Your basic shapeshifting alien mimic and potential threat to entire biospheres. Very much a Thing from another world and all that. They're designed to be very easy to run (they only have one action ability) so you can throw a bunch of them at a team of supers without strain when running a real horror scenario, but I've included lesser versions of them if you want them to be less of a dominant threat in a story or ramp up the tension slowly. They can also make good warbeasts for extraterrestrial menaces like Captain Redstar to keep as a pet or for special "venator" bouts on the Galactic Gladiator Circuit.
Dreadmorph
Dreadmorphs are an alien lifeform possessing phenomenal adaptive shapeshifting abilities. They're feared by most starfaring species and almost any interstellar traveler will have heard stories of the things wiping out entire ship's crews or depopulating whole space stations. The creatures reproduce by budding, and uncontrolled infestations can leave whole planets overrun by dreadspawn. Thankfully their animalistic intelligence prevents them from taking full advantage of their ability to imitate almost anyone (or anything), but it also makes attempts at communication and negotiation futile.
How one or more of them gets to Earth depends on your campaign, but the heroes had better deal with pretty quickly. Safe bet that some dodgy megacorporation will take an interest in the things too, because greed overwhelms wisdom every time.
Description: Wildly varied. These things can adopt almost any form they desire, from copying other species with masses ranging from 50-500 kilos to imitating inanimate objects as small as 30 cubic centimeters to a variety of nightmarish chimeric combat forms. Moreover, they can shift between forms with amazing speed even during combat or pursuit. They're nearly immune to all known toxins and can synthesize many of them in liquid, solid, or gaseous states as well. While they have only animalistic intelligence by human standards they can mimic speech (and other sounds) and may be able to pass for a normal human briefly even at close range.
Reproduction: Budding Age: Unaging Height: Variable Eyes: Usually Two Or More
Hide: Variable Coloring, Always Extremely Resilient Build: Variable Mass: 250+ Kilos
Approach: Bully Archetype: Inventor
Health: 35 + (5 x H)
Powers: Shapeshifting d10, Part Detachment d8, Toxic d8
Qualities: Apex Lifeform d8, Insight d8, Technology d8
Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6
Abilities:
Adaptive Physiology (I) Whenever you create a bonus, increase that bonus by one.
Agonizing Toxins (I) Whenever you or your nearby allies Hinder, increase the penalty created by one.
Morphic Assault (A) Boost using Shapeshifting. Hinder using your Max die. Attack using your Min die.
Resistant Form (I) Reduce all damage dealt to you by two.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health. Increase the die size of each of your powers by one step (maximum of d12).
Master of Superiority (I) As long as you are manifesting an effect related to a power you have at d12, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving usage of those powers.
Tactics
Dreadmorphs are relentlessly hostile to all other motile lifeforms, although they prioritize the greatest threats first. Their Insight and Technology qualities represent an instinctual understanding of both their prey and the tools they might use. They use their incredible Shapeshifting powers to launch repeated Morphic Assaults that employ Agonizing Toxins to hamper foes while their Adaptive Physiology gradually improves their combat performance. They'll usually let two to four bonuses stack on themselves to improve their status die while relying on their Resistant Form to endure counterattacks. If hard pressed or when they see an opening to drop a foe, they'll pile all their accumulated bonuses into a single big strike to finish the fight.
Upgraded Dreadmorphs are more experienced hunters with even more refined powers, and their mastery lets them perform incredible feats of biomorphism skill with ease.
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Lesser Dreadmorph d10 lieutenant
Description: As variable as the adult villain form but somewhat smaller, usually between 50-100 kilos.
Talented Shapeshifter: You gain a +3 bonus to Overcome actions that involve mimicking creatures and objects, or to slip past obstacles and security precautions.
Unnatural Toxins: When you take an Attack action, also Hinder the target using the same roll.
Dreadspawn d8 minions
Description: As variable as the adult villain form but much smaller, usually between 15-30 kilos.
Sense Weakness: You gain a +1 bonus to Attack actions if the target has any penalties on them.
Shapeshifter: You gain a +2 bonus to Overcome actions that involve mimicking creatures and objects, or to slip past obstacles and security precautions.
Design Note
This is another character where the Inventor archetype restriction on using Inventions or Science for abilities that create mods doesn't work well with the concept, so just ignore it and count the mods from Morphic Assault toward the status die count. It's still going to be fairly difficult to reach the big d12 status for long, although d8 and d10 is easy enough to sustain.
Ooh, neat. That's a clever combo of inherent abilities, and I like the idea of ignoring the restrictions for the Inventor archetype. Inventor really should be more generic - requiring a specific quality and power makes it way too narrow to use except for very particular character types.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the RAW on Inventor leaves out a lot of non-traditional "inventor" types like mystics who create lasting hexes and blessings, psychics who impose lasting mental conditions, or even bioengineer creators whose minions/lieutenants are their "inventions", to mention just a few. Best to ignore the text and pick a power and quality that fits the character concept instead.
DeleteThe villain form of these things is designed partly to let you run "Aliens" scenes - make it Difficult with a suitable environment, then spend the rest of your budget "trading down" 2:1 for moderate difficulty basic dreadmorphs and you can get a scary swarm of xenomorphs, or use a mix of the lesser critters and an upgraded villain a queen.