This week, I’m doing something slightly different, as I wanted to show off a little bit of Starfinder for you.
Long ago, the Alien Archive was released for Starfinder, and one of the complaints was that it didn’t contain enough monsters, compared to the Bestiaries that are available for Pathfinder. (It does contain rules for using a lot of them as Player Characters, however)
What the Alien Archive does contain however, is a set of rules and guidelines on how to create your own monsters, and since I’ve been doing a number of them by now, I wanted to see if I could set myself the challenge of re-creating a classic Star Wars creature, within the confines of Starfinder, and still have it feel true to the original. Just as an example of the tables, here is an example (though this is for a low-CR creature, NOT the Rancor itself):
Section 15: Copyright Notice Starfinder Alien Archive © 2017, Paizo Inc.; Authors: John Compton, Adam Daigle, Crystal Frasier, Amanda Hamon Kunz, Jason Keeley, Jon Keith, Steve Kenson, Isabelle Lee, Lyz Liddell, Robert G. McCreary, Mark Moreland, Joe Pasini, F. Wesley Schneider, Owen K.C. Stephens, James L. Sutter, and Josh Vogt.
I’ve chosen to try and recreate the Rancor, and I’ve chosen to use the Saga Edition Rancor as a rough base for it.
However, I’ve decided to try and go one step further, as I don’t want just a normal Rancor. So I’ll be doing a normal Rancor and then I’ve chosen to go for the Taanab Mutant Rancor, which can be encountered while playing Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. – A big hulking monstrosity, though not quite as unkillable as the one encountered in the game.
And just to top it all off: I’ve timed it, to see how easy it is to do. (It’s a slight bit of cheating for the mutant Rancor though, as I’ve simply upped it from the normal Rancor and added some bits, but that is still interesting enough).
RANCOR CR 11 Combatant N Huge Animal Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +20
DEFENSE HP 180 EAC 24; KAC 26 Fort +14; Ref +12; Will +11 Defensive Abilities fast healing 5
OFFENSE Speed 40 ft. Melee claw +23 (2d8+19 Slashing) Multiattack bite +23 (2d8+19 Piercing) , 2 claws +23 (2d8+19 Slashing) Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
STATISTICS Str +8; Dex +3; Con +5; Int -4; Wis +0; Cha -1 Skills Acrobatics +20, Athletics +20, Survival +25 Languages none Other Abilities habitat adaptation
ECOLOGY Environment any Organization solitary or herd (2-10)
SPECIAL ABILITIES Habitat Adaptation (Ex) A Rancor adapts within months if moved into a new location, with its coloration slowly changing to match the surrounding areas, giving rise to various classifications of rancors. A Rancor in a natural environment, where it has resided for at least a year, gets a + 10 racial bonus to Stealth checks.
And there we go, one Rancor served up. All it took was 20 minutes, starting from scratch (and playing flash games at the same time. ;-))
Now if I wanted to up it, as I said, here we go!
MUTANT RANCOR CR 15 Combatant N Huge Magical Beast Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft, low-light vision; Perception +26
DEFENSE HP 275 EAC 29; KAC 31 Fort +19; Ref +19; Will +13 Defensive Abilities fast healing 5
OFFENSE Speed 40 ft. Melee claw +29 (3d12+24 Slashing) Multiattack bite +29 (3d12+24 Piercing) , 2 claws +29 (3d12+24 Slashing) Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft. Offensive Abilities horrific roar
STATISTICS Str +9; Dex +5; Con +7; Int -4; Wis +0; Cha -1 Skills Acrobatics +26, Athletics +26, Survival +31 Languages none Other Abilities habitat adaptation
ECOLOGY Environment any Organization solitary
SPECIAL ABILITIES Habitat Adaptation (Ex) A Rancor adapts within months if moved into a new location, with its coloration slowly changing to match the surrounding areas, giving rise to various classifications of rancors. A Rancor in a natural environment, where it has resided for at least a year, gets a + 10 racial bonus to Stealth checks.
Horrific Roar (Ex) As a standard action, a mutant Rancor can let out a roar that terrifies all other non-rancors within 100 feet. Each affected creature must succeed at a DC 21 Will saving throw or gain the panicked condition for 1d6 rounds. Whether successful or not, a creature can’t be affected by the same mutant rancors horrific roar for 24 hours. This is a mind-affecting, sensedependent effect.
And there we go. The mutant Rancor, simply using the base of the other Rancor took me 7 minutes to complete – a grand total, for 2 entirely new monsters for Starfinder: 27 minutes. And they’ll even be reasonably balanced against anything you’ll find in the Alien Archive, due to the flexibility of the rules set and guidelines for monster creation.
And there we go, I hope you’ve all enjoyed this, slightly different, look at Starfinder.