| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| unseenmage |
Posted - 13 Feb 2015 : 19:18:08
Is there precedent in a sourcebook (or a novel even) as to how oozes without the Split special quality reproduce?
How've you handled similar as a DM?
Any suggestions for a DM or player as to the farming of non-Split-enabled oozes?
Question came up in a game when players caught a Gelatinous Cube and started asking around looking to find an expert in the thing's care and handling. |
| 21 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 19 Feb 2015 : 00:35:08
quote:
Originally posted by Rymac
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
Well, if you get stuck in a gelatinous cube, it will certainly remove your warts. 
Extract of gelatinous cube digestive fluid is the Botox of the Realms!
****disclaimer on the bottle******
This product was not tested on animals... lesser humanoids captured fairly in battle, but no animals.... |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 18 Feb 2015 : 21:40:12
Perhaps also good for cleaning tarnished swords and armour, dusty old leather, and yellow-stained dentures? |
| Rymac |
Posted - 18 Feb 2015 : 16:04:13
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
Well, if you get stuck in a gelatinous cube, it will certainly remove your warts.
Extract of gelatinous cube digestive fluid is the Botox of the Realms! |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 18 Feb 2015 : 12:58:07
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
wonder how gelatinous cube digestive fluid works as a wart remover.
Well, if you get stuck in a gelatinous cube, it will certainly remove your warts. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 18 Feb 2015 : 12:53:38
wonder how gelatinous cube digestive fluid works as a wart remover. |
| unseenmage |
Posted - 18 Feb 2015 : 07:23:53
quote:
...
Relatively compact and closed waste disposal system (this goes well with the previous point).
...
Seems this is the direction the players had in mind.
Though if they thought it would survive acting as catapult ammo they'd likely enjoy that use too.  |
| TBeholder |
Posted - 16 Feb 2015 : 12:40:01
quote:
Originally posted by unseenmage
Is there precedent in a sourcebook (or a novel even) as to how oozes without the Split special quality reproduce?
Can't remember any.
Biological common sense says "spores", though.
quote:
Any suggestions for a DM or player as to the farming of non-Split-enabled oozes?
Depends on the creature.
quote:
Question came up in a game when players caught a Gelatinous Cube and started asking around looking to find an expert in the thing's care and handling.
I don't see why an amorphous creature cannot be split anyway. Budding as a normal form of reproduction is one thing, ability of small pieces to survive and regrow is another, and said pieces being fully functional immediately upon chopping is third.
Just like many plants with seeds are easier to farm via vegetative propagation even if they normally don't initiate on their own in the wild.
If you only need shaved pieces viable on the scale of no more than ~1 day (for raw lifeforce/chemicals), it's probably enough to guillotine off a thin slice, then feed the rest with organic waste so that it regrows.
The question here is whether Gelatinous Cube is amorphous enough. Probably it is.
As to the thread subject - in itself, not a big problem, but there are surroundings to consider. Anything long-term in this area may eventually become an opening for Ghaunadaur. Assuming no one would mistake the "farmer" for a follower thereof first. Since those most interested in this matter are the drow, well... fast-talking may prove not quite fast enough.
quote:
Originally posted by Arian Dynas
... My major question would be "why would you *want* to?"
What possible appeal in farming oozes is there?
- Weaponry, especially as catapult projectile payload (canonical in Spelljammer, BTW).
- "Anything-with-hitpoint" for necromantic purpose, such as lifeforce transfer (as in, Vampiric Touch via something enchanted, then Stavros's Healing Touch to the patient) or feeding the thing to a lifejammer.
- Relatively compact and closed waste disposal system (this goes well with the previous point).
- Bio-alchemical processing, i.e. a way to produce and then extract some useful substances. In case of Gelatinous Cube it may be anesthetic, solvent (digestive fluid) and glue, others may give much more interesting stuff, especially fire- and cold- resistant ones.
|
| BEAST |
Posted - 16 Feb 2015 : 06:43:34
Theme song for a pack of oozes:
quote:
"Stuck on you
Got this feelin' down deep in my soul that I just can't lose
Yes, I'm on my way
"Needed a friend
And the way that I'm feelin' guess I'll be with you till the end
Yes, I'm on my way
"Mighty glad you stayed"
Can't you see them looking toward each other as they attempt to climb out, egging each other on?
And then slipping and plopping down to the floor, licking each other's wounds?
Er, maybe not. No, not me, either. Whose idea was that, anyway? |
| Stones Finder |
Posted - 16 Feb 2015 : 06:09:38
True enough, but I'm pretty sure I've seen published examples of oozes clinging to sheer walls, and even ceilings. I got the impression it was comparable to a Spider Climb effect. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 16 Feb 2015 : 05:23:57
quote:
Originally posted by Stones Finder
Wasn't there a town mentioned in the Elminster's Ecology boxed set, which was surrounded by a moat filled with ochre jellies? I remember wondering how that could work in 3e, where jellies had a climb speed.
Even with a climb speed, it's not difficult to engineer something to be unclimbable. Sheer surfaces or a negative incline readily come to mind. |
| Stones Finder |
Posted - 16 Feb 2015 : 05:17:44
Wasn't there a town mentioned in the Elminster's Ecology boxed set, which was surrounded by a moat filled with ochre jellies? I remember wondering how that could work in 3e, where jellies had a climb speed. |
| see |
Posted - 15 Feb 2015 : 01:09:13
Ah, an FR-equivalent of pudding farming? http://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Pudding_farming |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 14 Feb 2015 : 02:46:30
Actually, various types of oozes could perform very important cleaning functions in major cities if contained. Especially if they're decaying bodies can be found to be useful for some purpose. So, as a for instance, you have unclean sewage draining into an ooze, but you then allow it to "escape" into some area specially designed to contain it and kill it... then you drain off the dead body to use its chemicals in purifying metals or somesuch. I'm not the "chemist" type, but I'm sure someone with that type of mindset could definitely find some actual uses for them |
| Arian Dynas |
Posted - 14 Feb 2015 : 01:09:28
... My major question would be "why would you *want* to?"
What possible appeal in farming oozes is there? Unless you're like a drow who worships Ghaundar?
As for a somewhat serious answer, I'm with Eliserus; dividing after a period of time sounds about right. |
| BEAST |
Posted - 13 Feb 2015 : 22:58:05
Farm them? I have no clue.
But I did hear that Bill Cosby does commercials for them.
"J-E...L-L...O." |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 13 Feb 2015 : 22:37:17
Farmers would need to feed their livestock. Can't be a pretty sight.
Countless adventures have nominally intelligent monsters make use of oozes, jellies, slimes, etc. Things like bands of goblins using a slime/whatever as an added killer ingredient within some pit, trap, or ambush. They are presumably fond of such "pets" since they make efforts to keep them well-fed and active. I'm not sure goblins would be bright enough to farm such creatures, but dwarves and drow and illithids certainly would be.
Many adventures make odd mentions of using some jello creature as a tool or weapon. A character might, for example, purchase a living green slime in a jar which he could hurl at enemies or pour onto a soon-to-be-dissolved iron gate. Thieves' guilds and alchemists may sometimes offer things of this sort for sale. I don't think "people" really bother to farm jello ... more likely they just go hunting for some (probably at usually-avoided jello colonies) whenever the need arises. |
| Eilserus |
Posted - 13 Feb 2015 : 22:25:10
I did find something regarding the Gelatinous Cube, per Dragon Magazine 124 and Ed's Ecology of the Gelatinous Cube: "Normal-sized cubes divide after a period of six years. Each of the two resulting cubes has 3 HD, half the number of hit points the "parent" cube originally had, and a size of slightly under 8' x 8' x 8'. These "little" cubes grow to maturity in three months." |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 13 Feb 2015 : 22:23:27
"Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
And on this farm he had an ooze, E-I-E-I-O.
With a squish-squish and a squish-squish there,
Here a squish, there a squish, everywhere a squish-squish!
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O."
|
| Eilserus |
Posted - 13 Feb 2015 : 22:16:11
If I was making something up, I'd probably say 1HD of biomass adds 1HP to the ooze, once it reaches max hit points for hit die, it splits or spawns a copy with its next meal. |
| Delwa |
Posted - 13 Feb 2015 : 20:30:26
Maybe oozes that don't split infect a host organism, much like mold, and the "ooze spores" slowly devour their host until a colony of spores known as said oooze spawns.
I don't have anything official though. |
| Taurendil |
Posted - 13 Feb 2015 : 19:37:18
Well unseenmage, I think it's time to have "THE TALK".
No, seriously, I have no idea. |
