xenoseeker theme

[Nimor Starseeker]

Does the xenoseeker theme let you identify any alien with life science, or only aliens identifiable with life science?

[Elinnea]

The second one. The line is "Reduce the DC to identify a rare creature using Life Science by 5." So only applies when you can use life science to identify the creature, and technically, it only applies to rare creatures (though personally I don't enforce that in my home game and let it apply to any life science identification check because I like giving players creature info).

Compare to the Colonist theme: "Reduce the DC to identify average creatures using Life Science by 5."

And the Death-touched theme: "You can use Perception, rather than Mysticism, to recall knowledge about undead and negative energy effects when you first observe them."

[Nimor Starseeker]

Thanks for your quick reply :)

How do you know which creatures are rare and which are average?

[HammerJack]

You wing it as a GM. There isn't something in a creature stat block stating rarity level.

[Elinnea]

Yup. The core rulebook just says space goblins are very common, novaspawn are rare, and most monsters are average. It's up to the GM to decide on rarity for any particular creature.

[Metaphysician]

Elinnea wrote:

Yup. The core rulebook just says space goblins are very common, novaspawn are rare, and most monsters are average. It's up to the GM to decide on rarity for any particular creature.

Which is necessary, since what counts as "common" or "rare" depends on circumstances. A ubiquitous critter on Planet X is still rare for the first interstellar explorers to land on Planet X, while being common for a local NPC.