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It may be that there is no better example of the cool, calculating mind of the klick than the ravager. The klicks left behind these deadly creatures when the aliens attacked and destroyed the human colony of Silver Bell. Like biological time bombs, ravagers hibernate below the soil, waiting until some unknown event or condition causes them to awaken and do their terrible work. - Alien Compendium II
I'd make ravagers captives that were retrovirally rebuilt in a pupa-like underground bio-construct. In that case there should be human, t'sa, weren (!) and sesheyan (!) variants - mechalus nanites would probably cause a fatal counter-reaction to the kadaran virii and fraal captured by klicks would suffer a different fate.
On second thought, the ravagers as described (maybe call them grey or common ravagers) are probably the human variant. T'sa (gold) ravagers would be worse - faster, with better armour and bigger claws, though smaller and with a shorter viable life. Weren would become giant ravagers, sesheyans would become flying ravagers.
However, ravagers could be specifically derived from sesheyans, who already have about the right number of limbs and optic nerve pathways. (It would help with some of that boring science stuff if the creators only had to work with one genome and biochemical base.) The original transformative technology would then have been developed back in the Lightning Nebula over a number of years from subjects handed over by Voidcorp. They could be prototypes of kroath, with less intelligence and a less drastic breakdown of the base species' physiology, which, however, allows more of the base species' genetic potential to be re-used.
This would have the useful effect of making the supply of ravagers quite restricted, though they could be replenished to a limited extent by newly captured sesheyans (the Star Compendium mentions some reasons why there are significant numbers of sesheyans on Spes). We know ravagers are rare (Slim encounter chance) and this would mean that the klicks would use them strategically to defend vital points rather than sowing them at random, allowing a GM only to send them against higher-level parties who are ready to take on seriously dangerous missions.
It would rule out the presence of the variants above, but it might be helpful to keep both sets of stats on hand so that a particular GM could keep his players on their toes by choosing one or the other origin theory.
Their purpose is more or less as biological land mines, or something like the Kafer Snapfires in 2300AD - stay-behind weapons to cause casualties and delays to enemy forces moving through contested or recaptured areas. Ravagers probably are programmed not to attack External forces (or at least kadaran creations) that they recognise by chemical or vibrational signatures.
My revision and variants:
Grey Ravager Game Data
STR 15
DEX 13
CON 14
INT 3 (Animal 12)
WIL 13
PER 2 (Animal 4) Durability 14s/14w/7f/10m
Move: Run 27
Action Check: 17+/16/8/4 (-d6)
#Actions: 3
Reaction score: Good/3
Attacks
Talons (x2) 19/9/4 d6+4s/d6+3w/d4+2m LI/O
Bite 15/7/3 d4+2w/d4+3w/d4+4w LI/G
Defences
+3 resistance modifier vs. melee attacks
+4 resistance modifier vs. ranged attacks
Armour: d6 LI/d6+1 HI/d4+1En
Skills
Athletics (15) - climb 3 (18), jump 4 (19), Unarmed Attack (15) - brawl 4 (19), Acrobatics (13) - fall 4 (17), Stealth (13) - hide 6 (19), shadow 3 (16), sneak 5 (18), Stamina (14) - resist pain 4 (18), Tactics (12) - infantry 3 (15), Awareness (13) - intuition 2 (15), perception 6 (19), Resolve (13) - physical resolve 4 (17)
Encounter:
Horrid Vigour: Calculate the ravager's Mortal rating based on 1.5 times its Constitution.
Dash: A ravager's Run speed is 1.5 times as fast as indicated by its Strength and Dexterity.
Disturbing Reflexes: Add +2 to the ravager's resistance modifier against ranged attacks and a -2 bonus to its Action Check.
Killer Mentality: A ravager calculates its Action Check as (DEX+Animal INT)/2 + 4.
Sense Vibrations: When encased in earth, a ravager notices and can deduce the physical size and general body form of creatures walking on the earth within 30 metres as if it could see them.
All-Round Vision: When not encased in earth, a ravager receives a -2 bonus to surprise checks based on vision. A character must reduce by 1 step any bonus that he gains against a ravager due to attacking it from the flank, rear, or with a successful sneak check.
Burst Forth: A ravager can thrust aside its own weight of loosely-dug earth and immediately take an action in the same phase with a +2 penalty to any required checks for its second action.
Gold Ravager Game Data
STR 13
DEX 16
CON 12
INT 3 (Animal 13)
WIL 11
PER 2 (Animal 6) Durability 12s/12w/6f/9m
Move: Run 27
Action Check: 19+/18/9/4 (-d8)
#Actions: 2
Reaction score: Good/2
Attacks
Talons (x2) 17/8/4 d6+4s/d6+3w/d4+2m LI/O
Bite 13/6/3 d4+1w/d4+2w/d4+3w LI/G
Defences
+2 resistance modifier vs. melee attacks
+6 resistance modifier vs. ranged attacks
Armour: d6+1 LI/d6+2 HI/d4 En
Skills
Athletics (13) - climb 4 (17), jump 4 (17), Unarmed Attack (13) - brawl 4 (17), Acrobatics (13) - fall 4 (17), Stealth (16) - hide 6 (22), shadow 2 (18), sneak 6 (22), Stamina (12) - resist pain 4 (16), Tactics (13) - infantry 3 (16), Awareness (11) - intuition (12), perception 6 (17), Resolve (11) - physical resolve 3 (14)
Encounter:
Horrid Vigour: Calculate the ravager's Mortal rating based on 1.5 times its Constitution.
Dash: A ravager's Run speed is 1.5 times as fast as indicated by its Strength and Dexterity.
Disturbing Reflexes: Add +3 to the gold ravager's resistance modifier against ranged attacks and a -3 bonus to its Action Check.
Killer Mentality: A ravager calculates its Action Check as (DEX+Animal INT)/2 + 4.
Sense Vibrations: When encased in earth, a ravager notices and can deduce the physical size and general body form of creatures walking on the earth within 30 metres as if it could see them.
All-Round Vision: When not encased in earth, a ravager receives a -2 bonus to surprise checks based on vision. A character must reduce by 1 step any bonus that he gains against a ravager due to attacking it from the flank, rear, or with a successful sneak check.
Burst Forth: A ravager can thrust aside its own weight of loosely-dug earth and immediately take an action in the same phase with a +2 penalty to any required checks for its second action.
Giant Ravager Game Data
STR 17
DEX 12
CON 16
INT 3 (Animal 12)
WIL 13
PER 2 (Animal 4) Durability 24s/24w/12f/12m
Move: Run 27
Action Check: 17+/16/8/4 (-d4)
#Actions: 3
Reaction score: Good/3
Attacks
Talons (x2) 21/10/5 d8+5s/d8+4w/d4+3m LI/O
Bite 17/8/4 d4+3w/d6+3w/d6+4w LI/G
Defences
+4 resistance modifier vs. melee attacks
+2 resistance modifier vs. ranged attacks
Armour: d6 LI/d6+1 HI/d4+1En
Skills
Athletics (17) - climb 2 (19), jump 4 (21), Unarmed Attack (17) - brawl 4 (21), Acrobatics (12) - fall 3 (15), Stealth (12) - hide 6 (18), shadow 4 (16), sneak 4 (16), Stamina (16) - resist pain 6 (22), Tactics (12) - infantry 3 (15), Awareness (13) - intuition 2 (15), perception 6 (19), Resolve (13) - physical resolve 6 (19)
Encounter:
Horrid Vigour: Calculate the giant ravager's Durability rating based on 1.5 times its Constitution.
Dash: A ravager's Run speed is 1.5 times as fast as indicated by its Strength and Dexterity.
Disturbing Reflexes: Add +1 to the giant ravager's resistance modifier against ranged attacks and a -1 bonus to its Action Check.
Killer Mentality: A ravager calculates its Action Check as (DEX+Animal INT)/2 + 4.
Sense Vibrations: When encased in earth, a giant ravager notices and can deduce the physical size and general body form of creatures walking on the earth within 50 metres as if it could see them.
All-Round Vision: When not encased in earth, a ravager receives a -2 bonus to surprise checks based on vision. A character must reduce by 1 step any bonus that he gains against a ravager due to attacking it from the flank, rear, or with a successful sneak check.
Burst Forth: A giant ravager can thrust aside its own weight of loosely-dug earth and immediately take an action in the same phase at a +1 penalty to its second action.
Flying Ravager Game Data
STR 13
DEX 15
CON 13
INT 3 (Animal 11)
WIL 12
PER 2 (Animal 4) Durability 13s/13w/6f/9m
Move: Run 27, Fly 56
Action Check: 18+/17/8/4 (-d6)
#Actions: 3
Reaction score: Good/3
Attacks
Talons (x2) 17/8/4 d4+3s/d4+2w/d4m LI/O
Bite 13/6/3 d4w/d4+1w/d4+3w LI/G
Defences
+2 resistance modifier vs. melee attacks
+5 resistance modifier vs. ranged attacks
Armour: d6-1 LI/d6 HI/d4 En
Skills
Athletics (13) - climb 5 (18), jump 4 (17), Unarmed Attack (13) - brawl 4 (17), Acrobatics (15) - fall 3 (18), Stealth (15) - hide 4 (19), shadow 2 (17), sneak 4 (19), Stamina (13) - resist pain 3 (16), Tactics (11) - infantry 3 (14), Awareness (12) - intuition 3 (15), perception 5 (17), Resolve (12) - physical resolve 3 (15)
Encounter:
Horrid Vigour: Calculate the ravager's Mortal rating based on 1.5 times its Constitution.
Dash: A ravager's Run speed is 1.5 times as fast as indicated by its Strength and Dexterity.
Disturbing Reflexes: Add +2 to the ravager's resistance modifier against ranged attacks and a -2 bonus to its Action Check.
Killer Mentality: A ravager calculates its Action Check as (DEX+Animal INT)/2 + 4.
Sense Vibrations: When encased in earth, a flying ravager notices and can deduce the physical size and general body form of creatures walking on the earth within 20 metres as if it could see them.
All-Round Vision: When not encased in earth, a ravager receives a -2 bonus to surprise checks based on vision. A character must reduce by 1 step any bonus that he gains against a ravager due to attacking it from the flank, rear, or with a successful sneak check.
Burst Forth: A ravager can thrust aside its own weight of loosely-dug earth and immediately take an action in the same phase with a +2 penalty to any required checks for its second action. |