A black pudding is an ooze resembling a bubbling, heaping pile of thick black goo.
The average black pudding measures 15 ft (4.6 m) across and 2 ft (0.6 m) thick and weighs around 1,800 lb. While most of these monsters are an inky black, some coan be brown, grey, and even white. In underground locations, these creatures appeared as dark blobs.
Some black puddings that manage to survive for a very long time come to be known as elder black puddings, and are significantly bigger than their younger counterparts and have an almost impenetrable outer layer of aged material. These ancient black puddings are immune to all damage, unless the outer layers are dissolved first by a very specific concoction.
These creatures are mindless underground-dwelling hunters and scavengers that wander and absorb whatever they find. A black pudding will position itself in a dungeon hallway like a shadow and wait for unsuspecting prey.
Black puddings attack by grabbing, grappling, and constricting prey directly into their liquidesque mass. Like other oozes, they secret a deadly acidic substance which quickly dissolves weapons, clothing, and organic tissue alike. When slashed at or pierced, the black pudding may split into two smaller puddings, both of which continue their efforts to consume prey; this can continue until individual puddings are too small and weak to do so further — less than 3 HD. A black pudding will eat bone, metal, and wood, leaving only stone behind.
A Black Pudding is not a Multi-cellular creature in the usual definition. Rather than center around a central ‘cell’ or consciousness, the Black Pudding is a hive colony of single-celled creatures. They work toward a universal goal which is to consume and grow.
While the cells work together to hunt for prey, they do so as a herd rather than a connected mechanism. A slurry of hunger rather than a workforce. With no central core that the cells rely on collectively for nutrients and commands, the Pudding can be split without issue.
While lacking conventional sapience, they have the instinctive intelligence inherent to living organisms. They innately understand that they are more effective as a whole and instinctively resist being split unless sliced or exposed to electricity.
That does not mean they will grow endlessly, however. The Black Pudding has a natural limit to how large its hive/a black Pudding can grow. Once they hit 8-9 feet, they will split as the closest thing the creature has to natural reproduction.
These creatures do not understand the motivation for attacking, nor are they intelligent enough to understand the potential for further attacks. Therefore, it will continue to attack even if it is not in its best interest due to continued splitting or low health. The Black Pudding will continue to attack anything made of flesh until it is digested or the Pudding is destroyed.
Puddings are incapable of eating each other and will not fuse into a larger Pudding upon meeting each other.
While a Black Pudding is capable of corroding nearly anything as if it were acid, it does not gain a large amount of sustenance from it. While it might idly chew on wooden beams if it hasn’t found flesh in a while, the flesh is what it craves. Living flesh is preferred, but it isn’t all that picky. Cadavers are full of meat and juicy, living insects anyway.
Wood, metal, and other material it corrodes within itself will allow it to function. Still, it does not gain enough nutrients to fully maintain itself. If a Pudding cannot find and digest flesh for a long enough period, it will wither and die.
Villains seeking to use black puddings as traps should account for this, as they will find their puddings escaping or withering.
A Black Pudding is most effectively dealt with using fire, fire magic, magical items, or praying (if you have a cleric).