Slimes lack bite...

[reaperwolf]

Hey,

I'm working on an adventure for my own use and while reading the slime entries (to use as a low-tech trash disposal) it occurs to me slimes are going to be a one round threat the PCs simply walk away from.

Yes, walk.

Slimes are assumed to drop on a foe from the ceiling, so no matter what if a PC walks under one the slime drops and hits causing a few points of damage. The PC then walks away from the slime (with it's pathetic MV) and the PC laughs off the 1-2 points of injury.

A single 3/DX roll allows a PC to completely evade harm. Hardly the stuff of nightmares even with the possibility of poison or paralysis.

Once a slime drops then what? It slithers over to and up the wall to the ceiling and positions itself over the PCs? Even if the room was 30 ft. in radius it would still take 3-5 rounds before the slime could attack again.

If Slimes had a DX of say 7-9 they at least would be able to continue attacking PCs without having to slither away impotently.

The text indicates slimes range in size from 5 ft. to 50 ft. One would imagine larger slimes would be harder to dodge (4/DX to dodge?) and have significantly higher ST to account for all the added mass. Another option is to assume a slime 10 ft. by 10 ft. would basically be four slimes which gives them a little more oomph and makes the 50 ft. by 50 ft. slimes terrifying although I wouldn't imagine a medium-sized PC being subject to more than say 10 of the attacks assuming 8 all around and one from both above and below. Having to make 10 3/DX dodge rolls is just nasty.

Maybe an article in the Crucible with small, medium, large and giant slimes is in order?

[Deleted]

Jan 2, 2015 15:10:02 GMT -5 reaperwolf said:

Hey,

I'm working on an adventure for my own use and while reading the slime entries (to use as a low-tech trash disposal) it occurs to me slimes are going to be a one round threat the PCs simply walk away from.

Yes, walk.

Slimes are assumed to drop on a foe from the ceiling, so no matter what if a PC walks under one the slime drops and hits causing a few points of damage. The PC then walks away from the slime (with it's pathetic MV) and the PC laughs off the 1-2 points of injury.

A single 3/DX roll allows a PC to completely evade harm. Hardly the stuff of nightmares even with the possibility of poison or paralysis.

Once a slime drops then what? It slithers over to and up the wall to the ceiling and positions itself over the PCs? Even if the room was 30 ft. in radius it would still take 3-5 rounds before the slime could attack again.

If Slimes had a DX of say 7-9 they at least would be able to continue attacking PCs without having to slither away impotently.

if the slime lands on you, don't you think it would cling to you like mud? the question becomes how do you get it off of you? i'm not sadistic so i would say that removing armor (if worn) or your clothes (if no armor) would rid you of the menace. disrobing would take one round so you take damage from the slime while you remove it. once removed, you can attack the slime as prescribed by their descriptions. you could attack the slime without removing it but that's not advisable. the brown and green slimes would depart from the gear you just dropped and creep toward the closest flesh and blood being. you can attack it with acid, fire, or slashing weapons (whatever the description says). the red slime would continue to munch on any metal armor that was discarded, damaging it as it would you (your armor would lose 2pts of protection per round). after it completely dissolved your armor, the red slime would belch loudly and creep toward the nearest metal object.

The text indicates slimes range in size from 5 ft. to 50 ft. One would imagine larger slimes would be harder to dodge (4/DX to dodge?)

yes, they are!. if you were using a battlemap with hexes (or squares), you must decide which spaces the large slime occupies. are there characters in those spaces? which characters would be able to move one space and avoid the slime's spaces? those are the ones that may 3/DX dodge; all others could 3/DX dodge to move one space but it would do them no good.

and have significantly higher ST to account for all the added mass. Another option is to assume a slime 10 ft. by 10 ft. would basically be four slimes which gives them a little more oomph and makes the 50 ft. by 50 ft. slimes terrifying although I wouldn't imagine a medium-sized PC being subject to more than say 10 of the attacks assuming 8 all around and one from both above and below. Having to make 10 3/DX dodge rolls is just nasty.

this is basically how i would handle larger slimes. remember, the slime is dropping/targeting/occupying a space. so, anyone in one of the slime's spaces will receive those 1 or 2 pts of damage per round. mentally, it may help to consider the slimes as boiling oil dropped from the ceiling. the size is how many spaces it occupies. in terms of killing the plus-sized slimes, you attack a space it occupies. each of those spaces has the ST of the normal 5ft sized slime. when you 'deplete that slime-filled space' of ST, the slime has decreased in size by 5ft/1-space. your mental construct of seeing the 50ft slime as 10 slimes occupying 10 spaces should serve you well in deciding how to handle.

(as an aside, ST30 seems too high for the brown slime. also, i wonder if the SP(PS,ND) of the brown slime should be SP(PA,ND) instead. a typo maybe. if they all have PA, it takes the complication out of 'removing the slime from oneself'. if you pass the PA test, you may step away from the slime and attack. that does weaken the slimes a bit but then the ST30 makes more sense. also, i believe the slimes are supposed to be nuisance creatures (at small sizes), so lacking significant bite sounds about right.)

[Fenway5]

I think it depends on how slimes are handled. A slime is not a fearsome monster,it is a hazard. How the Referee uses the slime makes it dangerous--not the slime necessarily as a direct foe.

Put slime in a hallway the character needs to get through, have it covering a locked chest and see how the characters try to get at it or not? or have it covering a door the players want to get through. If you are looking for a highly mobile and threatening foe, a slime would not be it--unless of course you create something new like "Devil slime" or "wicked slime" or "greased slime" that fits the kind of slime you would like to see!

Create it, post it and share it!

[reaperwolf]

Hrm... a Quickslime does have a nice ring to it and might fit the bill...