Large Ooze, Unaligned
- AC
- 7
- Initiative
- -3 (7)
- HP
- 68 (8d10+24)
- Speed
- 20 ft., Climb 20 ft.
| Score | Mod | Save | |
|---|---|---|---|
| STR | 16 | +3 | +3 |
| DEX | 5 | -3 | -3 |
| CON | 16 | +3 | +3 |
| INT | 1 | -5 | -5 |
| WIS | 6 | -2 | -2 |
| CHA | 1 | -5 | -5 |
Traits
Amorphous. The pudding can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch without expending extra movement to do so.
Corrosive Form. A creature that hits the pudding with a melee attack roll takes 4 (1d8) Acid damage. Nonmagical ammunition is destroyed immediately after hitting the pudding and dealing any damage. Any nonmagical weapon takes a cumulative -1 penalty to attack rolls immediately after dealing damage to the pudding and coming into contact with it. The weapon is destroyed if the penalty reaches -5. The penalty can be removed by casting the Mending spell on the weapon.
In 1 minute, the pudding can eat through 2 feet of nonmagical wood or metal.
Spider Climb. The pudding can climb difficult surfaces, including along ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Actions
Dissolving Pseudopod. Melee Attack Roll: +5, reach 10 ft. Hit: 17 (4d6+3) Acid damage. Nonmagical armor worn by the target takes a -1 penalty to the AC it offers. The armor is destroyed if the penalty reduces its AC to 10. The penalty can be removed by casting the Mending spell on the armor.
Reactions
Split. Trigger: While the pudding is Large or Medium and has 10+ Hit Points, it becomes Bloodied or is subjected to Lightning or Slashing damage. Response: The pudding splits into two new Black Puddings. Each new pudding is one size smaller than the original pudding and acts on its Initiative. The original pudding's Hit Points are divided evenly between the new puddings (round down).
How to run Black Pudding
A black pudding has Intelligence 1 and no language, so "ally" means "directed", and the direction comes from someone with the wits to point it at a door. The clean setup is a dungeon-clearing wizard who has been baiting puddings down corridors for years and now offers the party a vial of pheromone, a chalk-line on the floor, or a bound elemental that the pudding follows for an hour. The party is not allied with the pudding. They are allied with the trainer, and the pudding is a weapon.
Use it for one specific job: dissolve a vault door, eat through a floor, or clear a chamber the party cannot enter without Mending scrolls of their own. Corrosive Form eats through 2 feet of nonmagical wood or metal in a minute, which is a number worth remembering when the players ask how long the bank vault takes. Amorphous lets the pudding squeeze through the keyhole on the way in and the gap under the door on the way out.
In combat, the pudding does not coordinate. It moves toward the nearest warm body and starts eating, which is fine if the party has placed it correctly and a problem if anyone wandered in front. Make a point of asking the players where they are standing before the pudding takes its turn. Split is the comedy beat: a slashing crit from an enemy halves the pudding into two smaller ones, both of which now have their own initiatives and neither of which knows whose side it was supposed to be on.
The exit problem solves itself. Once the directed task is done, the pheromone wears off, the chalk-line is broken, or the binding ends, and the pudding starts treating everyone in the room as food. The party has about a round to leave the chamber and seal the door behind them.
Charge the party for the trainer's services in advance and in scrolls of Mending. The bill should arrive before the pudding does.
A black pudding is the dungeon's revenge on a martial party. It has 7 AC and no save bonuses worth naming, so the fighter feels brave swinging at it, and that bravery is the trap. Corrosive Form returns 1d8 acid every melee hit, Dissolving Pseudopod hits for 17 acid and ticks down nonmagical armour, and Split turns one Bloodied pudding into two smaller ones the moment a slashing weapon connects. The party will solve the puzzle eventually. The question is how much equipment they'll have left.
Place the pudding on a ceiling. Spider Climb plus 60 ft. Blindsight means it can hang above a corridor in total darkness, drop on the marching order, and start with surprise. Lead with Dissolving Pseudopod on whichever PC is wearing the most expensive nonmagical armour, since the -1 AC penalty stacks until the breastplate stops being a breastplate. Amorphous lets it ignore murder holes, arrow slits, and any escape route the party assumed it couldn't follow them through. If they retreat down a corridor, the pudding takes the corridor too.
Watch the damage types. Acid, Cold, Lightning, and Slashing all do nothing or worse. Lightning and Slashing trigger Split, which is a bonus encounter the party did not pay for. The party's correct answer is fire, force, psychic, thunder, or bludgeoning at range. If they have none of those, the right play is to run and come back with torches, and you should reward them for figuring that out. A pudding does not pursue past the dungeon door.
Puddings do not retreat and they do not parley. They eat what's in front of them until it stops moving, then they eat what's left of it. The horror is that the encounter outlasts the kill: the party walks out missing a longsword, half a chain shirt, and the rogue's quiver of nonmagical arrows, with a Mending scroll on the shopping list for next town.
Roll the Corrosive Form acid in the open after every melee hit. The fighter needs to feel the math working against the swing.
Stat block from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 © Wizards of the Coast LLC, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.