Ooze (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, an ooze is a type of creature. This category includes such monsters as slimes (such as green slime within the world of the game), jellies, deadly puddings, and similar mindless, amorphous blobs. They can be used by Dungeon Masters as enemies of the player characters.

Many oozes dwell underground, and most secrete an acid from their skin that dissolves flesh and other materials rapidly.

Oozes are essentially blind, but more than make up for that with an ability called "blindsight", which allows them to discern nearby objects and creatures without needing to see them visually.

Dungeons & Dragons (1974-1976)
The black pudding, the gelatinous cube, the gray ooze, the green slime, and the ochre jelly first appeared in the original Dungeons & Dragons set (1974). The slithering tracker first appeared in The Strategic Review #5 (December 1975).

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons contains a number of ooze-like creatures. The Monster Manual contains the black pudding, gelatinous cube, gray ooze, green slime, ochre jelly, and slithering tracker, as well as the unique demon lord Juiblex, The stunjelly first appeared in the original Fiend Folio (1981). The crystal ooze, the deadly puddings (the brown pudding, the dun pudding, and the white pudding) and the olive slime and slime creature first appeared in the adventure module The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (1982), and reprinted in the original Monster Manual II (1983) with the mustard jelly.

Dungeons & Dragons (1977-1999)
The gelatinous cube, the gray ooze, the green slime, and the ochre jelly appeared in the D&D Basic Set (1977, 1981, 1983), and the black pudding appeared in the D&D Basic Set (1977) and D&D Expert Set (1981, 1983). The creatures all appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991).

The 1994 release of The Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game contained a number of oozes, although at that time they were not defined as such by a creature type or keyword. The book contained the black pudding, gelatinous cube, gray ooze, green slime, and ochre jelly.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)
The crystal ooze, the deadly puddings (the black pudding, the brown pudding, the dun pudding, and the white pudding), the gelatinous cube, the gray ooze, the green slime, the ochre jelly appeared in second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989). The slithering tracker appeared in Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (1989). The mustard jelly, the olive slime and slime creature, and the stunjelly appeared for the Greyhawk setting in the adventure module Greyhawk Ruins (1990). All of these creatures were reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993) under the "ooze/slime/jelly" heading, except for the deadly puddings which appeared under their own heading.

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition (2000-2007)
In both the 3rd and 3.5 editions of Dungeons & Dragons, ooze is a creature type. The black pudding, the gelatinous cube, the gray ooze, and the ochre jelly appeared in the third edition Monster Manual (2000) under the "ooze" entry, and the version 3.5 Monster Manual (2003). The green slime appeared in the third edition Dungeon Master's Guide (2000) as a dungeon hazard, and again in the 3.5 revised Dungeon Master's Guide (2003). The Monster Manual II (2002) contains the bone ooze, flesh jelly, reason stealer, and teratomorph. The Monster Manual III (2004) includes the arcane ooze, living spells (also in the Eberron Campaign Setting), snowflake ooze, and summoning ooze. The white pudding appears in Frostburn (2004). The bloodfire ooze appeared in Monster Manual IV (2006), and the graveyard sludge appeared in Monster Manual V (2007).

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)
In 4th edition, "ooze" is a keyword, rather than a creature type. The 4th edition Monster Manual contains the ochre jelly and gelatinous cube. The black pudding, grey ooze, and green slime appeared in Monster Manual 2 (2009).

Ooze descriptions

 * Aballin: The aballin was introduced in the Fiend Folio Monstrous Compendium supplement book. In the game, they resemble large puddles of stagnant, jelly-like water. (They are actually oozes though, not elemental creatures of water, because their substance, though it resembles water, is actually an acid.) They were supposedly created in ancient times when a druid fell victim to an archwizard's curse and turned into the first aballin. All other aballins are thought to be descended from her. Like most oozes, aballins live underground. Unlike some oozes, however, most of which merely drag themselves around and engulf whatever they find, aballins have a more sophisticated way of feeding. They lie dormant until prey comes along, and the said prey notices coins and other treasures, the remnants of the aballin's previous victims, floating at the bottom of the creature. Thinking it to be merely water, they reach in to retrieve the treasures, and then the aballin lashes out with liquid pseudopods, grapples with the victim, and pulls them in and drowns them. Aballins cannot speak, and they are regarded as Neutral in alignment.

Other publishers
The Necromancer Games supplement, The Tome of Horrors (2002), contains the crystal ooze, diger, mercury ooze, mustard jelly, slithering tracker, and stunjelly.

Additional reading

 * Greenwood, Ed. "The Ecology of the Ochre Jelly". Dragon #104 (TSR, 1985).
 * Greenwood, Ed. "The Ecology of the Slithering Tracker". Dragon #86 (TSR, 1984).
 * Richards, Johnathan M. "The Ecology of the Black Pudding". Dragon #219 (TSR, 1995).
 * Richards, Johnathan M. "Ecology of the Gray Ooze: Ooze There?" Dragon Annual #4 (TSR, 1999).
 * Aballin Monstrous Database listing, retrieved December 17, 2008.