Astral Projections - Psychic Gray Ooze

According to legends and lore, Gray Oozes that live near enclaves of sapient monsters with mental powers, may develop a crude direct-to-brain attack. This is in addition to the usual Gray Ooze hazards: highly acidic physiology which will damage your flesh and metal gear; moving, climbing, and attacking like a snake or serpent; and being quite hard to distinguish from a puddle or or a wet, glistening rock. They are more intelligent than ordinary Gray Oozes – albeit still only semi-sentient – as well, also due to proximity to such mentalist monsters.

PSYCHIC GRAY OOZE [Rival]
Non-sapient Fantasy Monster

Characteristic

Brawn 3
Agility 2
Intellect 1
Cunning 2
Willpower 2
Presence 1

Skills
Athletics 2
Perception 2
Stealth 3

Talent
Adversary 1

Abilities
Corrosive: Non-magical metal weapons, armor, and implements take one step of damage from each contact, including attacks made with them.
Limited Senses: Perceives out to Medium range via unusual senses, but lacking “normal senses.”
Liquid Stone: A Psychic Gray Ooze can slither through openings as small as 1″. When the Ooze is still, Perception checks to recognize it are upgraded once.
Psychic Corrosion: On a successful Willpower plus Perception check, the Psychic Gray Ooze bruises the mind of an opponent, inflicting 4 Strain (or Wounds if attacking a Minion or Rival). The Ooze may spend 3 Advantage or a Triumph to use the attack in a subsequent round.
Silhouette 2

Soak: 4 Defense (m/r): 0/0 Wound Threshold: 15

Equipment: Stone Essence (Soak +1); Pseudopod (Brawl, Damage [per Acid Rating 5, Genesys, p. 111], Short range, Critical 3)

Design & Play Notes: This variant of the standard Gray Ooze is more dangerous due to its extra Psychic Corrosion ability, which I based off the FFG Star Wars line’s Influence Force power. It inflicts the same amount of Strain as the base Force power plus the Strength upgrade. I opted for spending narrative results to preserve the randomness of the D&D5e original’s Recharge effect. Upping the Willpower to 2 gives it a fighting chance to use this ability. I choose to keep the Intellect at 1 to keep to the spirit of the original. It’s still only semi-sapient after all. Overall, the increased danger of this variant seemed worthy of a “promotion” to Rival.

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Linda Whitson

Contributing Writer & Copy Editor at D20 Radio

Linda Whitson is a long-time RPGer, amateur musician & artist, & an officer in the Rebel Legion Star Wars costuming club. Linda met her husband in an AD&D game and they have 2 teenagers, an anime fangirl daughter and a son who plays on his university's quidditch team. She is the Lead Mod of D20 Radio's forums and Copy Editor for the blog. Linda can be reached at GMLinda@d20radio.com