Slaad, Gray

The chaotic planes seethe and roil with random energy and bits of matter. Weaving their way amid this cacophony of light and sound are the slaadi.

Creatures of chaos, slaadi have been likened to humanoid toads, but that description belies their agility and fearsome fighting prowess.

All slaadi speak their own language, Slaad. Green, gray, and death slaadi also speak Common, and in addition death slaadi can communicate telepathically.

A green slaad that survives for more than a century retreats into isolation for at least a year. It returns as a smaller, leaner gray slaad and devotes most of its time and attention to magical study. Gray slaadi enjoy crafting magic items to further their own power.

Slaadi generally attack with their claws and bite. They relish melee combat but are savvy enough to use their summoning and other spell-like abilities to good effect. A slaad’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as chaotic-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

All slaadi have resistance to acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5, and fire 5, and immunity to sonic damage.

Gray slaadi prefer to fight from a distance, using their spell-like abilities, although they don’t shy away from melee.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will—chaos hammer (DC 16), deeper darkness, detect magic, identify, invisibility, lightning bolt (DC 15), magic circle against law, see invisibility, shatter (DC 14); 3/day—animate objects, dispel law (DC 17), fly; 1/day—power word stun. Caster level 10th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.

Change Shape (Su): A gray slaad can assume any humanoid form as a standard action. In humanoid form, a gray slaad cannot use its natural weapons (although a slaad can equip itself with weapons and armor appropriate to its appearance). A gray slaad remains in one form until it chooses to assume a new one. A change in form cannot be dispelled, but the slaad reverts to its natural form when killed. A true seeing spell reveals its natural form.

Summon Slaad (Sp): Slaadi can summon other slaadi much as though casting a summon monster spell, but they have only a limited chance of success. Roll d%: On a failure, no slaadi answer the summons. Summoned creatures automatically return whence they came after 1 hour. A slaad that has just been summoned cannot use its own summon ability for 1 hour.

Most slaadi do not use this ability lightly, since they are generally distrustful and fearful of one another. In general, they use it only when necessary to save their own lives.

Twice per day a gray slaad can attempt to summon 1–2 red slaadi or 1 blue slaad with a 60% chance of success, or 1 green slaad with a 40% chance of success. This ability is the equivalent of a 5th-level spell.