Replicant Elf, 1st-Level Expert

Description

This elf replicant was specifically designed as a skimmer pilot for use on newly settled worlds, and was given a better than normal skill level in this profession.

Combat

While not qualified as a wilderness explorer, this pilot is capable enough in a tight spot, and has sufficient advanced combat training to handle most natural threats at an isolated landing base.

Improved Healing (Ex): A replicant elf recovers hit points through natural healing at twice the normal rate.

Endure Elements (Ex): A replicant elf is protected from extreme elements as the endure elements spell. This ability is inherent and can not be dispelled.

Sterile (Ex): A replicant elf is unable to reproduce except through cloning.

Creating a Replicant

"Replicant" is an inherited template that can be added to any corporeal creature that can advance by character class (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

It uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type: The creature's size and type are unchanged. Do not recalculate Hit Dice or base attack bonus.

Speed: Increase all movement speeds by 10 ft for every 20 ft of speed of the base creature.

Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +1 (this stacks with any natural armor bonus the base creature has.)

Special Qualities: A replicant has all the special qualities of the base creature, plus the following special qualities.

• +2 racial bonus on any one selected skill for which their key ability is at least 13.
• +1 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks.
• +2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease.
• Improved Healing (Ex): A replicant recovers hit points through natural healing at twice the normal rate.
• Endure Elements (Ex): A replicant is protected from extreme elements as the endure elements spell. This ability is inherent and can not be dispelled.
• Sterile (Ex): A replicant is unable to reproduce except through cloning.

Abilities: Increase from the base creature as follows: Str +4, Dex +2, Con +4.

Feats: Replicants gain the Endurance feat as a bonus feat. Otherwise same as the base creature.

Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature +1.

Level Adjustment: +2.

Also in this section of the source

Rifter

Author: Robert J. Hall.

Statistic	Value
Size/Type	Fine Aberration (Incorporeal)
Hit Dice	2d8+8 (17 hp)
Initiative	+6
Speed	Fly 20 ft. (perfect) (4 squares)
Armor Class	24 (+8 size, +6 Dex), touch 24, flat-footed 18
Base Attack/Grapple	+1/-18
Attack	Incorporeal touch +15 melee (1d6 folded space)
Full Attack	Incorporeal touch +15 melee (1d6 folded space )
Space/Reach	½ ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks	Folded space 1d6
Special Qualities	Spell-like abilities, incorporeal traits, immunity to poison, petrification, sleep, and disease
Saves	Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +1
Abilities	Str 4, Dex 22, Con 18, Int 13, Wis 6, Cha 13
Skills	Hide +21, Knowledge (any two) +4, Search +5, Spot +2
Feats	Weapon Finesse
Environment	Any
Organization	Solitary
Challenge Rating	4
Treasure	None
Alignment	Always neutral
Advancement	3–5 HD (Fine)
Level Adjustment	―

Floating in mid-air is a strange, glassy ripple that distorts the appearance of what lies behind. The effect grows more intense toward the middle of the phenomenon, appearing almost as a shifting crystal that is not quite solid.

There exist in dimensions parallel to our own worlds that are so utterly different in their physical laws that most beings from our own universe could not possibly survive. The alien life forms that dwell in these places are equally incapable of existing in our own universe. Instead they must rely on the services of intermediary life forms that are able to safely traverse the two dimensions. These servant creatures are born in the rifts that separate the planes, and are capable of a limited form of existence in the adjoining dimensions.

Most of these servant creatures, known as rifters, appear as a tiny distortion in physical space. They have a glassy appearance that bends the light passing through their bodies, although their actual edges are fuzzy and difficult to discern.

While they can hover and move about, a rifter does not need to travel through our space in the normal sense. Instead they can briefly break their link to the physical world and appear in a nearby location a brief time later. In this manner they perform a limited type of teleportation and so are readily capable of bypassing most barriers.

As rifters are merely servants of their extra-planar masters, they behave in a manner that appears highly intelligent. However the mind that directs their actions is utterly alien in nature, and so the motives for their actions can be incomprehensible. In spite of this a few beings from our universe have achieved a crude manner of communication with the alien masters of these rifters, and so useful exchanges of information and services have taken place.

Combat

Due to their utterly alien nature, rifters and their masters do not comprehend warfare or the concept of bodily injury. However they do use personal contact as a form of communication, and try to do so with other species. In this manner they perform actions that can prove lethal to life forms in our universe. Likewise they do not perceive when an attack is being directed against them, often viewing it as a form of communication. Their miniscule size and odd physical nature makes them very difficult targets to strike, and they are immune to many hazards.

Folded Space (Ex): A rifter's touch attack deals 1d6 slashing damage from the distorted space around their bodies. Creatures hitting a rifter with natural weapons or unarmed attacks take slashing damage as though hit by a rifter's attack.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will―dimension door (self only), mage hand, open/close, unseen servant; 1/day―blink. Caster level 6th.

Skills: A rifter has a +4 racial bonus on Hide checks.

Rock Roach

Author: Robert J. Hall.

Statistic	Value
Size/Type	Medium Elemental (Earth)
Hit Dice	6d6+24 (45 hp)
Initiative	-2
Speed	20 ft. (4 squares), burrow 10 ft., climb 10 ft.
Armor Class	17 (-2 Dex, +9 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple	+4/+6
Attack	Bite +7 melee (1d6+3/18–20/x3)
Full Attack	Bite +7 melee (1d6+3/18–20/x3)
Space/Reach	5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks	―
Special Qualities	Damage reduction 5/―, fast healing 1, darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft., immunity to acid, disease, poison, and vacuum, resistance to cold 10, electricity 10, and fire 10, elemental traits, deafness
Saves	Fort +8, Ref +0, Will +4
Abilities	Str 15, Dex 6, Con 16, Int 1, Wis 14, Cha 3
Skills	Climb +4, Spot +9
Feats	Toughness (2), Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment	Underground (low-gravity world)
Organization	Solitary or gang (3–6)
Challenge Rating	5
Treasure	None
Alignment	Always neutral
Advancement	7–12 HD (Medium); 13–20 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment	―

An insect-like creature the size of a large dog skitters across the ground on its eight articulated legs. Protruding from its narrow jaw are four large, gleaming talons. It has six black eyes and a coarse gray exoskeleton that sparkles in the light.

This alien infestation was created for life on an airless, low gravity surface. The full adults bear a slight resemblance to a cockroach, hence the name. However they are primarily composed of various silicate compounds, forming a living lattice that lacks cellular organization. It is a symbiotic organism that is closely integrated with a hive of various highly advanced nanotechnology robots that perform various tasks such as repairing damage, converting ingested material into the living lattice, and aiding the rock roach through its life stages.

Biologically this organism has a life cycle that resembles a terrestrial jellyfish. The first phase is in the form of a hard, spherical shell that is capable of surviving impact from orbit. This seed shell has proven to be an exceptionally robust material, but even it cannot fully protect the contents from the impact. Instead the symbiotic components perform the task of repairing the interior seed organism.

Once fully healed, the outer shell breaks apart releasing a long, worm-shaped organism that resembles a centipede. This stage has a length of less than a meter, and is not particularly well protected. Instead the role of this creature is to find a suitable patch of rough, bare stone where it can bed down and blend into the surroundings. The flesh gains the same hue and texture of this stone as the larvae ingests the surrounding rock, and it becomes highly camouflaged.

Once the pupae reaches a length of over two meters, the tail end becomes anchored to the rock and it transforms into a nest. The organism forms a stationery mass that resembles a weather-worn rock, and it spends the remainder of its existence in this state. However the tail is ingesting rock material beneath the surface, gradually expanding into a network of shafts that protrude ever deeper below the ground. This material is transported to the body by a mass of tentacles and is used to manufacture infant rock roaches.

Each completed roach emerges from a pore at the top of the nest, and it is programmed to rapidly escape the vicinity. The infant roach has an odd tail-like appendage on its hid quarters that sweeps the ground as it passes, hiding the trail formed by the eight feet. (Although an experienced tracker can often still follow the trail back to the nest, if it has not been disturbed.)

The rock roach grows to adulthood over a period of about three years, reaching a length of almost three meters and a height of nearly a meter. It has a hard outer shell composed of very tough material similar to its original seed case. The eight appendaged legs are normally kept tucked under its shell as it moves, although they shift outward when climbing. It is not a particularly nimble creature, but is a powerful digger and can be difficult to kill.

The regenerative abilities of the rock roach are remarkable, and it takes high energy weapons or an extended period in darkness to kill it off. It is highly adapted to vacuum and can survive for over a month without bathing itself in sunlight.

When sun is available and it does not feel threatened, it will rest upon a surface directly facing the sun and spread out a set of absorbant panels that operate somewhat akin to solar cells.

Rock roaches spend most of the remainder of their life span incessantly digging and tunneling into the surface. They will normally only penetrate to a depth of 40–50 meters, but will follow any tunnels and passages they discover that penetrate deeper. They are very curious about unusual materials they discover, and will consume the oddest materials in an effort to satisfy their requirements.

It is unusual but not unknown for several rock roaches to join together into a group, both for mutual protection and to improve the efficacy of their tunneling.

It appears that the primary form is a drone that not intended to reproduce, as they have never laid eggs or otherwise replicated themselves. Instead the nest occasionally forms a reproductive rock roach that is capable of forming into the seed form or travelling far across the surface to mate with another nest.

Combat

Rock roaches have little interest in humans and will not attack unless threatened. They are, however, driven into a high state of aggression when they encounter machines or robots composed of metal and plastic. If they encounter computers or machines while burrowing, they will immediately attack and seek to utterly wreck the mechanisms. Few parts can be salvaged from a device destroyed by a rock roach.

Tremorsense (Ex): A rock roach can detect and pinpoint any moving creature within 60 feet in contact with the ground.

Deafness (Ex): A rock rock is unable to hear sounds transmitted through an atmosphere, although they can detect vibrations in the ground. They can not make Listen checks for sounds transmitted through the air.

Skills: Rock roaches have a +4 racial bonus on Climb checks. A rock roach can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened.