, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1. Basing the +2 damage on Str, maybe Str 14, Dex 1, Con 18, Int 3, Wis 8, Cha 7? I'm guessing Wis and Cha to be a little low based on low Int. I'm also not sure Con should be quite as high as gray given the bonus hp in the original. Low Dex is fitting for something that makes zombies.

Necromantic sludge is poisonous to the touch, and casual contact inflicts 1 hp damage per round.

How do we want to handle this? A wounding ability but via some kind of caustic sludge?

 

[freyar]

Oops, missed your second post on this. Lifesense is fine, reflective spell resistance is fine, regular zombie is fine. See above for my take on the "poison." The magic weapon resistance is indeed interesting.

 

[Cleon]

4HD Medium ooze. Gray ooze at 3HD has Str 12, Dex 1, Con 21, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1. Basing the +2 damage on Str, maybe Str 14, Dex 1, Con 18, Int 3, Wis 8, Cha 7? I'm guessing Wis and Cha to be a little low based on low Int. I'm also not sure Con should be quite as high as gray given the bonus hp in the original. Low Dex is fitting for something that makes zombies.

Four Hit Dice is good, as is Shade's proposal of Lifesense.

They've got Low intelligence (5-7 in old AD&D terms) so I'd give them more than Int 3. Say Int 7, for the sake of argument, with maybe a high Wis as they've got "keen perception" - Wis 13?

That would make them:

Str 14, Dex 1, Con 18, Int 7, Wis 13, Cha 7

How do we want to handle this? A wounding ability but via some kind of caustic sludge?

I'd go for acid touch rather than poison.

As you say, ignoring magical weapons bonuses is an interesting trait. How does it cancel out bonuses to hit it I wonder? Presumably it is somehow connected to its spell reflection power.

How does it feed on humanoid life energy, there's no mention of energy drain or Vampiric Touch type HP drain?

How does this zombie power work. Must attackers destroy the zombie before damaging the Necromantic Sludge? If the body becomes a zombie "in all respects" does that include the zombie's sluggishness, so it gets the "Single Actions Only" of a 3E D&D zombie or the "always loses initiative" of an AD&D zombie?

 

[freyar]

Those stats are good.

I like the continuing hp loss mechanic for the acid touch, though, so I'd like to go with something like the bearded devil here. Maybe
Caustic Wound (Ex): The touch of the necromantic sludge is highly caustic. Any creature that touches a necromantic sludge (or makes a successful natural or unarmed attack against a necromantic sludge), including taking damage from the sludge's slam attack, takes 1 point of acid damage each round afterward. This continuing damage can be stopped by a cure spell, heal spell, or a DC X Heal check.

That can probably be tidied up.

I'd really say just use a regular zombie. As for hp, I could see either giving the zombie its own hp (representing the integrity of the corpse) or having attacks directly damage the sludge. Thoughts?

 

[Shade]

Good stuff so far. Added the basics to Homebrews.

 

[freyar]

Looks like a good framework. Should the Heal DC for caustic wound be fixed or Con-based?

 

[Cleon]

Those stats are good.

I like the continuing hp loss mechanic for the acid touch, though, so I'd like to go with something like the bearded devil here. Maybe
Caustic Wound (Ex): The touch of the necromantic sludge is highly caustic. Any creature that touches a necromantic sludge (or makes a successful natural or unarmed attack against a necromantic sludge), including taking damage from the sludge's slam attack, takes 1 point of acid damage each round afterward. This continuing damage can be stopped by a cure spell, heal spell, or a DC X Heal check.

How about having this HP damage/round be how the monster feeds on lifeforce. Say, make it a Supernatural power and note that the damage provides nourishment for the sludge if they're from a humanoid victim? If you like that tack, it would be better to rename the power to something like "Necromantic Touch".

Looks like a good framework. Should the Heal DC for caustic wound be fixed or Con-based?

Might as well be Con & HD based, so a tougher sludge is harder to remove from its victim.

 

[Shade]

How about having this HP damage/round be how the monster feeds on lifeforce. Say, make it a Supernatural power and note that the damage provides nourishment for the sludge if they're from a humanoid victim? If you like that tack, it would be better to rename the power to something like "Necromantic Touch".

I like this idea. Maybe deal negative energy damage, and for every 5 points dealt, the sludge heals 1 hp (or gains 1 temporary hp if at max already), like the ability drain of many undead?

Might as well be Con & HD based, so a tougher sludge is harder to remove from its victim.

Agreed. I prefer scaling DCs.

 

[Cleon]

I like this idea. Maybe deal negative energy damage, and for every 5 points dealt, the sludge heals 1 hp (or gains 1 temporary hp if at max already), like the ability drain of many undead?

Works for me.