RSS RSS Facebook Twitter Email
Starfinder / Rulebooks

Starfinder Alien Archive

4.10/5 (based on 24 ratings)
Starfinder Alien Archive
Show Description For:
Non-Mint

Add Hardcover $39.99

Add PDF $19.99

Non-Mint Unavailable

Facebook Twitter Email

Close Encounters

Strange aliens both friendly and fearsome fill this tome of creatures designed for use with the Starfinder Roleplaying Game! From the gravity-manipulating frujais and planet-killing novaspawn to space goblins and security robots, the creatures in this codex will challenge adventurers no matter what strange worlds they're exploring. What's more, player rules for a host of creatures let players not just fight aliens, but be them!

Inside Starfinder Alien Archive, you'll find the following:

  • Over 80 bizarre life-forms both classic and new, from the reptilian ikeshtis and energy-bodied hallajins to robotic anacites and supernatural entities from beyond the realms of mortals.
  • Over 20 species with full player rules, letting you play everything from a winged dragonkin to a hyperevolved floating brain.
  • New alien technology to help give your character an edge, including weapons, armor, magic items, and more.
  • A robust NPC-creation system to let Game Masters build any aliens or creatures they can imagine.
  • New rules for magical monster summoning, quick templates to modify creatures on the fly, and more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-975-2

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Roll20 Virtual Tabletop
SoundSet on Syrinscape
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscription.

Product Availability

Hardcover:

Available now

Ships from our warehouse in 3 to 5 business days.

PDF:

Fulfilled immediately.

Non-Mint:

Unavailable

This product is non-mint. Refunds are not available for non-mint products. The standard version of this product can be found here.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

PZO7105

See Also:

21 to 24 of 24 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | next > last >>

Average product rating:

4.10/5 (based on 24 ratings)

Sign in to create or edit a product review.

could be better

3/5 —

This book should come with a warning label: assembly required.

On the one hand, the rules for making your own monsters/npcs are fantastic, every GM will love these. On the other hand, a lot of the creature entries come like a piece of ikea furniture. You get parts and instructions and have to assemble the playable stat block yourself. That's all good if I'm making custom creations, but if I want to use the space dragon that Paizo created I have to make that too.

As is, a GM either has to stop the game for 10 minutes before each encounter to calculate stat blocks for it, or spend a lot of extra prep time before the game on creating the stats for each encounter. For players, they added a summon monster spell... but again you have to create the stat blocks to actually use it.

Now I expect 3rd party sites, like d20srd, will eventually calculate and post up ready to use stat blocks. I feel like Paizo also expects this and is being lazy; hoping others will pick up their slack. Their smallest hardcover book yet, they definitely could have stood to add some pages to provide us with ready to play stat blocks for the creatures they created.

Major peeves out of the way, there's a lot of good stuff here. I especially like how they have goodies for players attached to creatures. Such as armor that can be made from the critter's hide, or special tech the species uses. And the make your own monster rules really are quite good.

Great book, but too small for its price tag

4/5 —

This is one of the coolest creature books I've read in a very long time. With few exceptions, creatures in this book have expansive descriptions. Life processes, society, desires, personality tendencies, and many more flavor articles are common. (Dragons and elementals are notable exceptions, with very short flavor descriptions by comparison)

Better still, around half of the monster have a player option. ~20% of the creatures are playable races, but even non-playable monster often have a player option. A magic item, a series of weapons or armor, a consumable, something. This makes the book an attractive one to look at for all player, not just GMs. I'm doubtful the player options are reason enough to buy the book on their own, but I'm very glad that they exist.

Importantly, every creature in the book feels like it should be here. You have the "generic needs to be here monsters" like the reptoid, the swarm, Oma (read, space whales) and a few updates to old classics (Ryphorians = Triaxians). Everything feels like it fits with the Starfinder model. It's refreshing to like every monster in a bestiary book, again.

The monster creation rules are easy enough to use. In short: Pick if your creature is a caster, a combatant, or an expert. Pick a CR. Look at the appropriate tables for HP, KAC and EAC, attack bonus, damage, and # of special abilities. Pick a few abilities that work with your concept and you have a functional statblock. You can make it more complex if you want to, but it doesn't have to be.
Plus, grafts. Grafts are a great GM tool. Sad that there's no demons in the book? Take any appropriate CR statblock and slap the outsider and demon grafts onto it. Now it's a demon.

The downside to this easy to use monster creation system is that you're expected to use it. Going back to my earlier comment regarding dragons and elementals: their flavor text is small because they have multiple grafts that give you the special abilities for the different kinds of monsters (fire, cold, air, earth elementals and the different colors of dragons). This is fine for elementals, which have a different statblock for each CR from 1/3-9, with only the special abilities being different.

Dragons, on the other hand REQUIRE you to do the prep-work in advanced. There is only 1 dragon statblock, and it's a CR 11. If you want a dragon of any other CR, you pretty much have to make it from scratch using the tables in appendix 1 and applying the right grafts. I liked the bestiaries having three statblocks per dragon variety.
Generally if I wanted the PCs to fight a dragon I could grab any bestiary and have at least 1 CR appropriate dragon for them without much work.

My biggest complaint about the book: It's the smallest Paizo hardcover I own, by a lot. It is 160 pages long. The next smallest I could find (that I own) was 254: Advanced Class Guide, Villain Codex, and Pathfinder Unchained.
The Alien Archive costs the same as Bestiaries 3 and 4. Each of those has over 300 according to the Paizo website descriptions for them. The Alien Archive has 95 stat blocks, which includes 3 ready-for-combat starship encounters. This is small by comparison. It's cheaper than 2/3 of Bestiaries, sure, but I'd have happily paid another $5 for an equally large book. When this is the ONLY Paizo monster book for the game, that's a big problem for me.
The content is great, don't get me wrong, I was just hoping for more of it, considering what I paid, and I will be more wary of Starfinder products in the future because of it.

TL;DR: Great Book. 5 star content. Small size knocks off a star.

Rollforcombat.com Alien Archive Review: We’re Not In Golarion Anymore...

5/5 —

Expanded audio review can be heard here as well: http://rollforcombat.com/podcast/004-csi-absalom-station/

It’s the newest rules supplement for the Starfinder game system. So new we had to rupture a small hole in the space-time continuum to get a copy. It’s best if we don’t discuss that any further, other than to say if you meet a cybernetically-enhanced otter named “Alphonse”, DO WHAT HE SAYS and wait for his quantum reality to collapse back into nothingness. But now that we’ve gone to all the trouble of rupturing the multiverse, the least we can do is offer you a few first impressions of the book.

At its simplest level, the Starfinder Alien Archive is a bestiary of creatures for use in your Starfinder games, even if that description sells it a little short. Nuts and bolts, it’s a little shy of 160 pages, with somewhere between 60-80 creatures (depending on how you choose to count variants and subtypes), 22 of which are presented as options for character races. Each creature gets a full two-page spread, so there’s no half-finished monsters tucked into whatever space they needed to fill. As with pretty much all Paizo products, the production values are top-notch – beautiful artwork, the data-heavy elements are presented clearly… these guys have been doing this for a while and know how to make these books look great.

But let’s give the Paizo guys credit – they didn’t just dump a bunch of random re-skinned orcs and zombies on us and call it a day. There’s a lot of other stuff going on under the hood.

Starfinder Alien Archive skittermanderFirst, there’s the sheer variety of the creatures. Yes, you do have some holdovers from the world of Pathfinder (elementals make an appearance, as do dragons), but most of the stuff in here is totally new. On one end of the spectrum, you have the Skittermanders, little technicolor furballs that could give the Porg from the new Star Wars a run for their money on the cuteness scale. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s the Novaspawn, which only has rules for starship combat because it’s so large (and yes… you’ll be happy to hear it has tentacles). The gelatinous cube of your youth gets a high-tech facelift as the Assembly Ooze, and now it can assemble and disassemble technology devices. One of the most intriguing might be the Hesper, a radioactive creature whose radiation attack can cause random mutations – because who doesn’t want to grow a few extra eyes in the middle of a battle?

Similarly the player races. The Drow, Dragonkin, and Space Goblins represent a shout-out to Pathfinder, but you’ve got plenty of new options. You have a couple different insect options; an aquatic race (the Kalo…. I actually kind of like them); the Reptoids, who have shape-shifting powers; the Nuar, who are kinda-sorta minotaur-ish. We also get an appearance everyone’s favorite little gray men from Area 51 (the Grays), and I can’t stress this enough… we now have a BRAIN-IN-A-JAR race, better known as the Contemplatives. So if you thought the races of the core rulebook were going to be a bit limiting… the Starfinder Alien Archive has got you covered.

In addition to the creatures themselves, you also get a small armory of treasure items that can be included as loot for the party. Sometimes it’s the loot carried by the creatures themselves – the Sarcesian are a race of mostly mercenaries that happen to carry really good sniper rifles. Sometimes it’s gear that can be harvested from the remains – you can take the remains of a scavenger slime and make sticky bombs out of it. Sometimes it’s more of a similarly themed item – the Bryrvath is a creature that manipulates light to fuel its powers; in studying it, scientists invented the “Aura Goggles” which protect against any effects that target vision.

And that’s the other thing — the bestiary sneaks a fair amount of lore about the Starfinder universe in through the back door. Yes, they give a GM the nuts and bolts they need to run it in combat – stats, what tactics it uses in combat – but they also give you a bit of lore about the creature and its place in the Starfinder universe. Add up all that content, and you get a nice piece of world-building.

Lastly – and in some ways most importantly – the appendices contain a lot of info about HOW Starfinder monsters are made. With the Starfinder system being so new, this may be one of the few times I’d advise reading the appendices before diving into the body of the book – it’s that useful. I almost wonder if they shouldn’t have put it up at the front.

I will say at first read it felt a little too “template-y”. You start with an array, which is a general role – fighter, caster, “expert” – and they you add different “grafts” to represent other aspects (race, class, etc.). Add special abilities, give them skills and spells, bake for 45 minutes at 350… I’ll confess it felt a little dry and by-the-numbers at first read, and I even started to get some 4th Edition cold-sweats.

Starfinder Alien Archive OmaBut I thought about it a little further and I think it works because it serves the premise well. I think fantasy tends to come back to familiar tropes while sci-fi is expansive. When you look at sci-fi, a lot of the fun is this idea that you have a whole galaxy/universe as your playground. Think Star Trek or Doctor Who where… yes they have a few core races that reappear, but they also have a lot of fun with Alien of the Week. Some people are going to want the comfort of adventure paths, but some people are going to want that more expansive feel, and what the Starfinder system DOES offer out the wazoo is flexibility. If your players decide they want to take a detour to a moon you weren’t planning on visiting, you can have a new race for them to meet in a matter of minutes.

Besides, as the authors themselves admit, if you don’t like the rules, feel free to bend or break them as you like.

If there’s one thing I’m not completely sold on… maybe I’m being overly sensitive but I sometimes feel like the Pathfinder holdovers feel out of place. You’re coasting along looking at all this new and exciting stuff you’ve never seen before and then… “Space Goblins” (record scratch). I know they wanted to have a gateway to the familiar to help ease Pathfinder players into the new system, but sometimes it feels a little forced and I wish they would’ve just burned their ships when they reached the New World. But I think that’s a personal taste more than a fault with the material – there are GMs and players who will want that familiar element in their campaigns.

All in all, I think the Starfinder Alien Archive is an exciting addition to the Starfinder ruleset. If you’re going to be kicking the tires on Starfinder at all, the Starfinder Alien Archive is going to be a good addition to your real or virtual bookshelf.

5/5 —

21 to 24 of 24 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | next > last >>
Search Thread

Search this Thread:

201 to 250 of 683 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | next > last >>
Dark Archive
The Gold Sovereign wrote:

I hope the previews for this one come out earlier. This is like Starfinder's first bestiary, so a bit of expectation management would be welcomed.

I have a question. All creatures in the book were said to be described in two pages, and also get two pictures. So...

Are each of the two pages getting one of the two illustrations or are the two pictures on the same page, just like was done in the Core Rulebook for the core races?

I agree about the previews, it will be 3 weeks till this is in stores and subscribers will begin to get it on monday.

I especially would like to know which races are playable beyond dragonkin & contemplatives and how they differ from the 7 core races, which are fine, but all have a "too humanoid" feel.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Check out First Contact for some other examples.

My guess for Dragonkins:
- +2 STR, +2 Cha, -2 Dex
- Medium Dragon
- Immune to Sleep and Paralysis effects
- Darkvision 60 ft
- Gliding Wings
- +2 Diplomacy and Intimidate
- Dragon Gland: like the implant, but 1d6/2 HD, same rules for recovery.
Dark Archive

First Contact has Racial Traits for the "Contemplative", "Space Goblin", "Haan" & "Sarcesian".

Some of these traits feel a little off and may be changed.
JiCi wrote:

My guess for Dragonkins:

- +2 STR, +2 Cha, -2 Dex
- Medium Dragon
- Immune to Sleep and Paralysis effects
- Darkvision 60 ft
- Gliding Wings
- +2 Diplomacy and Intimidate
- Dragon Gland: like the implant, but 1d6/2 HD, same rules for recovery.

I am pretty sure that they are supposed to be Large, not Medium. Do the other features seem reasonably compatible with the existing Pathfinder monster entry?

From what I glanced in the book I'm pretty sure they are supposed to be Large as well.
Grand Lodge
3 people marked this as a favorite.

Is it weird that I’m more excited about the rules to make creatures more than the actual creatures?

nope i will be okay for creature creation rules my self
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
From what I glanced in the book I'm pretty sure they are supposed to be Large as well.
Starfinder Core Rulebook, p. 453 wrote:
Many starfaring dragonkin families have resorted to genetic engineering to reduce their size to better fit in the narrow corridors of space stations and starships, and thanks to their near-telepathic bond with their partners, no humanoid of the legion would dream of flying a starfighter without her dragonkin copilot.

You were saying?

I, for one, welcome our new wookiee dragonkin overlords co-pilots.
Dark Archive
1 person marked this as a favorite.

"Greys" will be a playable alien race.
"Skittermander" adults & whelps look to be in the book, as are "Formian" workers and soldiers.
Also "Space Goblins" & "Bloodbrothers"

It's a fun month all around. :-)
JiCi wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
From what I glanced in the book I'm pretty sure they are supposed to be Large as well.
Starfinder Core Rulebook, p. 453 wrote:
Many starfaring dragonkin families have resorted to genetic engineering to reduce their size to better fit in the narrow corridors of space stations and starships, and thanks to their near-telepathic bond with their partners, no humanoid of the legion would dream of flying a starfighter without her dragonkin copilot.
You were saying?

The fact that Medium Dragonkin exist doesn't mean the Large sized ones no longer exist. It even says "many" in what you bolded, not "all".

Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
JiCi wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
From what I glanced in the book I'm pretty sure they are supposed to be Large as well.
Starfinder Core Rulebook, p. 453 wrote:
Many starfaring dragonkin families have resorted to genetic engineering to reduce their size to better fit in the narrow corridors of space stations and starships, and thanks to their near-telepathic bond with their partners, no humanoid of the legion would dream of flying a starfighter without her dragonkin copilot.
You were saying?
The fact that Medium Dragonkin exist doesn't mean the Large sized ones no longer exist. It even says "many" in what you bolded, not "all".

They may still exist, but you cannot have a 10HD Large Dragon as a "playable race"...

JiCi wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
JiCi wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
From what I glanced in the book I'm pretty sure they are supposed to be Large as well.
Starfinder Core Rulebook, p. 453 wrote:
Many starfaring dragonkin families have resorted to genetic engineering to reduce their size to better fit in the narrow corridors of space stations and starships, and thanks to their near-telepathic bond with their partners, no humanoid of the legion would dream of flying a starfighter without her dragonkin copilot.
You were saying?
The fact that Medium Dragonkin exist doesn't mean the Large sized ones no longer exist. It even says "many" in what you bolded, not "all".
They may still exist, but you cannot have a 10HD Large Dragon as a "playable race"...

HD doesn't exist in Starfinder.

And even if it did, the playable version wouldn't have them.
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
JiCi wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
JiCi wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
From what I glanced in the book I'm pretty sure they are supposed to be Large as well.
Starfinder Core Rulebook, p. 453 wrote:
Many starfaring dragonkin families have resorted to genetic engineering to reduce their size to better fit in the narrow corridors of space stations and starships, and thanks to their near-telepathic bond with their partners, no humanoid of the legion would dream of flying a starfighter without her dragonkin copilot.
You were saying?
The fact that Medium Dragonkin exist doesn't mean the Large sized ones no longer exist. It even says "many" in what you bolded, not "all".
They may still exist, but you cannot have a 10HD Large Dragon as a "playable race"...

HD doesn't exist in Starfinder.

And even if it did, the playable version wouldn't have them.

Without using HD, a Large Dragonkin would have to be severely toned down... Between playing as a nerfed Large Dragonkin or a standard Medium one, I'll take the latter.

JiCi wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
JiCi wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
JiCi wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
From what I glanced in the book I'm pretty sure they are supposed to be Large as well.
Starfinder Core Rulebook, p. 453 wrote:
Many starfaring dragonkin families have resorted to genetic engineering to reduce their size to better fit in the narrow corridors of space stations and starships, and thanks to their near-telepathic bond with their partners, no humanoid of the legion would dream of flying a starfighter without her dragonkin copilot.
You were saying?
The fact that Medium Dragonkin exist doesn't mean the Large sized ones no longer exist. It even says "many" in what you bolded, not "all".
They may still exist, but you cannot have a 10HD Large Dragon as a "playable race"...

HD doesn't exist in Starfinder.

And even if it did, the playable version wouldn't have them.

Without using HD, a Large Dragonkin would have to be severely toned down... Between playing as a nerfed Large Dragonkin or a standard Medium one, I'll take the latter.

Then you will most likely have to settle for never getting to play a Large Dragonkin then outside of GM approval. Whereas other people will be more than happy to play a large draconic creature and not care that it doesn't have 10 more HD/Levels on everyone else.

Toning monsters down to make them playable worked great in Blood of the Sea.
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:

Then you will most likely have to settle for never getting to play a Large Dragonkin then outside of GM approval. Whereas other people will be more than happy to play a large draconic creature and not care that it doesn't have 10 more HD/Levels on everyone else.

Toning monsters down to make them playable worked great in Blood of the Sea.

TBH, I'd prefer a Medium Dragonkin over a Large one. Less customization problems... and cost, in line with the new SF weapon system, adventuring being less tedious since you can actually FIT in narrow hallways...

You don't have many Large PC races in PF, because of how restrictive your Large size is... and not even your "higher weapon damage" can elevate this.

Furthermore, people have been asking for a playable draconic race for years now. Ever wonder why the half-breed templates can't be used by PCs? Because you now have the aasimar, tiefling, geniekin, skinwalker, dhampir and more. Oddly enough, there is no PC alternative for the half-dragon... whihc has been filed as an "overused and overpowered PC template".

Finally, I think I lost count of the line "should be played only with the GM’s permission." in Blood of the Seas. At this point, give me a suitable version that won't conflict with the game itself.
3 people marked this as a favorite.

Size in Starfinder has no effect on weapons, either cost or damage.

And we HAVE had a playable draconic race for years now.

Yes, those monstrous races in BoS have that cavaet, as even though they're toned down they're still really, really strong. But then that cavaet applies to all non-core races. Not every GM will let you show up with a Drow or Aasimar.

Sarcesians are apparently a Large and presumably playable humanoid race in this setting, so there is nothing in the game inherently preventing Dragonkin from being size Large -- but that quote from the Starfinder Core Rulebook does suggest that they have taken a reduction in size to be more useful as a co-pilot than as a mount. I guess we will find out for sure next week, when people start getting their Alien Archive PDFs.
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:

Size in Starfinder has no effect on weapons, either cost or damage.

And we HAVE had a playable draconic race for years now.

Yes, those monstrous races in BoS have that cavaet, as even though they're toned down they're still really, really strong. But then that cavaet applies to all non-core races. Not every GM will let you show up with a Drow or Aasimar.

There's also a weaker dragon-kin race that's easier to get GM approval for.

QuidEst wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:

Size in Starfinder has no effect on weapons, either cost or damage.

And we HAVE had a playable draconic race for years now.

Yes, those monstrous races in BoS have that cavaet, as even though they're toned down they're still really, really strong. But then that cavaet applies to all non-core races. Not every GM will let you show up with a Drow or Aasimar.

There's also a weaker dragon-kin race that's easier to get GM approval for.

*nods*

They don't have the Dragon Type though.
Sovereign Court
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

The Haan are Large, playable monstrous humanoids that get 1st-level flight (i.e. feather fall) as a non-magical at-will ability.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if Dragonkin are Large, with a 1/day breath weapon.

dragonkin looks better and better i thing breath weapon gonna be better version of gland maybe more scaling damage or quicker recharge time

I'm just happy for 20 playable races. It can't come soon enough.
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:

Size in Starfinder has no effect on weapons, either cost or damage.

And we HAVE had a playable draconic race for years now.

Yes, those monstrous races in BoS have that cavaet, as even though they're toned down they're still really, really strong. But then that cavaet applies to all non-core races. Not every GM will let you show up with a Drow or Aasimar.

There's also a weaker dragon-kin race that's easier to get GM approval for.

*nods*

They don't have the Dragon Type though.

Huh, no... People didn't request a hybrid between a kobold and a wyvern; people have been requesting for Paizo's take on D&D's Dragonborn. Y'know, the usual hybrid between a human and a true dragon?

3 people marked this as a favorite.

No, I'm pretty sure people haven't been that specific. They've been wanting a Humanoid shaped Dragon race and they got one.
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
No, I'm pretty sure people haven't been that specific. They've been wanting a Humanoid shaped Dragon race and they got one.

They got the "wrong" one...

Yes, you're right: the wyvaran IS a Dragon PC race... but it's "technically" not a good replacement for the Dragonborn nor a "consolation prized" race for the half-dragon. Aasimars are to the unplayable half-celestials, just as tieflings are to half-fiends, geniekins to half-elementals, dhampirs to vampires and skinwalkers to lycanthropes.

We didn't get a "Blood of the Dragon" booklet detailling a new PC race, like how skinwalkers were first added to "Blood of the Moon", with several bloodlines (chromatic, metallic, primal, imperial, outer, esoteric, planar), like how aasimars, tieflings, dhampirs and skinwalkers got, with new feats, skill usages, items, spells and archetypes.

So yeah, wyvarans are a playable Dragon race... but come on, it's a wyvern, NOT a true dragon. The Dragonkin in Starfinder will surely be what people have been asking for some times now.

On a sidenote, I do expect Large PC races to be few and far between even in Starfinder, mostly because, well, being in a narrow/cramped space isn't going to get you somewhere. Dude, in PF, the Trox are the ONLY playable Large race. Yep, and they didn't get to half-giants or something similar to D&D goliaths, possibly due to the size.
KingOfAnything wrote:

The Haan are Large, playable monstrous humanoids that get 1st-level flight (i.e. feather fall) as a non-magical at-will ability.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if Dragonkin are Large, with a 1/day breath weapon.

Honestly, the Haan make me so angry...I just don't see how they're supposed to be a player race. They're literally Large giant insects with no opposable thumbs. How do they wield weapons? How do they wear armor? It just screams "convoluted and disruptive to games".

Sovereign Court
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

I don't think the art matches their description as monstrous humanoids very well. They can use tools, they should have functional appendages.
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I think its just fascinating challenge how to modify weapons for spiders if you ask me xD
Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

Just waiting for the order to jiggle so I can get my download...
Dark Archive

Regarding the size issue of large player races, is enlarge/reduce person still in the spell section 8i don´t have my CRB handy)?

If not, it shouldn´t be too hard to build a technological gadget which does the same.

I'll be totally honest with you, I'm less concerned with size in a game where everybody gets a machine gun with a range of fifty feet.
Marco Massoudi wrote:

Regarding the size issue of large player races, is enlarge/reduce person still in the spell section 8i don´t have my CRB handy)?

If not, it shouldn´t be too hard to build a technological gadget which does the same.

Nope... nowhere to be found ?_?

thecursor wrote:
I'll be totally honest with you, I'm less concerned with size in a game where everybody gets a machine gun with a range of fifty feet.

Size alteration now boils down to stat adjustments, increased carrying capacities and better extra damage with melee attacks since weapons don't increase in damage with size anymore.

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
No, I'm pretty sure people haven't been that specific. They've been wanting a Humanoid shaped Dragon race and they got one.

To be fair, this isn't just a JiCi complaint. I've heard other folks complain that the Wyvaran just doesn't scratch the "dragon-humanoid" character niche in the same way as Dragonborn do. I think just completely dismissing this opinion is comparable to a situation where, say Paizo didn't include dwarfs, and just telling dwarf fans they can play halflings if they want a short human-like humanoid.

Dark Archive
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Yeaaaaah, its kinda like saying "Nagaji are snake people, so you don't need playable lizardfolk". Heck, I would argue that even though nagaji are snake people, I wouldn't mind playable version of serpentfolk itself since just because both are reptiles or snakes doesn't really make them the same thing.

Especially if you are going to say "well elf and humans aren't obviously same things despite them looking the same" <_< Plus going with "they both share same animal so same thing" just kind of implies that only content/feature/lore race has is the animal gimmick.

Anyhoo, dunno if that made sense, but I agree that saying wyvern humanoid is same as dragon humanoid is just like saying dwarves are same as halflings. Or halflings same as gnomes I guess? All of the core races being the same, you get the idea
5 people marked this as a favorite.

Okay, my apologies then, I honestly haven't seen any complaints of that nature directed at the Wyvaran till this thread.

I was responding initially to JiCi's statements that Pathfinder didn't have a playable Dragon race. I wasnt saying I'm opposed to half-dragon race or that since the Wyvaran exists people should stop asking for one, cause LINNORMS!
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:
Okay, my apologies then, I honestly haven't seen any complaints of that nature directed at the Wyvaran till this thread.

"Complaints" is rather an overstatement... To me, wyvarans are a sub-species of kobolds, which they are, but that got slapped with the Dragon type in order to show an example using that type with the race building rules from the Advanced Race Guide... when, let's face, wyvarans should have gotten the Humanoid (kobold) type.

That they are wyverns isn't a bad thing either, considering the close relationship between kobolds and dragon-like creatures. The only "issue" is that people cannot play an actual humanoid character with prominent draconic traits similar to the D&D Dragonborn. In fact they got so popular that they appeared as regular races in BOTH 4E and 5E.

Quote:
I was responding initially to JiCi's statements that Pathfinder didn't have a playable Dragon race. I wasnt saying I'm opposed to half-dragon race or that since the Wyvaran exists people should stop asking for one, cause LINNORMS!

That would be because to me, a wyvern isn't a true dragon, as opposed to a Red or Gold Dragon. There is a chart that explains that a creature with 4 legs and a pair of wings is called a "dragon":

- No forelegs = wyvern
- No wings = drake
- No leg = amphithere
- No leg AND wings = wyrm
- No hind legs AND wings = linnorm
3 people marked this as a favorite.

Well I don't care that Linnorms aren't "true" Dragons, they're f$+$ing awesome ^w^
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Uh oh Someone said the magic word (Starts with a L end with a Inorms)
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I don't really care whether we will get another "half human" race, but I definitely want reptile race that fills the same role as Vesk in starfinder: buff strong scary reptile people role. So playable lizardfolk race would be nice, but I don't think it would be the "okay now we have playable lizard race, no more reptile races ever again!" kind of a thing.
CorvusMask wrote:
I don't really care whether we will get another "half human" race, but I definitely want reptile race that fills the same role as Vesk in starfinder: buff strong scary reptile people role. So playable lizardfolk race would be nice, but I don't think it would be the "okay now we have playable lizard race, no more reptile races ever again!" kind of a thing.

Out of curiosity, what about the lizardfolk version presented in the Advanced Race Guide (found here) doesn't work for you?

Edit: Though I certainly don't understand the logic that wyvarans don't 'count' as dragon people because they're 'the wrong kind of dragon' either...
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Because it doesn't have support in player companion books including alternate racial traits and archetypes and favored class bonuses? :D

Not sure what is hard to understand about differences between wyvern people and dragon people. Like wyverns don't breath fire or anything either :D
4 people marked this as a favorite.

People seem to just not like that it isn't called Dragonborn -.-
Dark Archive
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Now that is rude, you shouldn't presume about what other people want or don't want.
Milo v3 wrote:
People seem to just not like that it isn't called Dragonborn -.-

Not "that it isn't called", more like "that doesn't feel"...

Look, a wyvern may be a Dragon-type creature, but it is not a dragon "by D&D's / Pathfinder's / D20's" definition.

I understand Paizo's stand about it: the half-dragon template in 3.5E D&D was used a lot and it was powerful in the hands of many players and DMs alike. This is one reason why it was nerfed for PCs. One example is this:

Bestiary 1 wrote:
A half-dragon retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains a breath weapon usable once per day based on the dragon variety (see below). The breath weapon deals 1d6 hit points of damage per racial HD possessed by the half-dragon (Reflex half; DC 10 + 1/2 creature's racial HD + creature's Con modifier).

Class levels don't count toward "HD possessed", which is logical, but still a modified rule from the original writing which didn't separate racail and class HD.

The problem with several players is the lack of a replacement or alternative to play a half-dragon. I stated before about PC races that actually try to replicate templates. For instance, aasimars can take a feat to gain wings and a fly speed. With the removal of level adjustments (thank goodness), templates cannot be easily used by PCs, hence having races that emulate them. In the end, unfortunately, the half-dragon didn't get such a race to compensate.

The Dragonkin is essentially a Dragonborn... minus the fact that it isn't created by a deity. Now, how is it going to be used in Starfinder? We'll hav eto wait to find out.
3 people marked this as a favorite.

At this point, please start another thread, as this isn't really about Alien Archives anymore, is it.

Am buying into Starfinder so I will purchase this. 80 monsters isn't much because its surely going to be while before we really need more pC options, races, kit etc?
Have an enormous book to play with first!
captain yesterday wrote:
At this point, please start another thread, as this isn't really about Alien Archives anymore, is it.

True... but the conversation about it is over. We're cool.

Back on topic, I'm kinda curious if we're going to get templates here...

thenovalord wrote:

Am buying into Starfinder so I will purchase this. 80 monsters isn't much because its surely going to be while before we really need more pC options, races, kit etc?

Have an enormous book to play with first!

It's a smaller book because they apparently want to make it a yearly release, as opposed of releasing a huge bestiary once every 2 or 3 years.

201 to 250 of 683 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Paizo / Product Discussion / Starfinder Alien Archive All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.