Thursday, October 17, 2013

Green slime

Another nasty monster frequently found in classic high level modules is green slime.  Green slime is tough because it is a rule-breaking monster.  It has an attack that bypasses hit points.  After too much exposure to green slime, the character is dead- turned into slime.  There is no saving throw involved.  This makes a 20th level character as vulnerable to a slime as a 1st level character.  Depending n your philosophy of how difficulty should or should not scale in Dungeons and Dragons, this is either a really good thing or a really bad thing.  Obviously this transmutation is a powerful attack, coupled with the fact that green slime is easy to conceal, a character could stumble onto it with little warning.  Green slime are also difficult to kill given the high risk of fighting them.

I suppose that the difficulty of green slime is mitigated somewhat by the use of intelligent tactics in areas where slime is thought to exist.  One tactic would be to blast suspected areas with heat or cold before venturing too close to them.  Another would be to summon a monster or animal and send the summoned creature into the space and see if it gets slimed.  There are alignment issues with this cannon fodder tactic.

Green slime are dangerous monsters and explorers should tread carefully...

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