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My girlfriend and I are going to be playing in a new home game soon, and she got the notion at some point that she'd like to try playing some sort of parasite race. She was inspired by the trill from Star Trek, but after thinking it over from a Pathfinder mechanics standpoint we settled on a concept closer to the parasites from the season one Next Generation episode "Conspiracy". I cleared the basics with the GM and put together a first draft of the racial traits, but I figured I'd bring this to the internet to see if anyone had any thoughts on its balance or could see any obvious exploitable loopholes. We haven't chosen a name for the race yet, so they're somewhat awkwardly just referred to as "parasites" in this write-up.
Aberration: Parasites are aberrations.
Fine: Parasites are Fine creatures and gain a +8 size bonus to their AC, a +8 size bonus on attack rolls, a -8 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +16 bonus on Stealth checks.
Slow Speed: Parasites have a base speed of 20 feet.
Darkvision: Parasites can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Attach: Parasites are parasitic creatures that require a host body for sustenance, taking control of that host to manipulate it as they slowly feed. As a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity, a parasite can attach itself to the brainstem of any living creature with the pinned condition. To do so, the parasite must know the location of the creature’s brain. This ability is ineffective against creatures with immunity to mind-affecting effects.
Once the parasite is attached, the host creature and parasite become indefinitely conjoined, functioning as a single creature with the personality, mental activity, alignment, number of hit dice, base saving throws, mental ability scores, base attack bonus, feats, traits, class skills, skill ranks, and class abilities of the parasite, but the race, size category, creature type, armour class, hit points, movement types, physical ability scores, and racial traits of the host creature. A creature who is aware of the parasite can choose to target the parasite instead of the conjoined whole. When targeted in this way, the parasite uses its own stats as unmodified by the host body, but it receives a circumstance bonus to Reflex and AC equal to the host creature’s Dexterity modifier (minimum 0) and a shield bonus to AC equal to the host creature’s base attack bonus. If the host creature takes hit point damage from a spell or ability with an area of effect, the parasite takes an equal amount of damage as though targeted separately.
When attached to a host, bonuses from equipment worn or wielded by the parasite only affect the conjoined whole if they apply to its mental ability scores, class abilities, or Will saves. However, equipment worn or wielded by the host creature always affects the conjoined whole.
A parasite can detach itself from a host creature as a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity, dealing 1 point of bleed damage to the host and leaving it unconscious.
Host Dependent: A parasite feeds off the body of its host. Parasites can only survive without attaching to a living host for a number of hours equal to twice their Constitution score.
Languages: Parasites begin play speaking Common and Aboleth. Parasites with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic).
2) It is intentionally difficult to attach. The host creature needs to be pinned. As a fine-sized creature with a -8 to CMB, it's very, very unlikely that the parasite is able to successfully grapple and then succesfully pin just about any worthwhile host on its own. This means the parasite either needs an ally who's willing to pin the prospective host, or the host needs to be unconscious or otherwise helpless to ensure the parasite's success at pinning it. This seems good for balance, because the party will generally need to best any potential host body before it can be utilized. And the better hosts are going to be better at resisting grappling and pinning in-combat too.
3) Right now, as written, hit points are derived from the host. This was a decision made to reduce the need for confusing calculations involving using the parasite's hit dice but the host's Constitution modifier. I realize there are already similarly confusing calculations inherent to this design in the form of skills, but I felt that was more or less unavoidable since the ranks have to come from somewhere, and the physical ability scores and mental ability scores were coming from different places regardless. I'm open to having my mind changed about this, though. It does have the consequence of meaning some bodies will have way above or below average hit points for whatever class(es) and level the player is.
4) At the moment the base attack bonus is completely derived from the parasite, but I keep wondering if the BAB should be derived from a combination of the host's racial hit dice and the parasite's class hit dice. That would probably be too good, right? And more unnecessary calculations? I feel like this race is already so much better served by attaching to weird monsters than it is humanoids (assuming there's no social reason not to do so) that this would probably be overkill.
5) The languages section of the write-up is just a placeholder until we figure out the fluff of the race and I have time to delve through all the languages to think about what's appropriate. I kind of hate that any race is limited to particular starting languages, though.
What do people think? Any obvious balance issues? How do people see this playing?
Mind you, I've seen this thread, but haven't read through it all yet. I searched for "parasite" in this forum after writing up my race, but decided I'd go ahead and post what I've got before delving too deeply into other people's work.
IMHO, not too much gain for a cool concept. Reminds me a bit of the good ol' goa'uld from Star Gate.
Giving the parasites some kind of mental or physical ability, or additional abilities to the host body would improve the experience.
An good example would be providing a bonus against mind-affecting spells and abilities, in cases when the caster or ability-user is not aware of the parasite inside the host. Thus a spell is much less effective, since the target is already under control.
Or adding certain biological-physical features as well, like the host suddenly doesn't need to sleep, and must fake sleeping so that others won't find out he is controlled. At the same time he would be immune to sleep-spells.
Also this could be a "shifting template" as in, when parasite attaches it simply adds certain bonuses to the host and that's that. Maybe stacking personal levels with host levels, but with some penalties?
well, my first thoughts are addressing how the creature is interacting. You call them parasites, but I'd rather suspect you intend them to be symbiotic. I guess I'd see how the two organisms 'share' the body, and does the host have any say in the matter at all. If this is a creature that siphons off vitality for itself, and give nothing in return, then you've got a parasite, and I'd put a base time frame one creature can use its host.
I would change the pinned condition to helpless, because there's going to be arguments about whether a host 'qualifies' as a target. Someone lying in their bedroll is hardly pinned. As well, I'd put some mechanism for attacking the host. I'm one in big favor of the least ambiguity interpreting the rules.
If you're basically doing a body-swapping brain and personality, I would safely say that your body stats should just be nil for the purposes of any applicable task.
True, the creature should pass some kind of stealth or other check when attaching itself, to, let's say, not only a pinned creature or a heelless creature... but also a sleeping, preoccupied creature, or any other creature who cannot stop or react quickly enough.
A mechanism for this should be conceived. How about this:
1) Parasite must pass a stealth check against perception to get onto the creature.
2) Add a racial check +5 Heal check to the parasite. This bonus works only for making an anatomically correct, quick and painless incision and entry into the organism. DC should be 15 or 20, the stranger he anatomy the harder the check. Failing this check the creature, if it is able to react, can do something about the leach on his neck.
3) If the creature is helpless or pinned the check still has to be made, or some kinda of "damage" could happen when inserting itself and failing by 5 or more. This could be something like the creature loosing some of its ability scores due to nerve trauma and/or partial paralysis.
Also, maybe make up some other abilities for the parasite that grow with levels, like the ability to paralyze once per day as a bite attack.
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Wow, so the perception you guys have is that this is likely underpowered? I've been putting in a lot of limitations because the ability to infiltrate many organizations using the actual body of a member of that organization, not to mention the ability to dramatically improve your hit points and physical stats by choosing the right body, seemed really, really strong to me. Not to mention, if social considerations are less important, being able to take over a monster's body, adding all of its monstrous abilities to your class abilities seems incredibly cool and flexible. I'm happy to take a look at your suggestions and see what I can do to improve the parasite if you really think it seems weak, but I seem to be valuing potential host bodies too highly.
As for the symbiote vs. parasite debate, these creatures give nothing in return and the host has no say in the matter. The parasite attaches itself to the host's brainstem, effectively allowing it to block any signals that would be sent from the host's brain to its body, and instead sends its own signals to completely control that body, all the while slowly and sustainably feeding off of it. It's a parasite, but it's sustainable. It has a vested interest in not feeding enough to do long-term damage to the host. It wants to keep that body for as long as possible.
Anyway, thanks for the suggestions, guys! I'll give them a think and post a new draft soon.
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They definitely make for an awesome recurring threat, and maybe if I can get the rules refined enough for this I'll use them as such in a campaign some time. I'm not the GM for this game, though, and these were designed specifically to cater to an idea my girlfriend had for her character.
The game we're playing in takes place on a mobile city that floats around the ocean, nearing just about every continent at one point or another. It's a homebrew world, but the city travels all over it, becoming a huge cultural melting pot. Thus, even the weirdest character concepts are at home in this city.
The GM already has a plot outline worked out, so whereas I agree this race would make for an awesome major campaign villain, that campaign is for another time. Meanwhile, my girlfriend still needs her character for this game. (: I will say that even as NPCs, I prefer these as a 0 hd race, because their ability to steal virtually any body meshes really well with their need to have class levels. It makes for a ton of flexibility in the ways they could be used.