Green Slime (CR 4): This dungeon peril is a dangerous variety of normal slime. Green slime devours flesh and organic materials on contact and is even capable of dissolving metal. Bright green, wet, and sticky, it clings to walls, floors, and ceilings in patches, reproducing as it consumes organic matter. It drops from walls and ceilings when it detects movement (and possible food) below.
A single 5-foot square of green slime deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage per round while it devours flesh. On the first round of contact, the slime can be scraped off a creature (destroying the scraping device), but after that it must be frozen, burned, or cut away (dealing damage to the victim as well). Anything that deals cold or fire damage, sunlight, or a remove disease spell destroys a patch of green slime. Against wood or metal, green slime deals 2d6 points of damage per round, ignoring metal's hardness but not that of wood. It does not harm stone.
If I were to take a jar of green slime from a dungeon, walk out into the jungle via cave exit, and release the slime upon the unsuspecting flora and fauna, would it not just expand as it eats EVERYTHING creating a horrible ecological disaster?
Sure the sunlight would eventually destroy it, but not much sunlight gets through a jungle canopy. By the time it does get through enough to stop the spread of the slime, it will have been because the foundations of the trees holding up the canopy would have long been destroyed.
EDIT: Also, would a daylight spell be enough to kill green slime (possibly rescuing a companion) or would you need REAL daylight?
I would imagine it depends entirely on what one considers 'enough' sunlight. RAW does not state that direct light LOS to the sun is needed, just sunlight (which can come down through the canopy at least enough to nourish lower level plants), and perhaps light filtering down through the leaves would be enough.
If not, it will expand until it has created an area of local destruction large enough to generally admit direct sunlight, and the results might look something like a microburst in a forest would IRL.
I would think the slime would return to where it belongs, Ie slide through a crack or create its own hole directly into the ground where you placed it....
I see no reason for it to move from that spot, it just burrows down creating a hole (and ironically safety from sunlight for itself)....
SO no major ecological disaster just a little green hot tub in the middle of the forest!
Assuming there is a surface layer of edible organics, wouldn't it start to spread out laterally once it could sink no further?
Depends on what you (and the game) define as "sunlight". I would argue that, since Green Slime is universally seen as a dungeon/underground/lightless enviorment hazard, that any amount of "light that comes from the sun" would kill it, even filtered through a jungle canopy. Granted, there are some jungles that are horribly dark under the superdense foliage of the canopy, but most you can actually see in, they aren't completely pitch black.
Able to see = light. And if its daytime, its not starlight or moonlight.
Opinions may vary of course.
This is my problem with green slime too. If the world isn't to become one mostly green blob the slime has to be highly vulnerable to sunlight and I would let sunlight spells kill it too.
In the same way, what constrains the growth of oozes?
Slinking their way through cold swamps and bleary marshlands, or sometimes even dungeons and caverns, gray oozes consume any organic materials they encounter. Despite its lack of intelligence, the gray ooze is a most problematic creature due to its transparency. While the ooze cannot easily climb walls or swim, its habit of lurking in the thick mud that lines the banks of marsh pools or lying in harmless-looking pools on dull-colored dungeon floors makes it dangerously easy to overlook and step on.
Seems to me any gray ooze in a swamp is going to swallow the whole thing eventually.
I'm thinking it would spread out laterally and vertically at the same rate. So, after consuming enough trees, it would soon expose itself to enough sunlight to kill itself.
I'm sure there's a mathematical formula for this somewhere.
How is this any different from certain types of plants that choke out root systems? I would say that eventually the slime will die off, but it has the potential to do serious eccological harm.
I would say that eventually the slime will die off, but it has the potential to do serious eccological harm.
"Those pesky elves will rue the day they made fun of our dwarven ways!"
Creative Director
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It would probably create a clearing, but then the sunlight would blast it. If you pulled this stunt at night, it'd make a BIGGER clearing, but once the sun rose (even if it were a cloudy day), the slime would shrivel and die. How BIG of a clearing depends on how devastating the GM wants to be, I suppose, but I would say no larger than a hundred feet across at worst.
And of course, this all assumes it has nowhere to go by eating down into the loam or dirt and just forming a puddle.
The important thing to remember is that green slime is intended first and foremost to be a hazard to hit PCs with—not a sneaky back-door into the rules to disrupt an entire ecosystem. If green slime COULD disrupt an entire ecosystem by, say, eating an entire jungle... it would have done so.
Always temper the rules with common sense, in other words.
It would probably create a clearing, but then the sunlight would blast it. If you pulled this stunt at night, it'd make a BIGGER clearing, but once the sun rose (even if it were a cloudy day), the slime would shrivel and die. How BIG of a clearing depends on how devastating the GM wants to be, I suppose, but I would say no larger than a hundred feet across at worst.
And of course, this all assumes it has nowhere to go by eating down into the loam or dirt and just forming a puddle.
The important thing to remember is that green slime is intended first and foremost to be a hazard to hit PCs with—not a sneaky back-door into the rules to disrupt an entire ecosystem. If green slime COULD disrupt an entire ecosystem by, say, eating an entire jungle... it would have done so.
Always temper the rules with common sense, in other words.
You should see my other threads in which my wizard has collected samples of it in order to use as a weapon.
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Taking a carefully stoppered vial of green slime into a jungle and releasing it is about the same as taking a tindertwig into a dry forest or grasslands in the middle of fire season and tossing that down.
While I realize green slime is meant to be a dungeon peril, thinking about it reasonably as part of the ecology, it's a type of slime which exists underground but will occasionally surface when brought out by some living creature--such as having it drip onto a bat flying out for the night, or getting on the tip of a crocodile's tail when it wallows too deep in the wrong mud--or when then caves it exist in flood, as they would reasonably do in the rainy season in Mwangi.
What then? Simply follow the model of a forest fire. It may burn for days--and slime could slime for days too, if there were a heavy storm that blackened the skies--but just as a wildfire will eventually burn itself out, a wildslime will eventually slime itself out too, whether through reaching the limits of fuel or getting hit with sunlight.
What then? Well, one assumes that just as the ash left after a forest fire is rich soil, the emerald sludge left after a sliming should be similarly rich in nutrients and able support growth, both from seeds remaining in the soil unconsumed or dropped in and scattered by birds. It would naturally recover in a few years, or much less than that if a druid cast Plant Growth.
Peasants also probably use green slime to clear areas for farming the same way real world peasants use fire for swidden agriculture. Too many shambling mounds and bulettes in that field for good sweet potato farming? Toss on some green slime for a controlled sliming. One day later, all the monsters are gone and the field is cleared for planting! Thank Desna for this marvelous blessing!
One assumes that just as redwood trees evolved to resist wildfires--both having the bark resist light scorching and the roots regenerating new trees if the original is burned--one assumes that some plants, let's say Mwangi Ironwood, has a way to resist this as well.
My suggestion, based on the fact that there are some mushrooms that grow in symbiosis with certain trees, is to make some chemiluminsent mushroom that grows in rings around certain trees. Let's call them, say, Moon Mushrooms, since they're white and glow with a soft white glow that looks like moonlight. If picked, they burn for about an hour or two before going out, or maybe more if you feel like it, but not more than a day, and they only grow in association with the Mwangi Ironwood. If, however, the Mwangi Ironwood is contacted by green slime, its system puts out a panic response, making the Moon Mushrooms shine as bright as the sun, or maybe just making them all angle their caps like an Archimedean Death Ray, concentrating the moonlight into enough sunlight to take out the slime. Or maybe they just go off like old style flash bulbs, and if adventurers pick one and take it into a cave as a light source, it will flare in the presence of green slime and kill it, but only that bit, and after that, the moon mushroom is gone.
And the elves have elven day lilies which do the same thing. Yes, you can buy them, but they're pricey, and if you want to wander around the underdark carrying cut flowers, the Drow will make fun of you.
There. Easy way to work green slime into the ecology without it destroying everything.
essay
::applause::
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Although sunlight would no doubt kill the slime wherever the jungle was cleared, you'd still get an expanding wave in the border zone where the trees are still standing. By the time the canopy trees drop, the slime should already have expanded deeper into the forest.
This is assuming that the very low level of daylight at a jungle's ground level is not enough to kill slime already. If that's the case, a sunrod is all you need to solve the green slime problem in any dungeon.
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Kudos, sir.
Although sunlight would no doubt kill the slime wherever the jungle was cleared, you'd still get an expanding wave in the border zone where the trees are still standing. By the time the canopy trees drop, the slime should already have expanded deeper into the forest.
This is assuming that the very low level of daylight at a jungle's ground level is not enough to kill slime already.
That's what I was thinking as well, and the reason why I started this thread.
While KAM makes a damn good point, I don't think a slime would get very far in a jungle. It would instead create a VERY OBVIOUS trail that would lead to it and the area it died in once it revealed too much sun.
Let's not forget our friend vs green slime Brown Mold.
Brown Mold is only destroyed by cold and is a wonderful protector vs fire. Which I am sure a few patches in a forest is welcome to help keep fires at bay, and a cool place for animals to relax on hot summer day, not straying too close to the source mind you.
When the green slime expands next to the brown mold the green slime will be destroyed, while the brown mold is unharmed.
Let's not forget our friend vs green slime Brown Mold.
Brown Mold is only destroyed by cold and is a wonderful protector vs fire. Which I am sure a few patches in a forest is welcome to help keep fires at bay, and a cool place for animals to relax on hot summer day, not straying too close to the source mind you.
When the green slime expands next to the brown mold the green slime will be destroyed, while the brown mold is unharmed.
I remember there being an old trick with brown mold: something like opening up a portal to hell, throwing chunk of the stuff in, and watch as others declare "his power level is over 9,000!" for all the XP you'd be getting.
wouldn't just a little bit of the slime being exposed to sunlight kill the whole thing? you only released one...even though it gets bigger it still has the same hp as when it started...so as soon as a miniscule part of your slime has been exposed to sunlight, wouldn't it all die?
rather gamist but it makes sense
I remember there being an old trick with brown mold: something like opening up a portal to hell, throwing chunk of the stuff in, and watch as others declare "his power level is over 9,000!" for all the XP you'd be getting.
Watch out for friendly looking bears with big black eyes.
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EDIT: Also, would a daylight spell be enough to kill green slime (possibly rescuing a companion) or would you need REAL daylight?
Daylight would not do anything:
From the spell listing
Despite its name, this spell is not the equivalent of daylight for the purposes of creatures that are damaged or destroyed by such light.
wouldn't just a little bit of the slime being exposed to sunlight kill the whole thing? you only released one...even though it gets bigger it still has the same hp as when it started...so as soon as a miniscule part of your slime has been exposed to sunlight, wouldn't it all die?
rather gamist but it makes sense
I seriously doubt it works that way. Green slime would quickly grow extinct if that is the case.
Gamist doesn't really work for simulating reality.
If you want green slime to behave somewhat like a living organism, in addition to having sunlight kill it, it should also require oxygen to reproduce. Otherwise you'd have it eat its way through the ocean the moment some got washed out to sea. This would also make it so that when a tree grows its roots down into a cave with slime in it, the slime won't race up through the root system to take out the forest, and similarly, if a sliming does successfully eat a forest, it still leaves a portion of the roots in the ground.
Admittedly this means that jumping in a lake and trying to wash the stuff off then becomes a valid tactic, but logically so should using a decanter of endless water on the geyser function as a high pressure washer. It may not say in the RAW that can scrape off slime, but it sure as hell sounds like a good way to get it off.
If green slime was a practical method of clearing land or a threat to large swaths of forest, it would be more common. I'd expect that, like yeast in fermenting beverages, green slime produces waste products that eventually poison the organism. Once it grows beyond a certain point, the slime ceases growing and begins to die.
Green Slime (CR 4): ...
Which says the Slime reproduces. It does not say it grows. It could be spewing out spores all over the place, they just need a dark, dank place to grow in... Wash your skivvies adventurers!
I'd expect that, like yeast in fermenting beverages, green slime produces waste products that eventually poison the organism. Once it grows beyond a certain point, the slime ceases growing and begins to die.
It could go dormant or form a cyst, in which it could last... however long the DM wants it to.
Which says the Slime reproduces. It does not say it grows. It could be spewing out spores all over the place, they just need a dark, dank place to grow in... Wash your skivvies adventurers!
Most interesting...
Most interesting...
I keep coming back to look at this thread. RD's grinning picture over that phrase is so creepy.
Most interesting...I keep coming back to look at this thread. RD's grinning picture over that phrase is so creepy.
That's why I like it. It reminds me of the old evil man archetype, ala Snape from harry Potter or Palpatine from Star Wars.
It also fits my internet handle (Ravingdork) quite well, as it very much resembles a "blind fool" as well.
Very interesting topic. What rate / speed of expansion would the slime grow at? 5 foot a round? More? Less? I am thinking 5foot. Anyone got a solid idea?
But how does green slime reproduce ?
Is it by spores or does it reach a certain size and them divide (my favorite choice) or do little slimes just drop off as it eats enough
Any thoughts
From RDM42 Well. Another question .. Presuming the slime eats things at the rate of its con, and that it finishes eating one thing before moving on to another ...
My questions.
SCENARIO: a ceramic flask containing green slime is thrown into a dense Forrest at night, cloudy sky therefore no moon, the flask shatters, the slime is spread about.
How long will it take the slime to expand into a 5foot diameter? And what is its subsequent rate of expansion based upon?
Will it actually discriminate between food sources, (only eat one before, it moves onto another, say different plants). Or will each spatter of slime do its own thing?
If we presume it consumes matter at the rate of its CONS, is that 1 square foot per CONS point per round?
And what is the CONS of a Green Slime.
Thanks in advance all.
I am a new DM, with very experienced players, they are very possibly facing the above situation. I would love some technical input and advice to help me play the situation well if it occurs.
I am not looking to TPK the group but need a logical and firm argument as to what the Slime will do and why IF the events stack up, the the slime hits the Forrest.
:)