Here we are, at the final entry of this year’s Ocular October! I hope you’ve enjoyed the odious offerings of this ocular author, and find some fun uses for them in your games. Here’s to another year of deadly dice-rolling and monstrous mayhem! Happy Halloween to you all, and I will SEE you next year!
In a previous entry I created the Slime Tyrant, an ooze-themed, lower-CR version of the Beholder for DMs who want to cover their PCs in caustic slime, but don’t think a Gelatinous Cube has quite the “oomph” they want. (Or they just obsessed with Beholders, like me!)
Either way, it always felt like something was missing from the entry…and I recently realized what it was. Lots of infamous oozes, perilous puddings, and savage slimes have the ability to “split” when attacked in certain ways – and this is one of the best surprises to throw at a party fighting such a caustic combatant, because almost no other monsters do this! I also felt that while it’s only CR 7, the Slime Tyrant is still well into “boss battle” tiers of play, and nothing says boss battle like having some disposable minions to throw around!
In addition, a commenter made a great request on the entry for the Shadow Trap Beholder, asking “how do beholders keep ending up on the material plane?” I’ve explored some possibilities previously on this blog – rifts or portals to the Far Realm, a “the stars are right” Lovecraftian scenario, or even just willing themselves there with their strange reality-warping dream powers. But they also asked “do they come crashing down like sentient meteors, before crawling out of craters and wandering off into the world?” And that idea has stuck in my mind since! Thus I have come up with some rules to that effect – along with options to apply them to the Slime Tyrant (who I feel is especially appropriate for this), true Beholders, and the complications such a celestial (aberrative?) event might entail.
Gooper
Small Ooze, Unaligned
- Armor Class AC 10
- Hit Points 20 (3d6+9)
- Speed 20 ft., fly 20 ft. (hover)
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 10 (0) 16 (+3) 1 (-5) 10 (0) 7 (-2)
- Skills Perception +4
- Damage Immunities
- Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, exhaustion, frightened, prone
- Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this distance), passive Perception 14
- Languages –
- Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)
Amorphous. The ooze can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
Actions
Pseudopod. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6) acid damage, and see Pseudo Rays below.
Pseudo Rays. The ooze inflicts one magical effect at random when it hits with pseudopod:
1. Charm. The creature must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed until the start of the ooze’s next turn.
2. Slimy. The creature must succeed on a DC 12 Strength saving throw or take 3 (1d6) acid damage and be Grappled (Escape DC 12).
3. Fear. The creature must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until the start of the ooze’s next turn.
4. Extra Mustard. The targeted creature must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or take 7 (2d6) acid damage.
Bonus Actions
Glomp. If an enemy is Charmed, Frightened, Grappled, or Incapacitated, the ooze may envelop an extremity of its choice (arm, leg, head, or wings, if applicable), and the target is Glomped. The ooze moves into the target’s space without provoking an opportunity attack. A creature within 5 feet of the ooze can take an action to pull the ooze off the target. Doing so requires a successful DC 12 Strength check, and the creature making the attempt takes 3 (1d6) acid damage – success means the ooze appears in an adjacent space of its choice and the target is no longer Glomped. The ooze can only Glomp one enemy at a time. The effect of Glomped depends on the extremity chosen: Arm (any actions involving that limb have disadvantage), Leg (Speed is reduced to half, or zero if multiple legs are Glomped), Head (target is Blinded), Wings (target’s flying Speed is reduced to 0.)
Optional Rule: Gooper Galore
The Slime Tyrant can take the following Reaction.
Split. When the ooze is targeted with an effect that causes the Charmed or Frightened condition, or takes slashing damage, it can place a Gooper in any unoccupied adjacent space.
Goopers
Goopers are the cast-off remnants of a Slime Tyrant energized by certain magics or split by the strike of axe or sword. As such, they possess little intellect of their own, though their personality (such as it is) does match that of the parent. The little creatures are not long for this world, however, as they tend to dry out and expire within hours of a Slime Tyrant’s “shedding” taking place. Thus, in most cases they are only formed in response to a threat – though a Slime Tyrant that takes up residence in an area of powerful magical influence may soak up so much ambient arcane energies, it has a constant, replenishing entourage of Goopers, following it like slimy ducklings.
Of course, this is small comfort to their victims, who tend to fall under waves of slurping Goopers, weighted down until they are dissolved by mama duck or her vile spawn.
The Far-Flung Meateor: A Beholder Delivery Mechanism & Hazard
There are many theories about how the dreaded Eye Tyrants – or their kin, when they aren’t being created ex nihilo from a true beholder’s dreams – arrive on the Material Plane. But none may be stranger – and yet, more straightforward – than the Meateor. It is known that beholders once (and likely still, for many) hailed from the formless chaos beyond our reality known as the Far Realms. It is also known that the Far Realms is extraordinarily difficult to reach, and vice-versa – that the gods and other beings maintain a cosmic barrier of sorts, to avoid the Far Realms’ boundless and dark possibilities from polluting all of reality with its madness and warped forms of life.
Lockpicks to the Living Gate. Yet, a beholder inhabits a rather unique niche in the universe – a being of vast magical power, yet small enough to escape the notice of entities like gods, and yet again…possessed of such piercing vision that it can perceive even the smallest weaknesses in this metaphysical barrier. When such a crack in the dam is located, the beholder collects flotsam from the nearby layers of the outer chaos, girding itself for the long journey ahead. This can be anything in such a strange realm – coral that grows like fractal patterns, fungi with fluted orifices that moan with sounds beyond description, the warped carapaces of undefinable insects, crusts of earth that shift and glimmer, even the bones of dead gods.
A Snail’s Pace. A beholder designs this temporary home with a specific task in mind. Once satisfied that its shell is solid enough, it blasts the weak point with its most powerful attack, pouring all of its energy into tearing a hole in space and time. If successful, the barrier rips, and this “vessel” is sucked through before it heals as the gods intended. The beholder travels through seas of endless black and foreign stars, tumbling through the void. Some say beholders go into a kind of hibernation on this journey; others say they are awake all the while, staring at the strange cosmic mysteries surrounding them yet always out of reach, going madder with every moment.
An Explosive Entrance. Regardless, they will subconsciously steer the vessel towards a Material Plane, until it enflames in the atmosphere and finally crashes to earth. Where it lands, a blasphemous blot will form. This is the beginning of the beholder’s conquest – a literal chunk of the Far Realm brought noisily from the stars. If possibly it will crash somewhere important, the better to display its power over this land immediately. Then, the beholder may cultivate this new spot of chaotic growth, turning it into a lair; or it may abandon the area immediately for other designs, leaving it to grow wild and feral. Regardless, the Meateor has served its purpose.
Types of Meateor Terrain
A Meateor crashing down is not an everyday occurence – and where it lands quickly becomes mutated, distorted by the Far Realms materials in its makeup like an infection, slowly consuming and converting the countryside. Whether the party finds the Meateor’s crash site later or is present to fight the beholder as it arrives, feel free to sprinkle the area with these hazards, in patches and with multiple types.
| d6 | Terrain |
|---|---|
| 1 | Light Gravity. Moisture constantly wicks into the sky, and everything seems a little lighter. All Speeds are increased by 10 feet, but movement requires a DC 10 Acrobatics check to avoid falling prone. |
| 2 | Heavy Gravity. Everything hangs limp or slumped, even trees. All Speeds are reduced by 10 feet, and you must make a DC 10 Athletics check at the start of your turn or be limited to a bonus action, action, or movement on your turn. |
| 3 | Spikepuff Patch. The first time you enter this patch of difficult terrain on a turn demands a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, you are Poisoned until the end of your next turn as the tiny needles of Far Realms toxin do their work. |
| 4 | Godsbone. The first time you enter a space with this smooth, porous alabaster present on a turn, you must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, your mind is filled with visions you cannot hope to comprehend, and you are Incapacitated with a Speed of 0 until the start of your next turn. |
| 5 | Chaos Chitin. Anyone ending their turn on this suspicious substance must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, a CR 0 insect of the DM’s choice crawls out of their clothes, acts on the Initiative after their turn, and attacks them until destroyed. |
| 6 | Bloodflute Trees. Anyone that moves into or begins their turn within 30 feet of these trees must make a DC 13 Intelligence saving throw. If they fail, the constant susurrus of alien voices drives them mad – roll on the Short-Term Madness table in the DMG to determined what madness they feel until the start of their next turn. |
A More Active Role
If you want to “soften up” the party before their beholder encounter – or even use the meateor as a minion in the fight itself – you can! I recommend using the Murder Comet stats from the Spelljammer book for this. Alternately, a Galeb Duhr from the Monster Manual can make a suitable replacement if you let it ignore OAs while moving.
The Tesseract Meateor
On rare occasions, a particularly brilliant or mad beholder creates a truly incredible Meateor; one that defies the laws of physics when it invades the material plane.
Such a Meateor can become fourth-dimensional (or at least, other-dimensional), in and out of phase with reality and granting its pilot even stranger powers. Here are a few ways to make such a hazard:
- When the PCs battle the Meateor’s fragments (see above) or even the beholder itself, grant one or both of them the Blink spell effect for the duration of the battle.
- Give the beholder the following trait: “Farsight. This creature has a clear path and is able to see any enemy in contact with materials from its Meateor, no matter what.”
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