Support United Paizo Workers! Click here for more details!
GM > Starship > Starship-Scale Creature List > Gwahled
Starfinder Alien Archive 3 p.46
NE Gargantuan starship fey
Speed 10; Maneuverability average (turn 2)
AC 29; TL 29
HP 400; DT 10; CT 80
Shields heavy 420 (forward 105, port 105, starboard 105, aft 105)
Attack (Forward) bite (5d12 plus swallow starship)
Attack (Turret) photon flare (2d10×10), graviton net (10d6)
Power Core gwahled heart (500 PCU); Drift Engine none; Systems mk 8 armor, mk 9 defenses; Expansion Bays none
Other Abilities fear-eater aura, living starship, paranormal astrogation, void adaptation
Engineer (1 action) Engineering +31 (15 ranks)
Gunner (2 actions) gunnery +22 (15th level)
Pilot (1 action) Piloting +26 (15 ranks)
Environment any vacuum
Organization solitary
Bite (Ex) A gwahled can use
its bite only against a ship in
an adjacent hex. If the
gwahled deals damage
with this attack to a ship
of its size or smaller,
it holds that ship in
place. As an action,
the pilot of the
bitten starship can
attempt a DC 32
Piloting check to
break free of the
gwahled’s maw.
While holding a
starship in its maw, the gwahled can’t move or turn, but
it can make attacks with its photon flare and graviton
net, or attempt to bite or swallow the same starship. The
gwahled and the ship it is holding take a –2 penalty to AC
and TL and to Piloting checks to determine movement
order in starship combat.
Fear-Eater Aura (Su) A creature that starts its turn within
20 hexes of the gwahled and able to see it (or engaged
in starship combat with it) must succeed at a DC 22
Will saving throw or become frightened. A creature that
fails by 5 or more is panicked instead. A creature that
successfully saves cannot be affected again by the same
gwahled’s fear-eater aura for 24 hours.
Graviton Net (Su) A gwahled’s graviton net has short range,
and the point (+12) and tractor beam special properties.
Living Starship (Ex) A gwahled is a living creature so
immense that it functions as a starship (and thus engages
only in starship combat). It has no crew, but it can still
take engineer, gunner, and pilot actions using the skill
bonuses, ranks, and level listed above. Modifiers for
its size, speed, and maneuverability have already been
factored into its statistics. Use the table below whenever
the gwahled takes critical damage. The gwahled’s brain
can’t gain the wrecked condition.
D% | SYSTEM | EFFECT |
---|---|---|
1–30 | Weapon array | Condition applies to all gunner actions. |
31–60 | Gravity centers | Condition applies to all pilot actions and gunner actions with attacks other than bite. |
61–90 | Heart | Condition applies to engineer actions except patching or repairing the heart. |
91–100 | Brain | Condition applies to all actions. |
Paranormal Astrogation (Su) A gwahled can transport itself
through space at astonishing speeds, arriving anywhere
in the galaxy within 10d6 days. They rarely do so, except
when hungry, and otherwise mostly do so randomly.
Photon Flare (Ex) A gwahled’s photon flare has medium
range. To a starship without functioning shields, this
weapon not only deals damage but also has the EMP
special property.
Swallow Starship (Ex) If the gwahled is holding a starship
smaller than it in place, it can swallow that vessel by
making a successful bite attack against it. A gwahled’s
gullet can hold one Huge ship, two Large ships, four
Medium ships, eight Small ships, or sixteen Tiny ships.
A gwahled can take an action during the gunnery
phase to attempt to incinerate starships inside it,
dealing 5d12 damage (divide this damage equally across
all arcs, starting with the forward arc and proceeding
clockwise) and applying the EMP special property. A
swallowed vessel can still attack. The gwahled’s interior
has AC 25, TL 25, and DT 5. However, starship weapons
deal half damage to the firing ship through a combination
of blowback and the gwahled’s physical reactions. If a
swallowed starship deals 100 damage to the gwahled’s
interior, the ship blows a hole in the creature big enough to
attempt to fly through. During the helm phase, the pilot of
a swallowed starship can attempt to fly free with a DC 32
Piloting check, or DC 37 if the gwahled has no hole in it.
On a failure, the starship remains within the gwahled.
Gamboling through space with inscrutable whims, gwahleds
are among the largest fey in existence—
and also among the rarest. A gwahled
looks like an astronomical object, but
it has three eyes and a massive maw
capable of swallowing starships.
Devouring a vessel garners the
gwahled no sustenance, although
it can feed on the fear of the
doomed crew.
Gwahleds require only
this fear to sustain them.
They seek mortal fright
produced on a planetary
scale. A gwahled sleepily
wanders the interstellar
reaches until it has a vision
of a planet with sufficient
sapient life and with
technology good enough
to detect an incoming
space object but no
means to thwart such
a calamity. Once the
gwahled has dreamed
of an appropriate planet,
it travels on a collision
course toward that world,
behaving as though it were a
comet inexorably drawn to the planet’s
gravitational field. The gwahled is large
enough that if it struck most worlds, the outcome would
be an extinction-level event—and it relies on this fact to feed.
As the gwahled draws closer to its target, it siphons the
fear radiating from a population aware of its own doom. Once
the gwahled is very close to the planet, the fey’s fear-eater aura
drives most creatures on the world into abject terror. Few can
act rationally in the face of this astronomical horror. Even those
who resist the supernatural fear can find themselves giving in to
despair as their civilization crumbles around them. From these
emotions, the gwahled takes the nourishment it needs. Sated, the
creature changes course, moving away from the planet before
causing any direct physical harm. It then drowsily continues its
journey among the stars, awaiting visions of another world.
Although a gwahled’s arrival rarely results in the expected
extinction, the visitation can cause civilizations to disintegrate.
Countless people die in the fear and confusion. The world’s
organizations fall apart as people succumb to desperation or
resignation. Horrible accidents and lasting pollution are often
the results. Sometimes, national enemies choose the moment of
impending doom to enact decisive strikes against one another.
Once the population recovers its senses, the devastation has
likely set it back decades—if not centuries—in its development.
Comanides oppose gwahleds. These comet fey travel to systems
a gwahled might threaten and warn the inhabitants
of the peril. A comanide might seek the aid of
travelers who can thwart the gwahled on
behalf of those it seeks to prey upon.
A gwahled rarely visits the same
world twice. However, a few have
established cosmic routes among
populated planets that have yet
to develop adequate defenses.
People who expect the titanic
fey are less likely to panic at the
creature’s approach, but the fey’s
aura can still inflict terror and
thereby provide the gwahled
ample sustenance. Visitors
to worlds on a gwahled’s
feeding route often find
cultures that have religions
or stories of a “chaos starâ€
that brings despair,
fear, and turmoil on a
generational timescale.
Website owned by Mark von Drake. All content on this website owned by Paizo Inc. Privacy policy can be found here.
Contact: markvondrake@thehiddentruth.info