What does Veeky Forums think of the Slaadi?
Slaadi
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Slaad are very handsome. Xanxost is a Slaad, so Xanxost is very handsome!
I think they're a cool and original race, unusually for D&D. Severely underused.
Literally the daemons of Kek
They're one of D&D's dumbest additions. They literally exist for no other purpose than to be Chaotic Stupid. The only reason they're in the game was because we absolutely had to have outsiders native to every single alignment-based plane.
They are like xenomorphs but magical
magical xenomorphs
if I wanted to slaughter an entire party or have them turn on each other out of paranoia, I would send in the Slaad
I'm not a fan, for the fact that the more powerful Slaadi inevitably become Chaotic Evil. They are, therefore, not good as the "iconic" Chaotic race the way Modrons are good as the iconic Lawful race.
This is my big gripe about them.
If they stayed neutral they'd be fine.
Invented by Charles Stross, so nah.
More to the point, their official lore has them only existing at all because Primus tried to impose order onto Limbo and fucked up royally. So they're not even "native" creatures of limbo.
I think it's hilarious that creatures born of chaos are conveniently color coded according to their powers.
like aliens but more sentient and from a different "space"
I don't even know who that is, and neither do I care.
SEE . That's probably a result of the aforementioned Primus fuck up.
Slaadi make sense when you think of them as beings of fundamental chaos accidentally created by beings of fundamental order, and the Slaadi are instinctively trying to ape the beings of order but because of their chaos, they can't.
Which explains a bit why so many of them turn Evil, but that still leaves us with the problem that they, as a result, are not good representatives of a purely Chaotic race the way Modrons are representative of a purely Lawful race.
An under-utilized race because of the pitfalls of the alignment system. They are rather redundant when demon exist because 'chaos for the sake of chaos' isn't quite as catchy as 'chaos for the sake of murder, death, kill, burn, rape the multiverse possibly-in-that-order'. Plus demons are neater than giant frog-men.
Using Slaad is difficult as a result of this and require some more thought put into them to differentiate them from demons. The thing with Slaad (and their Pathfinder/Golarion equivalent, Protean) is that the frog/serpent imagery is apparently a callback to ancient egyptian and how primordial chaos is associated with these animals.
If you ask me the best way to use them is, believe it or not as this user pointed out. A force of chaos but not the chaos which wants wanton destruction. More of chaos for the sake of chaos and buttfucking the status quo. Essentially? Slaad are Veeky Forums at it's best/worst as an entire race. They are /b/'s stupidity and insanity combined with /pol/'s brand of desiring upheavel and chaos but without the political aim. Essentially, to me, they should be played like "/pol/ without an agenda".
>chaos for the sake of chaos' isn't quite as catchy as 'chaos for the sake of murder, death, kill, burn, rape the multiverse possibly-in-that-order
It is much more satisfying to me. But it needs to be done well.
Q wasn't chaos for the sake of chaos, however. In fact in most of his appearances he's acting on behalf of the Continuum. Only twice was he shown to definitely act alone - "Q Who?", when he had been kicked out and subsequently introduced Picard to the Borg; and "Deja Q", when he was stripped of his powers by the Continuum for his actions concerning the Borg.
In VOY he acts on behalf of the Continuum against Quin to promote the Continuum's law and order, then organizes a rebellion against the Continuum in order to change its rules.
And in his first and last TNG episodes, he's putting humanity on trial at the behest of the Continuum and arranges for humanity to destroy itself, again at the behest of the Continuum. He does throw humanity a bone of his own accord, but he's still willing to otherwise do his job.
Q acts both Lawful at times and Chaotic at times, which means he's most likely Neutral. Likewise he's willing to allow deaths to happen around him, but I don't think he's ever actually been shown to kill someone himself (permanently), and when he does allow deaths to happen it's in order to hammer home a really important message.
Q is True Neutral with personality.
Adding to this as I keep thinking about it more:
Slaad are Chaotic Neutral. Scratch that, in your average/default setting they are THE Chaotic Neutral. Which make them the ultimate wildcard.
Slaad, to me, exist to unbalance things but in no particular direction. In a way, this could make them the great cosmic equalizer or re starter. Whenever things are too boring, too stiff, too predictable they would exist to burn everything down so the *potential* for something new to exist. That this something new is an era of peace and prosperity, tyranny or absolute chaos *does not matter to the Slaad*. What matters is the act itself and their demented enjoyment at bringing about absolute buttfuckery and chaos and, maybe, remind people its okay to be rude, crude, laugh at things and just embrace how things in life sometimes make no lick of sense.
They are the ultimate trolls and iconoclast. The only thing which would remotely make them go in the same direction would be to see their nonsense spread and see what happens next with it. To the Slaad, it is never the goal but always the act. They are the uncertainty of what the future may bring, good or ill. But whatever happen it sure as hell won't be boring.
Sci-fi author who came up with the Gith races as well, and the Deathknight.
Of course, back then even the most powerful Slaadi were Chaotic Neutral, including the Death Slaad, and Ygorl (the lord of entropy who generally appears as a demonic skeleton riding a brass dragon)
>applying deductive reasoning to Slaadi
wew lad
Why does Chaos have to destroy?
Why, to create.
What's it going to create?
You.
Anything at all
Everything that exists needs to be destroyed. Everything that does not exist needs to be created.
- X'wloarghlglglg'andrew, the great Slaadi teacher.
Only in 5e, other editions have other lore.
Probably all the lore is canon, especially when it disagrees.
Death needs time, like a junkie needs junk.
And what does Death need time for?
Death needs time for what it kills to grow in, for Ah Pook's sweet sake,
you stupid vulgar greedy ugly American death-sucker.
>Probably all the lore is canon, especially when it disagrees.
This is true, and they have even said as much, but they've never actually gone over the original origin of slaad, or the spawning stone.
>A vague mention in 4th yes, yes, but no specifics other than "Evil Chaos did it"
I like that one playable race that were cousins with them, but I can't remember their names.
>No one has mentioned Jacob's Well
annarchive com/files/Dungeon%20Magazine%20%23043 pdf
I use Slaads in a game where the bad guys use them as bio weapons.
They self replicate. Just drop a bunch in a city you don't like and soon you will have yourself a slaad-pocalypse.
>evil has won and has enslaved the world under its heal
>good gods and spirits have been barred from entry for plot reasons
>lawful outsiders can be bought for protection, but evil has more cash and authority to bind them
>Slaad are the only beings of any real power left to save the day if they can be convinced or just happen to be bored
>resistance cells begin training combat entertainers to find and recruit these Slaad
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Dancer
Chaos having a true iconic race is sort of an oxymoron anyway.
Anyone?
I'd take the Soupi over the Slaadi with my entree
>lawful outsiders can be bought for protection, but evil has more cash and authority to bind them
How much loyalty do these hired guns have?
Old lore had it that one of the Slaad gods, the one traveling backwards through time, created the stone at the time of his death, in the past.
Typically, before WotC tried to say "Primus did it" the Stone was used by the Slaad gods themselves to force a consistent form upon the Slaads below them.
The creation of the Slaadi Stone is 2e Planescape material, you filthy mouthbreather
I like the blue ones a lot.
200 years ago, a crack commando unit was sent to Carceri by a Harmonium court for a crime they didn't commit. These frogs promptly escaped from a maximum-security plane to the Sigil underground. Today, still wanted by the Factions, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If everything is too orderly or boring... if no one else can help... and if you can find them... maybe you can recruit... The Slaad-Team.
THE SLAADI ARE A GOD RACE. ALL BOW BEFORE THE GREAT SLAADI.
I kind of like some of the interpretations that this guy gives for slaad, where they are draw to unlikely happenings and try to create more themselves.
They're fine but imo they're ruined by being pushed into the role of THE chaotic race from limbo.
Not by Primus dipshit. Ygorl and Ssendam created it back then to prevent other Slaadi from equaling or surpassing them.
Cool, dangerous, difficult to deal with.
Only problem is I can't run lots of them due to cr
Respect and some terror. My GM made us face a thousand-strong army of them, trying to conquer a village for breeding.
We thought we were goners when the damned cannon barrel cracked.
The village militia handled themselves very fucking well, considering it all.I personally killed the infected so no one else would have to.
Really boring, take up too much space in the 5th MM. I wouldn't bitch so much if they finally released more manuals.
In one of the 3e books, wasn't that? Neraph?
Them's good eatin'.
>ITT: Slaadi are Pepe, Pepe is Slaadi
>Veeky Forums is full of Slaad
>REEEEEE
fixable.
They are one of the most asinine concept of D&D imho.
I mean, they're a race of outsiders, and as such they should BE the concept they simbolize - after all, for a outsider, soul and body ARE the same.
So, apparently, the concept of Chaos is a race of antrophomorphic frogs. Not only that - i could understand that, i mean, what's more surprising that finding that the race of chaotic being to be uniform in apparence?
But then, they're literally color-coded for convenience. They also have a very strict social order.
Oh, yes, as a race, they're chaotic. So what? I mean, the stupid Inevitables have more variance in apparences and power than the Slaads!
Yes, but they've got some awesome art.
Like these guys then?
RIP Wayne England, a lot of your item and human/elf art was bad, but you made some pretty great monsters!
Aren't they the inspiration for the Old Ones in the warhammer universes?
Man, Wayne England could only draw one face.
the chaotic outsiders
all frogs
yeah no, they're fucking lame
I like the art from the 3e MM for them, but they're not different from the 80 other claw/claw/bite enemies
More than you'd expect
Or maybe they're wondering why you'd question a man before banishing him from a plane
Only issue I have with Slaadi is that once players learn about the control stone, they'll probably always try to go after it, since the DM will probably offer them a way someway or another.
I want to wander into a magic tricks and baubles shop and ask for a copy of "Battle Slaadi" and see what happens.
you have shit taste
Oh god. That face. What else was it on?
The color coding is explained by the use of the spawning stone preventing them from diverting too much, in contrast the Slaad leaders are more divergent, original Ygorl wasnt even a frog
I agree they need more variation and that the social order is bullshit tho
>I want to wander into a magic tricks and baubles shop and ask for a copy of "Battle Slaadi" and see what happens.
I think that you'd be banned from Tomestop if you did that
Also there are lawful Slaadi. Because chaos
Why not just use bullywugs for your frog monsters?
>What does Veeky Forums think of the Slaadi?
>planescape cosmology:
"Meh" tier
>PoL cosmology:
Good to sprinkle in an area to show the forces of entropy are breaking through. My players have learned to fear the sight of bullywugs or migratory herds of frogs.
Bullwugs are to slaads as humans are to angels.
They sure have some death claws.
I liked how 4e bullywugs claimed to be created by slaads, which explained why they were CE assholes and the world itself hated them.
The coding can work if you get weird with it.
Heket?