Alien: Stickies (Stats and Notes)

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In this post I’ll follow-up my high-level racial template and discussion of the stickies with the full stats and some notes about why I modeled them this way.

Detailed Stats

Attributes (-40 points)

  • ST -2* [-20]
  • DX -2* [-40]
  • HT +2 [20]

*- I know if I have “No Fine Manipulators” I get a discount when I purchase ST and DX but I don’t think this word “purchase” would imply a penalty that reduces the point value I receive for lowering ST and DX? I have assumed that there is no penalty.

Secondary Characteristics (20 points)

  • Will +4 (important for merging minds) [20]

Advantages (319 points)

  • Binding (at ST 18) (One-Shot -10%; Contact Agent: -30%; Always On: Physically Inconvenient -20%; Melee Attack, Reach C -30%; Aura +80%; Sticky +20%; Unbreakable +40%; Engulfing +60%; Suffocating +75%) [103]
  • Chameleon (1) (This is an effect to model semi-transparency plus a minor ability to control surface textures and colors.) [5]
  • Communicates with Pheremones (this is a new advantage modeled after Bill Stoddard’s advice in this GURPS Forum thread. The point cost is adapted from Subsonic Speech.) [10]
  • Corrosion Attack: 1d-2 cor (Always On: Physically Inconvenient -20%; Contact Agent -30%; Melee Attack, Reach C -30%; Aura +80%; Cyclic, 1 second +100%) [8]
  • Doesn’t Breathe (Oxygen Absorption -25%) (Absorbs oxygen through skin) [15]
  • Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30]
  • Injury Tolerance (Diffuse, No Eyes, No Head, No Neck) [117]
  • Permeation (Flesh) (Note: required prereq for possession: parasitic, see below) [5]
  • Possession (Based on Will, Own Roll +20%; Assimilation +10%; Full Memory Access +10%; Limited Use: Once per day -40%; Nuisance Effect: Incapacitating: Coma for 3dx2 hours -5%; Specialized: Sapient Creatures Only -30%; Visible: -10%; Parasitic: -60%; Uncontrollable Trigger, Touches Flesh, -10%) (Maximum limitation reached, treated as -80%) (Notes: It wasn’t clear to me that “parasitic” is necessary but I think it is appropriate. Rather than you entering their flesh, they enter your flesh, but I think the consequences are the same and this is a good fit. Also, the negative value of an incapacitating coma should be higher, but rather than worry about it I’ve just used the default because I’m already at the maximum for limitations so it does not matter. “Full Memory Access” is from Powers p. 67. “Sapient” is defined at p. B15. I’ve swapped the controlling attribute to Will so that I can buy it up more cheaply–this creature is good at this.) [20]
  • Stretching [6]

Disadvantages (-225 points)

  • Appearance (Monstrous, -5) [-20]
  • Decreased Time Rate (stickies are mentally slow, oozing around and doing everything slowly) [-100]
  • Invertebrate [-20]
  • No Legs (Slithers) [0]
  • No Manipulators [-50]
  • Numb [-20]
  • Unusual Biochemistry (Useful to add because psi healing, mundane medicine, or herbary will work on stickies. Don’t try first aid on a sticky. Don’t touch it. Just don’t.) [-5]
  • Vulnerability (Dehydration Attacks x2) [-10]

Quirks (-2 point)

  • Extremely unusual voice, to humans [-1]
  • Occasionally makes involuntary wet noises while moving [-1]

Features

  • Can see, hear, smell, and “taste” through skin [0]
  • Can make patches of skin slightly tougher at will to facilitate movement, shoving objects around [0]
  • Can make audible sounds by pushing air through a big fold of itself, like a bellows. If it knows human languages, it can talk to humans in a breathy, strange way. [0]

More Model Notes

I opted to stay away from “Morph” because the stickies always look like weird blobs. Although they can alter their blob shape somewhat like a snail does, and with a little more flexibility, like a snail they can’t take the form of a cat or a beetle. So I modeled this pliability with “Stretching” and “Diffuse.”

I’ve had to stretch some of the rules to make this build work but I feel my changes are defensible. For example, most of the hard rules work is done with “Possession” but what is actually happening is not that the sticky is taking over the body of the victim–instead the two are merging. The rules say “with suitable modifiers, Possession can represent diverse abilities seen in speculative fiction” and I think that covers me.

Looking at the point cost for related advantages like “Duplication” and “Mind Control” I don’t think the person who takes this template is getting away with anything, point-wise. In fact the point cost might be a little high. With no hands and a slowed time rate, being a sticky looks like it would be a challenge.

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