It's very funny to me that the stereotypical gelatinous cube is bright fucking green when the monster itself is almost perfectly transparent. Like its gimmick is that it's a monster that imitates an empty 10x10 hallway. How many people have fallen victim to gelatinous cubes because they "know" that the ooze is bright green and so don't bother to check the suspiciously clean corridor in front of them.
imagine, a non-acidic gelatinous cube. its ooze is like that oxygenated fluid mice can breathe. organisms inside it bob peacefully, harmlessly, inhaling oxygen-rich slime. the cube, in turn, absorbs respiratory byproducts that nourish it. it adjusts its atmosphere to soothe and pacify occupants and intuitively ejects unwilling ones. found in dungeons inhospitable to other life, like passages filled with poison gas, it seeks out adventurers to ferry across those areas, offering a mutually beneficial exchange of sustenance.
toying around with the idea of teams having uniforms but i only really think freesmart would use it the best so i drafted up some concepts …. also bonus firey and gelatin
It's important to remember that, even in D&D, not all monsters have to pose a physical threat. Some monsters are intellectual threats, some manipulators, some stealthy killers.