Creatures

You are not alone in the universe. In the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, strange new creatures and cultures await your party of adventurers on every new planet and space station. Whether you’re on a routine trading mission in the most familiar sectors of the Pact Worlds or exploring never-before-contacted planets out in the mysterious reaches of the Vast, Starfinder is a game about aliens—playing them, fighting them, and everything in between.

Starfinder Alien Archive presents a sampling of such aliens, designed both for Game Masters to use in crafting challenging encounters and adventures and for players to use in creating and customizing the perfect characters. It’s also a font of setting information and cultural details on the melting pot of different worlds that is Starfinder’s home galaxy. In order to fully use the creatures in this codex, you’ll need a copy of the Starfinder Core Rulebook, or you can find that book’s rules online for free at paizo.com/sfrd.

Not all of the creatures in this book are aliens in the traditional sense—after all, everyone’s an alien to someone else, and who’s to say you’re not just as bizarre to a gelatinous barathu as it is to you? Some of the species detailed here are key members of the Pact Worlds, being almost as familiar to the average citizen as the races presented in the Starfinder Core Rulebook. Others—angels, devils, and fey, for example—are from realms beyond mortal ken. Still others are old mythological favorites like dragons and elementals, familiar to players of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and other fantasy RPGs but updated to Starfinder’s rules. Appendix 4: Universal Creature Rules explains all those rules which are common among the various entries in this book.

This book is only a small sampling of the myriad creatures found in the Starfinder campaign setting. For more, see the Starfinder Adventure Path volumes and other supplements, or quickly and easily import monsters from the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary volumes into your Starfinder game using the rules from the Pathfinder Legacy chapter of the Starfinder Core Rulebook. Best of all, this book’s Appendix 1: Creating Monsters and Other NPCs presents a robust creature-creation system that GMs can use to create monsters and nonplayer characters of literally any species they can imagine, while Appendix 3: Simple Template Grafts lets GMs modify existing creatures on the fly to better fit their party’s level and situation.

But Alien Archive doesn’t stop at creatures! This book also presents a ton of alien technology such as armor, magic items, weapons, and more that are perfect for rewarding or customizing player characters, sprinkled throughout their respective creature entries. And Appendix 2: Summoning Creatures offers spellcasters rules for summoning creatures in combat, allowing you to bring even more aliens to your table!

There’s a whole galaxy out there, full of creatures to fight or befriend. Are you ready?

Racial Traits and Alien PCs

Part of the fun of any science fantasy game is playing bizarre alien races, and in Starfinder, we want groups to have as many playable creature options as possible. As a result, many of the creature entries in this book include racial traits—rules that players can use to build characters of these races. In many cases, these racial abilities are scaled-back versions of the full monster abilities; this is because opponents run by the GM (both monsters and nonplayer characters) are created using a different rules system than player characters, but also because it allows us to present a wide array of potential playable races that might otherwise be too powerful. Even so, these abilities can still add complications to the game, and it’s always up to the GM to decide whether to allow player characters of these races. The GM can also opt to treat non-humanoid player races as humanoids for the purposes of spells and other abilities to offset some of these complications.

How to Read a Stat Block

The following section breaks down how to read a creature’s statistics, also called a stat block. Not all creatures have all of the information listed below. If a monster has any entries that aren’t explained here or that differ from the normal class features and other rules for characters presented in the Starfinder Core Rulebook, you’ll find them explained fully either at the end of the stat block under Special Abilities or in Appendix 4: Universal Creature Rules, where rules that appear in multiple monster entries have been compiled for easy reference. Both monsters and nonplayer characters (NPCs) have stat blocks, and you’ll learn how to build both of them in Appendix 1: Creating Monsters and Other NPCs.

Name and CR: The creature’s name is presented along with its Challenge Rating (CR), a numerical representation of the creature’s relative power. Challenge Rating is explained in detail on page 389 of the Starfinder Core Rulebook, but as a general rule, monsters with a CR equal to the average level of the characters in your party is about right for them to fight—if the CR is too high, it’ll be too difficult, and if it’s too low, it won’t be a fun challenge anymore.

XP: This is the total number of experience points the player characters (PCs) earn for defeating the creature. Note that this is the total for the party, not each character!

Race and Grafts: All creatures have a race entry. Some creatures are also built with class or template grafts, giving them more abilities (see Appendix 1 for more information). If this entry lists “variant,” the creature is an altered version of the base creature, beyond gaining different special abilities or class grafts. If this entry lists “unique,” the creature is the only one of its kind.

Alignment, Size, Type, and Subtype: A creature’s listed alignment represents the norm for such creatures; an individual’s can vary as you require for the needs of your campaign. A creature’s size determines its space and reach. Some innate abilities come from the creature’s type and subtype.

Init, Senses, and Perception: This lists the creature’s initiative modifier, followed by its special senses (omitted if it doesn’t have any). Its Perception modifier is listed here instead of in its Skills entry (see below).

Aura: If the creature has a magical or exceptional aura, it is listed here along with its radius from the creature and the save DC to resist the aura’s effects, where applicable.

HP and RP: These entries list the creature’s Hit Points and (if it uses them) its Resolve Points.

** EAC and KAC:** The creature’s Energy Armor Class and Kinetic Armor Class are listed here.
Fort, Ref, and Will: The creature’s Fortitude, Reflex, and Will saving throw modifiers are listed here, followed by situational modifiers to those rolls.

Defensive Abilities, DR, Immunities, Resistances, and SR: If the creature has any defensive abilities, damage reduction (DR), immunities, resistances, or spell resistance (SR), they’re listed here.

Weaknesses: This lists the creature’s weaknesses, if any.

Speed: This notes the creature’s speed, followed by any additional speeds and types of movement the creature has. If the creature has a fly speed, the source of its fly speed (whether extraordinary, supernatural, or from another source such as an item) is given, followed by its maneuverability.

Melee: The creature’s melee attacks are listed here, each starting on a separate line. The attack roll modifier appears after the attack’s name, followed by the attack’s damage, damage type, and critical effects in parentheses.

Multiattack: If the creature can make multiple melee attacks with a full action (usually with different weapons), the attacks and attack roll modifiers are listed in this entry, followed by each attack’s damage, damage type, and critical effects in parentheses.

Ranged: This entry lists the creature’s ranged attacks in the same format the Melee entry uses for melee attacks.
Space and Reach: The creature’s space and reach are noted here if they are other than a 5-foot square and 5 feet (those values are the default). Any special reach (from weapons or the like) is listed in parentheses.

Offensive Abilities: This entry lists abilities the creature is likely to use offensively.

Spell-Like Abilities: After noting the caster level of the creature’s spell-like abilities, this section lists the creature’s spell-like abilities (and the associated saving throw DCs, where relevant), organized by the number of times per day it can use each ability.

Spells Known: If the creature can cast spells (usually due to a mystic or technomancer class graft), its caster level is shown in this entry, followed by the spells it knows (and the associated saving throw DCs, where applicable) and how many spell slots of each level it has available per day. Often, only the creature’s most powerful spells are listed here.

Ability Score Modifiers: The creature’s ability score modifiers (rather than the scores themselves) are listed here. Feats: Only feats that give situational bonuses or allow for special combat tactics are listed in monster stat blocks. Feats that give the creature a static bonus (such as Improved Initiative) are already factored into the creature’s statistics, and they are therefore not listed.
Skills: The creature’s skills are listed here alphabetically with their modifiers. Creatures are assumed to have whatever tools they need to use the listed skills (such as Engineering) without a penalty.

Languages: The languages most commonly understood and spoken by the creature are noted here, along with any other special means of communication (such as telepathy). You can swap out the languages known for other choices as needed.

Other Abilities: This entry lists abilities and features the creature has that aren’t covered in another line.
Gear and Augmentations: This entry details the gear and augmentations the creature has, which can be altered to suit your needs.

Environment: The regions and climates in which the creature is typically encountered are listed here, though you’re welcome to use the creature in different environments.

Organization: This entry describes typical groupings for this creature type and whether such groups include any other types of creatures.
Special Abilities: All of the creature’s unusual abilities are detailed in this section.