What would you have done?

[SteveC]

I would have suggested either having the polearm wielding characters kill one of the dire rats, which would have freed up the ability to push back the ooze and get the heck out of dodge.

That or ask the GM if a dire rat REALLY blocks your ability to push an ooze back, since it seems rather arbitrary.

But it was a pretty dire situation either way.

--Steve

 

[Goumindong]

I thought the X was something you couldn't move through.

Also you cannot ready a move action[iirc].

re: Raven, guess not. I handle it as smaller oozes, guess not everyone made the call I did.

A quote from my player(i am using maptools)

"Oh cute the ooze got smaller when it was bloodied![pause] Wait a second, it just split didn't it? ... Crap"

I would have suggested either having the polearm wielding characters kill one of the dire rats, which would have freed up the ability to push back the ooze and get the heck out of dodge.

That or ask the GM if a dire rat REALLY blocks your ability to push an ooze back, since it seems rather arbitrary.

You need 2 size categories larger before you can legitimately share squares and dire rats are medium.

Polearm doesn't reach any of the rats except if the player is on E5 and it still only hits one

 

[Chen_93]

Props to the DM, who used your weaknesses to kill you

Cause designing an encounter to specifically exploit a weakness in the party is good play? If I know the party's composition beforehand I can put together a group/scenario that will likely ensure their death (yet still be within the DMG guidelines for encounters). That doesn't make me a good DM. You're supposed to be making challenging encounters, not trying to win.

And just out of curiosity, why were the jellies attacking you instead of the rats? Its a stupid ooze. I see no reason why it didn't make a snack of the rats and then maybe try to eat the heavily armored poky things on the other side of it.

 

[Cadfan]

Throw the gnome into the ochre jelly. Before he is fully engulfed, use his body as a stepping stone to leap over the ochre jelly and escape.

 

[James McMurray]

I'd have negotiated with the oozes, since they're obviously not the typical eating machines you'd expect, or they wouldn't be using treasure to set up ambushes and working in concert with small fuzzy globs of food (i.e. dire rats).

 

[Bigwilly]

I'd have beaten the xxxx out of the DM for pulling such a metagame stunt.

 

[JesterOC]

And just out of curiosity, why were the jellies attacking you instead of the rats? Its a stupid ooze. I see no reason why it didn't make a snack of the rats and then maybe try to eat the heavily armored poky things on the other side of it.

The encounter is from KOTS better description below.

[sblock]
The encounter is from Keep on the shadowfell. The Jelly and the rats have a symbiotic relationship. If the rats start attacking the party, the Jelly joins the fray because the things with sharp pointy things are now distracted. The rats don't normally attack unless one of the party broke off from the others, or some other sign of weakness (DM choice)).
When I DMed this, I had the rats and the jelly hid outside of torchlight. At one point the PC's spotted the jelly and.. well one guy decided to throw the parties only torch at it. When the torch winked out after damaging the jelly, the rats attacked from the ceiling. After that the Jelly rushed to engage also.

I assume the rats eat what they can before the ooze slimes it all to himself.
[/sblock]

 

[Cadfan]

If this is the Keep on the Shadowfell encounter, its heavily modified.

[sblock]In the KOTS encounter, the blue slime is a far enough distance away from the jellies and the rats so that they shouldn't be encountered simultaneously. You should have finished off the jellies and rats before you encountered the slime. The only way you could be sandwiched between the two is if you had sneaked past the jellies and the rats without them noticing your presence, or if you had fled the jellies and the rats, but fled them the wrong direction- deeper into the dungeon. If you were sandwiched between the two, though, you're basically screwed. You're fighting two relatively difficult encounters simultaneously, one involving an elite and the other involving a solo.

Also, the blue slime's lair in KOTS doesn't look like that. It has distinct water features and an island, and the slime lurks until you touch the water.[/sblock]

 

[Wolfwood2]

If this is the Keep on the Shadowfell encounter, its heavily modified.

I don't think so; I think it was just unfortunate circumstances. Remember that the rats don't attack immediately unless one of the party wanders off, and the ochre jelly doesn't attack until the rats do. It sounds like the party stayed together until they go to the doors of the blue slime's room and went inside. They caused the slime to attack, decided it was too tough a fight, and retreated. Unfortunately, the rats had been massing outside and were emboldened by the smell of blood to attack. This led the ochre jelly to attack.

Also note that they weren't being attacked by both slimes simultaneously. They got the doors closed behind them, preventing the blue slime from attack. However, they did get pushed against the doors, prevent a retreat form the ochre jellies.

The blue slime room does seem a little different, but not in a way that makes much tactical difference. Probably the DM just put the pile of treasure to give them a reason to poke around in the room in the first place.

 

[JesterOC]

If this is the Keep on the Shadowfell encounter, its heavily modified.

[sblock]In the KOTS encounter, the blue slime is a far enough distance away from the jellies and the rats so that they shouldn't be encountered simultaneously. You should have finished off the jellies and rats before you encountered the slime. The only way you could be sandwiched between the two is if you had sneaked past the jellies and the rats without them noticing your presence, or if you had fled the jellies and the rats, but fled them the wrong direction- deeper into the dungeon. If you were sandwiched between the two, though, you're basically screwed. You're fighting two relatively difficult encounters simultaneously, one involving an elite and the other involving a solo.

Also, the blue slime's lair in KOTS doesn't look like that. It has distinct water features and an island, and the slime lurks until you touch the water.[/sblock]

Response inside the spoiler block.
Edit: Blast! Ninja Wolfwood2 beat me too it.
[sblock]
Considering that the blue ooze is only in KoTS and not the monster manual and that it is adjacent to the chamber with the ooze and the rats, I would say it is pretty much KoTS. Yes the Blue Oozes chamber is different, but it is in essense the same, you have a doorway that leads to a treasure on a small island in the module. I am assuming either the DM modified it a bit or the poster just simplified it as it was not that important.

I can imagine that the PC's walked around the place and started being tailed by the rats and the jelly. When the PC's opened the door and alerted the mother of all slimes.. well the rats and Jelly attacked as now the party was distracted.

I would have had only the rats follow and the jelly would show up 3-4 rounds afterwards. Which for all we know happened. Perhaps the PC's where keeping the blue ooze at bay via the choke point of the door and allowed time for the jelly to get there.

It is quite possible that a party that does not have a guy with a great perception stat could easily believe the sound of rats was 'environmental noise' rather than a clue that huge rats are crawling all over the ceiling (hiding amongst the stalagtites).
[/sblock]