Plasmoid
by Prince Phantom
For all of you who want your D&D character to mirror how you feel when you wake up each morning, here’s the Plasmoid! I’m a big fan of this one conceptually and mechanically, as both are very unique. There’s only one way to play as an ooze, and we get tons of interesting features to flesh out that fantasy. Plasmoids might not be the strongest, but I believe that they put up a pretty good fight for a puddle of water.
Plasmoid Features
Creature Type: Ooze: Now isn’t that a fun line of text! We’re an Ooze! That comes with some mechanical implications, but not nearly as much as being a Fey or Construct would. Obviously, as with all non-humanoid races, we are immune to spells and effects that only target humanoids like Hold Person. Being an Ooze also doesn’t have as many drawbacks as being a Fey, and especially not as many as being a Construct. We can’t be permanently banished or effected by spells like Protection from Evil and Good like most Fey can, and healing spells work on us just fine. We do have disadvantage versus the Sunbeam spell of all things, but when was the last time your character was targeted by that spell in play?
Darkvision: Always nice to have, though I wish this race relied on blindsight like all other Oozes do. Could have been cool, as there are definitely advantages and disadvantages to relying solely on blindsight.
Hold Breath: 1 hour of underwater exploration will usually suffice, and Water Breathing is there for you when it won’t.
Amorphous: It’s difficult to make use of this, as to squeeze through the smallest of openings we must be naked and unarmed, leaving us vulnerable. I personally rule that you can squeeze through any opening that is bigger than whatever you are wearing or carrying, as that opens this up to more characters and builds for use. As is, Monks don’t really need anything on them to function, and as long as spellcasters stick to spells that don’t require a material component, they can also function just fine.
Natural Resilience: Two damage resistances is nuts for a race, even if one of them is Acid. That’s because getting Poison resistance is that big of a deal, and we get advantage versus the poisoned condition. Acid won’t come up often, but Poison is everywhere, making this a fantastic defensive ability.
Shape Self: This is the big feature that intends to fulfill the fantasy of being a pile of goop. We can swap between a humanoid shape and the aforementioned goop pile, wear armor and wield weapons in our humanoid form, and extend a special pseudopod as either. I want to dive into this pseudopod a bit more. The description gives some examples as to what this extra appendage can do, like open or close a door or container, manipulate an object, or hold a tiny object. It can’t hold an object weighing more than 10 pounds, same as a Mage Hand, but this actually leaves us with a lot of ambiguity as to what this pseudopod can do. By RAW, it should be able to hold a shield, which is an absolutely massive deal for characters that want to hold a two handed weapon, or even bow and crossbow users, effectively granting those builds +2 AC. This could also be used by a spellcaster to hold their focus if their other hands are free. Magic items are a great thing to hold in this pseudopod, as while it can’t activate magic items, there are a ton of magic items that grant passive bonuses when you are holding them. Exactly how to best use this pseudopod will come down to your specific build and maybe even what magic items you have, but I feel that a lot of characters could benefit greatly from an extra helping hand. I do also have to mention that this feature does not actually limit us to one pseudopod at a time. Yep, read it as many times as you want, you’ll never find the standard “using this feature again while it’s still active replaces the old instance of it” clause that almost all features like this have. This was certainly an oversight and another example of the Spelljammer books being rushed, but by RAW, you can have an infinite number of pseudopods. Please don’t actually do this in a game.
The Plasmoid promises the fantasy of playing as an Ooze and delivers on the majority of that fantasy. Sure, I would have loved to see them commit just that little bit harder and force us to rely on blindsight, but understanding the book these were released in and the spaceship to spaceship combat that fills that setting, they probably didn’t want to hamstring this race in the same adventure they were printed in. Everything else about this race is exactly what I would want from an Ooze, and that extra pseudopod gives it the power it needs to actually be a viable option. We even used this race in our own Liquid Steel build for the Armorer Artificer, and the ability to hold a shield while also holding a two handed weapon was a big part of that build! I’ve always been a big fan of the Plasmoid, and look forward to playing more of them in the future.
Final Rating: 4/5
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