Alien Core
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Welcome to Starfinder Alien Core! Inside this archive, you'll find inscrutable cosmic entities and powerful alien dragons, flora and fauna from countless worlds, new peoples to interact with, and terrifying creatures to hunt down—or be hunted by. While this book contains rules and descriptions for hundreds of aliens, it presents only a portion of the myriad interesting creatures that populate the Starfinder galaxy.
To use this book, you'll need Starfinder Player Core and Starfinder GM Core, which contain the rules of the game and give you further understanding of each creature's rules and its place in the galaxy. Using these books allows you as the Game Master (or GM) to create stories of grand adventure and populate them with fearsome foes, possible allies, and friendly guides.
Most of the sections of this book describe a creature or a group of related creatures, present their game statistics, illustrate their place within the galaxy, and provide details about their behavior or society. In this introduction, you can find advice on how to play these creatures in the game, including how to read and use their statistics, recommendations regarding roleplaying their interactions with player characters, and guidance on adjusting creatures to the needs of your story or setting.
Lastly, the appendix in the back of the book contains sections that provide information about frequently used creature abilities, creature traits, new rituals, uncommon languages, lists of monsters sorted by type and level, and options for further adjusting creatures.
To use this book, you'll need Starfinder Player Core and Starfinder GM Core, which contain the rules of the game and give you further understanding of each creature's rules and its place in the galaxy. Using these books allows you as the Game Master (or GM) to create stories of grand adventure and populate them with fearsome foes, possible allies, and friendly guides.
Most of the sections of this book describe a creature or a group of related creatures, present their game statistics, illustrate their place within the galaxy, and provide details about their behavior or society. In this introduction, you can find advice on how to play these creatures in the game, including how to read and use their statistics, recommendations regarding roleplaying their interactions with player characters, and guidance on adjusting creatures to the needs of your story or setting.
Lastly, the appendix in the back of the book contains sections that provide information about frequently used creature abilities, creature traits, new rituals, uncommon languages, lists of monsters sorted by type and level, and options for further adjusting creatures.
Playing Creatures
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While the other players portray their characters, you as the Game Master get to play everyone else. This section provides the basics for using the creatures in this book. It guides you through the process of reading and understanding creature statistics so you know how to present a creature as a threat or ally in and out of combat. It also provides general advice for roleplaying creatures to help provide more depth when characterizing them within your game's world.
Reading Creature Statistics
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Each creature's rules appear in a stat block, with a structure similar to those of feats, spells, and equipment. Because creatures have more abilities than those game elements, however, their statistics include more entries, many of which have special formatting.
A creature's traits line sometimes begins with a rarity; if the creature's rarity is common, no rarity is listed. The next entry is the creature's size (Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, or Gargantuan). Any other traits are then listed alphabetically. The traits appearing in this book, including some traits from Starfinder Player Core, can be found in Creature Traits.
Actions and activities the creature can use have the appropriate icons next to those abilities' names noting how many actions they require. A creature always has the requisite proficiency ranks or other abilities required to use what's listed in its stat block. For instance, a spellcasting creature can perform the Cast a Spell activity, and a creature is never untrained with any of its items.
Some abilities are abbreviated in stat blocks, with their full text in the Ability Glossary.
RaritySizeCreature Traits/>Rarity
Perception The creature's Perception modifier is listed here, followed by any special senses.
Languages The languages for a typical creature of that kind are listed here, followed by any special communication abilities. If a creature lacks this entry, it can't communicate with or understand another creature through language.
Skills The creature is trained or better in these skills. For untrained skills, use the corresponding attribute modifier.
Attribute Modifiers The creature's attribute modifiers are listed here.
Items Any significant gear the creature carries is listed here.
Interaction Abilities Special abilities that affect how a creature perceives and interacts with the world are listed here.
AC, followed by any special bonuses to AC; Saving Throws A special bonus to a specific save appears in parentheses after that save's bonus. Any bonuses to all three saving throws are listed after the three saves.
HP, followed by automatic abilities that affect the creature's Hit Points or healing; Immunities; Weaknesses; Resistances Any immunities, weaknesses, or resistances are listed here.
Automatic Abilities The creature's auras, any abilities that automatically affect its defenses, and the like are listed here.
Reactive Abilities Free actions or reactions that are usually triggered when it's not the creature's turn are listed here.
Speed, followed by any other Speeds or movement abilities.
Melee [one-action] (traits; some weapon traits, such as deadly, include their calculations for convenience) The name of the weapon or unarmed attack the creature uses for a melee Strike, followed by the attack modifier and traits in parentheses. If a creature has any abilities or gear that would affect its attack modifier, such as a tactical-grade weapon, those calculations are already included, Damage amount and damage type, plus any additional effects (this entry is Effect if the Strike doesn't deal damage).
Ranged [one-action] As Melee, but also lists range or range increment with traits, Damage as Melee.
Area Fire [two-actions] As Melee, but also lists area and range with traits, Damage as Melee, but also lists the attack's saving throw DC
Spells The entry starts with the magical tradition and whether the spells are prepared or spontaneous, followed by the DC (and spell attack modifier if any spells require spell attack rolls). Spells are listed by rank, followed by cantrips. A spell prepared multiple times lists the number of times in parentheses—for example, “(×2).” Spontaneous spells list the number of spell slots after the spell rank.
Innate Spells These are listed like other spells, but can also include constant, at-will, and focus spells. If the creature has a focus spell as an innate spell, it works like other innate spells with listed uses, rather than costing Focus Points. Spells that can be used an unlimited number of times list “(at will)” after the spell's name. Constant spells appear at the end, separated by rank. Rules for constant and at-will spells appear in the Ability Glossary.
Focus Spells If a creature has focus spells, this entry lists the spells, the spells' rank, the Focus Points in the creature's focus pool, and the DC.
Rituals Any rituals the creature can cast appear here. The creature can choose to automatically succeed without rolling on any of these rituals or can roll normally.
Offensive or Proactive Abilities Any actions, activities, or abilities that automatically affect the creature's offense, as well as free actions or reactions that are usually triggered on the creature's turn, appear here in alphabetical order.
A creature's traits line sometimes begins with a rarity; if the creature's rarity is common, no rarity is listed. The next entry is the creature's size (Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, or Gargantuan). Any other traits are then listed alphabetically. The traits appearing in this book, including some traits from Starfinder Player Core, can be found in Creature Traits.
Actions and activities the creature can use have the appropriate icons next to those abilities' names noting how many actions they require. A creature always has the requisite proficiency ranks or other abilities required to use what's listed in its stat block. For instance, a spellcasting creature can perform the Cast a Spell activity, and a creature is never untrained with any of its items.
Some abilities are abbreviated in stat blocks, with their full text in the Ability Glossary.
Creature NameCreature (Level)
RaritySizeCreature Traits/>Rarity
Perception The creature's Perception modifier is listed here, followed by any special senses.
Languages The languages for a typical creature of that kind are listed here, followed by any special communication abilities. If a creature lacks this entry, it can't communicate with or understand another creature through language.
Skills The creature is trained or better in these skills. For untrained skills, use the corresponding attribute modifier.
Attribute Modifiers The creature's attribute modifiers are listed here.
Items Any significant gear the creature carries is listed here.
Interaction Abilities Special abilities that affect how a creature perceives and interacts with the world are listed here.
AC, followed by any special bonuses to AC; Saving Throws A special bonus to a specific save appears in parentheses after that save's bonus. Any bonuses to all three saving throws are listed after the three saves.
HP, followed by automatic abilities that affect the creature's Hit Points or healing; Immunities; Weaknesses; Resistances Any immunities, weaknesses, or resistances are listed here.
Automatic Abilities The creature's auras, any abilities that automatically affect its defenses, and the like are listed here.
Reactive Abilities Free actions or reactions that are usually triggered when it's not the creature's turn are listed here.
Speed, followed by any other Speeds or movement abilities.
Melee [one-action] (traits; some weapon traits, such as deadly, include their calculations for convenience) The name of the weapon or unarmed attack the creature uses for a melee Strike, followed by the attack modifier and traits in parentheses. If a creature has any abilities or gear that would affect its attack modifier, such as a tactical-grade weapon, those calculations are already included, Damage amount and damage type, plus any additional effects (this entry is Effect if the Strike doesn't deal damage).
Ranged [one-action] As Melee, but also lists range or range increment with traits, Damage as Melee.
Area Fire [two-actions] As Melee, but also lists area and range with traits, Damage as Melee, but also lists the attack's saving throw DC
Spells The entry starts with the magical tradition and whether the spells are prepared or spontaneous, followed by the DC (and spell attack modifier if any spells require spell attack rolls). Spells are listed by rank, followed by cantrips. A spell prepared multiple times lists the number of times in parentheses—for example, “(×2).” Spontaneous spells list the number of spell slots after the spell rank.
Innate Spells These are listed like other spells, but can also include constant, at-will, and focus spells. If the creature has a focus spell as an innate spell, it works like other innate spells with listed uses, rather than costing Focus Points. Spells that can be used an unlimited number of times list “(at will)” after the spell's name. Constant spells appear at the end, separated by rank. Rules for constant and at-will spells appear in the Ability Glossary.
Focus Spells If a creature has focus spells, this entry lists the spells, the spells' rank, the Focus Points in the creature's focus pool, and the DC.
Rituals Any rituals the creature can cast appear here. The creature can choose to automatically succeed without rolling on any of these rituals or can roll normally.
Offensive or Proactive Abilities Any actions, activities, or abilities that automatically affect the creature's offense, as well as free actions or reactions that are usually triggered on the creature's turn, appear here in alphabetical order.
Roleplaying Creatures
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Whether it's an adversary or a potential ally, a creature might have a very different worldview than the PCs. When roleplaying creatures, think about how they experience the world differently due to their senses, physiology, and habitat. Each creature entry in this book gives you some context about the creature's worldview, motivations, ecology, and societies. Many sections have sidebars that provide relevant facts about creatures (labeled with the icons shown on below). You can use the information in each creature entry as cues on how to roleplay the creature in and out of combat. These cues can be as simple as a difference in idioms (perhaps saying “in the other tentacle” rather than “on the other hand”) and as complex as determining the motivations, hopes, and dreams for an individual creature. Understanding a creature you're playing also informs what tactics it uses, as well as whether it's willing to surrender or flee when losing a fight. A cybernetic zombie, for example, generally approaches situations by mindlessly following its creator's instructions or otherwise looking for something to kill, but you might also have it behave erratically, as if its damaged cybernetic implants are causing errors in its “programming.”
Each sidebar in a creature section is marked with an icon identifying the type of information it contains.
Additional Lore
Locations
Related Creatures
Treasure and Rewards
Additional Rules
Hazards
Adjusting Creatures
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Sometimes you might need to customize a creature based on the needs of your story or the narrative circumstances as your story unfolds. This section guides you through some basic strategies you can use to adjust creatures. You might also need to adjust a creature's languages or gear, or know its proficiency ranks in skills or Perception.
Combat Power
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The creatures presented in this book have appropriate statistics for their levels. In many cases, you can make relatively minor adjustments to a creature's statistics, called elite and weak adjustments, to raise or lower its level by 1. Adjust the XP players earn for defeating the creature and how you build encounters with it accordingly. You can make more comprehensive adjustments to creature statistics using the elite and weak creature adjustments.
Theme
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You might wish to further adjust creatures to suit the unique needs of your campaign, such as a campaign set entirely on a massive derelict starship (requiring more creatures that can operate in zero gravity) or in the frigid deep sea trenches of a planet covered in ice and oceans (requiring more aquatic creatures that are adapted to cold environments). Even in a relatively standard Starfinder campaign, a creature's default statistics might not be suitable for your story without some changes. Creature Adjustments contains rules for adjusting creatures' themes and abilities in many ways.
Languages
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The languages listed in a creature's entry represent the languages a typical creature of that type knows. However, you might want to vary these based on the specific creature. For instance, if a creature is interested in speaking with or understanding the people in its region, it would most likely know the language those people speak. This language is most often Common, but you can give it a more appropriate language depending on where the creature lives (such as Vesk for the Veskarium, or a planet's language, like Akitonian). Beings from other planes are unlikely to know any languages from the Universe unless they frequently travel there. If such a creature knows a mortal language, then that creature likely is interested in communicating with mortals. This language is most often Common, or whatever language is most spoken in the predominant planet or star system of your campaign world, though keep in mind that such a creature should speak Common only if it specifically travels to or studies your campaign's world and region above others. The languages are listed on the Languages page and in the Uncommon Languages section of this book.
Gear
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Some creatures rely on gear, like armor and weapons. You might need statistics for such a creature that has lost its gear. For example, a creature could be Disarmed, it might be ambushed while it's out of its armor, or one of its worn magic items could be disabled with dispel magic. In most cases, you can simply improvise, but if you want to be more exacting, use these guidelines for weapons and armor. If a creature loses its weapon, it might draw another weapon or use an unarmed attack. If it uses a Strike it doesn't have listed in its stat block, find a Strike entry for the creature that most closely matches the substitute, reduce the attack modifier by 2, and use the damage dice for the new Strike. If the creature needs to make an unarmed attack and doesn't have one listed in its stat block, it uses the statistics for a fist. If the creature loses a weapon of tactical grade or higher, you usually should reduce the attack modifier by 2 plus the bonus granted by the weapon's grade for the new weapon. For example, if the creature is Disarmed of its tactical nano-edge rapier, then you would reduce the attack modifier by 3 instead of 2 for the new Strike.
If a creature doesn't have its armor, find the armor in its Items entry, and reduce the creature's AC by that armor's item bonus. If the armor has a bonus from a higher grade, increase the reduction as appropriate; for example, if the creature has a suit of superior freebooter armor in its statistics, and the characters catch the creature without its armor, you would reduce the creature's AC by 6 instead of 4. If the armor has the resilient trait, reduce the creature's saves based on the trait's value.
If a creature doesn't have its armor, find the armor in its Items entry, and reduce the creature's AC by that armor's item bonus. If the armor has a bonus from a higher grade, increase the reduction as appropriate; for example, if the creature has a suit of superior freebooter armor in its statistics, and the characters catch the creature without its armor, you would reduce the creature's AC by 6 instead of 4. If the armor has the resilient trait, reduce the creature's saves based on the trait's value.
Skills, Perception, and Proficiency
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In some situations, you need to know the creature's proficiency rank in a skill or other statistic. Creatures are trained in the skills listed in their stat blocks and untrained in skills that aren't listed. A creature usually has expert proficiency in its listed skills around 5th level, master proficiency around 9th level, and legendary proficiency around 17th level. A creature might need a certain proficiency rank in Perception to detect certain things. Many creatures have expert proficiency in Perception and improve to master proficiency around 7th level and legendary proficiency around 13th level. At your discretion, creatures with galaxy-renowned aptitude for a particular skill or in Perception might have a higher proficiency rank in that skill or Perception.