Anyone have a rules reference for this? I can't believe I haven't been able to find at least hints of official answers. I figure if I ask a hundred thousand people all at once, the answer will come faster than if I keep looking on my own.
I wonder if a blob of green slime poured from a stone container off the side of a boat would float or sink (and this could vary in fresh water or depending on the salinity of salt water).
This is not, as far as I'm aware, covered by the rules. I can tell you that in general PF is not granular enough to worry about the salinity of the water - it will either float or not float.
OT1H, green slime at the bottom of a puddle is a classic trap, so it shouldn't be too buoyant. OTOH, the stuff is sticky as hell and can cling to the ceiling let alone the floor under the puddle, so.
And that's the extent of my knowledge on the subject.
If you're a player, I suggest you pass the buck to your GM. If you're the GM, I suggest you pass the buck to a coin flip.
OT1H, green slime at the bottom of a puddle is a classic trap, so it shouldn't be too buoyant.
This is a good point. Either it is less dense than water, but sticky enough to resist being pulled loose by buoyancy, or it is more dense than water and it would stay under the water anyway. But the fact that it's sticky enough to cling to ceilings and so sticky that a concentrated effort has to be made to scrape it off suggests that it might just be a bit less dense than water and could float.
I can imagine someone scraping bits of the stuff off and onto a nearby pond and little patches of green goo are floating or bobbing on the surface.
I ask too many questions. :)
"It drops from walls and ceilings when it detects movement (and possible food) below." This makes me wonder about the extent of its ability to detect things (that is, is it rather like some plants in this regard?). That it can drop suggests that it can "choose" (or, whatever) to not stick.
"...reproducing as it consumes organic matter." This suggests that if a green slime were hanging out in a pond, it could reproduce if that pond had enough organic matter in it. But, the water itself in the pond isn't sufficient for it to reproduce.
"A single 5-foot square of green slime deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage per round while it devours flesh." This says nothing about volume. It would seem that being engulfed in a 125 cubic foot 5-foot cube of the stuff would be worse than just stepping on a patch. I mean, falling into a stone well that contains several feet of green slime at the bottom ought to be a death sentence.
"Anything that deals cold or fire damage, sunlight, or a remove disease spell destroys a patch of green slime." The fact that fire can damage or even destroy it suggests that even though it's described as wet, that wetness isn't enough to protect it from fire (which says something, though I'm not sure what, about its constitution). The fact that freezing it (or even doing enough cold damage to it) can destroy a patch also suggests something (again, but I'm not sure what) about its make up. And sunlight? I mean, I get the connection to disease and real-life plant-like things that are killed by sunlight, but what does this mean about what it is?
Anyway, I'm still dreaming of things to do with the stuff if it turns out that it floats. We'll see...
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Even if it can't itself, it might cling to something floating that it can't digest. Pumice perhaps, or wood treated with some vicious preservative.
asking thousands of people does not converge upon a scientific answer or a correct theory, just a commonly held belief.
True. But if there were a reference to this in official material somewhere, having thousands of eyes looking for it would likely get me my answer more quickly than just me trying to find it. And that's all I was after.
And thanks for the algae link.
Cellulose, the essential building block for most plants, floats.
Seaweed etc has a cement like root structure that anchors it - and buoyancy lifts the fronds.
Coconuts, lettuce, wood. Float. However, green slime on the bottom of a pond is a common trap.
Cellulose, the essential building block for most plants, floats.
Seaweed etc has a cement like root structure that anchors it - and buoyancy lifts the fronds.
Coconuts, lettuce, wood. Float.
Don't forget witches! And ducks!
It needs to breathe, which I assume is why we're drowning it. It should be able to change its density somewhat by breathing though, and since it doesn't have any sort of organs for breathing, I'd assume it can absorb and exchange oxygen from any surface. This leaves us with something that can bring in quite a lot of air if it needs to, and something that would be much more dense if not breathing.
The damn thing can dissolve metal. All metal, no exceptions are made. This gives it a likely very high natural density since you need a variety of reactions available to start breaking down certain metals.
That's all I can contribute to the guess work.
The damn thing can dissolve metal. All metal, no exceptions are made.
Maybe no one has ever tried sticking osmium or iridium in it to check yet. <grin>
Does it need to breathe? I wouldn't have guessed so. Either way, this is a fascinating development. (Maybe we've discovered another way to kill the stuff.)
I assumed it was related to the other slimes in the ooze monster category. I could be overreaching.