Building A Better Blob

Blobs, jellies, oozes, puddings, slimes... whatever you call them, these lifeforms are uniformly disgusting, relentless, and seemingly unstoppable once they begin to grow.  Blobs have many origins: outer space, mad science, the ocean's deepest depths, magical curses, or whatever else you can dream up. They display a wide range of abilities, colors, toughness, and other special qualities, and about the only thing they all  have in common is a mysterious and insatiable appetite for flesh.

Blobs are arguably the quintessential Fifties monster, or at least an iconic menace of the decade.  Vampires, werewolves, zombies, gill men, mummies, witches, and other traditional horror monsters have much older origins; blobs, however, appear to be a thoroughly modern nightmare.

Use the following tips and tables to make every blob unique.

Common Blob Features
Blobs are amorphous, and can squeeze through spaces as small as 1 cm at their normal movement rate without hindrance.

Blobs are immune to surprise and stealth-based attacks from within 60 ft. of their peripheral mass, and can sense all potential targets and prey within this range as well.

Blobs increase their size, HD, and combat capabilities by absorbing prey.  For every 1d4 HD or levels of prey absorbed, a blob shifts from a smaller size rating to the next largest one, and increases its base Hit Dice by 1 (re-roll all hit points and change only if the total increases).  There is no maximum size for a blob; such a creature could, in principle, grow to engulf an entire town or city, given sufficient food sources (though most blobs only consume flesh, omnivorous varieties that also absorb plants and fungi are conceivable).

Blobs are impervious to most kinds of damage other than their unique weaknesses. This  makes them exceptionally tough opponents, despite their mindlessness.

Standard Attack Forms
Area Attack:  Unless they possess special qualities like pseudo-pods or ambulatory buds, blobs attack prey en masse, by spreading over a given area and absorbing all flesh they engulf.  Thus, they rarely make standard attack rolls.  Instead, they extend their malleable mass over a given area, and all within the area of effect must make Dex-based saving throws (LotFP: vs. breath) to avoid being struck.

Engulf:  Blobs can use sheer bulk to smother prey, and thus absorb them. Any creature composed of flesh and blood that gets caught in a blob's area of effect must check against a standard grapple attack (base the blob's Str or other appropriate score on its size relative to its target).  If the check fails, the prey is covered by the blob's amorphous, gooey mass, and must make a Str-based saving throw (LotFP: vs. paralyze) to even attempt to free themselves.  This save is made at -2 penalty for every point of Str the blob possesses higher than its prey.

Every round the prey is engulfed, it must make a Con-based save (LotFP: vs. poison) or suffocate, facing instant death.  Succeeding on this saving throw is not necessarily a good thing, though, for an engulfed creature also suffers an agonizing 1d6 acid damage per blob HD per round from the blob's digestive secretions.

In addition to the above, more-or-less standard powers, blobs can be individualized with the following tables.

Blob Activators/Attractors

Every blob has a unique “trigger” that attracts it to prey and spurs it into action.

1d6	Catalyst
1	Body heat
2	Contact with flesh
3	Teenager music
4	Teenager sexual pheromones
5	Radiation (choose type)
6	Sound

Blob Repellants/Weaknesses

Each blob has a unique susceptibility to a certain kind of damage.  Unless otherwise noted, it will be immune to any other kind of attack. There is a 10% chance that attacks based on its weakness cause double damage to a blob.

1d6	Weakness
1	Cold
2	Dehydration
3	Electricity
4	Fire
5	Light, Concentrated (choose a wavelength)
6	Magic/Psi Powers (choose specific type)

Blob Salient Abilities

Some blobs can do more than simply spread, grow, and smother prey.  For a more dynamic blob monster, roll twice on the following table, ignoring duplicate results.

1d8	Feature
1	Adhesive secretions (as spider climb spell, but no limit on duration)
2	Ambulant budding (releases swarm of smaller blobs from its main mass, minimum 1 HD ea.)
3	Contact acid (1d6 per blob HD)
4	Contact poison (causes paralysis or death; Con-based save required)
5	Electrical shock (1d6 per blob HD; save for ½ damage)
6	Gaseous emission (1d4: 1 = charm, 2 = sleep, 3 = paralysis, 4 = death; Con-based save required)
7	Pseudopods (capable of melee attacks; 1 per 2 blob HD; 1d8 dam per 2 blob HD)
8	Spores (Con-based save or become infected, transform into new blob in 1d6 days)

Blob Color

Blobs come in a variety of colors.  Sometimes, these are thematically tied to their powers or native environment, but feel free to determine the blob’s color randomly.

1d10	Coloration
1	Black
2	Blue
3	Gray
4	Green
5	Purple
6	Shifting/Camouflaging (-4 to prey’s Search or Spot checks)
7	Translucent
8	Yellow
9	White
10	Multi-hued (roll 1d4 more times)

Blob “Armor”

Blobs are tough; even hurting them with their unique weakness is sometimes a tall order.  Use this table to determine a blob’s base armor rating.

1d4	Blob Base Armor Rating
1	As unarmored
2	As leather
3	As chain
4	As plate

Blob Base Movement

Not all blobs are ponderous masses of unrelenting jelly.  Some are terrifyingly quick when they need to be.  A blob never has to move at full speed, of course, and some are just cunning enough to try and trick their prey by moving slower than they are actually capable of.

1d6	Max Speed
1	Snail’s pace
2	¼ Human
3	½ Human
4	Full Human
5	2x Human
6	4x Human

Blob FX

Many blobs leave traces of themselves in areas through which they have passed.  This makes it easier to track them or detect their presence, should someone be foolhardy enough to try.

1d6	Blob trace
1	Distinct odor
2	“Eggs”: unhatched vessels contain 1 HD offspring; can be automatically hit
3	Gory leavings: bones, clothing, metal items, etc., from absorbed prey
4	Live Spawn: (1/2 blob’s HD)d6 ambulatory  buds from the mother mass
5	Local mutations: ecology is twisted by blob’s presence; double chances of random monsters
6	Slime trail