This week, we’re featuring a user-created monster, inspired by a classic film and adapted to the fantasy framework by merlin. Looking at the build, it looks to be a formidable foe, despite being only CR 2. Let’s take a closer look and see what makes The Blob tick!

What can they do?
The Blob has a lot going for it- the ability to go almost anywhere with its amorphous quality, an attack that grabs an opponent, and the ability to simply sit there and deal damage once it has its prey engulfed. Creatures trying to track it will find a unique challenge, as following its slime trail is simple, but also dangerous, as the trail can burn those who are not careful.

Since it has Tremorsense, it is handy for attacking from the darkness, or for parties which have managed to grab invisibility early. Its list of resistances helps offset its pathetic AC, but in the end this is likely to be an excellent introductory ooze for a party that has never fought one before.

How should I use them?
As merlin has described them, The Blob is the result of sewage and alchemy combining- this makes it a great surprise for the party who went down to the sewers expecting to find rats and smelly smugglers. A great challenge for a sorcerer who relies a little too heavily on lightning magic, or the rapier-wielding rogue, as the monster’s resistances are liable to trip these folks up.

Of course, there’s something to be said about letting players completely trounce an enemy, so those with cold damage at their disposal may take some pleasure in fighting something easy to hit.

Try some of these plot hooks.

• As the party journeys through the sewers, something spills out of a pipe and onto the cleric. Roll initiative!
• The city had a rat problem, but now it doesn’t. Of course, with all the rats gone, The Blob has to find something else to eat.
• Eccentric noble Theodore Johnson had locked himself in the bathroom while doing something called “showering.” His husband called for the guards when Theodore began screaming- when the door was busted down, Theodore was naught but a skeleton, and only a strange bit of acidic residue was found. There are no other entrances to the bathroom.
• While visiting an alchemical research station up on an isolated and cold mountain, the party discovers that researchers are disappearing one-by-one.
• The local mob throws those who can’t pay into a pit with The Blob. If the victim can tell them where to get money fast enough, they’ll be pulled back out again.
• After two gangs began dumping bodies in the same spot in the sewers, The Blob took up residence. It has split several times, but the bodies keep coming and so now four Blobs call it home. Of course, after the party kills one, the others happen to recombine….

As you can see, an unintelligent but dangerous monster can be a lot of fun. You could even have the party tracking the thing, getting burned by its trail, then finding a dead end at a grate in the ground, leading to that difficult decision of whether to descend into the unknown or not.