Creatures Creature Families Creature Abilities
Creature Adjustments Creature Templates

Creature Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 208

The Starfinder galaxy contains innumerable creatures beyond those presented in this book, and you'll likely want to create custom creatures to fit the needs of your campaign. While you can build brand-new creatures using the guidelines in GM Core, sometimes you'll want to make small adjustments to an existing creature. Consider using the following adjustments to add thematic abilities or tweak a creature's combat power to better suit your campaign.

These changes are designed so you can apply them quickly, but they aren't comprehensive. You should review the adjustments and consider the specific application to determine if you're introducing unintended consequences, especially in terms of a creature's threat level in combat. For example, applying hardlight adjustments to a creature that already has several immunities or resistances to specific types of energy damage might result in a creature that the PCs have a difficult time hurting due to its many defenses— this could be exactly what your story needs, or it could lead to an encounter that's not enjoyable.

Elite and weak adjustments are the most basic ways to adjust a creature's combat power, and they work best with creatures that focus on physical combat. These adjustments overstate the normal numerical gains the creature would receive from increasing its level to make up for the lack of new special abilities. Creatures that cast spells or rely on noncombat abilities typically need specific adjustments to those spells or abilities. These adjustments have a greater effect on the power level of low-level creatures, as noted. Applying the adjustments more than once to a creature should be avoided. If you need to alter a creature's level more drastically, use the GM Core guidance on building creatures.

Be mindful that you don't overdo it with creature adjustments—players often enjoy recognizing and learning about creatures. If none of your creatures are recognizable, or all of them break the rules in some way, your players might begin to lose their sense of immersion because all the creatures they're encountering are strange or different than what they expect. On the other hand, if you're running an adventure on a strange planet or in a remote region of the Vast, it might be best if every creature has unexpected adjustments!

Aerial Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 204
There are many ways for creatures to gain the ability to fly in the Starfinder galaxy, from growing wings to installing augmentations to using magic. Use these adjustments to grant flight to a creature if you'd rather not get into the details of a specific spell or item. Usually, Starfinder PCs have ways of dealing with flying creatures—such as by flying themselves—but as with other adjustments, make sure you consider the overall impact on the creature's combat power.
  • Add Acrobatics with a modifier equal to its highest skill modifier.
  • Add a fly Speed equal to its highest Speed.
  • Optionally, add hover to the creature's land Speed, and/or remove its non-flying Speeds entirely.

Elite Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 204
Sometimes you'll want a creature that's just a bit more powerful than normal so that you can present a challenge that would otherwise be trivial or show that one enemy is stronger than its kin. To do this quickly and easily, apply the elite adjustments to its statistics as follows.
  • Increase the creature's level by 1; if the creature is level –1 or 0, instead increase its level by 2.
  • Increase the creature's AC, attack modifiers, DCs, saving throws, Perception, and skill modifiers by 2.
  • Increase the damage of its Strikes and other offensive abilities by 2. If the creature has limits on how many times or how often it can use an ability (such as a spellcaster's spells or a dragon's breath), increase the damage by 4 instead.
  • Increase the creature's Hit Points based on its starting level (see the table below).

Environmental Adaptation Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 205
Sometimes you want to use a creature in an environment that it normally wouldn't appear in or an environment that would be hazardous to it. More specific and thorough adjustments might be appropriate in some cases, but you can make some small adjustments to a creature to represent that it has evolved or otherwise adapted to survive in another environment.
  • Add basic environmental protections with no limit on use or duration.
  • Optionally add a burrow or climb Speed equal to half the creature's highest Speed if it suits the specific environment. (Instead of adding fly or swim Speeds, consider also using aerial or marine adjustments for creatures that have adapted to fly or survive long periods underwater.)
  • Optionally add immunity to other specific environmental effects, such as toxic or corrosive atmospheres, or add benefits similar to environmental protection armor upgrades, so the creature can temporarily or permanently survive in harsher environments.
  • Add any of the following abilities that seem appropriate or necessary for the creature to survive in its environment.
    Temperature Adaptation The creature treats environmental temperature effects as if they were one step less extreme (incredible heat becomes extreme, extreme heat becomes severe, and so on).
    Terrain Adaptation The creature ignores uneven ground and difficult terrain caused by the most prevalent terrain in its environment, such as snowy terrain on a frigid moon (reducing greater difficult terrain to ordinary difficult terrain).

Hardlight Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 205
Sometimes you'll want to create a creature that's made of hardlight but takes a more specific or unique form than the /creatures/families/29-hardlight-life-form. A hardlight creature can be just about any other type of creature imaginable thanks to the wonders of hardlight technology.
  • Add the construct and tech traits.
  • Add immunity to bleed, death effects, disease, doomed, drained, fatigued, healing, nonlethal attacks, paralyzed, poison, sickened, spirit, unconscious, vitality, and void.
  • Add weakness to electricity and force, and resistance to physical (except ghost killer), with a value depending on the creature's level (see the table below).
  • Add the following abilities.
    Darkvision
    Tethered A hardlight life-form can't travel more than the indicated number of feet from its projector. A hardlight life-form reduced to 0 HP vanishes, though its projector reconstructs it in 1d4 hours. The only way to permanently destroy a hardlight life-form is to find its projector and either repair or destroy it.
  • Optionally, if the creature has no ranged attack, add a hardlight beam Strike with a range increment of 60 feet. Use the guidelines in Strike Attack Bonus and Strike Damage to determine the attack's modifier and the amount of force damage it deals. For a quick and dirty adjustment, use values equal to the creature's highest-damage attack, but an attack modifier 2 lower than that attack.

Interstellar Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 206
Sometimes, for a creature to fit your story, you need it to be able to survive in space and travel between the stars.

Magical Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 206
Some creatures have a connection to a specific tradition of magic, whether because of a mystical bond with a divine power, a connection to another plane, or simply because they've studied magic. Magical adjustments are especially appropriate when you want to incorporate a sci-fi creature into a game with heavy fantasy themes.
  • Decide what tradition the creature's magic comes from (arcane, divine, occult, or primal) and whether the creature's spells are associated with its Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. Increase that attribute modifier to reflect the creature's association with magic (typically you'll increase it by 1 or 2, up to the creature's other highest attribute modifier).
  • Add innate spells from that tradition to fit the creature's theme and purpose. A good rule of thumb is to choose about three spells of up to half the creature's level that grant it something especially memorable or useful that it can do, but you can choose spells of any rank as long as they fit the creature's niche and power level; full guidelines for creatures' innate spells can be found in the Spells section of Building Creatures in GM Core.
  • Add the following ability.
    Magical Resilience [reaction] Trigger The creature attempts a saving throw against a spell or magical effect of its magical tradition but hasn't rolled yet; Effect The creature gains a +1 circumstance bonus to its saving throw against the triggering effect.

Marine Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 206
Sometimes you need a creature that can swim and survive in water.
  • Add the aquatic trait (if the creature lives only in water) or amphibious trait (if the creature can live on both land and water).
  • Add Athletics with a modifier equal to the creature's highest skill modifier.
  • If the creature doesn't have a swim Speed, add a swim Speed equal to its highest Speed (if it's aquatic) or equal to half its
  • land Speed (if it's amphibious; minimum 15 feet).
  • If the creature doesn't have a land Speed, add a land Speed equal to half its swim Speed (minimum 15 feet) if it's amphibious.
  • Add the following abilities:
    Low-Light Vision
    Scent (imprecise) 120 feet (optionally, if aquatic)

Nanite Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 206
Some constructs are made of countless tiny nanites.
  • Add immunity to acid, bleed, critical hits, mental, precision, unconscious, and visual.
  • Optionally, if the creature has melee or ranged Strikes that originate from its body (such as an integrated weapon or a jaws or fist Strike), change the damage type to acid.
  • Add the following abilities:
    All-Around Vision
    Compression The creature can move through a gap at least 2 feet wide without Squeezing and can Squeeze through a gap at least 1 foot wide.
    Darkvision
    Nanite Surge [two-actions] Frequency once per day; Effect The creature restores 6 hit points per level to one creature or item with the tech trait.

Robotic Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 206
Sometimes you want to make a robotic version of some other creature.
  • Add the construct, robot, and tech traits.
  • Add immunity to bleed, death effects, disease, doomed, drained, fatigued, healing, mental, nonlethal attacks, paralyzed, poison, sickened, spirit, unconscious, vitality, and void.
  • Add weakness to electricity with a value according to the table below.
  • Optionally add one or more security robot abilities (page 162).
  • Optionally, if the creature has no ranged attack, add a laser cannon Strike with a range increment of 60 feet. Use the guidelines in Strikes from GM Core to determine the attack's modifier and the amount of fire damage it deals. For a quick and dirty adjustment, use values equal to the creature's highest-damage attack, but an attack modifier 2 lower than that attack.

Sapient Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 207
Sometimes you want a creature to be able to think for itself rather than following a set of mindless behaviors or instructions. Apply these adjustments to mindless creatures, such as robots, oozes, or zombies.
  • Increase the creature's Intelligence from –5 to whatever level is suitable for your story (generally up to its highest ability score, but you might decide that a superintelligent, low-level ooze is exactly what your adventure needs).
  • Add up to three new skills with a modifier equal to its highest skill modifier.
  • Add up to three languages that the creature can understand (and optionally speak).
  • Consider adding telepathy if you want the creature to be able to communicate easily, especially if the creature has no mouth or otherwise can't speak.

Warped Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 207
Some creatures are just wrong. Whether they're beings from another dimension, manifestations of a creature's psychic dreams, visitors from another timeline, or creations of a powerful malfunctioning artificial intelligence, these creatures might look and act in unexpected ways.
  • Add the mutant trait.
  • Add the following abilities.
    Not Really There [reaction] (teleportation) Trigger A creature targets the warped creature with an attack or area effect, and the warped creature is aware of the attacker; Effect The warped creature teleports 10 feet. If this puts the warped creature out of the range or area of the attack, the attack misses. If not, the warped creature gains a +2 circumstance bonus to AC and Reflex saves against the attack.
    Unsettling (aura, visual) 20 feet. A creature that enters the aura must succeed at a Will save or become frightened 1 (or frightened 2 on a critical failure) and is then temporarily immune for 1 minute. Use the creature's spell DC or the DC of one of its existing abilities (whichever is highest), or set a DC based on the creature's level.

Weak Adjustments

Source Alien Core pg. 207
Sometimes you'll want a creature that's weaker than normal so you can use a creature that would otherwise be too challenging or show that one enemy is weaker than its kin. To do this quickly and easily, apply the weak adjustments to its statistics as follows.
  • Decrease the creature's level by 1; if the creature is level 1, instead decrease its level by 2.
  • Decrease the creature's AC, attack modifiers, DCs, saving throws, and skill modifiers by 2.
  • Decrease the damage of its Strikes and other offensive abilities by 2. If the creature has limits on how many times or how often it can use an ability (such as a spellcaster's spells or a dragon's breath weapon), decrease the damage by 4 instead.
  • Decrease the creature's HP based on its starting level (see the table below).