Slaadi
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(from D&D 5th edition Monster Manual - 2014 - [credits])
In the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo, bits of forest and meadow, ruined castles, and isolated islands drift through a tumult of fire, water, earth, and wind. The foremost inhabitants of this inhospitable plane are the toad-like slaadi. Slaadi are undisciplined and have no formal hierarchy, although weaker slaadi obey stronger ones under threat of annihilation.
The Spawning Stone. Long ago, Primus, overlord of the modrons, created a gigantic, geometrically complex stone imbued with the power of law. He then cast it adrift in Limbo, believing that the stone would bring order to the chaos of that plane and halt the spread of chaos to other planes. As the stone’s power grew, it became possible for creatures with ordered minds, such as modrons and githzerai, to create enclaves in Limbo. However, Primus’s creation had an unforeseen side effect: the chaotic energy absorbed by the stone spawned the horrors that came to be known as slaadi. Sages refer to Primus’s massive creation as the Spawning Stone for this reason.
The slaadi wiped out every last modron enclave in Limbo. As creatures of utter chaos, slaadi loathe modrons and attack them on sight. Nonetheless, Primus stands by his creation and either doesn’t perceive the slaadi as threats or chooses to ignore them.
Birth and Transformation. Slaadi have horrific cycles of reproduction. Slaadi reproduce either by implanting humanoid hosts with eggs or by infecting them with a transformative disease called chaos phage. Each color of slaad reproduces or transforms in a different way, with red slaadi spawning blue and green slaadi, and blue slaadi spawning red and green. Each green slaad undergoes a lifelong cycle of transformation into the more powerful gray and death slaadi. With each transformation, the slaad retains its memories.
Shapechangers. Some slaadi can transform into the humanoid creatures from which they were originally spawned. These slaadi return to the Material Plane to sow discord in the guise of their former selves.
VARIANT: SLAAD CONTROL GEMS
As a slaad emerges from the Spawning Stone, the stone magically implants a fragment of itself in the slaad’s brain. This fragment takes the form of a magic gem roughly the size and shape of a human child’s fist. The gem is the same color as the slaad. Another creature can use magic to draw forth a slaad’s gem and use it to subjugate the slaad. The slaad must obey whoever possesses its gem. If a slaad’s gem is destroyed, the slaad can no longer be controlled in this way.
A slaad born from something other than the Spawning Stone has no gem in its brain, but it gains one if it ever comes into contact with the Spawning Stone. Slaadi on Limbo are attracted to the Spawning Stone, so most end up with a gem. A slaad with a control gem in its brain has the following additional trait.
Control Gem. Implanted in the slaad’s brain is a magic control gem. The slaad must obey whoever possesses the gem and is immune to being charmed while so controlled.
Certain spells can be used to acquire the gem. If the slaad fails its saving throw against imprisonment, the spell can transfer the gem to the spellcaster’s open hand, instead of imprisoning the slaad. A wish spell, if cast in the slaad’s presence, can be worded to acquire the gem.
A greater restoration spell cast on the slaad destroys the gem without harming the slaad.
Someone who is proficient in Wisdom (medicine) can remove the gem from an incapacitated slaad. Each try requires 1 minute of uninterrupted work and a successful DC 20 Wisdom (medicine) check. Each failed attempt deals 22 (4d10) psychic damage to the slaad.
(from Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II- 1995 - [credits])
The slaadi are bipedal frog-like beings who dwell on the Outer Plane of Limbo. They scavenge battlefields of the Blood War, feeding on the dead and using the wounded as instruments in their reproductive cycle. Slaadi seek to change the established order on all planes to bring themselves power, but they lack the will to mobilize armies or become involved in the intrigues of other fiends. Therefore the powerful varieties of slaad pursue their own agendas, using less powerful types as their thugs and agents.
Slaad heads are huge and their claws extremely sharp. A symbol of power is embedded in the forehead. Nonmagical tattoos on a slaad’s forehead signify past achievements (kills, conquests, duels) and current status. The more powerful slaadi have polymorph self abilities and can appear as humans or demihumans (see helow).
Slaadi speak their own language. Limited - telepathy allows them to understand and converse with all things.
Slaadi observe an informal and pragmatic hierarchy, not because they respect regulation, but rather because strong rulers destroy disobedient underlings.
Although the slaadi inhabit the Outer Planes and travel the Lower Planes, they do not usually fight in the Blood war between the baatezu and the tanar'ri. (Some gray slaadi have traded intelligence to both sides in return for powerful magical items.) However, slaadi scavenge the battlefields of the fallen, feeding on carrion and removing wounded victims to their nightmarish temporary prison camps. After using the victims to gestate a new generation, thew slaadi who organized the camp separate and move on, following rumors of new battles.
RED SLAAD:
Red slaadi are vicious combatants that quickly attack other creatures. Ruthless in numbers, they surround, torment, and slaughter smaller groups. Red slaadi wear loincloths and have few forehead tattoos, denoting low status.
Both red and blue slaadi are surly brutes that despise one another, yet their complex reproductive cycle intertwines them as mutual progenitors.
Combat: Red slaadi attack with two claws (ld4 damage each) and bite (2d8 damage). They choose predictable, uninspired tactics, and are not terribly intelligent.
Once per day, red slaadi can stun by emitting a loud croak that affects all opponents within 20‘ (save vs. petrification or stunned for two rounds). Red slaadi regenerate 2 hp per round. They can attempt to gate in 1-2 additional red slaadi twice per day with a 40% chance of success.
Red slaadi have a gland under each claw that, when it hits an opponent, may (25% chance) imperceptibly inject an egg-pellet into the opponent’s body. The slaad can also inject the pellet at will into an unconscious opponent. The egg-pellet slowly moves through the unwitting victim’s body until it reaches the chest cavity. There the pellet gestates for three months, forming a baby blue slaad that, once formed, eats its way out of the victim’s body, killing it. the victim falls extremely ill 24 hours before the baby slaad eats its way out. The blue slaad, feeding on carrion, grows to self-sufficiency in a few years.
An egg-pellet can be detected by detect evil. Egg or baby slaad can be destroyed by remove curse or similar magic. To prevent this, the slaadi confine victims in temporary prison camps erected near the battlefield.
BLUE SLAAD:
Blue slaadi are ruthless warriors that specialize in mass combat. Two long, sharp bone rakes protrude from the back of each hand. They are more lithe and limber than red slaadi and have more elongated snouts. They share the reds vicious temper and bullying manner, and they too wear loincloths.
Combat: The blue slaad fighting style allows them two attacks with each of the razor-sharp bone rakes on each hand (2d6 damage per rake). Thus they have four rake attacks per round, as well as a bite (2d8 damage and 10% chance of infecting the opponent with a rotting disease (like a mummy; see the Monstrous Manual).
Blue slaadi have the following spell-like abilities, usable one at a time, one per round, at will: hold person (one person only), passwall and telekinesis. Twice a day they can attempt to gate in either 1-2 blue slaadi or 1 green slaad, with a 40% chance of success on each attempt.
Blue slaadi can infect wounded and unconscious opponents with a disease similar to lycanthropy. This infection transforms a humanoid victim, over three months’ time, into a red slaad; non-humanoid victims die. The disease is undetectable in the first month except by detect evil or other magic, but its effects become obvious thereafter. Cure disease and other powerful healing magic cures and reverses the infection. To prevent this, slaadi maintain victims as prisoners in temporary camps, along with those infected by red slaadi egg-pellets.
The rivalry between blue and red slaadi is no less real for their interrelationship. Driven by instinctual urges, each type unwillingly spawns the rival color, but after the spawning, each slaad takes no more interest in its creation. Instead they nurture the rival variety’s victims to successful “birth” of a new offspring.
GREEN SLAAD:
Whether as a host for a reds egg-pellet or as a blue’s disease victim, a powerful human or demihuman host (such as a high-level adventurer) sometimes spawns a baby green slaad instead of a red or blue. This is an auspicious occasion, and both red and blue slaadi nurture the young green carefully. At maturity (10- 12 years), green slaadi have somewhat higher foreheads than reds or blues, typically with several tattoos. In their century-long careers they acquire many forehead tattoos.
Green slaadi are defensive about weaknesses and self-aggrandizing in triumph. Tremendous braggarts, they sometimes pause even during combat to gloat over opponents.
Combat: Green slaadi attack with two claws (ld6+2 damage) and bite (2d8 damage). They prefer to use their innate powers or gate in other slaadi for combat, but they fight viciously if pressed. A green slaad can polymorph at will into a duplicate of the human or demihuman host that spawned it.
Green slaadi as a group have demonstrated the following spell-like powers, usable one at a time, one per round, at will: darkness, 15’ radius, delayed blast fireball (once per day), detect invisibility, detect magic, ESP, fear, locate object, produce flame, and telekinesis. No individual green slaad has shown all of these powers.
Twice a day, with a 50% chance of success, they can attempt to gate in 1-6 red slaadi, 1-4 blue slaadi, 1-2 green slaadi, or 1 gray slaad. Green slaadi are harmed only by +1 or better weapons.
GRAY SLAAD:
A green slaad that lives to advanced age (a century or so) sometimes withdraws into wilderness isolation. Most are never seen again, but after a year or more some slaadi return to their fellows as gray slaadi. Uninterested in lesser slaadi, grays become fascinated by power and magic, apparently seeking the near- immortality of the most powerful slaadi, the death slaadi (see below).
Combat: Gray slaadi attack with two claws (2d4+2 damage each) and bite (2d8 damage). They can shapechange into the form of the original host, in which they often wield a magical weapon (referee’s choice). Gray slaadi are hit only by +1 or better weapons.
Gray slaadi as a group have demonstrated the following spell-like powers, usable one at a time, one per round, at will: advanced illusion, darkness, 15’ radius, fear, flame strike, infravision, invisibility, know alignment, lightning bolt, power word blind (once per day), symbol (pain, once per day), and wind walk. No individuai gray slaad has demonstrated all these powers. Twice a day gray slaadi can attempt to gate in 1-4 more grays with a 60% chance of success. Some can enchant an item given sufficient time and materials.
DEATH SLAAD:
The greatest of their kind, these few powerful slaadi have achieved near-immortal longevity through evil ceremonies. Most of the half-dozen known death slaadi work to propagate their race, marshalling mobs of red and blue slaadi to invade small villages on the Lower Planes. They imprison the population as hosts and incubate a new generation of slaadi.
Death slaadi can communicate with all creatures through telepathy.
Combat: The death slaad attacks with two claws (3d6 damage and Constitution check or stunned for 1-6 rounds) and bite (2d10 damage). Like green and gray slaadi, a death slaad can shapechange into a duplicate of its original host, usually a powerful human. In this form it attacks twicc per round, has at least 12 Charisma, and retains its great Strength (18/01, +3 damage adjustment). Only +2 or better weapons can harm a death slaad.
Collectively, death slaadi have been observed to use the following spell-like powers, usable one at a time, one per round, at will: advanced illusion, astral spell, cloudkill, darkness, 15' radius, detect magic, detect invisibility, ESP, fear, fireball (once per day), flame strike, invisibility, locate object, phantasmal killer (once per day), symbol (any, once per day), unholy word (once per day), and wind walk. No individual death slaad has demonstrated all these powers.
Once per turn a death slaad can gate in 1-8 of any type of slaad except other death slaadi. This gate always succeeds. They can enchant an item if given time and equipment.
(from D&D 3.5e Monster Manual - 2003 - [credits])
The chaotic planes seethe and roil with random energy and bits of matter. Weaving their way amid this cacophony of light and sound are the slaadi.
Creatures of chaos, slaadi have been likened to humanoid toads, but that description belies their agility and fearsome fighting prowess.
All slaadi speak their own language, Slaad. Green, gray, and death slaadi also speak Common, and in addition death slaadi can communicate telepathically.
Combat: Slaadi generally attack with their claws and bite. They relish melee combat but are savvy enough to use their summoning and other spell-like abilities to good effect. A slaad’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as chaotic-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
All slaadi have resistance to acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5, and fire 5, and immunity to sonic damage.
Summon Slaad (Sp): Slaadi can summon other slaadi much as though casting a summon monster spell, but they have only a limited chance of success. Roll d%: On a failure, no slaadi answer the summons. Summoned creatures automatically return whence they came after 1 hour. A slaad that has just been summoned cannot use its own summon ability for 1 hour.
Most slaadi do not use this ability lightly, since they are generally distrustful and fearful of one another. In general, they use it only when necessary to save their own lives.
Slaadi Characters: Slaadi rarely have the focus to devote themselves to a character class. Grays sometimes become sorcerers, and the most powerful death slaadi train as rogues to take the assassin class.
(from D&D Epic Level Handbook - 2002 - [credits])
Slaadi are well-known representatives of planes of unstable form and energy, though the more powerful white and black slaadi are less recognized.
Like their lesser cousins, white and black slaadi are creatures of chaos, and somewhat resemble humanoid toads of terrible aspect. Some black and white slaadi have variant physical features (see Variant Slaadi in the Monster Manual).
All slaadi speak their own language, Slaad. White and black slaadi also speak Abyssal, Common, Celestial, and Infernal, and in addition can communicate telepathically.
COMBAT:
Slaadi generally attack with their claws and bite. They relish melee combat but are savvy enough to use their summoning and other spell-like abilities to good effect.
Blood of Chaos (Ex): Black and white slaadi are more in tune with the true principle of chaos than their lesser cousins. As such, black and white slaadi can summon forth the force of chaos to degrade and destroy that which they bite, spit upon, or touch. The chaos, once released, burns all substances almost like acid. Even creatures protected against chaos, such as by a magic circle against chaos spell, take half damage.
Resistances (Ex): Black and white slaadi have acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic resistance 20. Black and white slaadi are also immune to their own chaos attacks.
Summon Slaad (Sp): Slaadi can summon other slaadi much as though casting a summon monster spell, but they have only a chance of success each time they try. Roll d% and refer to the chance of success given in the particular slaad’s description. On a failure, no slaadi answer the summons. Summoned creatures automatically return whence they came after 1 hour. A slaad that has just been summoned cannot use its own summon ability for 1 hour.
WHITE SLAAD:
A death slaad (see the Monster Manual) that survives for more than a century retreats into isolation for at least a year. It returns as a larger, stronger form of slaad—the white—and devotes most of its time and attention to the study of yet more lethal art. A white slaad is as pale as snow, seeming to glow in even the dimmest light.
Combat: A white slaad may wield a magic weapon if it can find one of sufficient power to compete with its fearsome natural abilities.
Stun (Ex): A white slaad can make an attacks as though it had the Stunning Fist feat (see Chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook) nine times per day. The Fortitude save DC is 30.
Chaos Bite (Ex): On a successful bite attack, the slaad deals an additional 8d4 points of chaotic damage. Unless the chaos infecting the wound is somehow neutralized, it deals another 4d4 points of chaotic damage every subsequent round for 9 rounds.
Chaos Spittle (Ex): A white slaad can spit a glob of chaos at any target it can see within 60 feet as a ranged touch attack. The chaos deals 10d4 points of chaotic damage (no splash damage). Unless the chaos is somehow neutralized, the glob deals another 5d4 points of chaotic damage every subsequent round for 9 rounds.
Weaponbreaker (Ex): When a white slaad uses its Sunder feat, it rolls damage twice and takes the higher of the two rolls as the roll to break the weapon.
Spell-Like Abilities: At will—animate objects, circle of death, chaos hammer, cloak of chaos, deeper darkness, dispel law, fear, finger of death, fireball, fly, greater dispelling, identify, improved invisibility, magic circle against law, plane shift, power word blind, power word kill, see invisibility, shatter, teleport without error, word of chaos; 1/day— implosion, peripety, ruin (see Chapter 2). Caster level 21st; save DC 18 +spell level.
Alternate Form (Su): A white slaad can shift between its natural form and any humanoid form at will as a standard action. A white slaad can remain in humanoid form indefinitely. The ability is otherwise similar to alter self cast by a 21st-level caster.
Summon Slaad (Sp): Three times per day a white slaad can attempt to summon 2–4 gray slaadi (01–20 fails, 21–100 succeeds), or 1–2 death slaadi (01–60 fails, 61–100 succeeds).
Telepathy (Su): White slaadi can communicate telepathically with any creature within 100 feet that has a language.
BLACK SLAAD:
A white slaad that survives for more than a century retreats into isolation for at least a year. It returns as a larger, stronger form of slaad—the black. The power of a black slaad eclipses that of some abominations and many of the oldest wyrms. A black slaad is a blot of darkness, a toad-shaped-void from which only two evil stars of its eyes gleam.
Combat: A black slaad fights in deeper darkness, because it can see in such conditions while most other creatures can not. The black slaad has a 15-footlong prehensile tongue split into equal lengths, allowing it to make four melee touch attacks per round. It always uses its true seeing ability to see past an opponent’s use of invisibility, blur and displacement, or similar ruses.
Stun (Ex): A black slaad can make an attack as if it had the Stunning Fist feat (see Chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook) eleven times per day. The Fortitude save DC is 34. The black slaad can stun with its tongues as well as its claws.
Chaos Touch (Ex): On a successful tongue melee attack, the slaad deals 10d4 points of chaotic damage. Unless the chaos infecting the wound is somehow neutralized, it deals another 5d4 points of chaotic damage every subsequent round for 11 rounds.
Chaos Spittle (Ex): A black slaad can spit a glob of chaos at any target it can see within 120 feet as a ranged touch attack. The chaos deals 20d4 points of chaos damage (no splash damage). Unless the chaos is somehow neutralized, the glob deals another 10d4 points of damage every subsequent round for 11 rounds.
Weaponbreaker (Ex): When a black slaad uses its Sunder feat, it rolls damage twice and takes the higher of the two rolls as the roll to break the weapon.
Spell-Like Abilities: At will—animate objects, circle of death, chaos hammer, cloak of chaos, death knell, deeper darkness, dispel law, fear, finger of death, fireball, fly, greater dispelling, identify, improved invisibility, lightning bolt, magic circle against law, plane shift, power word blind, power word kill, protection from law, see invisibility, shatter, teleport without error, word of chaos; 1/day—implosion, peripety, ruin, spell worm (see Chapter 2). Caster level 25th; save DC 20 + spell level.
Alternate Form (Su): A black slaad can shift between its natural and any humanoid form at will as a standard action. A black slaad can remain in humanoid form indefinitely. The ability is otherwise similar to alter self cast by a 21st-level caster.
Summon Slaad (Sp): Three times per day a black slaad can attempt to summon 2–4 death slaadi (01–20 fails, 21–100 succeeds), or 1–2 white slaadi (01–60 fails, 61–100 succeeds). Telepathy (Su): Black slaadi can communicate telepathically with any creature within 100 feet that has a language.
(from Planescape Planes of Chaos - 1995 - [credits])
Others have written about the skin colors of the various slaadi, their combat abilities, and the like. And they've mentioned the slaadi's strict hierarchal society, in which the strongest rule those weaker with a cruelty that is all the more terrible for its casualness and lack of passion. But slaadi society and psychology certainly bear more discussion.
For most humans, it may be easiest to compare the slaadi to barbarian nomads. The creatures have loyalty to nothing but their own kind, and have respect for no other culture.
They seem to view all other creatures as beasts to be used as the slaadi see fit. Slaadi cannot be reasoned with, or bargained with; they cannot be bought off with tribute nor appealed to for mercy. Like the Fated, they consider themselves to own whatever they can take. In part, this is because of their physical relationship with the plane of limbo. The slaadi are all innate anarchs. They are perfectly at home in the raw chaos of Limbo's primal matter. But while all of them can breathe and move in that chaos, virtually none of them can sustain it in stable form without concentrating. On the other hand, they don't really need much for survival, basically just food - in their case, meat (the slaadi are entirely carnivorous). And they're such great hunters and fighters that they can catch whatever food they need among Limbo's native animals.
This has led the slaadi to develop as creatures that have no real need for possessions and that respect only individual strength. Some souls have characterized them as basically giant, carnivorous frogs that just happen to be able to talk - and that description is fairly apt. But the slaadi fight for two reasons. The first is for food; the second is to prove who's the toughest. The creatures are so wrapped up in this reverence of individual strength that it leads to some odd behavior on their part - at least as far as most humans would judge.
First, the slaadi see nothing wrong in a stronger member of their race forcing a weaker member to do its bidding. Weaker slaadi would never think of banding together to overthrow a bully, the way that humans do. Instead, they consider it the stronger slaadi's right to bully them.
Second, while slaadi typically run together in groups while hunting or raiding, they never actually cooperate in their combat. If four slaadi were facing one human warrior, for instance, they would take turns fighting that soul. Only if the first slaad were defeated would the next begin to fight, and so on. (Usually, though not always, the weakest of the slaadi is the first to fight, allowing the stronger ones to stand back and judge the opponent's mettle.) On the one hand, this means that one good fighter could conceivably hold off an entire horde of slaadi. Eventually, of course, the slaadi would come to revere that fighter's prowess and treat the cutter as their better (though they're likely to then go and an even tougher slaadi to come try the cutter's meddle). On the other hand, it means that the slaadi don't flee from weaker creatures, even if outnumbered. Even as they're being cut down, they continue to expect that their strength will win out in the end.
The lesson is, a basher who's expecting to be running into slaadi should either be certain that he's the toughest thing on two feet (or four hooves, for bariaur), or bring along lots and lots of friends.