"You want to go home and rethink your life"
You have met a Balosar — or at least you have met the joke about one. In a Coruscant nightclub, a twitchy peddler named Elan Sleazebaggano tried to sell death sticks to Obi-Wan Kenobi, got mind-tricked into reconsidering his life choices, and became the galaxy's favorite shorthand for a low-rent hustler.
It is an unfair legacy for a whole species. Meet the Balosar, the newest playable species in SWURPG — and quite a bit more than the punchline suggests.
A near-human from a poisoned world
Balosars are near-human — close enough to pass for human at a glance. The tell is a pair of slender, retractable antennapalps that rise from the crown of the head, hidden in the hair, sensitive to vibration and the nearness of other bodies. Fold them flat and a Balosar vanishes into a crowd; extend them and they feel a room the way others only see it.
Their homeworld, Balosar, is a Core world that industry ruined — the natural home of the balo mushroom, refined into the narcotic at the heart of death sticks. Two megacorporations own the factories, the air, and nearly everyone beneath it, and most Balosars grow up poor in the shadow of the refineries. The one upside of a lifetime breathing that poison: it makes them almost impossible to poison back.
The build — the sharp-sensed survivor
In SWURPG, a Balosar plays as a nimble, streetwise operator who notices what everyone else misses:
- DEX +2 / CON −1 / WIS −1, trained in Perception.
- Antennapalps — you sense the location of any moving creature within 10 feet, even unseen or in darkness. The catch: while your antennae are extended, sonic and concussive blasts overwhelm you (Disadvantage on saves against being deafened or stunned).
- Toxin-Hardened — resistance to Poison damage and Advantage on saves against poison. A childhood in the refinery haze has to be worth something.
- Gutter-Born — the galaxy writes Balosars off on sight, so you have Disadvantage on Persuasion checks to win over those who look down on your kind.
It is a scoundrel's or scout's kit — frail and easy to dismiss, but with a sense no one else at the table has and a stomach that shrugs off what would drop a Wookiee. Bolt on a class and lean into being underestimated.
More than a peddler
Sleazebaggano is the face the galaxy knows, but he is a symptom, not the sum. Balosars turn up all through the underworld — couriers, informants, fixers, the ones who always know where the boss is — not out of any love for crime, but because a hollowed-out planet exports desperate people. Play a Balosar who is trying to be more than the galaxy assumes, and every scrap of respect they earn will feel hard-won.
Build your own
The Balosar are live right now in the free Character Builder — pick the species, choose a class, generate a suitably back-alley name, and export a printable sheet.
Go home and rethink your life. Then come back and play someone the galaxy already counted out.