Introduction

This isn’t currently part of anything I plan to offer for sale, but it might be in the future, if I can think of a bunch of things to round it out with… I figure 3-4 creatures and some new rules/items/whatever makes a good 0.99 PDF. It began with a conversation, wherein I was postulating dinner option, and I noticed that “fish and chips” sounds a lot like “fission chimps” if you reduce the “and” to a “&”, pronounced ‘-n-‘, and, having discovered a horrible pun, I need to turn it into game mechanics. So here you are. This is a pretty early rough draft, but after a long content drought here, I figure something is better than nothing.

Fission Chimps

Fission Chimps                  CR 5

XP 1600

CN Medium monstrous humanoid (ape)

Init +3; Senses  low-light vision; Perception +11

DEFENSE                                                                                                                       HP 70    

EAC 17; KAC 19

Fort +7; Ref +6; Will +6;

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.

Melee bite +15 (2d6+5 P)

Offensive Abilities fission, snatch and dash

STATISTICS

Str +5; Dex +3; Con +2; Int -1; Wis +1; Cha +0

Skills Acrobatics +11, Athletics +11, Sleight Of Hand +16

Languages Common, Ape

Gear Random trinket usually worth 1d4*10 credits.

ECOLOGY

Environment any temperate or tropical forest or jungle, urban

Organization solitary, atom (2-5), molecule (5-8)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Fission (Su) Whenever a fission chimp is subject to a critical hit, or when it is reduced to half its base hit points, it fissions, producing a copy of itself. That copy has the chimp’s remaining hit points, prior to the damage from the critical being applied, or, half the fission chimp’s base hit points (35, normally), whichever is lower. Then, the damage from the critical is divided among the two copies. If the critical has an effect other than basic damage, that effect applies only to the “original”. The duplicate will appear in the nearest unoccupied square (if there are multiple valid options, the GM can pick one or roll randomly), and acts on the same initiative as the original. The copy has the same duplication power, but it is only triggered by critical hits, not by normal hit point reduction. Each duplicate vanishes in 1d6 minutes, until only one remains – whether it was the original or not is irrelevant; at that point, the lone survivor is “the original” going forward.

Snatch And Dash (Ex) Fission chimps are notorious thieves. As a full round action, they can make a standard move, and, at any point along that move, they can make a sleight of hand check against an opponent’s KAC +8 to steal any small, visible item, including one-handed weapons being wielded.

Description

The origin of fission chimps remains a mystery. They are fairly widespread in the galaxy, and left to their own devices, will form small tribal societies in temperate and tropical rainforests, generally keeping to themselves except for harassing intruders. A fair number have been transported to space stations and planetside starports, where they find any number of abandoned areas in which to lair. Their natural climbing skill allows them easy access to ventilation systems and engineering crawlways, and they have been known to form communities in the tangle of cables, girders, and machinery that can adorn the ceilings of large hanger bays and repair docks.

They can speak in a simplistic version of Common, and have their own dialect of a language shared by numerous sapient ape-like species. They are not particularly cruel or malicious, but enjoy the “game” of swooping down on some unsuspecting group of people, grabbing one or two appealing items, and rushing away. Some unscrupulous individuals have found ways to bargain with them and train them, creating a gang of skilled thieves who will trade their loot to their “friend” for food or worthless, but very shiny, trinkets and tech items.

The precise mechanism by which fission chimps replicate is unknown; theories include shunting mass from other planes, an unknown innate magical ability, or ‘borrowing’ from moments in the past or future. (The ability is tagged as SU, but it is up to the GM if it is truly magical or uses some other mechanism, and what powers or abilities might negate it, if any.)

In appearance, they resemble standard chimpanzees, except perhaps with slightly larger skulls. They do not normally wear clothes, but they do fashion belts, straps, and bags they use to carry simple tools, yummy wrigglegrubs, and shiny trinkets. In the wilderness, these will be formed from leaves, vines, and other natural products, while starport or station fission chimps will use all kinds of scavenged cloth, plastic, and metal.

It is not unknown for some fission chimps to be able to use stolen small arms, and possibly other technical gear, though they do not maintain it and will toss it away once the batteries are dead. Rumors, legends, and tall tales shared among spacers tell of rare mutant fission chimps that have an instinctive grasp of engineering, and can build ingenious traps, deactivate monitors and cameras, and disable advanced electronic locks and safeguards. Less credulous folk attribute such nonsense as the excuses of station workers who do not wish to take the blame for supposedly “secure” areas being looted and ransacked.