Would a greased floor have any effect on a gelatinous cube? It can't be tripped, but can it fall prone?
As its normal speed is 15ft halving it would mean 5ft left, right?
So by the rules if grease is cast so it is partly below the gelatinous cube and partly in front of it the cube would have to make a ref save (it has -4 ref) or fall. Next turn it could stand up and try a DC 10 acrobatics check (with a dex of 1) to move.
Side question: You can enhance grease by using a flask of acid as a power component. the gelatinous cube doesn't seem to be immune to acid even if it deals acid damage itself, is that right?
If so a single grease used that way could, depending on the CL kill a gelatinous cube if it rolls low on the acrobatics checks.
Am I missing something?
First off, a gelatinous cube has 50 HP, so a single casting of acidic grease is not going to do the trick unless it keeps failing acrobatic checks for 5 straight minutes, and hopefully a level 5 party has better ways to deal with the situation than waiting that long.
As far as trip immunity applying to other forms of becoming prone, I don't think there's a hard ruling on it, but in this case I would say no, both because it's plainly clear from the wording of the spell that you lose your footing and trip due to the slick floor, and because it's fundamentally impossible for basically any ooze to be prone. It's just a giant wad of goo. Most are an amorphous blob with no top or bottom. In this case, it's a cube, which still has no real meaningful top or bottom to it, plus a cube isn't going to topple over if it's on a level surface.
All that said, there is nothing mechanical saying a gelatinous cube doesn't have to deal with the movement issue, and their dex IS terrible. Back in the day they could adhere to walls, so it wouldn't be an issue, but that's gone in Pathfinder so, yeah, from where I sit a gelatinous cube would have a surprisingly difficult time crossing a grease spot, and be too stupid to stop trying if it was taking a little acid damage trying to find traction.
It would still most likely get the 15 it would need on the acrobatics check (or two if you can convince your GM it needs to go a total of 20' to get from one side to the other) before it spent 50 rounds partially on the grease though.
Acrobatic cubes.... hooo boy...
I am the gm here and trying to guess what my party of 3 (melee oracle, archaeologist bard, melee inquisitor) is going to try and handle the fight. And as the bard just picked up grease I could see him trying that if they get that it is better to stay away from the thing.
Seriously... To a cube, grease is just going to make it easier going. Slippery surfaces are a problem to creatures who want to maintain their balance. It is like putting water on a slide. Now, if it sloped up, that would be an issue.
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My first tought was also that it would move faster. But then I realized I have no idea how a cube actually moves.
If it does that by slightly shrinking and then expanding itself, it would not make much progress in the grease.
Instead of making it do an acrobatics check to see if it falls prone (which it cant), why not have it make an acrobatics check to see if it actually moves forward? If it fails, it doesnt move. If it makes it, have it move forward, maybe at reduced speed.
My first tought was also that it would move faster. But then I realized I have no idea how a cube actually moves.
If it does that by slightly shrinking and then expanding itself, it would not make much progress in the grease.
Instead of making it do an acrobatics check to see if it falls prone (which it cant), why not have it make an acrobatics check to see if it actually moves forward? If it fails, it doesnt move. If it makes it, have it move forward, maybe at reduced speed.
You only have to check if you fall when the spell is cast below you. After that it is just as you suggest. You can only move at half speed and have to make a DC 10 Acrobatics check to be able to move. If you don't make the check you can't move.
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I'm not sure how to run it by the rules, but I would say the cube certainly can't fall prone or be tripped and is immune to those effects. I'm not sure how I would handle the movement speed issue. Presumably, the reduced speed is from trying to keep your balance while moving through the area, but the cube shouldn't have that problem.
I'd probably just say that the spell was ineffective against the cube.
In order to move along a surface (without some magical means of propulsion), friction is imperative. Even an ooze has to push off of something relatively stationary in order to push itself forward. I would rule in this case that a Reflex Save is required for the gelatinous cube to move through the grease spell.
To throw another factor into the mix: I personally prefer my gelatinous cubes to move by "rolling" forward, one cube face at a time. I would still rule that a Reflex Save is required to do more than flip-in-place though.
I agree that the gelatinous cube cannot be made to fall prone, which makes no sense for an ooze.
I guess that I'll rule that instead of falling prone the cube will get out of shape if it fails a save vs grease and has to use a move action to pull himself back together.
I mean it is not used to having no friction, after all. And with the movement I'll just go by RAW.
In other words, I'll use the rules but reflavor them when it comes to it falling prone.
But now that I took the time to think it over my party will probably not use grease at all in that situation.
If we were to go by real world physics, which the friction comment above suggests, it is quite simple. A gelatinous cube weighs a stunning amount. 15000 lbs is quite a lot of mass. With all that mass, even if it is just moving at 15', it has a gigantic momentum. Given that, a greased surface will give it NO problems. Now, if it aimed to STOP in the greased area, that would be different.
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Well, Greased is not no friction, since if that were the case, no one could move. In fact it is not even really uniformly reduced friction, because if that were the case, no one would have the option to move full speed. It is more like areas of varying fiction. In which case, the cube is probably not really affected.