Home >Game Mastering >Bestiary >Creatures by Type >Outsiders >

Paraforan

Paraforan CR 12

XP 19,200
N Large outsider (extraplanar)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +27

DEFENSE

HP 222
EAC 26; KAC 27
Fort +11; Ref +13; Will +15
Defensive Abilities void adaptation

OFFENSE

Speed fly 120 ft. (Su, perfect)
Melee slam +22 (2d12+16 B)
Offensive Abilities shrieking chorus Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.

STATISTICS

Str +4; Dex +8; Con +5; Int +1; Wis +4; Cha +0
Skills Acrobatics +27 (+35 to fly), Athletics +22, Piloting +27 (to navigate only), Stealth +22
Other Abilities healing incandescence, hyperspace master, spaceflight

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Healing Incandescence (Su)

Once per day as a full action, a paraforan can pulse with a shimmering light that heals it. The paraforan gains fast healing 15 for 1d4+1 rounds. During this time, any creature that begins its turn or moves adjacent to the paraforan must succeed at a DC 21 Reflex save or gain the blinded condition for 1 round. This is a sense-dependent effect.

Hyperspace Master (Su)

When navigating, a paraforan treats all hyperspace beacons as frequently visited, even if it has never traveled to that beacon.

Shrieking Chorus (Su)

Three times per day as a standard action, a paraforan can vibrate its entire body to cause massive psychic pain. Each non-paraforan creature within 60 feet takes 4d8+12 damage and gains the shaken condition for 1d4 rounds. A creature that succeeds at a DC 21 Will save takes half damage, isn’t shaken, and cannot be affected by the same paraforan’s shrieking chorus for 24 hours. This is a mind-affecting effect.

ECOLOGY

Environment vacuum (hyperspace)
Organization solitary or voyage (2–4)

Although many think of hyperspace as a plane used strictly for starship travel, a dangerous repository of planar flotsam and jetsam, and a distant home to the god Triune and their most ardent devotees, it has its own strange ecosystem. Handfuls of explorers who frequent the Transitive Plane to expedite travel across the galaxy have told wild tales of mysterious crystalline formations floating surreptitiously nearby as they prepare to return to the Material Plane. Some have even reported seeing flashes of color rush by their portholes as the starship moves between the planes. While some might think these stories simple flights of fancy, their near-mythological subjects are actual creatures: the strangely beautiful, crystalline outsiders known as paraforans.

Paraforans feed by consuming the energy given off in the wake of starships and creatures jumping between hyperspace and the Material Plane. Astrophysicists have yet to discover how they reproduce or are born, with many believing they simply coalesce out of the unusual clouds of planar energy that populate hyperspace. Paraforans begin life as smaller crystalline fragments that flit through the void, seeking Drift engine energy to consume. These creatures, known as paraforan fragments, can cause painful psychic interference when threatened but are quickly mollified by supernaturally flashing lights and other fascinating effects. When a half a dozen or more fragments gather in a single location in hyperspace (usually close to a hyperspace beacon), they begin to resonate at the same frequency and meld together to form an adult paraforan, which has a larger wingspan and a feathery tail of multihued light. The consciousness of each fragment is contained within the paraforan, increasing the creature’s overall intelligence and psychic power. In addition, the adult paraforan can briefly tap into its fragments’ regenerative power to heal itself. When it does so, it glows with a light bright enough to temporarily blind many sighted creatures.

Both paraforans and paraforan fragments can instinctively sense hyperspace beacons and Drift engines, flocking to them in the hopes of finding a starship making a jump. Due to the creatures’ appearance and attraction to such technology, they are colloquially known as “Drift moths.” Sadly, when paraforans move to feed off a starship’s wake, they can be dragged along for the ride. The passage between the planes is turbulent and violent, often causing paraforans to split into a collection of fragments. Sometimes, a paraforan or its fragments appear within a starship after a jump, which is disorienting for these creatures. Such a paraforan or fragment will usually try to flee the vessel, attacking anyone in the way. For some reason, while on the Material Plane, paraforans have difficulty feeding off hyperspace beacon energy and are less likely to be pulled back into hyperspace when a starship engages its Drift engine. Eventually, these paraforans slowly starve to death, their bodies stiffening and losing much of their color.

To date, paraforans have never been seen near Absalom Station. Some speculate that the energy generated by the Starstone is too much for the creatures to bear and that those doomed paraforans that attempt to feed off it are completely vaporized.

Paraforan Resonators (Starship System)

The hardened corpses of paraforans who have perished on the Material Plane can be constructed into rigid shells that attach to a starship’s Drift engine (and can be selected when building or upgrading a starship). Known as paraforan resonators, they pulse with a rainbow of colors when the accompanying Drift engine operates. A paraforan resonator grants a pilot a bonus to Piloting checks to navigate a course through hyperspace equal to the resonator’s mark. In addition, when calculating travel times through hyperspace, a paraforan resonator allows the pilot to reroll a number of d6s equal to the resonator’s mark, though the pilot must use the second result. The cost in Build Points is based on the starship’s size category (for the purposes of this calculation, Tiny = 1, Small = 2, Medium = 3, Large = 4, and so on).

Model Bonus To Piloting Checks Reroll Cost (In Bp) Mk 1 +1 1d6 1 × size category Mk 2 +2 2d6 3 × size category Mk 3 +3 3d6 5 × size category Mk 4 +4 4d6 7 × size category
Section 15: Copyright Notice

Starfinder Alien Archive 3 © 2019, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Saif Ansari, Kate Baker, John Compton, Adam Daigle, Katina Davis, Eleanor Ferron, Crystal Frasier, Leo Glass, Sasha Lindley Hall, Amanda Hamon, Thurston Hillman, James Jacobs, Jenny Jarzabski, Virginia Jordan, Jason Keeley, Natalie Kertzner, Luis Loza, Lyz Liddell, Ron Lundeen, Crystal Malarsky, Robert G. McCreary, Hilary Moon Murphy, Adrian Ng, Joe Pasini, Lacy Pellazar, Samantha Phelan, Jessica Redekop, Simone D. Sallé, Michael Sayre, Owen K.C. Stephens, James L. Sutter, Jason Tondro, Diego Valdez, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.