Three very different ways to be a problem
The catalog just gained three species that solve encounters in completely different directions. One talks its way through the door using chemistry rather than argument. One is already halfway across the moor and still going. One has four hands and got to the airlock controls before anyone finished the sentence. All three are live in the Character Builder now, and their homeworlds are pinned on the galaxy map.
Falleen: the argument you did not agree to hear
The Falleen are reptomammalian nobles from a jungle world in the Mid Rim, and the galaxy knows them mostly through one of them: Prince Xizor, who ran the Black Sun syndicate while moving through Imperial high society as a respectable public figure. His grudge against Vader was personal. Vader's bioweapon laboratory on Falleen leaked, and rather than let the outbreak spread — or let anyone see what was being built there — he burned the lab and the city around it from orbit. Two hundred thousand died, Xizor's family among them.
What makes a Falleen a Falleen is chemical. They release pheromones that work on almost anyone regardless of species, and their skin flushes red and orange while it happens, so a Falleen in full flow is obvious to anyone who knows the signs. Their skin also shifts colour with their mood naturally — their ancestors wore their feelings on their faces — and the houses long ago trained that reflex into a weapon. They are also one of the few species known to shrug off a mind trick.
| Ability modifiers | CHA +1, INT +1, WIS −2 |
| Skill | Deception |
| Pheromonal Allure | Advantage on Persuasion — a chemical argument, not a learned one |
| Unclouded Mind | Advantage on saves against being Charmed and against mind-affecting Force powers |
| Semi-Aquatic | Hold your breath for 30 minutes |
| Cold-Blooded | In extreme cold, Disadvantage on Endurance checks and Constitution saves |
Play one as a broker, a spy, a courtier or a crime boss. Start a Falleen and let the glands open the negotiation.
Shistavanen: still running
The Shistavanen are lupine hunters from Uvena Prime, and they would rather the galaxy left them alone. They settled every unpopulated world in their own system for the express purpose of stopping anyone else doing it, wrote trade laws that favour their own kind without apology, and mostly stay home. The ones who do leave find work as scouts, mercenaries and bounty hunters, because the galaxy will happily hire a tracker it would not invite to dinner.
The thing the sources stress hardest is stamina. A Shistavanen runs at speed for hours without tiring, dropping to all fours when the ground favours it. Their ears, nose and night vision are a predator's — and they come without a volume control, which is why a flashbang costs a Shistavanen considerably more than it costs whoever is standing next to them.
| Ability modifiers | DEX +1, CON +1, INT −1, CHA −2 |
| Speed | 35 ft |
| Skill | Survival |
| Tireless Runner | Advantage on Endurance checks |
| Hunter's Senses | Darkvision 60 ft and Advantage on Perception by ear or nose — but Disadvantage on saves against being blinded, deafened or overwhelmed |
| Predator's Claws | 1d4 slashing, unarmed |
| Wary of Outsiders | Disadvantage on Persuasion with anyone who is not a Shistavanen |
You have seen one, even if you did not notice: Lak Sivrak was in Chalmun's cantina in the 1977 cut of the film, before a digital replacement quietly wrote him out twenty years later. The species came back to live action in Skeleton Crew with the pirate Brutus, and in the older accounts there is Voolvif Monn, a Jedi Master who survived Geonosis. Start a Shistavanen and take the tracking job.
Xexto: four arms, two brains
The Xexto are small, spindly and constantly busy: six limbs off a central torso, four arms with six fingers each, a long neck and a small head. They have two brains — the one in the head runs the body, the one in the chest does the thinking — and they are invertebrates, which is where the speed comes from and also where the fragility does. There is no skeleton in there to take a hit.
They grew up in the canopy of Troiken's forests, built their villages in the trees rather than on the ground where the predators were, and hunted with slingshots, which four arms make far more practical than it sounds. Generations of outrunning things left a culture that admires nerve: question a Xexto's courage and you will have a problem. It is also why a species of 1.2-metre invertebrates ended up overrepresented in podracing.
| Ability modifiers | DEX +2, STR −2 |
| Size | Small — +1 AC, three-quarters carrying capacity |
| Skill | Pilot |
| Quadridexterous | An extra free object interaction each turn, and Advantage on Athletics to climb |
| Lightning Reflexes | +2 to initiative |
| Spindly Frame | +2 extra damage from bludgeoning attacks, and Disadvantage on Athletics to grapple, shove or resist either |
The famous one is Gasgano, who took second at the Boonta Eve Classic in a green Ord Pedrovia with a camera mounted behind the cockpit so he could watch anyone trying to pass him, then went back to the circuit and became the favourite on the podracing moon of Oovo IV. There is also Ferpil Wallaway, who ran a pawn shop on Lothal and taught a young Ezra Bridger a few things. One more piece of trivia worth having: the Quermians are engineered Xexto, resettled and altered by Arkanian scientists around 17,000 BBY — so Yarael Poof, who sat on the Jedi Council, is a distant relative. Start a Xexto and get there first.
Build one
All three are in the Character Builder with full stat blocks, traits, name generators and species pages — Falleen, Shistavanen, Xexto. Their homeworlds are pinned on the galaxy map too, so you can see exactly how far your character is from home when the job goes wrong.