Summoning Ooze

A gelatinous creature slides toward you. Its body is nearly transparent except for a number of strangely glowing arcane symbols that seem to float within its protoplasm. The symbols seem to form a circle within the ooze, glowing and pulsing as it moves.

The result of a bizarre summoning ritual gone awry, a summoning ooze is the living embodiment of a summoning circle. Capable of summoning various creatures to do its bidding, a summoning ooze is never fought alone. It surrounds itself with summoned minions that defend it with their lives.

A summoning ooze looks like a translucent blob of protoplasm roughly 4 feet across. The runes of its absorbed summoning circle shift and flash within it, swirling together in a flash of golden arcane light to form a summoning circle whenever the ooze uses its summon monster ability.

A summoning ooze is typically motivated primarily by a need to hunt and reproduce. With its reasonable intelligence and an ability to produce whatever minions it might need for whatever purpose it can conceive, it can make a potent foe. Some summoning oozes set their sights on the subjugation of humanoid tribes, supplementing their summoned forces with real minions.

A summoning ooze grows until it reaches 10 Hit Dice, at which time it can split into two 5 HD oozes. Likewise, a summoning ooze with 15 HD can split into three 5 HD oozes or one 10 HD ooze and one 5 HD ooze. Some summoning oozes choose to split as soon as they reach one of these thresholds, while other oozes never split at all. Summoning oozes average 6 feet in diameter and 300 pounds in weight. They do not speak.

Combat

Summoning oozes are quite perceptive. They prefer to set up ambush situations rather than fight up-front battles. If they can, they position themselves up high away from a preferred battleground, summoning monsters each round down on their prey and only engaging in melee when absolutely necessary.

Acid (Ex): A summoning ooze secretes a natural acid through its protoplasmic membrane. Each of its natural attacks deals an extra 1d6 points of acid damage.

Summon Monster (Sp): Once per round as a standard action, a summoning ooze can summon a creature as the summon monster I spell (caster level 20th). The summoned creature remains for 20 rounds or until slain. A summoning ooze can summon a maximum of twice its Hit Dice in creatures per day.

For each additional 2 HD of a summoning ooze above 5, the summoning ooze’s summon monster ability improves by one spell level (to summon monster II at 7 HD, summon monster III at 9 HD, and so on, up to a maximum of summon monster VI at 15 HD). Each 2 HD gained also increases the summoning ooze’s Challenge Rating by 1 (instead of the normal +1 CR per 4 added HD for oozes). Due to the ooze’s Augment Summoning feat, its summoned creatures have a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength and Constitution for the duration of the ability’s effect.

Skills: Summoning oozes have a +4 racial bonus on Hide, Listen, and Move Silently checks. A summoning ooze has a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on a Climb check, even if rushed or threatened.

Source: Monster Manual III, page 169.