Oozy Goodness Part IV: Green Slime

Green slime is almost more of a trap than a monster per se.  It's gross and dangerous and PCs hate encountering it, but is it a "monster"? It's hard to say, I suppose. Anyway, let's get on with it, shall we?

Green Slime (from Moldvay)

AC: Can always be hit
HD: 2*
Move: 3 (1')
Att: 1
Damage: special
No. App: 1 (0)
Save: F1
Morale:12
Treasure: Nil
AL: N

What jumps out from the stat block is its lack of AC. You literally can't miss this thing. The trick is most attacks don't harm it. Only fire or cold can affect it. It is barely  mobile, so outrunning it isn't the problem. The problem is the slime's nasty tendency to drip onto people and turn them into slime themselves.

Green slime turns flesh into slime. It can completely "melt" a PC in as little as 7 rounds. There is no save vs. the slime. If it hits, it starts dissolving you. The really annoying part of the process is that there are only three ways to get the slime off the victim: Cold, Fire, or a Cure Disease spell. If you aren't lucky enough to have a cleric on hand with the appropriate spell prepared, then you're left with either trying to freeze or burn the slime off. By the book, the only cold attacks in BX are things like white dragons or frost salamanders, or a Wand of Cold, so the most likely scenario is to use good old reliable fire!

Now hold still!

The catch, of course, is that burning off slime also burns the victim. (1/2 the damage each). 

All this adds up to two things:

1. I tend to think of green slime as a hazard, not a creature.
2. I need to use it in dungeons WAY more often! (evil laugh)