The Slime: a gelatinous cube that can devour whole parties of unsuspecting adventurers. Generally found lurking in dungeons, the Slime can be a staple of any D&D game. This creature can pose a threat to any level of character if not dealt with correctly. So let’s get to grips with exactly what this gooey creature is.
There's more than meets the eye!
Slimes are known by a few names: Cubes or Gelatinous Cubes and, by scholars, Athcoid. These creatures can be confused with Oozes, which are similar but slightly different. Slimes are known as the cleaners of the dungeons; they remove all organic items, leaving behind weapons and armour, whilst eating all flesh and bones. This is why you will find that dungeons are clean if a Slime is about and there are no signs of any other party or adventurer that came before.
Attack/Damage
In the Fifth Edition it states that the Slime has an acid attack that is dealt with its pseudopods. This is an over simplification of how the Slime works – the reality is far more terrifying. If you look at the entries in all the other Editions from First to Fourth, it states that the acid damage only happens in the stomach of the Slime. These pseudopods are used to paralyse its prey; the surface of the Slime is covered in an anaesthetic that covers the surface of the Slime. This will paralyse a victim for 1-2 minutes, allowing the Slime to envelope the prey. The prey will then be moved to small bubbles of acid which will be used for digestion – this is the acid damage mentioned in the 5th Edition.
Behaviour
The Slime has very little rhyme or reason to its movements. Slimes don’t really have any intelligence per se but have blind-sense: they rely on stimuli to navigate the world and find prey. These stimuli are heat and vibrations. Indeed, many Slimes will happily fall into a pit of lava not knowing they will die. They are simply drawn towards the warmth thinking it’s their next meal.
Movement
The Slime is a rather slow moving creature. In some cases, smaller Slimes can get absorbed into a bigger or equally sized Slime. This joining will increase the size and stats of the newly formed Slime.
Slimes are, in a way, immortal. Unless damaged (except with cold or lightning) or starved, the Slime will keep growing and once at a large enough size, will split into two and the Slimes will go their separate ways. However, any more then three Slimes will not join. If this was to happen then the Slime will split into two equally sized Slimes.
Slimes can move very well under water but doing so would dilute the paralysing effect on the surface of the Slime, which makes catching prey rather hard.
So what did you not know about the Slime? If I missed any good facts do let me know below.
2 Comments
A large and cool elephant · December 25, 2021 at 12:46 am
Thanks for writing this. One of our players was reincarnated into a slime (long story, homebrew obviously) and this is giving me all sorts of good idea for their (pseudo)character progression.
Richard Eccles · January 6, 2022 at 12:16 pm
Thanks for the read – if you have any other breakdowns you would like me to do please let me know