Help, how to balance a slime character?

[EliseValkyria]

Hello everyone again

Today's topic, I need help balancing a slime character.

My novel has a lot of action scenes and battles. So I need them to be entertaining and tense. And most importantly, with repercussions, so that the readers are afraid of what might happen to the protagonists.

My problem is that a character I introduced is a slime girl, she is quite important to the story and I wanted to do something a little different, but now I think I overdid it and made her OP without wanting to.

Basically, the slime girl does not evaporate in the heat, or freeze into ice cubes in the cold, does not dilute in water and does not use a core, although it helps to have the shape of a girl (something like training wheels). at least in normal circumstances, those that a human would endure. If it falls into a lava pit, well, I guess it doesn't matter what it was in the first place.

Now, in a battle, how would you try to beat her?

It can be wounded, but it is made of water, it would not have any repercussions, right?

If an arm is cut off, isn't she able to just put it back together and glue it again? can regenerate lost body parts basically

What things could be used against something that can simply come together again during a normal fight?

The setting of my story is modern military, trying to be as realistic as possible.
Magic can be used, but nothing super powerful like merlin destroying reality, it has to be subtle or simple, a fireball or a big spell requires a lot of materials and preparation. It prefers something scientific to something magical.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

What Shikamaru did to Hidan.

 

[RepresentingPride]

Hello everyone again

Today's topic, I need help balancing a slime character.

My novel has a lot of action scenes and battles. So I need them to be entertaining and tense. And most importantly, with repercussions, so that the readers are afraid of what might happen to the protagonists.

My problem is that a character I introduced is a slime girl, she is quite important to the story and I wanted to do something a little different, but now I think I overdid it and made her OP without wanting to.

Basically, the slime girl does not evaporate in the heat, or freeze into ice cubes in the cold, does not dilute in water and does not use a core, although it helps to have the shape of a girl (something like training wheels).

Now, in a battle, how would you try to beat her?

It can be wounded, but it is made of water, it would not have any repercussions, right?

If an arm is cut off, isn't she able to just put it back together and glue it again? can regenerate lost body parts basically

What things could be used against something that can simply come together again during a normal fight?

The setting of my story is modern military, trying to be as realistic as possible.
Magic can be used, but nothing super powerful like merlin destroying reality, it has to be subtle or simple, a fireball or a big spell requires a lot of materials and preparation. It prefers something scientific to something magical.

I don't know what energy system you use in your story but the energy there can damage her body and to collect her part again she can use her own energy, meaning when she run off of it she could die. Or you can go the way to disintegrate her with attack, she couldn't attach her body part if it's disintegrate

 

[LilRora]

I see two simple ways to do it.

First is for her to have low endurance. Basically she can only store so much energy in her body, and once she runs out she can't regenerate properly and turns sluggish. That would require her conserve her energy, avoid wasteful exchanges, and look for quick resolutions to fights.

Second might not work depending what you already have written, but you can make her need to control her whole body consciously, and lose that control once she's separated from its part. So for example once she loses an arm, it's not that simple as just having to attach it again, but she has to consciously bring that mass back under her control (which would probably take a significant amount of time, the exact details are up to you). If you went that way, she would need to be careful not to be dismembered, but she would remain almost invulnerable to blunt, slashing, and piercing attacks, to a reasonable extent of course.

You could also come up with some more esoteric side effects to both, for example she could lose all energy stored within a part of her body that's left unattended.

Edit: If you're asking how to kill her, one thing that comes to mind is vibrations. Have you ever seen a sand bath? If not, look it up, and she could probably be defeated the exact same way. Basically melts down exposed to strong enough vibrations.

 

[Jerynboe]

Well it sounds like she’s chemically non-reactive on the surface at least, if it doesn’t dilute in water. Could a foreign object harm her if it broke the surface tension before dissolving or mixing with the water? Like, if someone shot her with a shotgun loaded with rock salt ammunition could that somehow negatively impact her unless she gets it out quickly?
This idea relies on the assumption that you haven’t had her toting stuff around inside of her body that would normally be reactive with water, of course. It would probably be better to use something this simple as a mild weakness that could slow her down or “drug” her as opposed to something likely to actually kill her.

 

[beast_regards]

Magic, thinking my D&D logic?

Necrotic damage? She is slime, not undead.

Forcibly plane shift her to the local equivalent of hell, or elemental planes, or whatever.

Trap her in forcefields, throw her around with telekinesis, lure her into glyphs of warding.

Other than that, an entirely non-magical form of content would work.

Acid, mundane or magical would work too.

Even mundane explosives would, especially if they exploded inside the blob, depend on how quickly she can reform herself. If it is too slow, a grenade exploding inside the blob would stop her, as well as most explosive rounds, since she will be busy putting herself back together.

Luring her into the concrete and steel vault, drowning her in acid, and then burying her in more concrete.

 

[Yuumei]

Hello everyone again

Today's topic, I need help balancing a slime character.

My novel has a lot of action scenes and battles. So I need them to be entertaining and tense. And most importantly, with repercussions, so that the readers are afraid of what might happen to the protagonists.

My problem is that a character I introduced is a slime girl, she is quite important to the story and I wanted to do something a little different, but now I think I overdid it and made her OP without wanting to.

Basically, the slime girl does not evaporate in the heat, or freeze into ice cubes in the cold, does not dilute in water and does not use a core, although it helps to have the shape of a girl (something like training wheels). at least in normal circumstances, those that a human would endure. If it falls into a lava pit, well, I guess it doesn't matter what it was in the first place.

Now, in a battle, how would you try to beat her?

It can be wounded, but it is made of water, it would not have any repercussions, right?

If an arm is cut off, isn't she able to just put it back together and glue it again? can regenerate lost body parts basically

What things could be used against something that can simply come together again during a normal fight?

The setting of my story is modern military, trying to be as realistic as possible.
Magic can be used, but nothing super powerful like merlin destroying reality, it has to be subtle or simple, a fireball or a big spell requires a lot of materials and preparation. It prefers something scientific to something magical.

There are many ways to work with this. It would have to be unconventional attacks. But first addressing some outlying techniques. Earth techniques should be effective in this case, encasing someone in an entire mound of earth should hinder their water ability. They'd soak into soil and then what? They'd be hindered in movement, forming mud around the earth which can probably be hardened afterward.

Lightnings effects should be stronger on a body like that as well due to its liquid nature.

But on a separate note what would happen if you were to remove a limb and compartmentalize it separate from the main body. It could of course recreate the limb, but the original mass would also deteriorate.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

What Shikamaru did to Hidan.

RIP Asuma

 

[HelloHound]

she's highly edible

 

[RepresentingSilence]

A slime only has so much mass limiting how far it can reach and how much it can lose before losing its humanoid shape and even if it can regenerate it would still take time and energy to do so

 

[EliseValkyria]

I don't know what energy system you use in your story but the energy there can damage her body and to collect her part again she can use her own energy, meaning when she run off of it she could die. Or you can go the way to disintegrate her with attack, she couldn't attach her body part if it's disintegrate

Well, that sounds like a good idea, the fact that she has to expend energy to recover or reattach parts of herself.

Although it will have to be tiring as the story is focused on something more normal, and not so much as something like Chakra level or something like that.

I see two simple ways to do it.

First is for her to have low endurance. Basically she can only store so much energy in her body, and once she runs out she can't regenerate properly and turns sluggish. That would require her conserve her energy, avoid wasteful exchanges, and look for quick resolutions to fights.

Second might not work depending what you already have written, but you can make her need to control her whole body consciously, and lose that control once she's separated from its part. So for example once she loses an arm, it's not that simple as just having to attach it again, but she has to consciously bring that mass back under her control (which would probably take a significant amount of time, the exact details are up to you). If you went that way, she would need to be careful not to be dismembered, but she would remain almost invulnerable to blunt, slashing, and piercing attacks, to a reasonable extent of course.

You could also come up with some more esoteric side effects to both, for example she could lose all energy stored within a part of her body that's left unattended.

Edit: If you're asking how to kill her, one thing that comes to mind is vibrations. Have you ever seen a sand bath? If not, look it up, and she could probably be defeated the exact same way. Basically melts down exposed to strong enough vibrations.

Well, the first one is similar to the previous one. Expending energy makes it more tiring to continue. Normal wounds are less tiring than reattaching a full arm. But the energy expenditure is something like running difficulty.

In the second case, the slime body is difficult to control and the protagonist, who was a normal person before being converted into a slime, has to learn to use her new body. Being so different, it is quite difficult for her to use it or to use a conscious form, so she uses a crystal that helps her to have a more human form. She remains in ball form, but could return to human form after practice, probably years.

Well it sounds like she’s chemically non-reactive on the surface at least, if it doesn’t dilute in water. Could a foreign object harm her if it broke the surface tension before dissolving or mixing with the water? Like, if someone shot her with a shotgun loaded with rock salt ammunition could that somehow negatively impact her unless she gets it out quickly?
This idea relies on the assumption that you haven’t had her toting stuff around inside of her body that would normally be reactive with water, of course. It would probably be better to use something this simple as a mild weakness that could slow her down or “drug” her as opposed to something likely to actually kill her.

The fact that it is not diluted in water is based solely on the idea of having the typical episode on the beach and that the protagonist can swim.

She has a pair of crystals inside her body, a gem that helps her to have human form and two other diamonds that are protecting her from a pair of thieves.

she's highly edible

Well yes, actually drinkable. I already wrote a joke about it.

Even the protagonist is watering a regular plant with her slime as an experiment.

A slime only has so much mass limiting how far it can reach and how much it can lose before losing its humanoid shape and even if it can regenerate it would still take time and energy to do so

I like the idea, that in case of regeration it expends mass and energy. And in case of reloading the lost parts, it will spend less energy. But in case of low energy, what should be the consequences?

 

[Succubiome]

Stakes in battle don't always have to be death for all participants to be interesting.

Maybe that crystal that helps her maintain human form is super rare, and if it gets shattered, yeah, she's still alive-- but she's lost her ability to be seen as a person by most, and communicate with humans, potentially forever.

 

[Plantorsomething]

Hello everyone again

Today's topic, I need help balancing a slime character.

My novel has a lot of action scenes and battles. So I need them to be entertaining and tense. And most importantly, with repercussions, so that the readers are afraid of what might happen to the protagonists.

My problem is that a character I introduced is a slime girl, she is quite important to the story and I wanted to do something a little different, but now I think I overdid it and made her OP without wanting to.

Basically, the slime girl does not evaporate in the heat, or freeze into ice cubes in the cold, does not dilute in water and does not use a core, although it helps to have the shape of a girl (something like training wheels). at least in normal circumstances, those that a human would endure. If it falls into a lava pit, well, I guess it doesn't matter what it was in the first place.

Now, in a battle, how would you try to beat her?

It can be wounded, but it is made of water, it would not have any repercussions, right?

If an arm is cut off, isn't she able to just put it back together and glue it again? can regenerate lost body parts basically

What things could be used against something that can simply come together again during a normal fight?

The setting of my story is modern military, trying to be as realistic as possible.
Magic can be used, but nothing super powerful like merlin destroying reality, it has to be subtle or simple, a fireball or a big spell requires a lot of materials and preparation. It prefers something scientific to something magical.

Maybe if she dissolves certain things her consistency chnge. If she absorbs starch/glue, more solid, more water more runny, and if she dissolves salt he shrinks. Double check the science tho. Also make it harder to control if she’s too runny or too solid, so she needs a balance for max effectiveness.

 

[EliseValkyria]

There are many ways to work with this. It would have to be unconventional attacks. But first addressing some outlying techniques. Earth techniques should be effective in this case, encasing someone in an entire mound of earth should hinder their water ability. They'd soak into soil and then what? They'd be hindered in movement, forming mud around the earth which can probably be hardened afterward.

Lightnings effects should be stronger on a body like that as well due to its liquid nature.

But on a separate note what would happen if you were to remove a limb and compartmentalize it separate from the main body. It could of course recreate the limb, but the original mass would also deteriorate.

Even if it is made of water, it is not absorbable, so if she uses a napkin, nothing happens. Although the lightning or electricity could knock her out or reset her form for a long time.

Maybe things like pharmaceuticals will have double the effect on her, like a normal sedative for a couple of hours could make her sleep for days.

 

[RepresentingSilence]

I like the idea, that in case of regeration it expends mass and energy. And in case of reloading the lost parts, it will spend less energy. But in case of low energy, what should be the consequences?

Maybe she loses her humanoid form and has to stay a typical slime or a puddle or something until she's recovered her energy

 

[EliseValkyria]

Stakes in battle don't always have to be death for all participants to be interesting.

Maybe that crystal that helps her maintain human form is super rare, and if it gets shattered, yeah, she's still alive-- but she's lost her ability to be seen as a person by most, and communicate with humans, potentially forever.

Good suggestions, but it is an important character, I need it very often.

I always try to make the battles big and complex. Where even if there is a very OP character that can win in a guaranteed way, he can still lose by not being in the right place at the right time during the battle.

For example, in a battle in New York, a powerful character lost because he did not reach a bridge in time and the bridge was destroyed. This meant that allied troops could not help in time to help with the reconquest of the city. And the character, as strong as he was, had to flee because he was tired of being alone fighting on the front without help.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Throw baking soda at her.

 

[EliseValkyria]

Throw baking soda at her.

It would be comical if something like doing that made her inflate like a balloon or look obese.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Remove the quintessence from her pattern. Total existence failure. That's my go to.

 

[melchi]

The less intuitive the solution is the worse it is for readers to read.

If she is really OP, and doesn't have the expected weaknesses of a water-themed creature then the most intuitive thing would be high cost of operation.

Ideas:
1.) A really picky diet.
2.) Requires lots of sleep
3.) Extremely difficult to work with
4.) Needs to consume so much that having her in the party is too expensive.
5.) Can't work in a team.
6.) Can only function in certain areas.
7.) If she uses her powers it adversely affects her allies.