Acidic Blood. A Xenomorph's blood is composed of powerful acid. Any attack against a xenomorph sprays acid blood from the wound, dealing 14 (4d6) acid damage to any objects or creatures within 5 feet of the xenomorph. Once aware of their acid blood, creatures may succeed in a DC 19 Dexterity Saving throw avoid the acid damage.
Lay Egg. A xenomorph empress may lay ovamorphs to help a colony grow. A queen may lay up to 1d10 ovamorphs each day.
Molt. When a two or more hives lack an empress, A xenomorph queen can molt into a xenomorph empress in 2 (1d4) days from its last molting. This change can be accelerated by one day for each creature the xenomorph consumes. The metamorphosis takes one hour, during which time the xenomorph is incapacitated. If more than one queen molt in this way, then the resulting empresses battle each other until only one remains.
Hive Mind and Ecology. Xenomorphs communicate telepathically and through pheromones. A hive must have a queen. When multiple hives exist in a world, the world must have an empress to keep the hives from consuming one another. Queens serve the xenomorph empress under compulsion unless the empress shows a sign of weakness, which prompts the queen/s to slay the empress who feast on its corpse and molt to become the next empress. Each planet may only host one empress. Telepathic communication between xenomorphs is conveyed only with intent, urge, and hate for all other creatures. Xenomorphs unerringly follow the imperatives of their queen (queens follow the imperatives of the empress). On the rare occasion that a royal facehugger/chestburster spawns from an ovomorph, the hive conceals and hides the embryonic xenomorph until such time as it can morph into a new queen, prompting a deathmatch for rulership of the hive and retaining only the strongest xenomorph queens.
Multiattack. A xenomorph makes three attacks each round, choosing from a claw, bite, and/or tail attacks. It may not attack more than one with it's bite or tail attack on it's turn. A xenomorph may not use its tail attack while grappling a victim with it.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., 1 target. Hit: 15 (2d12+8) piercing damage. If the attack hits and is against a creature the xenomorph is grappling, the hit is a critical hit.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., 1 target. Hit: 20 (3d12+8) slashing damage.
Tail Attack. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., 1 target. Hit: 10 (2d12+8) slashing damage. On a hit, the xenomorph grapples a medium or smaller as it impales the victim with it's barbed tail.
Leap. The xenomorph leaps up to 30 feet as a bonus action.
Description
Xenomorph Queens are the ruler of the hive, only subservient to the world's xenomorph empress if there is one. When two hives meet, their queens will either battle and kill one another, or molt into an empress to subjugate the other hive through the hive mind. Sometimes both queens will molt into empresses, prompting a battle to determine which empress will be left alive to rule the hives of the world. The queen's mandate is to expand and grow her hive until it has subsumed the entire world, or until it meets another hive, prompting an empress' contest. When a hive reaches sufficient size, a queen might metamorphose into a xenomorph ovipositor, making room for a new queen and relegating itself to the task of creating new ovomorphs.
Xenomorphs are creatures from another world, designed only for one thing: killing. A xenomorph hive is unmistakable; chitinous spines and tendrils stretch across the landscape, with tenebrous constructed caverns and tunnels overlaying every structure and surface in their lair. victims are imbedded into the very walls as the xenomorphs use them as human chrysalises for new xenomorphs. Given enough time, a single facehugger xenomorph can grow an entire hive which it then uses to overrun entire planets, subsuming all creatures into the hive's walls to facilitate the xenomorph incubation process. A typical xenomorph hive matures in around 30 days depending on the food supply, with castes of xenomorphs encompassing: facehuggers, chestbursters, runners, drones, warriors, praetorians, and a queen to propagate new broods of xenomorphs. For particularly large xenomorph colonies or worlds with multiple intersecting hives, an empress will emerge.
Xenomorphs grow into new castes through a molting process every 1d4 days, typically molting every couple of days until they become a queen (if there is none). A xenomorph may hasten the molting process by catching and devouring other creatures, reducing the duration for molting by one day for each similarly-sized creature consumed.
Through pheromone control, each hive has only one queen, though there may be many hives on a planet. When there are multiple hives in close proximity, an Empress xenomorph invariably molts. When a hive houses more hosts than available egg/facehugger supply, a queen may molt into an ovipositor and a new queen molts to rule her morbid hive.
Additional xenomorph castes have been known to occur, often gaining the properties of the creatures used to incubate the new xenomorph (xenomorph - tyrannosaurus for example). Each typically fills a specific role in the hive, or becomes an outcast, hunted by the other xenomorphs as it kills everything in it's path. In these instances, use the creatures' base statistics and add the Acidic Blood xenomorph trait to the creature's stat block. This also increases the CR value of the creature by two in most cases.
(Variant) Xenomorph Ovipositor. A Queen may molt into an ovipositor to make way for a stronger queen over her hive. An ovipositor has all the same attributes as a queen, loses its tail attack and leap abilities, and has it's movement speed reduced to 15 while attached to it's ovomorph egg sack. Additionally, an ovipositor may lay up to 10d10 ovamorphs per day.
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