Post by Tesla Ranger on Feb 2, 2017 17:00:21 GMT
During our game last night we (the players) briefly wound up in a situation where we were trying to navigate past a bunch of gelatinous cubes to reach the other side of a room. While the DM was away from the table for a moment we built on that notion to make an interesting encounter/trap/puzzle.
There'd be a large room with a door on the other side. Around the room would be some number (more than 6, probably less than 20) of jet black cubes (could be other things/critters/shapes but we liked that look). The PCs need to traverse the room safely, which mostly means avoiding the cubes. The cubes themselves would have the same stats as a Gel Cube (15' speed, blindsight 15', 6 AC, etc) but touching the cube would deal 1/4 the PC's max HP in necrotic damage (so 4 hits and the PC's down) and the cubes are visible (no Perception check needed to see them). They follow the same "logic" as a cube: Staying still until something living comes within 15' then slowly moving towards it and trying to engulf it.
The party could try the murder-hobo approach, though that would be difficult if they're losing 1/4 HP anytime they're touched by one. They could treat it like a maze and sneak through if they have some understanding of what they're looking at and how oozes behave. Any route that keeps them 15' away from any ooze at all times (including during a move) would be totally safe. My hunch is that most parties wouldn't recognize a big black block at first until they got whacked by a psuedopod. Then they'd try to fight it (because that's what adventurer's tend to do) and (I hope) they might realize they could walk through the room before a TPK.
Obviously they get full xp for all the cubes whether they fight them or not (in 5e anyway) and details could be adjusted as desired.
There'd be a large room with a door on the other side. Around the room would be some number (more than 6, probably less than 20) of jet black cubes (could be other things/critters/shapes but we liked that look). The PCs need to traverse the room safely, which mostly means avoiding the cubes. The cubes themselves would have the same stats as a Gel Cube (15' speed, blindsight 15', 6 AC, etc) but touching the cube would deal 1/4 the PC's max HP in necrotic damage (so 4 hits and the PC's down) and the cubes are visible (no Perception check needed to see them). They follow the same "logic" as a cube: Staying still until something living comes within 15' then slowly moving towards it and trying to engulf it.
The party could try the murder-hobo approach, though that would be difficult if they're losing 1/4 HP anytime they're touched by one. They could treat it like a maze and sneak through if they have some understanding of what they're looking at and how oozes behave. Any route that keeps them 15' away from any ooze at all times (including during a move) would be totally safe. My hunch is that most parties wouldn't recognize a big black block at first until they got whacked by a psuedopod. Then they'd try to fight it (because that's what adventurer's tend to do) and (I hope) they might realize they could walk through the room before a TPK.
Obviously they get full xp for all the cubes whether they fight them or not (in 5e anyway) and details could be adjusted as desired.