Help building a other-wordly-esque creature

[Hide]

Hey what’s up!

I am trying to model a monster based on love-craftian lore (so to say); so I am looking for the proper advantages in order to cover the following:

• Genderless.
• Can eat any creature whole.
• Can access its knowledge as if it was a library.
• Can instantly learn skills, replicate personality, etc. from the creature it consumed (instantly at any time).
• Can shapeshift into the creature it consumed, it could be completely or partially (i.e. appearance only but not overall internal organs, etc.).

Right now I am thinking of: Universal digestion, racial memory, shapeshiting and maybe modular abilities. But what will do?

And how do I cover "genderless", is that a feature?

I appreciate your ideas,
Thank you!

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Hide

Hey what’s up!

I am trying to model a monster based on love-craftian lore (so to say); so I am looking for the proper advantages in order to cover the following:

• Genderless.
• Can eat any creature whole.
• Can access its knowledge as if it was a library.
• Can instantly learn skills, replicate personality, etc. from the creature it consumed (instantly at any time).
• Can shapeshift into the creature it consumed, it could be completely or partially (i.e. appearance only but not overall internal organs, etc.).

Right now I am thinking of: Universal digestion, racial memory, shapeshiting and maybe modular abilities. But what will do?

And how do I cover "genderless", is that a feature?

I appreciate your ideas,
Thank you!

Something like The Thing? Most of it can be done with Basic and Powers. The eating victims whole is probably just an Instant Death attack. Yeah, genderless is just a feature. Mind Probe with Memory Bank, Morph with a large pool and probably a lesser version of Improvised Forms takes care of a lot of it, I think.

[Hide]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Something like The Thing? Most of it can be done with Basic and Powers. The eating victims whole is probably just an Instant Death attack. Yeah, genderless is just a feature. Mind Probe with Memory Bank, Morph with a large pool and probably a lesser version of Improvised Forms takes care of a lot of it, I think.

Oh right, "the thing"! Now that you mention it, it is something very similar to it, indeed! Where do I find "improvised forms" and, how do I manage digesting something whole (w/o creating waste)?

- Hide

[Michele]

Universal Digestion and Sanitized Metabolism are cheap for the budget you must have in mind, and should be useful.

[Refplace]

Improvised forms is an enhancement on Morph.
Swallowing has a couple of options.
A large enough size and/or biting mastery to swallow whole.
Binding with Engulfing
Constriction Attack with Engulfing, and again enough size.

The last is my preferred option.
Buy a digestion attack at 1/5 cost for internal to quickly kill them. Maybe extra dimensional Payload (Cosmic,+50%) to store the bodies.
Buy the mental powers with Cosmic, +50% on devoured bodies.

[Hide]

Well, it is not necessary storing the bodies, it could be for example keeping a sample of the subjects' DNA; could one treat it as a feature of Morph?

For the digestion I would not like to have the creature modify its size that much (i.e. turning into something really big or necessarily bigger than the subject). The most mundane example I can think of is “CELL” from Dragon Ball Z. He had some kind of tail with a needle that sucked the life out of its subjects. It was also capable of swallowing the androids whole. On the other hand it could get inside the subject and digest it while being inside the creature. In both situations I think it should be pretty fast (instantly).

Besides, what do I need to have this creature "store" the memories and knowledge of the assimilated subjects? Think of making a perfect copy of the brain (including its paths of thought and so on).

My aim is “building” a library of skills and advantages made from the assimilated subjects DNA and knowledge. The result would be a very adaptive creature.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Hide

Well, it is not necessary storing the bodies, it could be for example keeping a sample of the subjects' DNA; could one treat it as a feature of Morph?

Not needing a sample or library of forms is an enhancement.

Originally Posted by Hide

For the digestion I would not like to have the creature modify its size that much (i.e. turning into something really big or necessarily bigger than the subject).

Constriction Attack requires you t be bigger than your target so if your using that add Cosmic to increase SM?
If not using a grapple based attack maybe Bind with engulfing is best.
Instantly swallowing someone whole is powerful so should cost points if your building it. Though remember NPCs do not have to be statted.

Originally Posted by Hide

Besides, what do I need to have this creature "store" the memories and knowledge of the assimilated subjects? Think of making a perfect copy of the brain (including its paths of thought and so on).

My aim is “building” a library of skills and advantages made from the assimilated subjects DNA and knowledge. The result would be a very adaptive creature.

Thats the Mind Reading and Mind Probe with the above recommended enhancements. Might go with Possession which some of those were based on but that would likely be more expensive. All would need Cosmic to read from a dead and gone subject.
Another option is Wild Talent with a limitation only swallowed creatures and Retension.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Not needing a sample or library of forms is an enhancement.

Constriction Attack requires you t be bigger than your target so if your using that add Cosmic to increase SM?
If not using a grapple based attack maybe Bind with engulfing is best.
Instantly swallowing someone whole is powerful so should cost points if your building it. Though remember NPCs do not have to be statted.

Thats the Mind Reading and Mind Probe with the above recommended enhancements. Might go with Possession which some of those were based on but that would likely be more expensive. All would need Cosmic to read from a dead and gone subject.
Another option is Wild Talent with a limitation only swallowed creatures and Retension.

Base Morph lets you assume the form of anything you can see or can touch or have memorized. Requiring a sample should be the limitation from Powers. Bind w/ Engulfing might be a good idea for the swallowing whole, although it still might need to be linked to an attack (Biting?). I was thinking the Instant Death IA could keep the victims whole long enough to do the Mind Probe Memory Bank "snapshot", but that might be too cheesy.

[Hide]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

(...) I was thinking the Instant Death IA could keep the victims whole long enough to do the Mind Probe Memory Bank "snapshot", but that might be too cheesy.

Could it "Wild Ability" and Wild Talent with limitation "focused" (assimilated subjects)? This is parting from Refplace's idea "wild talent".

Although I don't understand the part of "powers required", could it be "Wild Ability" under power modifier "cosmic"? (Wild Ability is exotic and new for me).

PD.

I believe mind-probe requires a living subject, right?
Why mind-probe and not mind-reading?
Could you help me with this? I was reading about those abilities but it seems they don't let me copy a subject’s personality. And I would not like to require "mimicry" or a skill to "reproduce" behaviors. I think that would be the difference from "the thing".

Thank you!

- Hide

[Refplace]

Do you have Powers?
Wild Talent has a Wild Ability modifier on p. 90 and that was what I referred to.
Trouble is its just once a day/level.

Mind Reading is for surface thoughts, Mind Probe is for memories and deep thoughts. We have seen Cosmic, +50% used to read a dead persons last thoughts. Example Eyes of the Dead from GURPS Monster Hunters
Statistics: Mind Probe (Cosmic, Works on the dead, +50%;
Only for last sight before death, -40%; PM, -10%) [20].

So to learn skills and memories go with Mind Probe (Cosmic, Works on the dead, +50%; Memory Bank, +150%)
You still need a power like Wild Talent or a Modular Ability pool for skills but Morph could handle that instead with GM permission, especially if coupled with the Mind Probe above.