Earlier this week, due to a silly bit of joking around, I ended up watching Predator for the first time ever in my life! What a travesty! That movie is just pure fun, 80’s action. I would highly recommend it! Anyway, while watching it, I came to the conclusion that the titular monster would be a great monster to stat up. As it is an alien, it’s only fitting to give it Starfinder stats. So, here we go!

Predator                                   CR 12
XP 19,200
LN Medium humanoid (yautja)
Init +8; Senses Perception +19
DEFENSE
HP 200
EAC 26; KAC 28
Fort +16, Ref +14, Will +11
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee wristblades +25 (6d4+20)
Ranged plasma caster +25 (6d4+12)
Offensive Abilities active camouflage, self-destruct
STATISTICS
Str +8, Dex +5, Con +4, Int +3, Wis +2, Cha +0
Skills Athletics +27, Perception +27, Stealth +22, Survival +27
Languages Yautja
Other Abilities bio-mask, vocal mimicry
ECOLOGY
Environment any
Organization solitary
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Active Camouflage (Ex) As a swift action, the predator can activate its personal cloaking device. The predator becomes invisible as greater invisiblity. It can deactivate its camouflage as a swift action.
Bio-mask (Ex) As a swift action, the predator can activate his bio-mask. While active, the predator gains blindsight (life) out to 60 feet.
Plasma Caster (Ex) The plasma caster deals both electricity and fire damage and has a range increment of 120 feet. Plasma caster attacks are considered magical for the purposes of damage reduction.
Self-Destruct (Ex) As a standard action, the predator can set his equipment to detonate in a tremendous explosion. At the end of the predator’s next turn, its equipment detonates dealing 20d6 fire damage to all creatures in a 10-foot radius and destroying the predator. A successful DC 19 Reflex save halves this damage.
Vocal Mimicry (Ex) As a move action, the predator can record the voice of another creature, up to a total of 50 words or approximately 10 sentences. It can play back the recording as a move action. The recording can be heard up to 60 feet away. A creature that hears the recording can discern that the sound is a recording with a successful DC 19 Sense Motive check. The predator can store up to 10 recordings and chooses which recording to replace when recording an 11th recording.

A yautja with its mask removed.

The creature known as the Predator is actually a single member of a species named the yautja. The yautia are a humanoid species with advanced technology known for their love of hunting. They prefer to hunt prey that pose a challenge to their superior tracking and combat skills, taking trophies after suitable hunts. Their culture focuses entirely on hunting as a rite of passage, with young yautja entering adulthood after their first successful major hunt. Yautja typically visit other worlds in their search for new, challenging prey. This can lead yautja to planets inhabited by other intelligent species. This can lead to some uninteresting and simple hunts, however, as not all species are capable of dealing with a yautja’s technological equipment. Yautja follow a code of honor and make sure to provide their prey with ample opportunity to defend themselves or flee. Some yautja even reject using their equipment if they feel it gives them too much of an advantage against a particular quarry. Yautja do their best to avoid defeat in combat, even willingly destroying themselves if they are on the verge of defeat. Quarries able to defeat a yautja are left alone by the rest of the species, having earned the yautja’s respect and honor. A typical yautja stands 7 feet tall and weighs 500 pounds.

Monstrous Origins

Having just seen Predator less than one week ago, I didn’t have a whole slew of other movies to shape my perception of the monster. I found a bit about the Predator on a wiki to help flesh out some of the flavor, but otherwise, it’s all based on the movie. The most obvious element was the Predator’s cloaking. It was easy enough to implement and I feel that characters around 11th level should have sufficient options to deal with invisible foes. The next thing to get in place was the voice mimicry. I wanted to make sure the Predator would not use the majority of its turn using the ability so it would work well with its self-destruct. As it’s a move action to use and play it back, it gives the Predator plenty of time to laugh to recreate its final scene in the movie!

That’s it for this week! If you end up introducing the Predator into your game or you have any request for a future Monstrous Physique, please drop me a line at KnowDirection@hotmail.com.