Using Slaadi in encounters

I imagine a slaadi merchant being a lot like the "moody butcher" in the Monte Python sketch that is alternately polite and rude to the customer.

-420

That's good for low level slaadi, but what about the black and the white ones?

What kind of planes could create theese powerful chaotic outsiders? After all, They are veeeery intelligent.

It's the usual problem of depicting pure chaos. You can go for complete randomness, but that often comes at the price of intelligence. It's hard, though I dare say not impossible, to be random intelligently. I would suggest having the chaotic creature in question take actions that help progress its cause without following any logical pattern in relation to other actions.

One thing I've considered, though, is adding chaos theory to the mix. Thus, those seemingly random actions might cause reactions that combine in ways unexpected by anyone but other chaotic beings, who act seemingly randomly and without purpose until all their actions weave together to do exactly what they intended. Does that make sense?

It doesn't necessarily have to be a high-caste Slaad using chaos theory to his advantage. For example, a Red Slaad facing off against a group of would-be heroes might take a round off to break a nearby door, then a few rounds later it might pause to throw the hooked hammer that it just disarmed from the group's gnomish priest high into the air, getting it stuck in the rafters, and finally it would make erratic movements around the area until it positions the group's fighter onto a part of the broken door. All of these actions seem random on their own, but when the slaad launches into an elegant grand jeté onto another part of the door and uses it as a lever to launch its opponent high into the air and get his chainmail caught on the hook of the hammer, all the randomness suddenly gains a purpose. The DM could roll some sort of luck check or develop a new set of rules for chaotic combinations, but it could also be done 'behind the scenes'. Xaositects could also have such powers, though to a lesser extent. I'm not sure how to judge the power of such abilities, though.

Also, Shadowbite, I completely agree with your criticism of Death Slaad alignment, and I like your solution. Slaadi's lack of true chaos and all too often evil tendencies can easily be explained away as a result of the Spawning Stone, but the exact nature of said stone is an adventure in itself. Could the Slaadi lords have been tricked by some Obyrith ruler (or even a Baern) in the ancient past, or are they simply performing a millenia long chaotic combination that will soon come to fruition to the horror of all the other races of the multiverse?