Dungeons and Dragons Lore : Slaad

[@ciarandoidge7660]

I had a Green Slaad masquerading as a princess transformed into a frog, bound inside a magic circle. Saying that all it needed was a kiss to return to it's normal form. The druid handed the slaad an unconscious party member in order to have them kiss them. The Slaad leaned forward and chomped down on the party member.

[@randyranderson690]

One thing I did to perplex my players was to have them investigate a town that had some people come up missing. There were tales of frog men carrying people off and the only protection they had was an aged wizard who couldn't solve their problem. In truth, the wizard was a grey slaad that would have one or two townsfolk go missing each month or two by gating other slaad to take them. The town would petition the nearby city first for guards and then later adventurers. The 'wizard then perform some chicanery and say that the missing people are in a pocket dimension (limbo) and send them there after giving them a stone of 'recall' which was a plain stone with a rune on it. When they got back the party went after him but he pulled off the lie that he is a little senile and must have forgotten to enchant them. In return, he gave them some minor magic items for their trouble and some actual enchanted stones of recall (to limbo). Which I am just waiting for them to use some day

[@sevenseven9496]

The original Fiend Folio is actually very dear to my heart. It was either the first or the second D&D book that I ever owned.The other one was the original Manual of the Planes! So, yeah, I was a planeswalker, D&D-style, from a very very early age. I'm 42 years old now, so. Thankfully, I had VERY liberal parents, who were just thrilled that I was interested in books, at all. The fact that the books I liked were filled with all of these very weird and horrific creatures..... Well, now. It's good for the old creativity, isn't it. And, I'm still role-playing, to this day!

[@rickychapman3377]

this has inspird me to do a game with Slaad fighting Mind Flayers over pepole to uesd for reporduction

[@whiteknightcat]

I just came here for the sole purpose of saying the supreme leader of all slaads should be declared Caesar Slaad.

[@garytrent9693]

I looked at your monster ecology list and saw lots of undead, but no Vampires?! Im sure i am wrong, but if you have not would love to see a "true" account of how it began, ...etc. and where it is today. And AJ, if you could possibly discuss the Merrow. A forgotten monster and i am sure, are not only connected some how, but i swear to the gods , I have seen an aquatic Vampire! Also, greatly loved the video of Depression. Am a veteran that suffers with PTSD and various debilitating symptoms, or simply stated Pain. Using this hobby is a great way of not only giving me something to keep my mind busy, (and off of the pain) but has brought me friends and fellow DMs to keep my life worth dreaming. And a Dream worth keeping. I look forward to your Ecology lesson Professor AJ. Love ya Man \oo/ T.Rust Monster

[@AJPickett]

+Gary Trent Thanks Gary, yes, the Vampire is a classic monster I am yet to cover... its up there with dragons for how much material there is to cover, but.. no sparkles, I promise!

[@WoM]

Cool, nice timing AJ!

[@jima6545]

Slaadi...so very dangerous for a party focused on good vs evil

[@SirShawn-qb2fk]

I was watching stranger things and I realized the "mind flayer" in it looked more like a slaad so I looked at the death slaad and the "mind flayer" had more abilities akin to to the death slaad.

[@AJPickett]

Wait for my video on Deepspawn.

[@clayblunt693]

You’re content has helped me enrich my campaigns 10x I’d love to see what your campaigns are like

[@HoundofOdin]

My group has been tormented at random by a Slaad for a few weeks now. They wouldn't tell it what flavor the elbows of dreams are, and now it has a grudge against them. Why did it want to know that? I have no idea. Slaadi are beings of pure Chaos. Even they might not know what it is they want or why they want it.

[@tomkerruish2982]

They taste like a mixture of purple and itchy.

[@merrickmiller1224]

Nice video, has helped inspire me to work on one of my characters who was on the backburner. A 5e Chaos Sorceror, Green Dragonborn from Limbo whos been warped by that plane and looks more like a Green Slaad then a Dragonborn.

[@JanusHoW]

There's quite at least three slaads that appear in published D&D campaigns that players can potentially make into allies via possessing their control gem. In _Tomb of Annihilation_ , one of the villain's principal minions stores the control gem of a gray slaad trapped in a salt pentagram in one of the nearby rooms in his desk drawer. Defeating this minion and procuring the gem allows the PCs to control the slaad. In _Out of the Abyss_ , a machine known as the Maze Engine, when activated, starts going out of control and cause a random effect on its turns - one of which is summoning a green slaad that attacks all other creatures. If the characters can subdue the slaad and remove its control gem, it can become their ally. One of the characters' potential NPC allies in the same campaign also has a pet death slaad, but this potential ally is the drow archmage Vizeran DeVir, the creator of the four elemental weapons that are the catalyst for the _Princes of the Apocalypse_ campaign. He keeps the death slaad's control gem on his person at all times, so seizing it will be next to impossible.

[@larkohiya]

Dungeon of the mad mage has a slaad control gem and a slaad searching for it. My players found the gem. The salad found them while in the guise of a human. It's trying to get the gem back in a round about way without them figuring out what it really does.

[@JanusHoW]

@@larkohiya Did they ever figure it out?

[@trentonmaloney3280]

almost demons but of their own kind, neat addition to any campaign of a level to accept them.lots of different versions in later books.finished the wire armature for my demogorgon. going to use your multi bake technique and try to come up with something better.

[@AJPickett]

+trenton maloney Looking forward to seeing it Trenton!

[@defshepard7490]

I didn’t notice until now that the thumbnail is from the horror movie The Brain. Awesome reference Mr. Pickett.

[@RedPenDragon3]

My BBE has what is essentially an Infiniti Gauntlet that let's him slot in Slaadi control gems and gives him total control of them.

[@zmishiymishi5349]

One of "this times" i was playing green slaad DRUID. If i knew they leave Limbo as part of their life cycle, i wouldn't had to stretch my backstory so much. With a board, pointer and stuff...

[@That80sGuy1972]

Limbo borne race Slaadi, not very chaotic... the plane of chaos. They are more like agents of order in the plane of chaos. They have driven instincts the abide by, not survival traits of offspring for chaotic parents that abandon them at birth, should they choose to. AJ, you know where I'm going with this relative to my comment on Orcus. The Slaadi are also slaves to order in the hierarchy. Order does eventually come from chaos, that is known... but this race evolved from Limbo, the plane of chaos. I say, there should be gating in other Slaadi for all Slaads. The gate should gate should have a table for rolling what kind of Slaadi is called, even hostile race Slaadi. I say there should also be a table of CUSTOM Slaadi every DM creates to gate in or encounter, as Limbo is a place of chaos where denizens are desperately trying to forge order from it... Slaadi are native to it, relatively speaking. Also, DM's using Slaadi should be encouraged to slide the difficulty and mix up abilities up and down and all around because Slaadi are Limbo natives. I'm not saying put Slaadi in a blender and put it on HIGH. I'm saying, keep the players, especially veteran players, guessing. Limbo spawn are chaos spawn.

[@AJPickett]

I tend to agree, before the stone of order was placed there by Primus to stabilise the outer planes, the slaadi were a bunch of chaotic primordials, Ygorl in particular is mind bogglingly nasty (he also happens to just wander around the time stream). The spawning stone seems to have codified and fixed the slaadi, those created by the stone have the control gem inside their brain, those who they birth through predation on other species are born without the gem in their brain, so, there is certainly some hinky larger plot going on, perhaps Primus added this feature in cahoots with another deity who subsequently died in the cosmic conflict, and the Slaadi were therefore never brought to heel by their true master.

[@heresysmith4068]

@@AJPickett One of my players gained two of the Slaadi gems, and a magic coin that will hold the soul of anyone that dies wearing it, turning them into a wraith (accidental item). He went into the astral plane to get the souls of two friendly NPCs, and Grazsst, after being given a bag of top notch pemmican and some water, affixed one of the gems to the amulet, making it into a wristband, that will suck souls into it (In exchange for one of the gems). He didn't tell the player what he had done to it, other than that it would help him. The player, being a Shaman, did confront spirit in a haunted house (five times, five ghosts + 1 Silch), and sucked them into the gem. At first they were bitching, moaning, and making death threats, and trying to get out, so one of the other players gave him a Vampyric touch to yank their hit points off and calm them down. Then he went back and got the fifth ghost and the Silch. After fighting some overstrength Goblins, he healed himself, sending positive energy through the item, and they tried to possess him. They knocked him out, but he made his saves and survived. He woke up and punched the tickets of two harpies, and that's where we're at now. I'm not sure which way this is going to go. The idea was for Grazsst push him hard and corrupt him, and then keep giving him magic and good advice. Just limo ride him into service, like a mobster.

[@kendrickrochelanzot2053]

I have a Human character that's actually a deathslaad in disguise, trying to escape the slaad life

[@matthhiasbrownanonionchopp3471]

wait how was the first death sladd created and we're did the rest come from?

[@AJPickett]

Great question, time to delve back to 1987, Manual of the Planes... Officially, the Slaadi were evolved or uplifted from the primal soup of chaos, Slaad lords exist, though the hierarchy of Slaadi is just as chaotic, and is really more of a list of the most powerful slaad, which bully any lesser slaadi around them. To make matters more confusing, Slaadi are a continual process of creation and destruction, so while we find it convenient to talk about the beginning of the Slaadi species, their reality is a jumble of conflicting time-lines and paradoxes that give temporal mechanics aficionados a case of the heebie jeebies. It may very well be that the Slaadi spontaneously pop into existence out of raw chaos a lot of the time, and frequently vanish from existence, all traces of them, then appear again, and we suddenly remember the new version of them, as they twist and churn through the multiverse and maraid membranes of the multiverse. This may be one reason why Primus created the artifact called the Spawning stone, in an attempt to fix the Slaadi and preserve reality from their constant disordering of causal reality.

[@docop8926]

@@AJPickett I like how u take the time to answer people's questions! It's one of many reasons that you're my fav KZbin's when it comes to dnd lore

[@AJPickett]

@@docop8926 Thanks. I enjoy the interaction and community, plus, I like the challenge of finding answers!

[@stinky1895]

*spongebob voice* "What the heck is a sal...ad?"

[@InfiniteBalance]

So, what's the deal with 3rd edition's epic Handbook Black and White Slaadi?

[@VeryCuteGM]

Ah the slaad! Be still my heart.

[@AJPickett]

+VeryCuteGM I wonder if Slaadi have hearts?

[@VeryCuteGM]

Probably but I guess people were too focused with the strange control gem to care about studying slaadi anatomy.

[@thysdebeer2911]

I haven't used them. But after this video of yours I definitely will. Thank you for the work you do.

[@AJPickett]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@Marpaws]

I always loved Slaads, good video :)

[@AJPickett]

+Marpaws Thank you, interesting side note, the guy who created them was a bit confused on pills at the time, and while he had not read any HP Lovecraft writings, he said that was pretty much what he had in mind when he made the Slaadi

[@foxsparrow8973]

I used them before but I wanted them to be the full embodiment of Chaotic neutral, they were terrifying but also playful when they wanted to be. I wanted them to be totally unpredictable so the playing charterers had to work with them rather them just fight them.

[@Solarvoid4]

If your player charater gets infected and becomes a red slaad could you play as a slaad for your game

[@AJPickett]

Green Slaad or Gray, yes, Red, Blue or Death Slaad, no.

[@Taras2612]

Man o man The pic in the thumbnail is the first image of a slaad that I liked It’s great!

[@Weirdoid]

My favorite slaad was Xanxost, one of the narrows in a planescape guide to fiends. He would amusingly go off on odd tangents when talking. Their are a couple things about slaad that confuse me.the first is beings of chaotic neutrality incarnate having a hierarchy and seeing others as needing to be obeyed. The second is the most powerful are DEATH slaads which sounds either an evil or a true neutral concept and makes little sense for chaotic neutrals.

[@AJPickett]

Slaad are not naturally supposed to be that way, originally they were just lumps of chaos stuff, they were wedged into the form of toad-like beings and ordered into that hierarchy by the machinations of Primus, his attempt to bring order to multiverse by implanting powerful artifacts of law in key locations, brought about the Slaad.. their spawning stone is actually one of those artifacts.

[@j0nsanders]

The video u mentioned is private I want to watch it!

[@bharrison7119]

Erivis Cole series was so good. Expert villians

[@InfiniteRolePlay]

what about the variant forehead gem thing for slaad?? I kind of like that idea for story reasons ( but I forget with the gem thing is called -_-)

[@AJPickett]

+Infinite RolePlay The variant rule allows for inclusion of a control gem implanted in the Slaad brain.. you can go with that if it suits you, I didn't think it really fit that well with the rest of the Slaadi ecology, however, there could certainly be a faction of Slaadi ruled with a deadly hand by a certain Death Slaad, who uses the gems to control his minions.

[@InfiniteRolePlay]

oh well I had in mind more of a fiend who controlls slaad for its own amusement :-p

[@AJPickett]

Also a possibility, after all, they are like the carrion crows of the blood war.

[@destonlee2838]

Now Homebrewing gnomish gem crafters that "hack" slaadi code and build gems of SLAAD control.

[@monsieurdorgat6864]

*Can Gate in other Slaad* *CR5 at minimum, games only usually go to CR10* Welp, I think we can see why WotC didn't have the 5e version summon more of themselves. You'd have to pretty seriously nerf these things before your party would have any ability to deal with them if they could gate each other in. The 5e version really strikes me as a standalone monster, given their difficulty. I think they wanted to lean in on "infectious doppleganger" idea.

[@tomkerruish2982]

The slaadi language is kay(f)bop(t), which is possibly the oddest conlang ever. I can't possibly do it justice in a mere comment; I will mention, however, that the parenthetical letters refer to the type of hat one must wear when uttering the syllables (fedora and top hat, respectively).

[@SF-TDW]

Is there any evil slaad lords?

[@marvalice3455]

I love your background music! Where do you get it?

[@AJPickett]

KZbin, it is a slowed down and deeper version of some warhammer tribute music.

[@marvalice3455]

AJ Pickett ah. Very cool.

[@marvalice3455]

AJ Pickett how would I find it? :D

[@AJPickett]

Something like this sort of playlist kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKfbYq2ro79gac0

[@marvalice3455]

AJ Pickett

[@ntbaker86]

I am running a campaign now and hints of slaadi activity are popping up. I can't wait for the PC's to figure it out, or fight a few with no knowledge!

[@AJPickett]

I imagine they will learn about them really fast!

[@ntbaker86]

AJ Pickett tings like they hit really hard. finish off all of them only to find out months later they have a larva inside of them. great fun. awesome video BTW.

[@rpsketchbooks3931]

awesome. thank you. so much. rock on.

[@AJPickett]

+Rp Sketchbooks You are most welcome :)

[@pbr-streetgang]

Thanks for the vid sir.

[@beastwarsFTW]

If the red ones have eggs does that make them the females and the blue ones are males?

[@AJPickett]

Our gender terms are meaningless to them.

[@jacobfreeman5444]

The answer is magic.

[@destonlee2838]

And many of us.

[@MrKago1]

Would a death Slaad be a possible candidate for a warlock patron or they more akin to an ancient dragon in power?

[@abiggs4828]

YO. Death Slaad Patron sounds bonkers

[@mikescriven7887]

My party have never met a slaad but they do have a blue slaad control gem which they looted from a temple of Cyric. I'm still thinking about how they might actually meet any slaad.

[@AJPickett]

Randomly, of course.

[@MindFeather]

Hey AJ, if these guys speak largely by reading minds rather than just via language, can they be fooled or lied to? and, if someone were using an alias or otherwise "in disguise," would the Slaadi "automatically" know the berks real & true name, true intentions, and the rest?

[@MindFeather]

in a similar vein, if a PC were "protected" by some kind of mind-shield ability or item, would normal communication be impossible with an essentially telepathic creature, or do you differentiate "areas of thought" such as language, subconscious, short-term-memory, deep-memory, or whatever? i find this kind of pandora's box (reading thoughts, psionics, and even charm effects, etc) very tricky to adjudicate as a GM. any thoughts or suggestions on how to deal with PCs whose minds ought to be "laid bare" to an NPC would be welcome. i don't know if there is a short-answer "commentable" response possible here, or if it might require a full-on video response?

[@AJPickett]

Good questions! Thankfully easy to answer.First, Telepathy in the case of most monsters with this ability, is just about mind to mind broadcasting, they can't delve any deeper and what they receive is basically the intended imagery behind the spoken language of who they are 'listening' to, the reason why the target needs to speak a language is that without this ability, the mind is not projecting communication and all the thoughts are 'internal', sense impressions and emotional states, that can't be detected. It takes a standard action to tune into someone they are aware of, and if that person leaves their range (usually 60-100 feet) and comes back, they have to spend another action to re-establish a connection.They can't telepathically sense a presence, they need to focus on someone.. listening to a group is very difficult, just as listing to everyone talking at once is problematic, however a creature as intelligent as a Mind Flayer or Aboleth can do this, as they can focus on multiple things at once, easily.Telepathy can be blocked by magical barriers that would halt all supernatural effects, also a thin layer of lead will block telepathy, but it can operate beyond line of sight.Telepathy can not block or overwhelm normal hearing, a telepathic shout does not swamp the normal senses and can not harm the ears, however it can be powerful enough to interrupt concentration, or even stun a target, such as the mind blast of the Mind Flayer, by sending a blitz of imagery, mind noise and such, however, a mind can quickly screen this out, so while the telepath can try to sustain it, it rapidly becomes less effective, unless applied in bursts.So, yes, a telepath can be lied to, can be fooled, and a creature can hide from them, for sure.Telepathy is a substitute for speech, and in many ways, it is superior (such as bypassing the need for a shared spoken language, and can be used in an area where sound/speech is blocked), however it is limited in range, it is not broadcast to everyone in range (usually) and it can be blocked fairly easily.

[@MindFeather]

once again i find myself so very glad you exist. thanks for your in-depth response. bowing to you, dude. =)

[@AJPickett]

Most welcome!

[@abiggs4828]

@@AJPickett thin layer of lead blocks it you say? Looks like my Forge Cleric of Moradin is using his next hour rest lining his helmet Magneto style...

[@gratedrawur]

Music in the backgroud?

[@defshepard7490]

What was the background music for this? It’s sounds really awesome!

[@LinaFootpad]

"Protectors of the Earth" by Two Steps From Hell

[@garytrent9693]

Yaay Slaadi ! Glad to see another Ecology lesson "8) Keep it up. \oo/ T.Rust Monster p.s. can we request a specific monster that you haven't done yet?

[@AJPickett]

+Gary Trent Absolutely!

[@humbertocobian4740]

Vasen Coriver!!!

[@MarkATorres1989]

Met a Blue and Red Slaadi once... I never knew what they were but the first thought that came to mind was: Red and Blue Oni? Definitely not good! Vorse slayed them with great ferocity and then casted greater restoration on himself due to feeling a bit sick so he could resume his journey to hunt the BBEGB Warlord in vengeance for his friends.

[@jamesmuncy9457]

one wonders if these things exist how does anything else

[@AJPickett]

They are drawn to the cosmic conflict of the Blood War, however, now that it is on permanent cease fire, what becomes of the Slaadi? They are not too fond of the prime material worlds, so tend to hang out in the elemental chaos, limbo and other places where they can hit and fade into the background noise, adapting to the unpredictable landscape.. prime worlds are too unchanging and organised, their chaos tends to become a weakness.. a wild fire that quickly burns out.

[@tibtibberson698]

Wonder what would happen if the Red Slaad infected something with natural regeneration. Like a troll.

[@grimboguppis7432]

Salad 😊

[@ironkeepgaming1936]

My favorite Slaad is the Death Slaad, I might use a Death Slaad as a boss fight

[@ichaukan]

C'mon, the food ain't that bad... and those slaadi we fought last month weren't that bad...

It looks like perhaps the Elder Scrolls borrowed from D&D. There is a very similar creature called the Slode in ES.

[@jackbuck6773]

The sload are a great deal different, only similarities being they are amphibian like and use magic. Sload would be Lawful Evil or Chaotic evil by default where as Slaad are Chaotic Neutral.

[@jacobfreeman5444]

You know...relistening to this makes me realize why the devils have such a chip on their shoulder. Pretty much every other faction and species treats the blood war like a financial opportunity rather then a fight for existence. Nobody respects the devil's contribution even a little. Not out of an unwillingness to give up an advantage but because nobody cares. It must be enraging

[@AJPickett]

Indeed!

[@AJPickett]

Indeed!

[@74pauliec26]

Pepe!!!

[@debreczeniarpad9956]

My very favored outsider group

[@debreczeniarpad9956]

There is like no type of adventure that has no space for a shapeshiftimg or just bullshitting green/gray slaad!

[@Eldrisaur]

Curse of Slaad

[@flavortown3781]

These are based on the slaan, a la, wh40k after all gw did write the feind folio

[@AJPickett]

well, the Slaan are based on them.

[@flavortown3781]

@@AJPickett I was always under the impression that the were from whf and they wrote them into dnd back in like 83, all of it is before my time so I really don't know for sure

[@dallasshumaker6148]

Nifyx did nothing wrong.