Alignment Neutral Good | ||
Type Humanoid (Construct / Shapechanger) Source books Monstrous Compendium: Spelljammer Appendix II First appearance Monstrous Compendium: Spelljammer Appendix II | ||
Bionoids are fictional creatures originating in the Spelljammer campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
Contents
Bionoids are chitinous, bipedal humanoid insects with a glowing circular gem in the center of their forehead. Though their appearance strikes fear in those who view them, their demeanor belies their looks. They originated as “Living Weapons” during the Unhuman Wars.
Publication history
The bionoid appeared in second edition for the Spelljammer setting in the Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix II (1991).
Description
In their combat form, also called their monster form, they are tall, muscular creatures with iridescent exoskeletons. Hard clawlike blades protrude from both forearms and the head. In addition to the standard pair of compound eyes, they possess four secondary eyes that can move independently like those of a chameleon. Pebbly, metallic-looking muscle fibers are visible at the joints.
In their humanoid form, bionoids are thin, well-muscled, and fairly tall. They have uniformly calm, even tempers, and are often contemplative. They move with great economy; useless gestures or movements are very rare.
Even bionoid reproduction is invasive. The eggs of mature bionoids are disc-shaped with a single crystalline “trigger” in the center. This crystal serves a multiple purpose: it is an attractant to potential victims since it makes the egg look like a magical item, and it is also the young bionoid’s eye. When a potential host touches the crystal eye, the host’s essence marks the egg. The egg bursts, attaches to the host, and grows as a symbiont, eventually separating and becoming a separate, nymph bionoid.
If an orc touches the egg, the egg explodes in a mass of corrosive filaments causing immediate death. If half-orcs survives this, the half-orc and the bionoid bind in symbiosis. Evil beings can fuse with the bionoid, but suffer the penalties of radical change to the bionoid’s good alignment.
If elves, humans or other humanoid races touch the egg, it infiltrates the victim, creating another adult bionoid. The new bionoid has the abilities described above, but appears only when danger threatens, whereupon the host “monsters out” into the bionoid monster form. But the host should only wear normal, easily replaceable clothing, due to the unpredictable nature of his malady.
The crystal eye is worth a lot of GP - but woe betide the buyer. In the crystal eye is the essence of the original owner. If presented with a living body, the crystal reduces and restructures that body in favor of its stored master, resulting in death (of a sort) for the purchaser.
Society
Although these bionoids were instilled with an instinctive urge for combat without quarter, they are essentially good beings who constantly strive to control the powers of their implanted nature. Though they travel nearly everywhere in wildspace, bionoids prefer to remain alone. Many work as crew members on spelljamming ships across the flow, or they reside in country manors or castles. Still others live as hermits on lonely asteroids far from the normal spelljamming trade routes. In some cases, elvish communities sympathetic to the bionoids’ situation have taken in individual bionoids.
Though rare, a bionoid family can comprise hundreds of members, always led by the individual who started the unit, either the original bionoid or its full-blooded descendants. Bionoid symbionts are welcome to join the unit, but must vow to avoid (and avoid infecting) residents of the outside world.
Though engineered for warfare, the family unit sustains itself primarily through farming. They practice battle skills primarily as a spiritual discipline. Most frontier cities and spelljamming outposts welcome bionoid communities.
History
Bionoids were originally tailored as troops in the Unhuman Wars. Volunteer elves gave themselves to be altered into organic fighting machines. After the Wars, they were cast out into the cosmos, to make their own way far from the sight of the elves. Years of ostracism, of living apart from the rest of elvish society like plague victims, has instilled in them a deep distrust of all other elven races.