SHAPECRAWLER
Shift form and adapt to any threat
Most Mutants are not merely different—they are adaptive. Some mutate into living weapons, reshaping limbs into claws, bone blades, hive-launchers, or toxic flesh guns. Others generate armour from their own skin, or grow internal organs that serve as biological reactors, explosives, or storage.
They don’t use gear. They become it.
In combat, this makes them unpredictable and terrifying. Their forms shift to match the need. A wall of bone. A slashing vine-arm. A gaping mouth where no mouth should be.
This is what makes Shapecrawlers so feared. They can mimic appearance, regenerate from wounds, and turn their own DNA into a toolkit of war.
Shapecrawlers are living mutations, void-kissed aberrants who have embraced their own biological instability and made it their greatest strength. Whether born of exposure to rift energy, genetic manipulation, or Void-corrupted evolution, they possess the uncanny ability to reshape their bodies at will.
Flesh becomes armour. Fingers become blades. Their skin shifts like liquid, adopting new identities, new defences, or new monstrosities as needed.
Some Shapecrawlers use their gifts for infiltration, changing faces, blending into crowds, or mimicking fallen foes. Others are nightmares on the battlefield, their limbs extending into barbed whips or jagged cleavers, their skin hardening into chitinous armour before your very eyes.
They don’t wear weapons. They are weapons. And if you see one unarmed… you’re already in danger.
LEVEL 1
Absorb Flesh
"Their wounds close as they open yours. The blade isn’t the threat—it’s what feeds behind it."
— Journal fragment recovered from the Vulture Outpost massacre
To a Shapecrawler, combat is not just violence—it’s a feeding ritual. Their weapons are extensions of their biology, and when they strike, they consume. Flesh is recycled, repurposed. Wounds seal not by magic or medicine, but by integration. This is evolution through attrition.
Whenever you hit a target using a weapon created through 'Living Weapon', you may absorb part of their flesh and regain 1 Health.
This effect triggers once per hit per target.
Only applies to weapons generated via Living Weapon.
Cannot exceed your maximum Health.
Has no effect on constructs, spectral entities, or enemies that lack flesh (unless another ability says otherwise).
Living Weapon
"I don’t carry weapons. I carry rage... and bones sharpened by it."
— Xirathi “The Maw,” Shapecrawler of the Void-Flesh Choir
Shapecrawlers do not wield weapons—they become them. Flesh warps. Bone extends. Tendons harden into blades. With Living Weapon, they manifest the perfect instrument of violence from within, adapting in real-time to threat and terrain. It’s not just a mutation—it’s an artform carved in meat and menace.
The Shapecrawler can reshape its body into a single melee or ranged weapon, known as a 'Living Weapon'.
This weapon is part of your body—it cannot be Disarmed or Jammed.
You can choose from any weapons in the Living Weapons 1 list
You may only generate one Living Weapon at a time.
Replacing or retracting the weapon takes a Quick Action.
The weapon grows from your flesh, taking forms such as bone-blades, tendril-lashes, chitin spears, or gnarled spine-rifles.
Skincrawl
Action"Skin is a suggestion. I wear it like a mask, and none of them ever see what’s underneath."
— Trelix the Thousand-Faced
The Shapecrawler’s body is memoryless clay, rewriting itself as needed to become the other. Through Skincrawl, they can walk as any people—slipping into cities unnoticed, living forgotten lives, or becoming the monster you never saw coming. This isn’t just disguise. It’s rebirth.
You may reshape your body to perfectly mimic another standard-sized playable Species.
You gain that Species traits and benefits, as if you had always belonged to it.
You lose your original Species traits while this form is active.
The transformation includes physical appearance, voice, biological functions, and even Void-scent, making magical or psychic detection extremely difficult.
This form persists until you willingly revert or use this ability again.
Usage Notes
"Standard-sized" means humanoid Species of similar mass (GM discretion for edge cases).
You retain your class, gear, and memories, but all cultural and mechanical Species identifiers are replaced.
LEVEL 2
Adaptive Reflexes
Reaction"You were never quite where they thought you were."
The Shapecrawler learns not just to evade—but to reposition instinctively, folding around attacks and slipping free before enemies realize they missed.
You may Move 5ft as a Quick Action.
This movement does not provoke Overwatch.
Elastic Stride
"Even standing still, you’re already somewhere else."
Their bones are stretch-memory, their tendons like tensed silk. A Shapecrawler doesn’t walk—they unfold.
Your base Movement speed increases by 15ft.
Fluid Persona
"The body lies. The voice sells it."
The Shapecrawler's shifting form allows them to mirror emotion and intent, sliding seamlessly between personas. With practice, even their most alien gestures become persuasive—or disarming.
You gain Advantage on the following checks:
LEVEL 3
Living Armour
Action"Flesh remembers fear. Mine just turns it into plating."
The Shapecrawler's body responds to threat by growing reactive layers of hardened tissue. This is not armour you wear — it's armour you become. Chitin erupts from the dermis. Bone lattices lock under the skin. Membrane thickens into something that drinks impacts. Every form is grown in seconds, tuned by instinct, and impossible to strip away.
You may harden your body into one of the following forms. Living Armour is part of your biology — it cannot be Stripped, Sundered, or forcibly removed by any effect.
Choose one form when you grow your Living Armour:
Chitin Plate
Defence Bonus: Physique ÷ 2 (rounded down)
Your movement speed is reduced by 5ft while active.
Snap-Back (Passive): When hit by a Melee attack, the attacker must pass a Resilience Save (tn10 + Physique Mod) or take (Physique ÷ 2, rounded down) Physical Piercing damage as plates explode outward on impact.
Bone Weave
Defence Bonus: Physique ÷ 3 (rounded down)
Gain +1 to all Resilience Saves while active.
Death Lock (1/Encounter): When you would be reduced to 0 HP, the weave seizes shut around your vital organs — you survive at 1 HP instead. You become Staggered until the end of your next turn, and Living Armour immediately deactivates after absorbing the blow. You cannot regrow Living Armour until the start of your next turn.
Membrane Shell
Defence Bonus: +1
Kinetic Absorption (Reactive, 1/Round): When hit by any attack, choose one:
Move up to (Physique Mod × 5ft) immediately without provoking Overwatch. This cannot be used to leave a Grapple.
Redirect (Physique ÷ 2, rounded down) of the damage taken to a creature within 15ft.
Reactive Hardening (Passive while active)
When you take a Critical Hit, choose one:
Reduce the damage taken by your Physique Mod. Triggers once per encounter.
Shatter — sacrifice your Living Armour entirely to convert the Critical Hit into a normal hit. You cannot regrow Living Armour until the start of your next turn.
Still Veil
Action"They only see you if you decide to be seen."
By slowing your breath, pulse, and presence to an imperceptible crawl, you fade from sight entirely—so long as you stay still.
You may become Invisible as long as you do not move.
Twitching Nerves
"I don’t wait. I react."
Your nervous system crackles with anticipatory tension, acting before conscious thought can catch up.
You gain +2 to Initiative in combat.
LEVEL 4
Dual Weapon Growth
"Two mouths. Twice the hunger."
The Shapecrawler's body adapts to battlefield demand, splitting limbs or sprouting new appendages to wield multiple implements of violence at once.
You may now generate two weapons from your Living Weapon at once.
Ravenous Evolution
"Every kill makes me stronger. Every corpse, a lesson."
The hunger in your flesh is not just instinct—it is a path to adaptation.
The first time you drop a creature to 0 HP in Combat, gain Health equal to your Physique Mod.
Weapon Mutation Surge
"The more you fight, the sharper you grow."
Your bio-weaponry becomes deadlier with every twitch, spike, and pulse of intent.
Your Living Weapon weapons deal an additional +2 Damage.
LEVEL 5
Absorbed Trait
"I steal function like others breathe."
Through exposure, mimicry, or instinctive rewiring, your body manifests a foreign skill with alien grace.
You may gain a Skill or Ability of level 5 or lower from another class of your choice.
You may only gain one this way.
You do not receive level scaling or upgrades for the absorbed trait.
Flurry Mutation
"Each limb a weapon. Each weapon a will."
You move with the twitch-speed of something no longer bound by a single nervous system.
Once per turn, if you are wielding more than one Living Weapon, you may make a free Attack with each additional weapon.
Improved Statistic
"Sometimes evolution is just knowing more. Or hitting harder."
Whether through focused mutation or neural remapping, your baseline capacity increases.
Increase one of your Statistics by 1.
LEVEL 6
Absorb Flesh Surge
"Wounds are lessons. I just learn fast."
You draw more sustenance from violence, absorbing the pain dealt into your own twisted restoration.
Your Absorb Flesh ability now heals you for one quarter of the final Damage dealt.
Living Armour 2
"The second skin grows thicker. Smarter. It starts choosing on its own."
What began as reactive plating has become something closer to a second mind — tissue that anticipates, adapts, and strikes back. The Shapecrawler's armour no longer just holds the line. It participates.
Your Living Armour gains a secondary function. Choose one upgrade permanently when you unlock this ability. It applies whenever your Living Armour is active, regardless of which form you have grown.
Reactive Spines
Enemies who hit you with a Melee attack take (Physique ÷ 2, rounded down) Physical Piercing damage as spines snap outward on impact.
Regenerative Core
At the start of each of your turns while Living Armour is active, regain 1 Health.
The armour feeds back warmth and tissue, healing as it holds.
Adaptive Shell
When you grow your Living Armour, choose one Damage type. You gain Resistance to that type while the armour remains active.
Your body reads the first threat and rewrites itself to meet it.
Living Weapon 2
"One edge is instinct. The other, intention."
The weapons you grow are no longer crude extensions of flesh—they are precision-forged by mutation.
You may now use Living Weapon 2 alongside your existing Living Weapon.
LEVEL 7
Apex Mutation
Action"I outgrew gravity."
You evolve wings—chitinous, muscular, or membrane-stretched—and take to the air at will.
You may create or remove biological wings on your back at any time.
While active, you gain Flying.
Brute Grace
"Why dodge with nerves when you can flex with bone?"
Your body reshapes its instinctive reactions, using raw strength in place of finesse.
For Dexterity Skills, you may use your Physique instead of Dexterity.
Reinforced Armour
"My hide is not just protection. It's evolution refined."
The structure of your Living Armour thickens, hardens, and reflexively distributes force more effectively.
Your Living Armour Defence Bonus is increased by +1.
LEVEL 8
Living Edge
"The cut finds its mark before they even brace for pain."
Precision-borne mutation sharpens every strike to lethal intent.
When using Living Weapon attacks, you gain Critical Range(2).
Living Weapon Surge
"They thought I was already at full strength."
Your biological weaponry mutates for greater penetration and damage capacity.
Your Living Weapon weapons deal an additional +2 Damage.
Skin Memory
"Even in another’s flesh, I remember my own."
You retain your origin's essence, even while transformed.
Your Skincrawl ability now allows you to also apply your original Species trait alongside the skincrawled traits.
LEVEL 9
Neural Echo
"Every death whispers what the mouth never had time to say."
You learn to tap the fading pulses of a dying brain for flashes of memory and instinct.
Your Absorb Flesh ability now allows you to consume the brain of a freshly killed creature to recall its final moments.
Predator’s Instinct
"Sight is a crutch. I’ve evolved past it."
You sense motion, tension, and breath in the air like a true apex predator.
You gain Blindsense(15ft) and have Advantage on detecting hidden creatures.
Skeletal Bloom
Action"Sometimes I blossom into something with far too many hands."
You may erupt temporary arms from your shoulders, ribs, or spine to overwhelm or assist.
You may sprout up to two additional limbs for 1 minute. While active, you may wield extra weapons.
LEVEL 10
Absorbed Trait+
"One mimicry is instinct. Two is intent."
You have refined your capacity to emulate foreign skills beyond your initial grafting.
Your Absorbed Trait now allows you to copy a Skill or Ability of level 10 or lower from a different class than the one you previously selected.
You may only gain one this way.
You do not receive level scaling or upgrades for the absorbed trait.
Improved Statistics
"Twice the control. Twice the reach."
You solidify your biological advantages, reinforcing two key aspects of your growing mutation.
Increase two of your Statistics by 1.
Living Weapon 3
"My arms are ideas made sharp."
The mutation continues: each iteration of your weaponry honed through pain, purpose, and blood.
You may now use Living Weapons 3 alongside your existing Living Weapon traits.