Sooze: Amicable Aberrations
Amicable Aberrations
A sooze is a sentient ooze, a living semi-solid gelatinous being that comes to life spontaneously in places of great magic. Such places are few and far between, and rarer still the opportunity for a young sooze to be found and socialized among civilized society. A sooze looks, more or less, like a human without its skin, its organs and skeletal structure variably visible and floating in a yellow-orange gel encased in a clear membrane that feels slightly oily to the touch. Curious, resilient, and mild-tempered, all soozes possess a limited kind of telepathy that lets them feel the feelings of other sentient beings and mimic their speech. Self-conscious of their visible organs and the unnerving effect their appearance can have on other humanoids, some soozes take an interest in fashion and take to wearing elaborate costumes that conceal most or all of their form. Such clothing usually has to be specially treated to resist the mild acidity of the oil that a sooze secretes through its membrane. Soozes usually seek harmony with other beings and thrive in communities where they can have a useful role. They can also be quick to seek training and take up arms against forces that would threaten that harmony, and this motivation and desire to serve the greater good often motivates them to become guards or adventurers.Features
Ability Score Increase. You are physically resilient and sensitive to the emotions of other beings. Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Charisma increases by 1. Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. Age. Soozes seem to spawn fully mature, physically, but their forms and intellect very slowly degrade over the course of about fifty years. Fifty years from their first spawning day, they completely lose their intellect and their humanoid form, collapsing into a gelatinous ball called a sooze jelly. A sooze jelly is a docile orange ooze with doglike intelligence and temperament that can live up to another century. Alignment. Soozes usually seek harmony with other beings and tend to be neutral good. Size. Your size is Medium, your height and weight about equal to that of a human. Minus the weight of the skin, which is surprisingly heavy. Acid Resistance. You have resistance to acid damage. Mindsense. You sense the existence of creatures within 10’ of you if they have an intelligence score of 1 or higher, although they still gain the benefits of invisibility, cover, and light or heavy obscurement against you. As an action, you can learn the superficial emotional state of a creature if they're within 10' of you. This doesn't give you any information about their thoughts, only whether they are scared, angry, sad, etc. Psychic Empathy. You gain proficiency with the Insight skill and can grant yourself advantage on an ability check that uses the Insight skill. If you do, you cannot do so again until you finish a short or long rest. Psychedelic Secretion. A creature that licks your oily membrane feels a pleasant tingle and gains resistance to Psychic damage until they finish a short or long rest. Additionally, while they have resistance to Psychic damage this way, when they make an ability check or saving throw, they can roll 1d4 and add the result to the total. If they do so, they no longer have resistance to Psychic damage. You can grant this benefit once, and can do so again after finishing a short or long rest. Languages. Most Soozes are taught or learn common. Additionally, while within 10' of a creature that speaks a language other than common, a Sooze can learn a language that creature speaks if the Sooze hears them speak it. A Sooze can only know one such language at a time. Names. Soozes accept whatever name is given to them at first, but when given the chance to name themselves, they usually choose monosyllabic names that sound squishy. Examples include Bip, Gliz, Glah, Aggle, Oggle, Ulmul, Ooj, and Soozy. Update Notes 10/26/21: Edited for readability. Also changed Mindsense to require an action to read emotional state of a creature and clarified the intention of the feature.
