Homebrew: Necrophage

Spawned, Spread, and Saved

In the vast hive-world of Shk'lrzth, fleshy tumours pulsate
both above and below the surface, pustules of gestating
biomass that grow outward from an endless webwork of flesh
and tissue. What was once a diverse planet has long since
been wholly subsumed by the organic mass, and within it is
bred new life that slithers, crawls, flies and walks out into the
ever-hungry, ever-thrumming world.
A race that assimilates and grows as it consumes, the
Necrophage spread across their home planet over the
millenia, absorbing and adapting and learning, until it
eventually consumed the whole of the world, from the lands
above to the seas below and even beneath the crust. As such,
the existence of the Necrophage would have long since come
to an unsustainable end were it not for the divine intervention
of Prisma, the cross-planar goddess of true magic. She
worked her radiance down through tumescent tunnels to the
core of the world, and shaped there a vast sentience: a Queen,
to both subjugate the race and stifle its growth to sustainable
levels, as well as to funnel the organic refuse of the myriad of
worlds and era her touch has graced, ensuring that the
Necrophage will continue to feed and survive even as her own
worlds are cleansed of unneeded detritus.
Ever-adapting Organic Mass
A Necrophage, in its natural form, resembles something akin
to a small scarab, though one possessed of numerous flailing,
barbed tentacles that have a tendancy to plunge and hook
into flesh. Rarely, however, are they encountered thus; they
are grown upon their hive-world and sent out at Prisma's
bidding, and to that end they are grown to specifications
deemed most suited for their task by her Exemplar before
being sent out to do her bidding. Generally, they are made to
look like native races of the worlds to which they are sent,
though in cases where a world must be scourged, they are
nothing short of monstrous, unceasingly-moving creations of
pure horror.
Guided, but Independent
The most important difference between a Necrophage and
other Queen-led insectoid races is that in this case, the
Queen was added after the fact; an artificial addition to the
process. Consequently, it means that while the Necrophage
do take direction from her, they are all independent
consciousnesses -- some might not be inclined to call them
people, but they very much have their own thoughts, goals,
and even feelings. There is no immediate psychic connection
or otherworldly force that binds them to their Queen
Exemplar, they simply know that without her they would die,
collapsing in on cannibalising one another.
As a result, while the Necrophage do tend to follow the
orders they are given, they are free to go about them in their
own ways, and indeed, some may even struggle against others
of their own kind if they feel like they are being hindered.
They are a race of assimilating mimics of the flesh, and while
their flesh is sloughed off or heaped on at their whim to
better suit their needs, many over time develop favouritism
for certain traits or markings or designs that they incorporate
into their bodies as a form of individuality, even if by many
accounts their "real" body is no larger than most coins.

RACE | NECROPHAGE 1
 Necrophage Names
Being independent creatures as opposed to creatures strictly
of a hive mind, individual Necrophage do have names, and in
general these are names that are made easy to pronounce
using what is closest to their native anatomy -- things of clicks
and buzzes and chitterings. As they are grown and spawned,
however, rather than being born as a result of sexual
congress, there are no family or tribe names attached to
identify them. Further, given their malleable state,
Necrophage are essentially genderless, and do not concern
themselves with identification as male or female in that
sense.
More frequently, Necrophage will adopt a name suited for
whatever body they find themselves in, as there is little point
in trying to blend in if you still come across as wholly alien.
Names: Chit'al, Drik-chkit, Kat'chka, Klaktuk, Krik, Pak'cha,
Pik-ik-cha, Pok, Tal'tich, Tik-tik
Necrophage Traits
Your Necrophage character has certain traits unique to its
race.
Ability Score Increase: You have three points to spend
amongst your ability scores, and you may place them where
you wish.
Age: Necrophage are capable of living up to several dozen
years, and begin adulthood essentially as soon as they and
their host flesh are spawned.
Alignment: Necrophage alignment is generally that of their
goddess, Prisma -- Lawful Evil.
Size: Save for the Queen Exemplar and some other highly-
specialised Necrophage, Necrophage are tiny, at best perhaps
one or two inches long and a quarter of that in width. The
average Necrophage is capable of sculpting a host body
within the parameters of its host race, but only to a point.
Your size is medium or smaller.
2 RACE | NECROPHAGE
Speed: Your base walking speed is 10 feet outside of a
host, and up to 35 feet inside of a host, up to the host's
maximum.
Languages: You can speak your own language, Sekkcha,
and may speak, read, and write one language relevant to the
task you were spawned for (usually Common).
Organic Assimilation
You may absorb recently-deceased biomass and incorporate it
into your own form, to a myriad of effects.
Bodily Alteration. When in contact with sufficient dead
biomass to fuel the changes, you may make changes to your
body as per the Alter Self spell, with the understanding that
while you are not quite as constrained in terms of appearance
or function, you do require the relevant organic material upon
which to base your alterations; feeding off a human will not
give you gills, though you may make more drastic bodily
changes so long as they are similar to the body you are
sourcing them from. Note that the effects are permanent, not
temporary; thus, you may not make adjustments without
repeating the process anew, and that possession of
something active instead of passive (wings, as opposed to
gills) does not imply knowledge of how to use them well, if at
all. Depending on the degree of change, this may take
minutes or hours.
Bodily Reconstruction. During a short rest, you may avail
yourself of a nearby corpse and absorb it. You may spend hit
die equal to half the creature's HD for free. During a long
rest, you may spend the creature's full HD for free.
Additionally, if your host body is rendered unconscious or
dead, you may (after passing death checks if necessary to
avoid the system shock), be transplanted into another
deceased host body to recover, assuming your natural form
was not destroyed.
Flesh redistribution. During a short rest, you may re-
adjust your placement of ability score advancements, though
may not go below 8 or above 20. Track these adjustments; you
are only allowed to shift the attributes gained as a result of
ability score increases.