Friday, April 24, 2020

Skin Stealer Racial Template/Monster

So here's a racial template for the Skin Stealer. The Skin Stealer appeared first, as far as I can tell, in the Trial of the Beast in Carrion Crown. The concept of it, I believe, is older than that. Working on the morph ability for its skin-stealing proved to be a little difficult, and I think that the limitation is a little larger than it should be. I include my notes on how I worked out the limitations on it.
Art from "Trial of the Beast"
I can't figure out who did the art...

Here's the description for them I ripped from the SRD:
A sadistic being from the realm of the fey, a skin stealer is a terrifying sight to behold. These blood-red creatures resemble horrid, emaciated humans without skin, their yellowish eyes and teeth suggesting malnourishment or disease. Skin stealers suffer from no ailment, however, except for their insatiable lust for chaos and their hunger for flesh.
Skin stealers are fey bent on destruction and gruesome murder. When left to their own devices, these gangly beings are unpredictable and spontaneous; when assigned duties from some higher, stronger power, however, skin stealers prove adept at performing complex assassinations and spy work.
A skin stealer is a little over 6 feet tall and weighs about 100 pounds, though it can adjust its size to inhabit many different creatures’ skins.
Skin Stealer (257)
ST +1 [10] DX +3 [60] IQ +3 [60] HT +1 [10]; Per+1 [5].
Advantages: Charisma 3 [15], DR 2 (tough skin -40%) [6], Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], Morph (Cosmetic without mass conservation -30%, skinbound and must obtain subject's skin -25%) [45], Night Vision 9 [9], Sharp Claws [5], Smooth Operator 3.
Disadvantages: Odious Personal Habit (Cannibalism) [-15], Revulsion (cold iron) [-5], Sadism (12-) [-15], Skinny [-5].
Features: Counts as a faerie.

Morph: With 10 Ready maneuvers, the skin stealers can don a skin and transform their appearance to that of the skin. They can have as many skins as they desire, so long as they were the ones who'd made the skins. The skins can be stolen and destroyed. Before a skin stealer can don a skin, they must remove it from a corpse and prepare it.
Skinbound Gadget Limitations: Breakable (DR 2 or less, -25%; SM -1 or -2, -20% since it's possible that he could use these skins as well as larger ones) Can Be Stolen, -5%. Altogether that comes to -25%.
Must Obtain Skins: Elsewhere when I defined an ability very similar to this, I forewent the skinbound limitation and simply gave the ability a -10% accessibility limitation ("face mask; must obtain the subject's face as a mask"). It's not quite the same, but I think that it'll work to do what I want it to. I think in this case I'm just going to say that it's already folded into the skinbound limitation by not specifying that a skin is "unique."
Cold Iron functions the same as silver in my games -- a weaker metal which can especially wound particular supernatural creatures. If Cold Iron is rarer than silver, turn the revulsion into a quirk. Or if faeries in your games aren't weak to cold iron, dispose of it entirely.
If not using the laternative cost of talents, +3 points.

Typical Stats
ST 11 DX 13 IQ 13 HT 11; thr 1d-1 sw 1d+1 Lift 24 HP 11 Will 13 Per 14 FP 11; SM 0 Speed 6 Move 6 Dodge 9.
Traits: Charisma 3 [15], Counts as a faerie, DR 2 (tough skin -40%) [6], Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], Morph (Cosmetic without mass conservation -30%, skinbound and must obtain subject's skin -25%) [40], Night Vision 9, Odious Personal Habit (Cannibalism), Revulsion (cold iron), Sharp Claws, Skinny, Smooth Operator 3.
Skills: Acting-14, Brawling-15, Disguise-15, Fast-Talk-14, Mimicry-14, Stealth-14.
Claw (15) 1d-1 cutting Reach C

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