Oblex Player Race

by Glacirus

Search GM Binder Visit User Profile

Player Race Option

Oblex

"It's a fascinating specimen to be sure, but are you positive it's safe?" A human stands over the shoulder of a gnome wizard as the smaller man prods at the skeletal remains within the ooze creature before them. With stimulation, the slime body rises, its surface contorting to take the appearance of the poor soul whose remains lay inside it. Offering its hand to the worried human it speaks, "It's perfectly safe. But you're going to need further convincing. That's what her memories tell me."

-Account of Gordon Softwhistle


Oozes and slimes are beyond a doubt simultaneously the most and least dangerous threats to adventurers in the world. Among their ranks are the oblex, an especially twisted and perverse specimen borne of the experimentation of illithids, necromancers, and other practitioners of questionable magics and morals. However, as corrupt as their origins are, there are rare cases in which an oblex's instincts as a slime are overcome by the memories of those it has drained and consumed. In these odd cases, the oblex does what it can to insert itself into civilization, balancing itself between the memories it has, and the knowledge that it is not that same person.

An Origin of Experiments

History is unclear on the exact origins of the first oblex. What is accepted as the best theory is that illithids close to the surface of the Underdark captured stray oozes from ruins and dungeons that caves and tunnels had broken into, and proceeded to experiment upon them the same ways they did on humanoid races. The result was a craftier ooze that could steal the memories of its victims, and replicate their appearances in a limited capacity from that information. The rare non-hostile oblex that have been asked of their origin profess similar levels of uncertainty, stating that they have divided from their original so many times that any information linking back to it has been lost.

This mystery, and the nature of their ability to take a humanoid form, leads to many folk to mistrust and outright fear even the professed peaceful oblex. But in having overcome their instinctual need to consume and absorb, civilized oblex yearn instead for the comforts of society, going to great lengths to earn the acceptance of others.

Memories Returned to Flesh

An oblex's form is borne from the numerous memories it has consumed before achieving higher sentience. Certain memories of its victims grow stronger than others, influencing its final appearance, but at its core an oblex always knows that it is not what it remembers. They take the appearance of a humanoid, but alter the features just slightly from the memories' sources, and maintain a slight transparency and slime like quality to some part of their body.

Oblex Names

Oblex have a hard time settling upon a name since they're made up of a multitude of memories. Some elect to forgo names entirely, but the majority understand that when interacting with other races, having something to be called is important. These names are often taken from the strongest memory they can summon, and always lack a surname of any sort. The nature of this selection process often leads to names that do not match the oblex's outward appearance, such as a male body referring to itself as Janice, or an elven figure calling itself a decidedly dwarven name.

Oblex Traits

Ooblex share certain racial traits as a result of their origins.

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and one other ability score of your choice increases by 1.

Tasha's ASI Rules

For those using the variant rules for character creation described in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and WotC's latest batch of UA articles, you can increase one ability score by 2 and a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1.

Age. Oblex mature quickly, but are incredibly long lived. They are considered matured by 10, and can live well beyond three centuries.

Alignment. While feral oblex tend toward evil, most sentient oblex land firmly in the middle of morality as Neutral alignments. Driven by their memories to return to society, the majority of oblex are also Lawful beings.

Size. Oblex are able to manipulate their bodies to change their appearance, but have a limit to how drastic a change they can make due to the skeletal remains within their ooze bodies. Depending on the source of the memories that they generate their appearance from, an Oblex can either be Small or Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Probe Memories. Oblex have a myriad of absorbed memories to refer to for information. You have proficiency in the History skill.

Malleable Extension. An oblex's body is not entirely solid, and can stretch and contract without detriment so long as their core skeletal figure remains intact. As an action, you may send out a strand of yourself up to 60 feet. This strand can pass through gaps as small as 1 inch and you are able to perceive through the end of it as you would from your main body as long as it remains connected to you. You can recall the strand as a bonus action on a subsequent turn.

Alter Visage. While an oblex's default appearance is based upon a single individual's memory that has grown the strongest, they still maintain their ability to tap into other memories and assume the appearance of others. Once per day you can use an action to morph your body's features to look like another person who's memories you have absorbed.

When you do so, you can change everything about your appearance besides your basic shape. If you are normally Medium size you can also shrink to Small size, or if you are normally Small size you can grow to Medium size for the duration of this transformation.

For example, you can alter your appearance from a human man with tan skin and short gray hair into a dwarf woman with dark skin and fiery red braids that brush the floor, or a gnome gentleman with pale skin and black hair, but anything quadrupedal.

When transforming in this way your clothes and equipment can be absorbed into your body, as some of your slime body alters itself to become suitable clothes for your new appearance.

This transformation lasts until you change back (no action required) or next begin a short or long rest. You regain use of this feature after completing a long rest.

Memory Consumption. While no longer driven by a need to do so, oblex still maintain their ability to drain the memories from other creatures. When you successfully hit a creature within five feet of you with a melee weapon or spell attack roll on your turn, you can deal an additional 1d4 psychic damage to the creature and drain memories from it.

When a creature has its memory drained in this way, they subtract 1d4 from all ability checks and attack rolls they make until they take a short or long rest, and you gain knowledge of the creature's surface thoughts at the time of consumption. Questions verbally directed at the target creature naturally shape the course of these thoughts.

If you use this feature on the same creature before the memory drain effect has worn off on them, you gain knowledge of the creature's deeper thoughts and they subtract an additional 1d4 from their ability checks and attack rolls for each time they are drained.

As you grow stronger, the damage dealt and drain inflicted onto creatures you drain memories from increases, becoming 1d6 at 5th level, 1d8 at 9th, 1d10 at 14th, and 1d12 at 18.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus and regain all expended uses after a short or long rest.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.

Detect Balance

ASI +2 = 8, ASI Choice +1 = 5, Languages = 2, Skill Prof. = 2, Malleable Form (Frequently useful) = 4, Memory Consumption (Powerful) = 4, Alter Visage (Lesser-Changeling Shapeshift) = 6, Speed 25 = -2

Total = 29.

Change Log

2.1

  • Added Tasha/UA ASI note.
  • Changed size from just Medium to Medium or Small
  • Renamed Malleable Form to Malleable Extension to differentiate from Alter Visage.
  • Reworded Alter Visage to allow for growing/shrinking between Small and Medium sizes.
 

This document was lovingly created using GM Binder.


If you would like to support the GM Binder developers, consider joining our Patreon community.