Creatures you'd want to see in the 2e Alien Archive / Alien Core


Playtest General Discussion

Wayfinders

It's a far-off priority, but one worth having a discussion on regardless.

Starfinder 1e has four Alien Archives providing the bulk of creatures, plus lots of extras scattered in things like Adventure Paths and standalone adventures - quite the corpus to pull on when looking at what to bring over to 2e, especially for the playtest/launch.

While it's not entirely unreasonable to assume that SF2's first creature book will largely resemble the 1e AA1, with aeon guards and tashtaris and necrovites and the like - there's a lot of room for swaps (akatas, the glitch gremlins we already saw in the field test, popular post-launch species like vlakas or uplifted bears), new additions (like ORC monster swaps, perhaps pulled from PF2's Monster Core, though it's hard to say whether SF OGL-derived monsters are at quite the same risk given they're already inherently remixed when put into a far-future science-fantasy context), and other bits and pieces (humanoid NPC stat blocks like in Pact Worlds or Interstellar Species, or PF2's Gamemastery Guide's NPC gallery section would be a great thing to have from the start).


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As many robots as they're willing to print, for Numeria purposes :p


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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Akatas actually already have a 2e implementation! They showed up in Bestiary 2 alongside their void zombie babies.

While I'm not a Starfinder player (and thus don't have any specific favorites I'm hoping to see brought forward), from my general perspective as a GM who likes running sci-fi games, I have a handful of strictly pragmatic wants:

1. Enough unique critters to flesh out various alien biomes in ways that make them feel different from Earth/Golarion. I like it when planets have unique, functioning ecosystems. This is more for narrative purposes than actual combat utility; in a pinch I can, I dunno, reskin a skunk or something.

2. More types of "guys," i.e. humanoid enemies of varying levels that can be slotted in for more urban or military scenarios. I'm fine with these being mechanics-forward, low-flavor creatures, as their purpose is to make combat tactically interesting while providing a basic kit for NPCs. It'd be dope to have some quick adjustment rules to make them different species as well, just to lower the barrier of entry for homebrew. PF2 has a distinct lack of these at high levels especially, and tends to skew towards monster hunting because of it.

3. An overall focus on science fiction-y stuff rather than fantasy (unless those more fantasy-oriented creatures have something to do directly with high technology or outer space). I'm hoping this happens anyway because being able to directly port PF2 monsters should reduce the need for reprints, but I want enough stuff to run a low/no-magic 1-20 campaign if the mood strikes me. I probably won't (because space wizards are metal) but it might make the system more accessible for people with more rigid genre preferences.

4. Please, God, some CR20+ enemies that aren't devils, angels, or dragons. That's basically all PF2 has, and I feel like SF's apetite for the creative and the ridiculous can do much better. Give me some, I dunno, living computer viruses or ancient doomsday machines or sapient spaceships or something. Stuff its sister game can't do, you feel me?


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Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

A moon that eats people


I don't really have anything specific that I want, as long as it's cool. Also robots for potential Numerian adventures.


Count me in the robot camp, mostly because I want to be able to craft them.

I would also like to see an emphasis on alien critters. Lots of "mundane" fauna, for what that is worth in a science fiction setting. I know that this is not done in Pathfinder's bestiaries, But I would also like to see animal companion statistics next to the creatures in the book.

Also, bring back the sapient purple orbs. I love those guys. They're so purple, and sapient.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

I think it is easy to imagine CR20+ critters that are any sort of base animal (even an alien/unearthly one) that might have received some sort evolutionary aberration due to something. (be it technological, cybernetic, magical, societal influence)

The story of something created to be an ultimate warrior/weapon that suddenly becomes a liability when the era of piece finally arrives on its wake, and people try to hide their past.

Honestly, some GMs may simply love a menu of special abilities that would be categorized at certain levels, so the GM can piece together their own creations like an a la carte. Which would basically be more of a focus on options and guidelines to similar the Gamemastery Guide but with more focus on providing a wider range of elements that could be chosen. But even with such a wider system, many will probably want specific examples showing the use of the subsystem, with finishing touches at the end of the subsystem section.

Basically, you could say there should be a Cantina full of playable ancestries, with a Smorgasbord of creatures lurking outside the cantina waiting for the adventurers to leave the confines of the safe space.

So should the create your own creatures be something in Alien Core, or should it be in GM Core. Maybe to encourage the variability of opponents encountered, it should be something in the Alien Core?

Something else worthwhile noting is that I think it is worth noting that the game should make it clear that most planets were/are not like Golarion. It was a kitchen sink, or Smorgasbord of settings, creatures, and cultures. Most other worlds in the universe would almost always be scoped to a much slimmer variation of ancestries that were native to any given world. Likely not just one ancestry, but frequently a small subset. Allowing each world to have its own distinct history of potential conflicts or partnerships between specific groups. After advent of easy drift travel, there is now the ability for any sorts of ancestries to have migrated, but frequently, non-local ancestries would still generally be rare, save certain specific migrations, such as the Kasatha one as an example. Otherwise if other worlds were as varied as Golarion, there should be an almost unimaginable number of types of creatures where people should almost be unable to encounter anything recognizable.


This is very specific, but I'd really enjoy Starfinder rakshasas and finding out what they're up to in the future. Maybe their niches are already too filled out already, but still.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Ok... I came up with an example of a pretty reasonable science-fantasy monster.

Nanite-swarm Ooze


Loreguard wrote:

Ok... I came up with an example of a pretty reasonable science-fantasy monster.

Nanite-swarm Ooze

You mean, like this one? I'd be down for that.


Moties - all kinds including Masters, Engineers, Soldiers, Mediators, and Doctors.

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