Acidic Blood. A Xenomorph's blood is composed of powerful acid. Any melee attack against a xenomorph sprays acid blood from the wound, dealing 11 (4d6) acid damage to the attacker and any items or creatures in the xenomorph's space as well as to anyone grappling or grappled by the xenomorph. Ranged attacks cause damage only to objects and creatures in the xenomorph's space. Creatures that succeed in a DC 15 Dexterity Saving throw avoid the damage.
Molt. A xenomorph runner will molt into a xenomorph drone in 1d4 days from emerging from its symbiote host. This change can be accelerated by one day for each creature the chestburster consumes. The metamorphosis takes one hour, during which time the chestburster is incapacitated.
A xenomorph runner makes a single attack each round, choosing from a claw rake, bite, or tail attack. If it is grappling a creature, it may attack with its claw or bite attack only.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., 1 target. Hit: 8 (1d6+5) piercing damage. If the attack hits and is against a creature the xenomorph is grappling, the attack is a critical hit.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., 1 target. Hit: 11 (2d4+5) slashing damage.
Tail Attack. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., 1 target. Hit: 9 (1d8+5) slashing damage. On a hit, the xenomorph runner grapples a small 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 Runners are the result of a small creature incubating a chestburster. They are treated as the lowest and most expendable caste in a xenomorph hive, and are often used in the initial waves of attack against incursions into xenomorph hives.
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.
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.
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Posted May 18, 2022I would say give the Runner a pack tactics trait, as these guys are smart enough to use swarm tactics against prey and there is typically a bunch of them in a hive.