Welcome to the final in our set of Starfinder creatures that specifically aim to challenge players in ways other than combat. Our final creature, the oozoar, goes big, offering GMs a creature upon which they can base a one-shot, an arc or even a small campaign in the vein of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, challenging players with the question of who to trust.
Oozoar CR 8
Wet meat roils and surges across its mass, hunks of fat and ligament, bone and nerve, hair and muscle shifting and sliding against one another as it moves.
LE Medium ooze (shapechanger)
Init +0; Senses blindsight (vibration) 60 ft.; Perception +21
DEFENSE HP 115
EAC 20; KAC 21
Fort +9; Ref +5; Will +9
Immunities ooze immunities
Weaknesses chrysalozoar dependency
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee slam +17 (1d12+8 B)
STATISTICS
Str +0, Dex +0, Con +2, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +6
Skills Bluff +21, Diplomacy +16, Disguise +21, Sense Motive +16, Stealth +16
Languages Common, see DNA link
Other Abilities cellular instability, change shape (Small to Large creature), chrysalozoar, DNA link
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Cellular Instability (Ex)
An oozoar more than 100 feet from its attuned chrysalozoar that has taken more than 50 points of damage loses cellular cohesion, returning to its ooze form, becoming paralyzed and appearing as if dead. A successful DC 25 Life Science check is required to identify that the oozoar is still alive.
Change Shape (Su)
By spending 10 minutes in a sticky mucosal cocoon, an oozoar may assume the shape of any Small to Large creature stored by its DNA link. In addition, if the creature whose form it is assuming is alive and within 10 miles of it, that creature must succeed on a DC 18 Will save or be affected as if it had cast shield other on the oozoar. Succeeding on this save alerts the creature to the attempt and indicates the oozoar’s general direction to the creature.
Chrysalozoar (Su)
All oozoar are attuned to and dependent upon a chrysalozoar; a large glossy stone formed from the calcified remains of an oozoar overloaded with many DNA samples. An oozoar may attune to a chrysalozoar by spending 1 minute in physical contact with it and always knows its general direction. An oozoar must spend at least 10 minutes each day in physical contact with its attuned chrysalozoar or it gains the mindless trait and single-mindedly attempts to return to its chrysalozoar, only losing the trait after spending 10 minutes in contact with it. A group of oozoar may transform one of their own into a chrysalozoar by overloading an individual oozoar with at least twenty DNA samples. The oozoar slowly calcifies over the next 10 hours before dying and becoming a new chrysalozoar, losing all stored DNA samples in the process.. A chrysalozoar weighs over 800 pounds, has hardness 10 and 115 hit points. If a chrysalozoar is destroyed, all attuned oozoar immediately take 65 points of damage.
DNA link (Su)
When a living creature touches or is touched by an oozoar, the oozoar may store a DNA sample for use with their change shape ability. It also learns one additional language known by that creature for as long as it possesses that sample. An oozoar can transfer a DNA sample to another oozoar or to or from an attuned chrysalozoar with one minute of physical contact. An oozoar can only possess three DNA samples at a time (unless transforming into a chrysalozoar).
ECOLOGY
Environment any
Organization solitary or invasion (2-10)
It is said that they come from space. And certainly, the first sign of their arrival is a meteor shower. Hidden amongst the falling rock and ice are chrysalozoar, dead bodies of their kind inured to cold and vacuum and time and set drifting from their conquered worlds, they scatter across the surface of a new world like seeds upon a field. This is how an invasion of the oozoar begins. Through some unknown process, the chrysalozoar is able to birth new oozoar, driven by instincts embedded in its very DNA the oozoar sets to its task, to copy, to expand and to replace. An oozoar invasion is methodical and inexorable. One by one, individuals are taken and replaced until enough oozoar are hidden amongst the population that they may take the rest in a single strike. Towns, cities, nations; swallowed up from the inside out. New chrysalozoar are formed to expand the range and territory of the oozoar and the process repeats. During an invasion, oozoar will keep many of those they take alive as hostages and literal shields but when there is little to threaten them, these hostages quickly become food. Many have attempted to reach out to the oozoar and have sought to make peace with this sentient slime. Their worlds have since fallen and been lost to the oozoar.
The oozoar occupies a similar niche to doppelgangers and other shape-changing antagonists, asking players the question, “who do they trust?” and presenting them with a challenge in finding and identifying the disguised creature. The oozoar’s chrysalozoar dependency provides GMs simple, additional ways of allowing players to uncover the shapechangers aside from innumerable Perception and Sense Motive checks. The chrysalozoar also acts as a weak point for players to exploit in defeating an oozoar invasion, encouraging information gathering, stealth and subterfuge.
That’s all for this week, join me again next week for more Starfinder.
