Today's Frightful Fridays! A-Z! monster has the dubious distinction of being the first ooze for this feature. This is a great illustration that I've had in my "to do" folder for a while, since I wanted to design something to do it justice. Hopefully, I succeeded.
The extra feature is another alchemical creation from the monster's corpse, and this one is quite the double-edged sword. You can use a paste created from the corpse to revive a character, but the raised character has a hard time limit, and anyone using the paste courts the danger of bringing the reanimator jelly back to life.
I have further plans for this monster, which I will get to after the completion of the A-Z challenge. Speaking of which, check back tomorrow for the "K" monster. Thanks for reading!
This skeletal creature drips a sticky, green substance; upon closer inspection, the green substance completely engulfs the skeleton.
Jelly, Reanimator CR 13
XP 25,600
CE Medium ooze
Init +5; Senses Perception +18
Defense
AC 23, touch 11, flat-footed 22 (+1 Dex, +12 natural)
hp 199 (19d8+114)
Fort +14, Ref +9, Will +10
Immune acid, electricity, fire, ooze traits; Weaknesses mind-affecting effects
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 claws +22 (2d6+8 plus 3d6 acid), slam +22 (2d4+8 plus 3d6 acid and paralysis)
Ranged acid glob +15 (1d4 plus 2d6 acid)
Special Attacks acid glob, animate body, paralysis (1d6 rounds, DC 25), persistent acid
Statistics
Str 26, Dex 13, Con 22, Int 7, Wis 19, Cha 14
Base Atk +14; CMB +22 (+24 grapple); CMD 33 (35 vs. grapple, can’t be tripped)
Feats Gorgon’s Fist, Great Fortitude, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Improved Unarmed Strike, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Scorpion Style, Skill Focus (Stealth)
Skills Heal +19, Perception +18, Sense Motive +17, Stealth +17; Racial Modifiers +8 Heal, +8 Perception, +8 Sense Motive
SQ hyperawareness
Ecology
Environment Any underground
Organization solitary, pair, or shamble (3–12)
Treasure incidental
Special Abilities
Acid Glob (Ex) A reanimator jelly targets an opponent’s touch AC with its acid glob attack.
Animate Body (Ex) A reanimator jelly requires a creature with legs to maneuver easily. The statistics above assume that the jelly surrounds a bipedal creature. If the jelly has a quadruped within, it increases its base speed to 40 feet. If the jelly has no creature within, its base speed drops to 5 feet, and its Dexterity is reduced to 3 (with a corresponding reduction in AC, Reflex saves, and CMD by -5).
Hyperawareness (Ex) Due to a reanimator jelly’s absorption of intelligent creatures, it has a strong awareness of its surroundings. Heal, Perception and Sense Motive are class skills for a reanimator jelly, and it gains a +8 racial modifier on all checks involving those skills.
Persistent Acid (Ex) On the round following a successful attack that deals acid damage, a reanimator jelly’s acid deals an additional 1d6 points of damage.
Weakness to Mind-Affecting Effects (Ex) As a result of the reanimator jelly’s heightened awareness, it is also susceptible to mind-affecting effects unlike other oozes.
Regarded as a menace by many subterranean civilizations, a reanimator jelly constantly seeks to possess dead bodies to give it mobility and increase its weird sentience. Oftentimes, those dead bodies result from the creature’s attacks, but the jelly does not regard its victims as fellow sentient beings, or perhaps does not care about them as something other than a means to an end. Any attempt at communication with a reanimator jelly has proven futile at best. In its natural form, the jelly resembles a 5-foot diameter mound of green goo, but most creatures only see it when it envelops a creature in some state of dissolution. Depending on the overall toughness of the creature it surrounds, a reanimator jelly can enjoy its mobility for one to four days. During that period, it hunts for its next victim.
A reanimator jelly is single-minded when it attacks; it chooses one opponent and seeks to paralyze and eventually kill its foe (it uses its Heal check to determine its foe’s status). Once it kills a victim, it attempts to flee, but it will defend itself against persistent attackers. If a dead reanimator jelly’s corpse is dried out, the resulting paste can be used to revive a character for a few days, albeit painful days while the acid dissolves the character’s body.
Reanimator Paste
Price 5,000 gp; Weight —
By smearing this paste all over the intact corpse of a character who has been dead for no more than 24 hours, reanimator paste returns the character to life with 1 hit point. Every 24 hours after applying the paste, the revived character takes 1d4 points of Constitution drain, which cannot be restored short of casting miracle or wish. When the character’s Constitution reaches 0, the paste transforms into a new reanimator jelly. The paste stays on the character unless he is doused in at least one gallon of alcohol, at which point the character dies. If the character is subsequently restored to life through raise dead or more powerful spells, any Constitution drain he suffered from the paste may also be restored normally. A DC 30 Craft (alchemy) check is required to create reanimator paste.
