What I've thought of so far:
Type: Aberration
Attacks:
2 Claws
1 Tail Strike (with a paralytic poison)
Bite Attack (How to represent the double-mouth thing? Maybe give a second free bite attack whenever it makes a successful bite?)
Acid Blood (Ex): Whenever a Xenomorph takes damage, any adjacent models take acid damage. If wounded with a melee weapon, the weapon takes acid damage as well.
Bonus to Stealth (They are very good at hiding most of the time.
Also, what would be an appropriate CR for a Xenomorph? A CR would help hammer out a lot of the incidental stuff like stats. What about the higher-up types like the Queen?
You could pick any CR you want. It's all a matter of how threatening you want them to be relative to the party and the world.
The xenomorphs were dealt with using high-tech firearms and stuff. How powerful are those on a fantasy magic scale?
What I've thought of so far:
Type: Aberration
Attacks:
2 Claws
1 Tail Strike (with a paralytic poison)
Bite Attack (How to represent the double-mouth thing? Maybe give a second free bite attack whenever it makes a successful bite?)
Have the bite do a grab attack, so once grappled the victim cannot escape and the inner jaws can then bite chunks out of them every turn. (Moray eels actually have the same arrangement of outer and inner jaws, believe it or not, and that's how they work).
They should be incredibly strong, as they were clearly able to punch through steel doors and other obstacles.
Acid Blood (Ex): Whenever a Xenomorph takes damage, any adjacent models take acid damage. If wounded with a melee weapon, the weapon takes acid damage as well.
I'd make it a reflex save to avoid the acid, and have it do damage like acid arrow. I'd make the damage at least a couple of d6 and last a few turns, delivering an automatic sunder attack on armour and shields. Range could be up to ten feet.
Bonus to Stealth (They are very good at hiding most of the time.
Agreed. Also a climb speed (remember them crawling across the ceiling?), swim speed (Alien: Resurrection showed this) and the blindsight power (but no eyes).
Also, what would be an appropriate CR for a Xenomorph? A CR would help hammer out a lot of the incidental stuff like stats. What about the higher-up types like the Queen?
That depends on how tough you want them to be. I would say CR6 would be the starting minimum for a xenomorph 'warrior' (the standard type) but you could also add features of their 'host' race - remember the alien from Alien 3 was based on a dog, rather than a human, and looked it.
You should also consider that while the xenomorphs were cut down in their droves on occasion, this was by advanced automatic firearms. Up close and personal they were very, very nasty to deal with.
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Since their form is actually based upon the host body, you might want to think of it as an added template to an existing creature. That way you could have the Xenomorph Umber Hulk or Xenomorph Land Shark.
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I tried an Alien one-shot in 1e once. The players were quite unhappy about the acid causing damage to melee weapons. Many were lost.
I think the higher level you go, the less effective "trash" weapons (that is, weapons the players don't mind losing to acid) will be in dealing with them, and the less fun the fights will be.
In my one-shot, the queen had taken over a red dragon's cave (its chest-ripped body laying outside the entrance).
I like the template idea. It'll help demonstrate their genetic mutability.
I would make it a magical beast. Full BAB, Good Fort and Reflex saves, 1d10 HD. These guys are tough, strong, and fast.
For the encounter, maybe disarm the PCs beforehand, then have them grab a bunch of improvised weapons they aren't emotionally attached to.
For example, if this was a modern campaign, have them locked in garage with chainsaws, circular saws, nailguns, firemen's axes, blow torches, giant wrenches and lead pipes, carpenter's hammers, etc. etc.
In Pathfinder, maybe lock the PCs in an ancient ruined dwarven forge, have them fight (and loot) some skeleton warriors, etc. etc.
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One of the old Spelljammer rulebooks had a creature very similar to a xenomorph. It was genetically programmed to hunt the most populous species in any environment. It was originally from a planet with a primarily halfling population.
It was called the anadjhian, or something similar. It was a 12 HD monster in AD&D stats.
i gonna have to second the aberration creature type.
those things arent natural
I have the official "Aliens Adventure Game" (yes, there was one ^^).
Since the system is both fundamentally different from PF (or d20 in general) and awfully complicated*, I'll just try to compare the stats of an alien to those of a default starting player character and give some additional info about the aliens' abilities, just to get a look at how dangerous they were meant to be and what they are capable of.
Of course, there is no obligation to build it like that in any way.
Do whatever is fun for your group.
Maybe it's just because I'm used to SR4 and PF lately, and haven't looked into the Alien system for ages or actually played it, they use a whole lot of tables where you have to check the result of your roll (to succeed, the sum of 3d6 needs to be under "difficulty class of the check determined by some arbitrary table +- your skill +- enemy skill +- modifiers for distance from a table +- modis for lighting and other combat situation factors you get out of another table +- accuracy of the weapon used, yeah, there's a table for those +- how much time you spend aiming +- color of your target +- time of day" or something like that) against some other stuff to get a hit location, then you take the damage of your weapon and crossreference it in another table to see which result it has in the location for the armor value of your target... and... yeah... they lost me in the intro already.
Only relevant : if something does damage wayyyyy above your knockdown value, you're probably gone.
You roll 3d6 (have to get under the dc) DCs range from 16 (for very easy) to 4 (for extremely difficult) while skill ratings (added to DC) range from -8 (for unskilled) to +10 (for grand master).
Primary Attributes for the example PC /vs/ Alien (warrior form)
Str 12 // 21
Int 15 // 6
Wil 12 // - (they are too strange to have things like combat morals or fear)
Health 12 // - (apparantly used for endurance)
Agility 12 // 16
Secondary (Aliens and other NPCs don't seem to have those listed; if they had Perception, it should be at 16 or so)
Cha 14, Leadership 8, Perception 10, Motivation 14
Calculated Values (s.a.)
Combat Actions 6 // 8 (you can move 6ft per action, shooting starts at 1 for a hip-shot, if you want a chance of hitting you should use 3+ actions or so)
Knockout Value 48 // 150 (it's different from HP... bottom line: they take about 3 times as much as a human)
Some skills at +4, apparently // nothing fixed, but from the text, they should have stealth of +6 at least
-seven feet tall, 250-300 pounds weight
-sharp vision (much better than human) + infrared vision (Yeah, I know. This game is older than the third Alien movie. Some things have changed later. They don't have eyes, so they shouldn't have actual vision, but they should have blindsight due to their extremely acute infrared perception.)
-can communicate via sound or infrared patterns on forehead (THAT's how good their infrared perception is.)
-acute smell sense
-extreme stealth and climbing skills (shown to climb along rough ceilings in the movies)
-can stay in dormant state for ages before waking up to the presence of food or danger
-"only desperation fire comes before the Alien's melee attacks" from the combat section implies that they should have a bonus on initiative, reflexes etc., they are definitely faster than humans
-it seems they can do 4 of their attacks (grab -> automatic grapple hold, bite, incapacitating poison tail sting) per round. If they hit you with a grab, you're automatically immobilized and take crushing damage. If they hit you with a bite, you're likely to survive that, but if they hit you with a full attack, you'll probably be down. Their tail stings do as much damage as their bite, but you're automatically paralyzed from their poison.
-Tubes on their back can be used to produce a web-like substance that automatically affixes to the resin substance they use to build nests and is strong enough to hold alien + prey (they can also pull themselves up when hanging down from the net) but can also be used like climbing rope or to bind paralyzed prey (which is pulled on their back and fixed between the tubes for easy transport)
-resistant to melee damage (but can be stunned by it for 1 round)
-a grenade hit will kill it, but you'd probably need multiple hits with a firearm
-their natural armor is as strong as high tech medium class infantry armor
-Acid blood: any time an alien takes (non-fire) dmg, every person and object within spray range checks for acid dmg. Spray range and damage depend on weapon used against the alien and injury dealt (told you it is complicated!): range from 3ft to 12ft and damage from 5 to 1000 points (for heavy weapons). The "save" against that has a base success chance of 60% or so.
Bottom line: if you damage the alien, better not stand close to it or you and your gear will be transformed into soup.
All that said... They should be deadly.
Fast, vicious, don't face them alone, blast them away from the distance or use a flamethrower.
So, while I typed all this, I got ninja'd with an ENworld link... And when I take a cursory look at the template and the free d20 conversion mentioned in that thread, I think they did a good job over there. I'd use those instead of building something new.
PS: PM me if you want to take a closer look into the Aliens Adventure Game rules (they're awful). ;)
ridley scott created them so anything else is non-canon
true
I remember that game too, it was based on the Phoenix Command firearms system...horribly complex and far too 'realistic'.
Chestbursters are an infection. Probably a melee touch attack + Fortitude save, with death in 1d12 x 1d12 hours.
About acid blood when it takes damage. What if they are using blunt weapons or improved unarmed strike? i.e. not-cutting/puncturing weapons? That would be more likely to include internal bleeding than external.
Also, spells, a fire or frost spell shouldn't cause blood to spray everywhere.
The eye thing is kind of a misconception. They do have eyes (Alien resurrection was never made!), they're just hidden behind a one-way carapace on their head. They're not visible because H.R. Giger believed them to be far more terrifying if you can't tell which direction they're looking, which I firmly agree.
Edit: Originally, they had empty eye sockets behind a translucent layer of chitin, but it was dropped in later movies.
i gonna have to second the aberration creature type.
** spoiler omitted **
those things arent natural
I'd make them magical beasts.
Give them a big bite attack, which if it misses they can make a free attack with a smaller bite attack, all as part of a single attack action, thus usable as a standard attack.
Their AC should actually be fairly low (they're easy to puncture) and most of it should be made up from high Dex.
They should have high base speed, and should probably have spider climb. They should also be immune to slow and similar effects.
I would allow them to Run without being required to move in a straight line. I would further allow them to ignore most types of difficult terrain.
They should have Dodge and Mobility and Combat Reflexes. And can stand up from prone without provoking.
They should likely have resistance or immunity to poison. The same holds true for acid and cold. That said, they may be vulnerable to fire.
I would allow them to hold their breath for twice as long as other characters, but not indefinitely.
The tail should be considered adamantine. If it hits, the tail should remain inside the target as long as the xenomorph wishes, automatically dealing its base damage once per round after it first hits. If the target is in a position such that it would be flanked by the xenomorph and a solid object, it becomes pinned between the two, unable to move but otherwise does not become grappled.
Its acid is under pressure, such that any damage done by piercing or slashing weapons causes a spurt in the direction the attack came from. Anything within the next square takes damage barring a Reflex save.
They should get forelimbs that can do either slams or claw attacks, to go with the bite(s) and tail.
They should likely be able to see in darkness as a devil, and probably have blindsense at least out to 30ft.
They should have a high Intelligence, but no languages. They should have high Survival and Perception, along with Stealth, Climb, and Acrobatics.
They should be immune to enchantment(compulsion) spells.
I would give them improved uncanny dodge.
They should probably have pounce. And rend.
I would probably design them such that they have relatively low hit points but tend to be found in clusters. Players shouldn't go up against one of them at a time. A half-dozen or so should constitute a formidable challenge, so that even if one or two a round are killed, the other four or five are still doing significant damage. These are murder machines, but not invulnerable. They should appear relentless and immune to situational obstacles and tactics, but are fundamentally possible to kill (at a cost) with sheer damage. Basically don't get fancy... don't trip, don't rely on cover, don't try to use web on them, don't use Diplomacy, don't try to entangle them, don't try to out-position them, don't try to hide from them... just... smash them before they overwhelm you.
This could be done as a template, but it'd be very hard to judge what adjustment would be correct for a given creature. A xenomorphic cat and a xenomorphic hill giant aren't going to scale up the same.
I agree with all that Anguish had to say except the part about high Intelligence. I would give them MAYBE slightly above animal Intelligence (4 to 6 range) with a high Wisdom score (17 to 20 range). Maybe even Intelligence 2.
Maybe not immunity to enchantment (compulsion) spells.
Maybe give them blindsight and hivemind.
Maybe give them rules for fighting as a horde (like a giant version of the swarm).
A couple of years back I came up with a pretty good alien.
I needed a small version that popped out of people's chests, the large size, and a huge queen. Since they were all stated out in 3.5, I used the different spiders, and added the half-green dragon template.
I switched out the breath weapon for acid for blood. Anyone damaging it with slashing or piercing from an adjacent square takes 1d6 acid damage.
I also swapped the fly speed for a climb speed and the ability to move normally even when squeezing.
It was pretty cool to have drow tending the alien queen as an unholy blessing from Lolth.
EDIT: Even if you skip the half-dragon spider idea, I would have to go with making them of the dragon type. If not dragon, I would say aberration or possibly outsiders.
When it comes to creature type debate, I think quoting the actual definition of an Aberration used in the bestiary might be helpful:
"An aberration has a bizarre anatomy, strange abilities, an alien mindset, or any combination of the three."
Sure sounds like a Xenomorph to me.
+1 to everything Anguish said, except: they do have their own language. Int 6 should be enough. And they probably should have hivemind.
And, not to derail this, but anyone ever tried a Warhammer 40k to Pathfinder conversion? There are some very similar tyrannid forms you could use (plus you can use the tyrannid minis on the battlemap - the old starquest board game had similar creatures already, though).
Thinking about the Alien, intelligence was always a big question with them. How intelligent would a fully developed human brain have with only a week of life experience?
They should have reduced mental scores to reflect lack of experience, not lack of brain-power.
Thinking about the Alien, intelligence was always a big question with them. How intelligent would a fully developed human brain have with only a week of life experience?
They should have reduced mental scores to reflect lack of experience, not lack of brain-power.
Depends, do they have genetic memory? Then they could be rather intelligent, more so the later generations.
I would say they are very intelligent. They aren't going to just run into a group of enemies and hope to take out a few before they get slaughtered. In the movies they hunt, lie in wait, set traps, bide their time, search for weaknesses, cooperate, understand strength in numbers, and retreat when faced with a superior foe or unfavorable circumstances.
I know Alien Resurrection is bad in some ways, but they do capture some of this really well too. Just think of the scene where two aliens kill a third so they can use it's blood to cut through the floor and escape the holding sell. This seems to be an Int of at least 8, if not 10-12.
Also I would not make it immune or resistance to cold, again with Resurrection, I think they used CO2 bursts to (attempt to) train them.
I would say they are very intelligent. They aren't going to just run into a group of enemies and hope to take out a few before they get slaughtered. In the movies they hunt, lie in wait, set traps, bide their time, search for weaknesses, cooperate, understand strength in numbers, and retreat when faced with a superior foe or unfavorable circumstances.
...and charge sentry guns, losing dozens before they worked out enough to go around the guns. Bright, but nothing near human-level intelligence. Say around 4-6.
A lot of what you describe is instinctive behaviour. Crocodiles hunt, lie in wait, bide their time, set traps, search for weaknesses and they are not mental giants. The behaviour you describe is easily matched by a pack of wolves.
I know Alien Resurrection is bad in some ways, but they do capture some of this really well too. Just think of the scene where two aliens kill a third so they can use it's blood to cut through the floor and escape the holding sell. This seems to be an Int of at least 8, if not 10-12.
Yep, but those aliens had been around for a while, they had learned from the humans. I think the Aliens get their relative intelligence from their hosts and have a certain amount of basic instinct pre-programmed in, and after that they have to learn.
In Aliens, the xenomorphs were inexperienced, and hadn't been around long. They had the brains, but hadn't learned to use them. One reason humans have such an extended childhood is to learn how to make the most of our big brains, and the Aliens do not have that much time to learn which will ultimately limit the development of their intelligence because they do not get that long, neuron forming period. Intelligence 4-6, as I said above, and that's being generous.
In Alien 3 the dog-based Alien never got very smart. It hunted, killed, tracked, and used hit-and-run tactics, but it never fought clever. Intelligence 2-3, max.
In Alien Resurrection, the Aliens had been around a while, and had worked out some basic tactics over time - especially as the humans were actively trying to train them. Doable with intelligence 6-8, maybe as smart as your average orc, and that was as smart as their cleverest. I'd make this the cap of their intelligence, without the long development time humans get when they are growing up.
There vas a creature created in the Book of Vile darkness that fit the bill... even had the same stages. I don't have it on hand, though. Buried in my archives deep in storage.
I believe you were thinking of the Kython? Six differing stat blocks from small to large (HD ranged from 2-18).
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What I've thought of so far:
Type: Aberration
Attacks:
2 Claws
1 Tail Strike (with a paralytic poison)
Bite Attack (How to represent the double-mouth thing? Maybe give a second free bite attack whenever it makes a successful bite?)Acid Blood (Ex): Whenever a Xenomorph takes damage, any adjacent models take acid damage. If wounded with a melee weapon, the weapon takes acid damage as well.
Bonus to Stealth (They are very good at hiding most of the time.
Also, what would be an appropriate CR for a Xenomorph? A CR would help hammer out a lot of the incidental stuff like stats. What about the higher-up types like the Queen?
Take a look at the Akata in Bestiary 2
Yeah akata are nasty to low level parties.
dont forget high swim speed, not sure about amphibious