Oozekin
Oozekin Info
Naturally curious, oozekin (OOZE-kin) do not have a culture of their own; instead, they tend to assimilate with whoever is ready to accept their slimy, invertebrate form. From the bodyguards of mighty, stonewilled nobles, to adopted playmates of excitable halflings, oozekin are found everywhere, though in small numbers. Taking on the values of those that surround
them, oozekin are hard to pigeonhole and have but one thing in common: a delight in immersing their new found consciousness in the habits and customs of other sapient creatures.
Biomantic Origins
Oozekin are the odd by-products of Dr Stein’s biomancy experiments—biomantic oozes that
gained consciousness and self-replicate through asexual reproduction. When the time is right,
an oozekin produces a larval sludge: a juvenile, biomantically-altered ooze not dissimilar to
those one might find in a dungeon. After this larva consumes enough sentient grey matter, it
exhibits a sudden cognitive and physiological metamorphosis, rising as a humanoid-shaped
oozekin.
These unmoulded, newly-formed consciousnesses are extremely susceptible to the psyches
of creatures near them both in space and time. An oozekin that develops in the former lair of
a red dragon might take on its avaricious and arrogant personality traits, while one that forms
near a sleeping adventurer might be filled with wanderlust and risk-taking qualities. Indeed,
the grey matter that a biomantic ooze consumes can have a significant influence on the subse-
quent oozekin’s values, habits, and memories. Tales abound of oozey doppelgangers, facsimi-
les of fallen adventurers that believe themselves to be the deceased creature reborn.
Oozey Re-birth
If a player character dies in an area rich with biomancy, you can consider allowing their character to be reborn as an oozekin. A biomantic ooze may well consume the grey matter of their brain and adopt a plethora of their personality traits, memories, and class levels.
Willing and Able
Relatively new to the world, oozekin are keen to prove themselves the equal of any other race.
Though most oozekin exist within the framework of other, established civilisations, pods of oozekin
settlements have arisen in corners of The Low. These conglomerations mix the various assimilated
cultures and traditions each oozekin has experienced or formed with, often with unpredictable
consequences. Luckily, oozekin’s propensity to get along with one another has resulted in the reconciliation of schisms between historically antagonistic races, such as grey dwarves and dark elves, even if only vicariously through their oozekin adoptees. Most oozekin are more than happy to fulfill their role as helpful and productive citizens, contributing to society in any way they can. Others, perhaps those that accidentally harmed friends with their acidic skin, go to obscene lengths to disguise their true form, covering themselves head to toe in scraps of clothing,
never staying in one place too long. An especially curious and introspective few live to discover the reason for their existence. How come they have no parents? Where is their history? Why do they exist?
Oozekin Features
| Oozekin Features | |
|---|---|
| Ability Score Increases | Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1. |
| Age | An oozekin’s age is nearly impossible to discern. However, the compounds that sustain them appear to deteriorate quickly after 70 years. |
| Creature Type | You are a humanoid. You are also considered an ooze for any prerequisite or effect that requires you to be an ooze. |
| Languages | You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice. |
| Size | Your size can be Medium or Small. If you are Small, you grow to Medium size over 2d4 days. When you are Medium, you can use an action to discard a piece of yourself to become Small. |
| Speed | Your base walking speed is 30 feet. |
| Darkvision | Accustomed to life in dark, wet caverns, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey. |
| Acidic Flesh | You have resistance to acid damage, and you know the acid splash cantrip. If you cast the spell targeting a creature you’re currently grappling or grappled by, the target automatically fails its saving throw. Constitution is your spellcasting ability for this spell. |
| Reshapeable | Starting at 3rd level you can, as an action, alter your body to assume the form of a cube or a puddle for up to 1 hour. After you do so, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. While in either of these forms, you can’t talk; manipulate objects; make attacks; or cast spells. You can end this effect early as an action. The form you assume has the following effects: (Cube Form or Puddle Form) |
Reshapeable effects:
Cube Form
Your walking speed is halved and your body becomes a 5-foot cube. You can safely store any items you are carrying, holding, or wearing in a vesicle within your body. Creatures directly behind you have three-quarters cover against attacks that originate on the opposite side of you. You also gain a new action option, the Engulf action:
Engulf
You move up to your speed and can attempt to move into the space of one creature of equal or smaller size than you, which must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC = 8 + your Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus). On a failure, if you aren’t already grappling a creature, the creature becomes grappled by you. While grappled in this way, the creature is restrained and takes acid damage at the start of each of its turns as if it had failed a saving throw against your acid splash cantrip. On a success, you expend the movement but remain in the space from which your movement originated.
Puddle Form
Your walking speed is halved as you collapse into a 5-foot-diameter pool. You can’t hold or carry items and any objects you are holding, carrying, or wearing when you transform fall to the ground in your space. While in this form, attack rolls by creatures further than 5 feet away from you have disadvantage to hit you, you non-magically gain the benefits of the spider climb spell, and you can travel through spaces as small as 1 inch wide without squeezing.