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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5568136" data-attributes="member: 4937">Even at low levels, Gelatinous Cubes require the DM manipulate the terrain in their favor in order for them to represent much of a challenge.  In effect, they are a sentient trap.  If you blunder into one, they are quite a threat, but with their slow movement rate and limited tactical options most parties will dispatch them without expending any significant reasources.  I don't favor them.Mimics are typical of grapplers in that they can be quite a threat if stumpled on, and like any good grappler they have a reasonably good mechanism for closing with PC's or getting PC's to close with them (in this case), but they too just have far too limited of options and mobility.  Mimics are rarely going to seriously challenge a party even at party level = CR, and within a few levels of when they can be first encountered they'll represent even less.  They are mostly a sentient trap. The only good thing that can be said about them is that they work better in teams than they do solo as thier grapple and adhesion powers can serve as good synergistic battlefield control, but I've very rarely seen them deployed that way.Rust Monsters are a good deal more dangerous than either of the other two because they have good ground mobility, a level independent power in a touch attack, and an additional almost level independent power in the ability to rust any metal object absolutely.  However, the lack of flight or ranged attack cripples them in the long run, and they can only be a real threat to a part of level >> CR if they are in a highly confined space.  If you want to use these then, I suggest having the party face them when they are on their hands and knees in a lengthy maze of crawlspaces.  However, it should be noted that this creature is almost entirely geared to encounters where party level < CR, because as level increases the gear becomes harder and harder to replace.  Losing your masterwork sword and chaimmail at 2nd level doesn't gimp your fighter compared to his wizard companion; the equipment will be readily replaced and you are still the rock of the party.  Losing his sword and armor at 15th level will probably render the fighter useless at a time when he's already starting to feel highly overshadowed by his spell-caster friends in every respect.  As such, you need to consider the use of this highly gamist monster in a highly gamist way, and make sure that if the worst does happen you've already preplaced oppurtunities for some credible replacements for lost gear later in the adventure.One thing this should suggest to you is that not all monsters advance evenly.  Some monsters don't gain near as much CR as advancing their HD would suggest, and some monsters gain HUGE amounts of effective CR for a relatively small increase in HD.   If the monster is of the sort where the limit of challenge as level approaches infinity very rapidly converges to zero, then bulking up the monster with extra HD doesn't accomplish that much.  To truly advance these monsters in a way that makes them greater challenges, you have to fix their core issues.  A gelatinous cube doesn't gain nearly as much from extra HD and extra size as it gains from moving faster.  If you want a truly monstrous gelatinous cube, up its movement rate to something faster than the average PC and give it the ability to levitate and spit small copies of itself as ranged attacks.  These sort of things would help increase the challenge far more than 24 HD, although of course doing both is even better.  Just be careful that you don't create monsters that are so well balanced that no strategy serves better than a straight up damage race (unless perhaps the climatic BBEG of a lengthy adventure arc when you are trying to avoid anti-climax).</blockquote>

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