Juiblex (3.5e Monster)

Information About Juiblex
Alternative Names and Titles: The Demon Prince of Formlessness, The Grand Slime

Symbol: A pseudopod dripping with slime.

Portfolio: Acid, corrosion, ooze, pestilence.

Domains Granted: Acid, Chaos, Corrupt, Evil, Slime

Favored Weapon: Unarmed Strike (slam).

Juiblex's Statistics Block
''Your skin burns as you swim through the viscous ooze that, according to rumor, is actually the body of the demon prince Juiblex. It is only with the combination magical barriers and natural resilience that you can even brave this hostile environment. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a massive, spherical mass of thicker, more solid ooze from which protrude countless long, snake-like pseudopods. As you bear down on it, you realize that you have found what you were looking for: the core of Juiblex that governs the whole of the planet-sized ooze.''

"Your resistance is futile. You will submit to the Faceless Lord, and become a part of me in good company."

The great demon-ooze known as Juiblex is the result of an experiment gone horribly wrong. Initially created by the Queen of Chaos herself in an effort to make a self-replicating demon, the first such attempts were considered to be disastrous. Each time the new creation split, its body chemistry broke down and simplified until it was able to replicate without a reduction in cell function.

Disgusted with the results of the experiment, the Queen set about destroying it, but realized with mixed horror and fascination that it continued to respawn despite her efforts towards its end. Now curious but unwilling to personally tamper with the experiment further, she discarded it to a solitary layer of the Abyss.

As it grew, the creature seeped into the ground of the plane, assimilating demonic essence while at the same time continuing to replicate itself. After a time, it consumed several of the demons that had begun to inhabit the plane and absorbed their intellect, creating a rudimentary intelligence that named itself Juiblex. Assimilation of more creatures caused it to grow not only to unprecedented size, but to a genius-level intellect that granted it the abilities of the most powerful demons. Now, after millennia of continuous division, Juiblex has consumed nearly the entire 422nd layer of the Abyss. A tale is told by Abyssal travelers that the ruins of past empires built up before and toppled by its unceasing onslaught can still be found in the vast sickly green mass that is its body.

By the time the tanar’ri rebelled against the previously dominant obyrith, Juiblex’s body already extended over thousands of miles of territory. But despite its great power and constant expansion, Juiblex’s own size is working against it by preventing it from spreading to other planes through magical travel. Since it is permanently limited to the expanse of the 422nd layer, it is not considered a direct threat to any other demon lord and is thus largely ignored. The one demon who attempted to resist with any reasonable success was the Lady of Fungi Zuggtmoy, who managed to repel Juiblex for a time with a massive wall of mushrooms and plants that resisted the acidic effects of the Faceless Lord’s body.

Zuggtmoy searched desperately for a more permanent solution, knowing that her wall of fungi was only temporary. Deciding she had exhausted all other options, she decided to enter Juiblex’s body in the hope of finding and destroying its core. After days of searching through the caustic environment, she found it, and a pitched battle raged in which Zuggtmoy nearly destroyed Juiblex by saturating the core with destructive fungal spores and degenerative catalysts. The acidity, however, was too much for Zuggtmoy to handle, and she finally succumbed to the demon-ooze's power as the core engulfed and consumed her. Upon dissolving the Lady of Fungi, Juiblex absorbed her demonic essence and nullified the power of her spores, allowing it to rejuvenate and make itself even stronger.

Juiblex’s powers are great; its collective energy level is perhaps the highest of any demon lord, allowing it to exercise multiple demonic powers with more rapidity than other demon lords. Its influence, however, is for the most part strictly limited to vast but finite extent of its own body. Since no major demon lords share any planes adjacent to Juiblex’s own, it is not a direct threat to them and thus they tend to pay it little attention except for the occasional repulsion of his alkilith and ooze minions.

Combat
It is important to remember that Juiblex is a uniquely successful demon prince; not only is it a powerful demon, it is also its own plane. Therefore, all the circumstances of the encounter are subject to its control. Fighting Juiblex is not so much an encounter as it is an adventure. An adventure in which the would-be heroes are constantly swimming in acid of increasing potency and unable to cause damage unless they are perceptive enough to damage his weak points. The thing that really makes Juiblex one of the weakest demon lords, however, are the limited nature of its form and less potent spell-like abilities. That said, it is still a terrifying foe, for within its body (which is essentially the only place in which it can be fought) the Faceless Lord has all the circumstances in its favor.

Because of the power of its superacid shell, all of Juiblex’s abilities that deal acid damage are already maximized (this is reflected in both the abilities below and its stat block). Juiblex also heals 60 damage per turn.

 (Ex): When destroyed, Juiblex’s core bursts, unleashing a torrent of horribly potent acid into the surrounding region, which operates as a meltdown spell (Caster level 22) with a Charisma-based save (DC 32) out to a radius of 1 mile around the core. The permanent acid damage caused by the effect stacks with the normal acid damage dealt by Juiblex’s body and is maximized normally.

 (Ex): When it wins a grapple check, Juiblex can choose to engulf an opponent of its core's size or smaller as a free action. An engulfed opponent now shares the space with Juilblex and is treated as though pinned, except Juiblex may continue to act normally. While inside Juiblex, a victim takes 132 points of acid damage and must make Constitution checks to avoid drowning at the beginning of each round. Juiblex can simultaneously grapple and engulf as many opponents as will fit in its space.

 (Ex): Juiblex has the ability to manipulate certain aspects of its plane at will, including the creation of gravitational forces. As a free action, Juiblex may choose to activate (or change the direction of) its gravity, which either pushes or pulls creatures within its superacid shell. At the beginning of each round, all creatures within 1 mile of Juiblex are either pulled in 100 feet towards it or pushed out 100 feet. When pulling, this movement ceases once they reach the very center of its core and affects them again when they attempt to move back out. Creatures pulled into Juiblex’s core are engulfed normally.

In addition, anyone attempting to move in the same direction as the gravity field has their base land speed doubled; anyone moving against it has their speed cut in half. No saving throw or resistance is allowed against either of these effects.

It can grant spells to clerics, and gives access to the Acid, Chaos, Corrupt, Evil, and Slime domains. His favored weapon is the unarmed strike (or a slam, if applicable) and his portfolio is acid, corrosion, oozes, and pestilence.

Additionally, Juiblex is immune to ability damage, ability drain and energy drain, unless such an effect comes from a creature that has a caster level or character level (or CR, for monsters) over 20.

Lastly, Juiblex can burn off some of its essence to stop magic dead in its tracks. As a free action that can be used outside of its turn, Juiblex can lose 88 hit points to counter any spell, supernatural ability or spell-like ability in Medium range, as if by greater dispel magic (although it can counter supernatural and spell-like abilities as if they were spells). This ignores temporary hit points, and can be used any number of times. For any ability with an ongoing or permanent duration, this merely suppresses it for 6 rounds.

 (Ex): Most of Juiblex’s body is immune to any and all forms of attack. But while Juiblex’s form is simple to the point of formidable, it is not without areas of weakness. These weak points must be struck to deal any damage to Juiblex (except for additional damage from critical hits, which can never be dealt), and are each approximately the size of a Medium-size creature; thus, his effective Armor Class has no penalties due to size. Because of their inability to accurately target their spots, offensive effects that do not deal damage cannot harm Juiblex. Locating a weak spot requires a successful Spot check (DC 60) or a true seeing spell with a caster level of 20th or greater.

 (Su): Juiblex is one of the oldest demons in existence, and its power is capable of matching all but the strongest of its peers. It receives a +8 enhancement bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls, a +8 resistance bonus to all saves and a +6 deflection bonus to AC. Juiblex also has maximum hit points per hit die.

Additionally, as a creature that doubles as a plane, Juiblex can shield its core from any and all scrying attempts, which simply give the entire plane as a result. It is also unable to be teleported or moved across planes by any means.

 (Ex): Juiblex is a primeval creature that combines all the best aspects of slimes with those of a demon. Instead of the traits of a particular breed of demon, it instead possesses all traits of an ooze that are beneficial to him. Because of its vast power, its abilities far and away surpass those of normal oozes, resulting in the use of 20-sided dice for its Hit Dice (instead of the normal 12-sided dice). Juiblex is also healed by acid effects, recovering a number of hit points equal to the amount of damage it would have normally been dealt (noted as fast healing 60 on his stat block).

As an ooze, Juiblex is completely immune to any effects that would change its form, mind-affecting effects, poisons, paralysis, sleep effects, and stunning. It also has blindsight out to a distance of 10 miles and is instinctually aware of any creature inside his body, allowing him to prepare for battles well in advance.

The area within 10 miles of Juiblex is infused with a proportionally high amount of its demonic essence, which greatly increases the potency of any acid effects therein. All acid damage dealt within this region (known as his “superacid shell” is automatically maximized without a change in spell level or uses per day (whichever is applicable).

 (Sp): As a full-round action, Juiblex may bestow its ravage on a creature eligible to gain a level. That creature gains its first level in the ravaged by Juiblex racial paragon class. If Juiblex attempts to ravage an unwilling creature, it receives a DC 32 Will save to resist (Cha-based).

If Juiblex wishes, it can attempt to share the senses of a creature that has at least one level in ravaged by Juiblex. This works identically to a scrying spell, except it must be centred on the creature in question. The creature doesn't get any say in the matter. Juiblex may use this ability at will. This has a caster level of 22nd.

Additionally, if any creature with at least one level in ravaged by Juiblex attempts to affect Juiblex or the area within 20 miles of him with any ability, Juiblex may choose to use dominate monster on that creature as a free action that he can use even outside of its turn. The creature receives a DC 32 save as normal. This has a caster level of 22nd, and the DC is Charisma-based.

Juiblex can also turn outsiders with a Challenge Rating of 12 through 16 into alkilith. Upon this transformation, they immediately become loyal to Juiblex regardless of any previous allegiances. This requires the same amount of effort (and the same save to resist) as applying its normal ravage.

acid fog, acid rain (usable as a swift action), acid sheath(usable as a swift action), animate objects, Ashe's spell seizure (can be used as a swift action), Bestow curse (can be used as a swift action), Blasphemy, chaos hammer (can be used as a swift action), cloak of chaos, create undeadM, desecrateM (can be used as a swift action), destruction, Dispel Good, dispel law elemental swarm (cast as an air spell only), Elush's elemental extraction, Elush's epiphyseal erosion, Elush's explosive exsanguination, Elush's eye-blasting explosion (can be used as a swift action), energy drain, enervation (usable as a swift action), Erzebet's skull bomb (can be used as a swift action), gaseous form (can be used as a swift action), grease (can be used as a swift action), greater dispel magic (can be used as a free action 3/round), Lesser confusion (can be used as a swift action), limited wish, Magic Circle against Good (can be used as a swift action), magic circle against law (can be used as a swift action), protection from good (can be used as a swift action), protection from law (can be used as a swift action), rapture of rupture (can be used as a swift action), regenerate (can be used as a swift action), rusting grasp (can be used as a swift action), Shatter (can be used as a swift action), spell corrosion, spell turning, symbol of insanity, torn from within, transmute rock to lava, transmute rock to mud (can be used on worked stone), transmute water to acid, turn to the abyss, unholy auraF, unholy blight (can be used as a swift action), word of chaos, 2/day - summon monster IX (once as a chaos spell and once as an evil spell), 1/day - apocalypse from the sky, astral projection, imprisonment, meltdown. Caster level 22nd, DCs are Charisma-based (default 32).

 (Ex): Each of Juiblex’s slam attacks deals an additional 66 points of acid damage on a successful attack roll. A creature struck by one must also make a successful Fortitude save (DC 32) or be paralyzed for 1 round. A single creature cannot be affected by the paralysis effect more than once per round. This save DC is Charisma-based).

Juiblex's Worshipers
Juiblex is a powerful creature possessed of a genius intellect, but by the standards of demon lords its ambitions are small indeed. Its only desire is to continue expanding in the Abyss or wherever else it can; it cares nothing for actual dominion over territory or subjects, further power in any form, or deific status. Juiblex simply gains all of these as a byproduct of its endless expansion.

Juiblex's mortal cult is small, but their rabid fanaticism puts even other practitioners of the occult on edge. Apparently, you have to be hardcore to worship a giant ooze. Clerics of Juiblex don't even have their powers selectively bestowed upon them by their lord; they have simply learned to tap into the excess energy that bleeds off of its vast form.

In the Abyss, Juiblex is served by the alkilith and other creatures unfortunate to feel its ravaging touch, as those who it can't turn into alkilith instead become his ravaged. While seeing such a creature outside of the body of Juiblex is rare, they teem within it, repelling all those foolish enough to make the attempt to travel within the Faceless Lord's disgusting mass.