If you know the Star Frontiers game then the sathar need no introduction. Feared mortal enemies of the Galactic Federation, they're a major antagonist in that game. And occasional foes in my D&D campaign when I want a non-Federation (see DA modules) alien race.
Sathar
by Cab Davidson
| Stat | Sathar |
| AC: | 8 (or 0) |
| HD: | 2*** |
| Movement: | 90' (30') |
| Attacks: | 1 tech weapon or special |
| Damage: | 1d6 per charge or special |
| No. Appearing: | 1d6 (5d6) |
| Save As: | F2 |
| Morale: | 12 |
| Treasure Type: | Special |
| Intelligence: | 16 |
| Alignment: | Chaotic |
| XP Value: | 35 |
The Sathar are a strange extra-terrestrial race rather resembling limbed, segmented worms with reptilian features. Their long, glistening bodies taper to heads with huge eyes with twin pupils and thin snouts with round, toothed mouths. Their lower body consists of a powerful, muscular tail. They have four limbs, capable of bending at any point, the rear two being thick and ending in larger pads, the forelimbs being thinner and ending in a cluster of tentacles useful for manipulating tools. In motion, they use their tails and rear limbs to propel themselves. Their motion is distinctly alien, possessing no kind of skeleton their musculature works purely on hydrostatic pressure, giving them an eerie jerkiness in motion. Sathar skin is yellow to tan, with pinkish underbellies and green tones on their tentacles. Their whole body is covered in mottled greenish brown patterns.
Their twin pupils and large eyes positioned on each side of their head gives them excellent all round vision, and their wet skin is itself a sensory surface for smell. As a consequence, they can only be surprised on a roll of 1 on 1d10 and can track foes faultlessly by scent.
Sathar are an aggressive spacefaring race with no regard for the desires, welfare or safety of anything that isn't sathar. Their goals, collectively or individually, are unknown, but encounters with their horribly beweaponed battle convoys are always spectacularly brutal. No sathar has been captured alive, they have means of ending their own existences before any can be questioned, and in every encounter, should violence be the result, they will fight until they or, more likely, their foes are dead.
They arm and equip themselves with a range of high tech devices such as light sabres (hitting targets immune up to magical bonus +4, having up to 30 charges that can be discharged up to 6 at a time in any combat, each charge inflicting 1d6 damage) and ray guns (having a range of200'/400'/600’, similarly having up to 30 charges of which up to 6 can be discharged for 1d6 damage per charge per use), as well as a broad range of exotic weapons such as needler guns, gyrojet rounds, stun guns, sleep gas and nerve agents. They are immune to electrical attacks, paralysis., ESP and charms, and while unarmoured they are relatively easy to hit (AC8) they also frequently don collapsium armour that confers an AC of 0. But perhaps their most deadly weapon is their capacity to charm – once per round a sathar can stare at any foe within 30’, and using the mesmeric action of their swirling twin pupils if that creature is not actively looking away they must make a saving throw vs. spells at -2 or become charmed.
Sathar breed a number of horrific creatures in their cloning tanks, from small scouting creatures that report the layout of enemy forces, through to the horrifying gargantuan slither monsters. These monsters may be used for transport, reconnaissance, disruption of enemies homes and habitats or distraction.
Sathar may pursue any non-divine character class (there are no sathar clerics or avengers, for example) and fighters, magic users and thieves have been observed.