Black pudding (Dungeons & Dragons)

Infobox D&D creature
name=Black pudding
alignment=None
type=Ooze
subtype=
source=
first=Dungeons and Dragons Set (1974)

In the "Dungeons & Dragons" fantasy role-playing game, the black pudding is fictional creature of the ooze family. It resembles a bubbling, heaped pile of thick, black, pudding-like goo, roughly fifteen feet across and two feet thick.

Characteristics and habits

Like most Oozes, the black pudding is a mindless, underground-dwelling scavenger which drags itself around caves and sewers and absorbs and digests whatever it finds. It attacks by grabbing, grappling and constricting prey, and then inserting it directly into its liquid mass. It also secretes a deadly acidic substance which quickly dissolves weapons, clothing and organic tissue alike.

When struck by a slashing or piercing weapon, instead of taking damage, the black pudding splits into two smaller puddings. These also split into smaller black puddings when struck, and this continues until they are too small and weak to do so further.

Like most oozes, puddings are mindless and thus neutral in alignment.

Elder black puddings

Black puddings get bigger as they eat and age. The oldest black puddings can become hundreds of feet in diameter, and have several times the attack strength and hit points of a regular black pudding, with greater spitting and acid secretion abilities.

Other puddings

Other types of deadly pudding creatures in Dungeons and Dragons include the white, dun, and brown puddings. The only significant variation between black puddings and these other types is the terrain they usually inhabit: black puddings live underground, white puddings live on Arctic plains, dun puddings live in arid deserts, and brown puddings live in marshes.

References

*Dungeons & Dragons set (1974)
*D&D Basic Set (1977)
*D&D Expert Set (1981)
*D&D Expert Set (1983)
*MC1 - Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989)
*Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991)
*Monstrous Manual (1993)
*Richards, Johnathan M. "The Ecology of the Black Pudding." "Dragon" #219 (TSR, 1995).
*Monster Manual (2000)