Body Thief – Starjammer SRD

Body Thief CR 14

This immense plant has jaws inside its central flower and vines that thresh the air. Its ovular seedpods throb like beating hearts.

XP 38,400
LE Gargantuan plant
Init –5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +18

DEFENSE HP 264

EAC 29; KAC 31
Fort +17, Ref +15, Will +12
Defensive Abilities vexing vines; Immunities plant immunities, sonic; Resistances cold 20

OFFENSE

Speed 5 ft.
Melee bite +28 (8d6+22 B & P) or tentacle +28 (1d8+22 B plus grab)
Multiattack bite +22 (4d8+22 B & P), 2 tentacles +22 (4d8+22 B plus grab)
Ranged spit seed +24 (5d10+14 B; critical staggered [DC 20])
Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft. (40 ft. with tentacles)
Offensive Abilities breath weapon (80-ft. Line“>line, 12d6 acid damage, Reflex DC 20 half, usable every 1d4 rounds), swallow whole (4d6 acid damage plus absorb essence; AC 22, 23 hp), transfer

STATISTICS

Str +8, Dex –5, Con +7, Int +5, Wis +3, Cha +2
Skills Disguise +23, Life Science +18, Sense Motive +18
Languages Castrovelian, Common, Kasatha, Sylvan, Ysoki (can’t speak any language); telepathy 1,000 ft. (with spawn only)
Other Abilities spawn pod creature

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Absorb Essence (Su)

Creatures in a body thief’s stomach gain 4 negative levels (Fortitude DC 20 half) each round at the start of the body thief’s turn. If the creature dies from the negative levels, its body disintegrates and the body thief absorbs its life essence. This is a death effect.

Spawn Pod Creature (Su)

Once a body thief has absorbed the life essence of a Large or smaller creature, it can begin growing a duplicate of that creature as a free action. Growing a Tiny or smaller duplicate takes 1 round, a Small duplicate 3 rounds, a Medium duplicate 5 rounds, and a Large duplicate 10 rounds. Duplicates are identical to the creature whose life essence has been devoured, but they gain the pod creature template. They closely resemble the original creature and retained all its memories. The newly created spawn has none of the original creature’s equipment, though the body thief can vomit forth any surviving swallowed gear as a move action.

As the duplicate hatches, the body thief makes a Disguise check to determine the resemblance to the original. The duplicate must be grown within 24 hours of the original’s digestion, or its essence and memories dissipate. Only a single duplicate can be made of any given creature.

Transfer (Ex)

A body thief can transfer a creature grappled with a tentacle to its mouth with a move action and a successful grapple combat maneuver.

Vexing Vines (Ex)

A body thief’s vines are able to operate independently of the rest of its body to lash out at prey or protect it from ranged attacks.

When a ranged attack is made against the body thief, as a reaction, it can deflect that ranged attack with one of its tentacles. Additionally, the body thief can make an extra four reactions each round. These reactions can only be spent on attacks of opportunity made with its tentacle attacks, or to deflect ranged attacks.

ECOLOGY

Environment any
Organization solitary

Plants of frightfully advanced intellect, body thieves cannot abide the irrationalities of other intelligent life, particularly emotions. They seek to create a world of perfect order by replacing other life forms with nearly perfect duplicates spawned by the body thief itself. Indeed, these duplicates improve on the originals, as they can communicate telepathically with the body thief, and they lack wasteful emotions.

Individual body thieves vary as to their specific plans for building a perfect society of duplicates. A common, though recognized, flaw in their plans is the infertility of their duplicates. To maintain a stable society, the body thieves must capture creatures to replace the inevitable loss of healthy duplicates.

Body thieves are nearly immobile, though they can drag themselves along with their vines in extremis. When they must move large distances, they enlist the aid of their spawn.

Pod-Spawned (CR 13-) Template

This plant creature is a near-perfect replica of a creature that was consumed by a body thief plant.

Required Creature Type: Plant

Suggested Array: Same as original creature.

Automatic Traits: Low-light vision

Ability Modifiers—decrease Charisma modifier by 2

Options—The podspawned creature gains a single feat or special ability possessed by the original creature for every 3 CR it possesses. The pod-spawned creature also gains the mimicry special ability, below.

Mimicry (Ex)

A pod-spawned creature retains all the knowledge of its original.

It can impersonate the original perfectly except for its lack of emotion. This emotionlessness can be detected with a successful DC 20 Sense Motive check. A creature familiar with the original gains a +5 circumstance bonus on this check.

If the pod-spawned creature feigns sincere emotion, the Sense Motive check is opposed by its Bluff check instead.

Pod-spawned creatures resemble the original down to hair and blood. Noticing small physical imperfections requires a successful Perception check with a DC determined by the spawning body thief’s Disguise check, made when the pod hatches.

Suggested Ability Modifiers: Same as original creature.

A creature with the pod-spawned template is a duplicate created by the body thief. It resembles the original and has all its memories but can’t exhibit sincere emotion. Pod-spawned creatures can’t reproduce and remain the same apparent age as their original at the time of replacement.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Alien Bestiary (Starfinder) © 2018, Legendary Games; Lead Designer: Jason Nelson. Authors: Anthony Adam, Kate Baker, John Bennet, Eytan Bernstein, Robert Brookes, Russ Brown, Duan Byrd, Jeff Dahl, Robyn Fields, Joel Flank, Matt Goodall, Robert J. Grady, Jim Groves, Steven T. Helt, Thurston Hillman, Tim Hitchcock, Nick Hite, Daniel Hunt, Mike Kimmel Marshall, Isabelle Lee, Jeff Lee, Lyz Liddell, Jason Nelson, Richard Pett, Tom Phillips, Alistair J. Rigg, Alex Riggs, Wendall Roy, Mike Shel, Neil Spicer, Todd Stewart, Russ Taylor, Rachel Ventura, Mike Welham, George Loki Williams, Scott Young.