So my PCs fell victim to a Gray Ooze, one of them reduced to 1 HP. They had just finished a combat encounter and were moving through the dungeon when one stepped right onto and was was grabbed by the Ooze (he is the one that was reduced to 1 HP). They decided to run past it, which was possible due to their speed and the space available to run around it.
I know it has no intelligence but would it try to follow them anyway? They went to an adjacent cavern to rest and heal, about 60' away and we ended the session. Should I have the Ooze follow them? I am leaning towards not doing it but wanted some input.
Yeah, I think it would. Like a zombie following fleeing prey.
I would think that they have to run pretty far, about 10 minutes perhaps. It will follow as long as it can track its victims, I would guess that that's only possible for tracks fresher than 1 minute.
So yes it will follow, but it's not very good at following.
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This is why it is good for adventurers to have a 100 chickens. To throw the ooze off their trail!
Flavorwise? It will follow them. Sloooowly. (Amoeba are capable of chemotaxis - basically spoken, oozes should get scent as a bonus ability.)
RAW? It can't. With a wisdom score of 1 and no ranks in survival, it will have a hard time tracking the PCs.
I'd absolutely go for it. Nothing escapes the creeping doom - well, apart from people using chicken as decoy. :)
Guess what's for dinner!
Adventurer.
The ooze doesn't have to track the party.
oozing in the direction the party fled is enough to find the party if they only went to the next cavern.
Well... they ran around it and out of its blindsight range. That alone could be enough to make it difficult for the ooze to determine the right direction.
But if there's only one possible path and the PCs didn't take any turns or crossings, you're right.Anyway, I'm in the go for it camp with you already.
ok, the rest of the party ran around it outside blindsight range, but the 1 PC was in it's clutches at one point, and it should be able to follow in his/her's footsteps, right?
besides, just because oozes are blind doesn't mean they can't HEAR. perception checks to notice somebody passing by you and their direction doesn't care about sight vs. sound. having sight just makes pinpointing their square EASIER and lets you avoid Full Concealment miss chance if you can see them. even if the Ooze's perception skill SUCKS, it would probably hear SOME of the PCs running by just outside of it's blindsight range, presumably not even Stealthing.
sounds like your PC was lucky enough not to die, and to escape the ooze's AoO Grab when he fled... (maybe he used Withdraw?)
since none of the PCs counter-attacked the ooze in any way, and it probably knows the one PC was almost dead, it seems reasonable that it would follow after it's (would be) prey.
it would probably be SMARTER for this Ooze NOT to follow the party, but hey, they aren't that smart.
I give the thing 10 minutes before it forgets what its doing and finds a nice spot to curl back up in
"Where that snack went... Oh, a patch of moss!" *sound of ooze digesting a patch of moss*
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Oozes are like jellyfish. All they do is move about, eat, and reproduce. They have no minds. Just instinct. I don't think an ooze would bother pursuing anything not within its sensory range.
Oozes are like jellyfish. All they do is move about, eat, and reproduce. They have no minds. Just instinct. I don't think an ooze would bother pursuing anything not within its sensory range.Then it still has 50% chance to take the right direction during it's moving about and locate the party during their stay in the next cavern.
This is what I think I may do. There's a 50/50 chance it could follow them as there were 2 directions they could have gone.
If it heads in their direction they are screwed as they will be trapped between it and a Wight and 2 of it's resurrected victims.
It heads in the direction the food was last sensed from.
They went to an adjacent cavern to rest and heal, about 60' away
The ooze has blindsight of 60 ft. If they're not more than 60 feet away or have some intervening obstruction, it will know they're there it will resume going after them. Otherwise, I think you've got it right going with a 50/50 chance.
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Food, not food.
Food went thataway, is Food still over there?
Yes, Food is there! OMNOMNONOMNOM!!
It doesn't follow if doing so has a high probability of producing a TPK unless you're sick of running the module.Oozes are like jellyfish. All they do is move about, eat, and reproduce. They have no minds. Just instinct. I don't think an ooze would bother pursuing anything not within its sensory range.Then it still has 50% chance to take the right direction during it's moving about and locate the party during their stay in the next cavern.This is what I think I may do. There's a 50/50 chance it could follow them as there were 2 directions they could have gone.
If it heads in their direction they are screwed as they will be trapped between it and a Wight and 2 of it's resurrected victims.
This ^ VERY MUCH this ^^^
If you were in a dunegon the smart think to do would be to run and shut the door. I don't think it can really understand doors. I say have it slowly come towards them but have the pcs see it coming towards them if they can. Also doesn't it have a stealth modifier or -5 so couldn't they hear it coming? I don't think transparent was made to allow the ooze to move quietly if no one saw it because it is transparent.
it's stealth sucks, but it's base DC is 15 instead of 0, and it can still roll.
(at least that seems the only rational way to run it, the wording is wierd, but it would be wierder to say the DC to notice it is still just 15 thru 10 miles of rock, etc.)
the door thing is more than likely true, although again, you can make Perception checks THRU doors... 'there are DCs for that' as they say. and having the Ooze dissolve the door to get it's 'concealed' food seems reasonable to me.
just because the PCs are outside the BLINDSIGHT range doesn't mean the Ooze can't sense them, it just needs to roll Perception to do so. if it succeeds, it can more or less move accurately in their direction... not to mention that the PC it had already attacked must have moved thru it's Blindsight range and it can follow that vector (updated by any Perception checks).
I wouldn't have it pursue the PCs very long, if it fails to pass further Perception checks after moving towards their direction (and they aren't in Blindsight range, there should be a decent chance of it giving up (50%) vs. possibly moving in their last known direction for another round or 2.
If you were in a dunegon the smart think to do would be to run and shut the door. I don't think it can really understand doors. I say have it slowly come towards them but have the pcs see it coming towards them if they can. Also doesn't it have a stealth modifier or -5 so couldn't they hear it coming? I don't think transparent was made to allow the ooze to move quietly if no one saw it because it is transparent.
Unless the door is watertight, the ooze won't even notice it's there.
'Hey, they smelled tasty, where'd they go?'
/wanders around, seeking food, encounters door between the PCs and itself/
'Ooze'
/oozes [pun intended] under the door, proceeds to snack on closest adventurer/
If you were in a dunegon the smart think to do would be to run and shut the door. I don't think it can really understand doors. I say have it slowly come towards them but have the pcs see it coming towards them if they can. Also doesn't it have a stealth modifier or -5 so couldn't they hear it coming? I don't think transparent was made to allow the ooze to move quietly if no one saw it because it is transparent.Unless the door is watertight, the ooze won't even notice it's there.
'Hey, they smelled tasty, where'd they go?'
/wanders around, seeking food, encounters door between the PCs and itself/
'Ooze'
/oozes [pun intended] under the door, proceeds to snack on closest adventurer/
Unless the door is made of stone, the ooze can also simply eat through it. A wooden door is organic material and would also count as food.
Well, I'm going to see how they handle the Wight and it's 2 subjects in the cavern the entered and then roll to see (50/50) if the Ooze went the right way to follow them. I'll hold off on having them encounter it again while fighting the Wight, could get really ugly for them, fast.
KS:
You are entirely too nice to be GMming... hope they appreciate it!
Unless the door is made of stone, the ooze can also simply eat through it. A wooden door is organic material and would also count as food.If you were in a dunegon the smart think to do would be to run and shut the door. I don't think it can really understand doors. I say have it slowly come towards them but have the pcs see it coming towards them if they can. Also doesn't it have a stealth modifier or -5 so couldn't they hear it coming? I don't think transparent was made to allow the ooze to move quietly if no one saw it because it is transparent.Unless the door is watertight, the ooze won't even notice it's there.
'Hey, they smelled tasty, where'd they go?'
/wanders around, seeking food, encounters door between the PCs and itself/
'Ooze'
/oozes [pun intended] under the door, proceeds to snack on closest adventurer/
If it was a wooden door why wouldn't the gray ooze have already eaten it? Hmm a dunegon with missing doors but still having hinges might make the players a little nervous.
Oozes are like jellyfish. All they do is move about, eat, and reproduce. They have no minds. Just instinct. I don't think an ooze would bother pursuing anything not within its sensory range.
Jellyfish have quite a long 'sensory range,' because they determine their direction by chemical trails. (smell, basically)
I could see an ooze following adventurers for a long time. I could also see them being very easy to trick, trap, or kite in circles, because they're mindless.
Oozes are like jellyfish. All they do is move about, eat, and reproduce. They have no minds. Just instinct. I don't think an ooze would bother pursuing anything not within its sensory range.Jellyfish have quite a long 'sensory range,' because they determine their direction by chemical trails. (smell, basically)
I could see an ooze following adventurers for a long time. I could also see them being very easy to trick, trap, or kite in circles, because they're mindless.
^Both of thisses.^
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Yes. It would be oozing with confidence.
*Applause*
Or depending on time and speed, it may just learn (evolve) to follow PCs feasting on the conga line of corpses they leave behind.