Delving Deeper - Brainslugs and Slimes as Player Characters

Note: The following has not been playtested, and is probably completely busted. Enjoy! 

I think a party of different coloured slimes slurping through the dungeon, all with different abilities, would be really fun. A blue slime could have healing powers, a grey one could dissolve metal, an ochre jelly could divide, etc.  

 



All of the following is designed to work with Devling Deeper v4b, which is available for free online at https://ddo.immersiveink.com/.

A slime fights and gains hit die as a cleric.  

Arms and Armour

A slime's pseudopodia act as natural weapons and have surprising reach.

Slimes can use their pseudopodia to attempt to wield arms and complex tools, but they will only succeed with a throw of 4-6 on a six-sided die, wasting a turn in the case of failure.

Armour is completely unusable by slimes given their semi-viscous nature. However, they are naturally resilient to crushing blows such as from hammers and staves, taking only half damage from these attacks.

Slime Nutrition

All slimes share a common nutritional need for gold. They don't consume rations like normal adventurers; instead, they must digest 5 gp daily to sustain themselves. Silver and copper can supplement this diet at the usual ratio of 100 cp: 10 sp: 1 gp. The coin-purses of dead adventurers are a perfect source of food for our slimy friends. In addition, they need to consume a skin of water per day or become dehydrated and unable to rest or perform slime locomotion (see below). 

Slime Locomotion

A slime should by default have some unique options for movement and hiding, given their amorphous and sticky nature. Use the same rules as the thief's subterfuges, but the list of actions is modified to the following locomotions:

  • Climbing sheer surfaces and moving any direction at normal movement rate,
  • Clinging to ceilings and moving any direction at half normal movement rate,
  • Squeezing through tiny openings including cracks in stonework and under doors,
  • Blending into stony and natural cave environments, hiding in plain sight. 

Variant Ability: Brainslug Domination

Brainslugs have the ability to parasitically latch onto a monster's brain stem and dominate their will completely. The brainslug must be on the monster's head or otherwise have clear access to its central nervous system.

A brainslug's dominance rating is calculated by the throw of a number of six-sided dice, as shown below: 
  • Levels 1-5: 2d6 + HD
  • Level 6-11: 3d6 + HD
  • Level 12+: 4d6 + HD 
This score is checked against the monster's ego. This varies based on monster intelligence, as below:
  • Unintelligent monsters (leeches, slimes, undead): Impervious to domination
  • Semi-intelligent monsters (dogs, lizards, toads): 6 + HD
  • Intelligent monsters (apes, humans, ogres): 8 + HD
  • Hyper-intelligent monsters (androids, brainslugs, giant octopi): 10 + HD  
Situational modifiers may be added or subtracted up to a maximum of 2 points. For example, a helmet may add 2 to the monster's ego, and attacking with surprise might add 1 to the brainslug's dominance. 
 
If the brainslug's dominance exceeds the monster's ego, the monster is dominated and submits to the brainslug's will.  
 
 -- UPDATE: I came across this extremely cool blog post, and noticed it included a very elegant set of rules for posession and ego. https://straitsofanian.blogspot.com/2014/10/we-are-eaten-forever.html This could work as an alternative to the above. 

-- end of update 

 

brainslugged

 

Worked Example 

For example, in the case of a level 5 brainslug that has successfully dropped onto a level 3 fighter: 

Brainslug 5: 2d6 + 4 dominance + 1 modifier (high intelligence score, 15+)
Fighter 3: 8 + 3 ego + 2 modifier (helmet)

Assuming a 2d6 roll result of 10, the calculated values are:

Brainslug: 10 + 4 + 1 = 15
Fighter: 8 + 3 + 2 = 13

Thus the brainslug gains dominance over the fighter and will latch onto his or her brain stem directly. 

 

 

I hope this brings a slime, er, smile* to somebody's face! 

Feirsteach 

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