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So the alien species I'm thinking of (some of you may find familiar) would get
8 extra hp at starting level
25ft movement speed
a d6 slashing unarmed attack from blades at the end of their tails
"Thought Speech" which is to say they communicate via projected telepathy either to a specific individual only, or openly broadcast for everyone to "hear".
They have a centaur like arangement of their body, but more a dear than a horse, so they are still only medium creatures. fur in shades of blue and purple. weak arms, with seven fingers on each hand.
No mouth, they eat through their hooves.
eyes on stalks that give them 360 degree vision.
I'm thinking +1 to dex and int, -1 to strength, and a free boost
Heritages would include
a large size that removes the Int bonus, and changes the -1 to strength to a +1.
a faster heritage with a faster movement speed,
and a heritage that lets you alter polymorph spells cast on you to your benefit.
with feats to enhance the unarmed attack, feats to allow them to cast polymorph spells on themselves, feats to enhance the use of their stalk eyes increase their perception.
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The reason for the suggestion of the large size was because of that one gay one that was met in the books who WAS described as being more like a clydesdale, he was buff. but maybe that heritage would be rare.
I had thought that their sense ability, that comes with every ancestry, would be a bonus to perception checks but was wondering if an untyped +2 bonus to perception checks (that does not grow) would be too out of pocket?
as for the eating thorugh hooves, I would say that it would be more of a "you require less food as your grazing passively through your hooves allows you to take in passively" and lets you eat less frequently. They don't really have resistance to ingested poison, because if you recall when that one was thrown into the water he caved when the threatened to release the drug into the water.
DEFINTIELY right about the bonus to the controlled condition.
also, I find being vague about this fun, imagining what other people are thinking about the books we're referencing.
the ancestry weapons would be a martial energy pistol and would bump the damage die on the tail blade up a size, adding versatile P.
No idea. I must have missed those books.
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Too bad, they were really good. Themes of body horror, cosmic horror, the evils done in war, even by the "good" guys, moral gray-ness, imperialism, and how no one survives war, even those who get to come home alive.
I should mention this was a middle-grade YA series sold in school bookfairs in the 90's.
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and since I'm at it, let's try statting another of the alien species.
They would have the abomination trait, medium
they can see, but also have scent as a precise sense out to 30ft
25ft movement speed
they have a centipede like body, as thick around as an average human.
the "Many Feet" ability gives them a +1 circumstances bonus against attempts to trip them. and if they are prone they may still move their full movement speed.
If they are moving toward an enemy at less than full HP, they gain a 5ft status bonus to their movement speed.
They have a d6 jaws attack.
They have two arms strong enough and dexterous enough to function as normal arms, and countless small pincer like arms down their torso that can hold something of negligible bulk, but NOT use any items.
+1 Dex, +1 Int, -1 Wis +1 free
Heritages include Mound Makers, who gain a 15ft burrow speed, manipulators who have a bonus to crafting and computers checks from using their many small weak arms in conjunction with their two primary arms (they can also take a feat that gives them another pair of usable arms). and Liberated who lose the -1 to Wis, and have a bonus against saving throws regarding the controlled or mental traits.
ancestry feets include
Bloodlust: if a creature (without the construt, plant, or elemental tag) within your scent sense range is below full HP, you may choose as an action to enter a blood lust stance. the damage of your Jaws natural weapon increases to a d8, gains the deadly d8 trait, and the agile trait. Special: You EXIT bloodlust if you end a turn without having performed a jaws attack on a creature. You may use this once per day.
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They only fight the body snatching alien antagonists because it was one of their people who gave them space travel and advanced weapons in the first place. and There is very GOOD reason to expect them to wipe out humanity rather than let the body snatchers take it, they tried to do it on a previous planet.
The second species I was outlining are the Taxxons, large centipede like alien who mostly WILLINGLY became hosts to the body snatchers because they are in a constant state of HUNGER. Their blood lust is so extreme that the body-snatchers CANNOT stop them if they scent a wounded creature, they will immediately try to consume the wounded animal... even if THEY are the wounded animal.
The Taxxons sound like a "burn it with fire" type species.
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more of a "I have no mouth and must scream" because they are fully sapient, but have an all consuming hunger that they must sate whenever they smell blood.
Then there are the Hork-Bajir.
7-8 foot tall reptillian aliens with razor sharp claws on hands and feet and beaks. bone-blade protrutions from their wrists elbows, knees and foreheads and tails. used as shock troops for their size, strength, and lethality. absolutely among the more terrifying of the regular hosts for the body-snatchers... not only are their herbiverous and naturally very peaceful and welcoming, they are in fact, AS A SPECIES, mentally handicapped. With only a rare exception they all essentially have down-syndrome. rarely, a Hork-Bajir will be born with not just normal intelligence but advanced intelligence.
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The Hork-Bajir would get bonuses to strength and con, penalty to int, and a free bonus.
Medium, dark vision, 25ft movement speed, a d6 unarmed blade attack that is in the knife group, and a d4 claw unarmed attack in the grappling group, and a climb speed of 15ft, and trained in the nature skill (or other if you are already trained, yada yada)
One of their feats at first level would be "Hork Bajir Free or Dead!" Where in if they fail or critically fail a saving throw against an ability with the mental, emotion, or controlled trait, they may, as a reaction, make an unarmed attack against themselves, and increase the degree of success by one step.
"Follow, Do as he Does" Hork Bajir are very good at mimicing movements get bonuses to follow the leader.
"Hork Bajir Lore" gives not just training in Athletics and Acrobatics, but also Abomination Lore
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I just want to reiterate that all of the above is based on canon material from a YA books series aimed at middle schoolers, supposedly to teach them about animals... that just so happened to turn into a sprawling space opera about how horrifying War makes you act, even as the good guy, with themes of body horror and cosmic horror.