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Following the release of the critically acclaimed Direlock Base Class, Forest Guardian Press announces their next upcoming release for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: The Symbiont Base Class!
Symbionts fuse a humanoid host with a biological organism that draws upon one of four "clades": Arachnida (spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs and solifugids etc), Crustacea (crabs and lobsters etc), Insectoida (ants, bees, fleas, lice, wasps etc) and Wudda (plants, lichen, fungi, vegepygmies, treants and mandrakes etc). Each clade provides the symbiont with a huge selection of clade-traits - physiological, inherent abilities like the Crustacean amphibious or water sense; Arachnida antibacterial clot, nimble faller or silent hunter or Wudda photosynthetic, dendritic calm or mycorrhizal fungi.
Once a clade is chosen , each symbiont takes one of two base forms:
The Biohulk, a melee tank (Full BAB, d10 HD) protected by an exo-carapace can manipulate its symbiotic biomatter to manifest clade-related abilities during a biowarp - including a dizzying array of manifestations include the Arachnida biometallic sting, or mandibles; Wudda concealing camouflage, thorny periderm or spore plume or Insectoida lunge, sudden strike or sting. Look out for the Arachnida driderform manifestation!
The Biomunitioneer (3/4 BAB, d8 HD) receives less clade-traits and lighter natural armor in exchange for a projector weapon that completely engulfs one arm, allowing the biomunitioneer to either shoot ammunition (plasma shards for Arachnida; chitin rounds for Crustacea; flechette spikes for Insectoida; splinter shots and spore bombs for Wudda) OR project clade-related larval chrysalis beasts - basically a clade-limited summoning ability, but fired at or near your intended victim. Rather than manifestations, biomunitioneers apply adaptations to either their ammunition or their chrysalis beasts - base adaptations like the biomass mortar or clade-specific like the Arachnida retriever or leap mine, Crustacean crab hammer, urchin strike or hydraulic burst or the Wudda itching spores, razor thorns or choking mist.
Symbiont archetypes include the Cross-clade Mutant, Clade Warrior, Harvester and Pair-bond for the biohulk and the Symbiont Gunner for the biomunitioneer.
Stay tuned for more info!
Looking good, OSW!
Thanks Elghinn!!!
Hmm. Apparently the blog was set to Private. Should be fixed now. I hope.
Me like. I'm liking the Direlock a bunch and will be very interested in what becomes of this. Sounds like a perfect classes for the two insectoid races and one plant-infused race in my group's homebrew.
I've been wanting something like this for a while in a home game for a bit of mad science or alieness.
Are its abilities supernatural?
@Freedom16: Yes, a mix of (Su) and (Ex). The Biomunitioneer also gets a small amount of enhancements - basically self-only, "spells" by another name. It was a definite design goal to keep the Symbiont "mundane" (for want of a better term!) and thus (Su) - mainly because I wanted it to be "natural" and also I'm wanting the Symbiont to be compatible with LRGG's Necropunk Campaign Setting.
@Orthos: Glad you like the concept, we hope to keep the same high level of creativity and mechanical rigour...
So...Venom?
Hmm. I guess so! My pop-culture brain really does leave me in the cold occasionally, but yes, Spiderman and/or Venom could be an Arachnida inspiration for either a melee biohulk or a web-spinning biomunitioneer - we have adaptations for silkspun strands to aid locomotion/climbing/webspinning.
I'm sure there are more examples people can find...
Sold! Even more so if it has a "carnage" archetype.
Dotting
Interesting. I wonder how this will compare to the symbiont race in Dreamscarred's Psionics Augmented/Psionics Unlimited.
Sounds like Wormwood RIFTS to me! Cool beans. :)
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Interesting. I wonder how this will compare to the symbiont race in Dreamscarred's Psionics Augmented/Psionics Unlimited.
I'm a patron of Dreamscarred's KS but I don't remember seeing the symbiont race. I'll have to look again.
There are also, as far as I am aware the following symbiont/symbiote style classes:
Alluria Publishing's Aquanaut from Waves of Thought
Little Red Goblin Games' Primal Host
LPJ's Alternate Machinesmith Fleshwraith Variant class the Host
Zombie Sky Press Symbiote Synthesist Summoner archetype variant from It Came from the Stars
Little Red Goblin Games' Magpie Base class from their Necropunk Setting could be considered an ectosymbiotic symbiont as well.
Paizo's Alchemist also offers a lot mechanically that could be reskinned as symbiotic.
Each of these are excellent in their own right, but none approached the biomunitioneer concept I had in mind for a start, and the biohulk, while thematically drawing on some concepts of those listed above is a different kind of...animal.
Sounds like Wormwood RIFTS to me! Cool beans. :)
Was that the Timothy Truman one? Was always interested in that, but by then my RIFTS days were over, so I never bought it. I shall have to find a copy somewhere!
(Plus I always get that Wormwood mixed up with Australian novelist Terry Dowling's seminal and groundbreaking sci-fi/post alien invasion/reality fracture apocalypse works of the same name.)
Download the FREE Psionics Augmented Preview release and compare yourselves? :)
@Stormhierta: As I said upthread I am a patron of the Ultimate Psionics KS, and I've looked at the Draft preview of the Psionics Augmented, but not the just released version. I did check again, but I still didn't find the Symbiont race... I can't access my Draft Preview nor download the new version on my iDevice (grrrrrrr) but I will when I get to a computer... Very interested to see Dreamscarred's version...
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I think they are referring to the Noral, incase you don't know. :)
...I did check again, but I still didn't find the Symbiont race... Very interested to see Dreamscarred's version...I think they are referring to the Noral, incase you don't know. :)
Yep, that's them. No worries, I just got my PDF of PsiAug and the noral are much closer to DS9's trill in mechanics and flavor (while still definitely their own unique race); they are completely different than your symbiont race.
{stays tuned to this Batchannel}