Review: DM Dave’s Oozemancer Class for D&D 5E

A couple of years ago DM Dave put out an Oozemancer class for Dungeons & Dragons 5E. I decided to give it a go in a campaign earlier this year and thought I’d share some thoughts on how it played.

For context, my Oozemancer was a young drow girl (Sela) who had been kept prisoner by some ruffians in the Underdark led by some Beholders (including the Beholder that killed my previous character, an Orc Wizard) until she was rescued by the party. Upon discovery, the group noticed a strange, wet, blue sheen over her skin. They did not initially realise what this sheen was until they got into combat and some pseudopods erupted from her back, striking at all nearby foes and sending globs of deadly ooze flying at distant targets. I had a lot of fun with this character.

Rather than merely understanding or controlling oozes, the concept at the core of this class is that of a symbiotic relationship. The whole thing about a gooey symbiote melding with the host, lashing out in combat, enhancing abilities… it’s all got pretty major Venom vibes.

Mechanically, you’re wanting to put points into Charisma, Constitution, and strength, likely in that order. As a spellcaster, Charisma is your spellcasting ability. Your hit dice are D10s.

I love that right from the start, weapons and armour don’t really matter to you. You have no proficiencies except for simple weapons. The Unarmoured Defense skill gives you AC based on your dexterity and constitution modifiers (plus 10), which is fantastic. Instead of weapons, you have Ooze Attacks. In melee, you will use your Pseudopods. These attacks are okay and can be improved later via a specific subclass option. Your ranged attack is Fling Glob, whereby you hurl a glob of goo at the enemy. The option to base this attack on either strength or dexterity gives you a good level of flexibility.

There’s also a further initial ability that allows you to communicate with the usually-implacable oozes. There are some further customisation options at 2nd level, which is also when spellcasting opens up for you. There’s a decent selection of spells available to this class, though the choices do narrow quite a bit as we move into levels 4 and 5.

In terms of scale, the generic class abilities tick along quite well for a while, with attacks becoming magical, advantage on stealth, the ability to scale walls, and improvements to the already-fantastic Unarmoured Defense ability.

I think the upper-level abilities are a little bland, though. An immunity to blinded isn’t bad – it’s certainly useful – but it’s not an exciting ability for level 18. Similarly, One Body, Two Minds is a beautifully thematic ability that sees the host and symbiote become ever closer, ultimately merging into a single being. This lets you add your charisma modifier to one attack or damage roll per turn. Again, it’s pretty decent, but I’d have liked to see something a little cooler at level 20.

Going back to level 3, we have the opportunity to choose a subclass/archetype. There are only two to choose from, but they have quite different features. The Sludge King/Queen turns the Oozemancer into a pet class, allowing you to choose from a selection of Ooze Companions.

All of the abilities that you get for choosing this archetype enhance your pet ooze. My favourite of these is the 15th level ability which allows you to duplicate the effect of a buffing spell that you can on yourself onto your sticky pal. This makes your limited spell slots all the more effective and efficient, and further incentivises you to use buffing spells, rather than focus entirely on offensive spells, as can often be the temptation.

The other archetype, and the one I chose for my own character, is that of the Wretched Lurker. I think that it is, by far, the more interesting subclass. With extra spells, poisoned attacks, and the ability to transform into an amorphous goo, it’s just fun. It also adapts the Pseudopod attack, allowing you to strike all enemies within 5 feet, rather than just a single target. This helps to compensate for the comparatively low damage that the attack delivers. This archetype also allows you to use a reaction to half the damage of one attack that comes your way.

As a class, I found the Oozemancer to be a lot of fun. I started at quite a high level as this was a replacement character that was brought in midway through a long campaign. As such, I jumped straight into having some really cool abilities. I found the class quite good for survivability thanks to the casting, the Unarmored Defense ability, and the extra defensive abilities provided by the Wretched Lurker Archetype. I probably wouldn’t play the class with the Sludge King/Queen archetype, as I just don’t much care for pet classes, and I’d feel that I was missing out on all of the cool abilities that come with the Wretched Lurker.

The last couple of abilities at level 18 and level 20 are a little disappointing. They’re thematic but underwhelming. I’m not sure what I’d put in their place, but I’d definitely try to find something to help scale up the damage that the class can do with the Pseudopod and Fling Glob attacks. This slight lack of scaling is really my main complaint with a class that is otherwise a lot of fun.

On balance, I’d definitely use this class again in a future game, likely sticking with the fantastic Wretched Lurker archetype.

If you’d like to take a closer look at the rules, you can click here to visit DM Dave’s site.