The final race on my initial list of key humanoid ‘monster’ races is also the only one unique to the modern era of the show. (I’m not currently planning on suspending the series after this post, although it will remain low priority; I’ll explain where it’s going next once I get there).
Appearances
By far the most recent of the seven races I’m listing as key humanoids in this series, the Ood made their debut in the Tenth Doctor story
The Impossible Planet in 2006, over 30 years after the next oldest on that list. They returned two years later in
Planet of the Ood, in which we learn of their origin, and have made significant appearances in three further TV stories since then, most recently
Flux. That’s ignoring short “tardisodes” and the like, some of which have also featured them, and the occasional brief cameo elsewhere.
It is, however, largely because of the number of these TV stories that I’m including the Ood at this point in this series of blogposts. Being a comparatively recent addition to the canon, they have made fewer appearances in the spin-off media than more established races, such as the Silurians or Sontarans. For instance, while they have appeared in several modern comics and short stories, they have yet to make any appearance, beyond, perhaps, the odd passing reference, in any full-length novel. On the other hand, they have appeared, so far, in two of the spin-off audios, although neither feature the Doctor. But one can hardly say that they’re insignificant.
Description and Biology
From the neck down, Ood are essentially hairless humanoid aliens. They have approximately the same skeletal structure as humans, the same number of fingers, and so on. The head, however, is a different matter, with small nostrils in a flat nose and long
feeding tentacles obscuring the mouth. So far as we can tell, they are not mammalian, but, being alien, this doesn’t tell us much, and it’s entirely possible that they give birth to live young, or, for that matter, that they are hermaphrodites.
The significant fact that we do know is that they possess two brains. One is in the usual place, with the other being attached to the head by a fleshy cord, and apparently entirely unprotected. The idea that a creature might divide the functions of its brain between two separate organs is not entirely implausible, especially since the secondary one doesn’t seem to be essential to life and carries out separate functions to the main brain. (For instance, it sends out telepathic signals, while the main brain evidently does the receiving). The external organ is a vital ganglion, not, in the strict physiological sense, a ‘brain’.
Having said that, one would certainly expect that that this extra structure would be better protected than it is – humans have skulls for a reason. How such a creature would evolve when it would be so vulnerable is difficult to envisage, implying, at best, a deeply weird ecology. Just as an example, if you really needed a second brain outside the skull for some reason, it could perfectly well be placed in (say) the front of the chest, protected by ribs and creating no more inconvenience than many human women experience naturally.
For purposes of this post, however, the presence of this second, supremely vulnerable, brain renders natural Ood so harmless as to not be worth statting up. So, instead, I’ll focus on enslaved Ood, where the secondary brain has been removed and replaced with an artificial ‘translationsphere’ allowing them to speak verbally.
Game Attributes
There is little indication that the average Ood is notably different from the average, non-combatant, human in most physical and mental respects. That they were chosen as menial servants that would often have to work long hours might imply a high stamina, but it’s likely a moderate boost at best. Similarly, they have no natural armour, weapons, or native combat skills. Our typical Ood is going to be fairly inoffensive and, in the show, we see them become a threat only because they can be present in large numbers and are usually seen facing off against unarmed opponents.
Game systems that take a realistic approach to combat (or at least aim for one) should be able to cope with this without any special rules. After all, in reality, a large number of attackers can be a threat even if they aren’t very effective individually. Systems similar to D&D, however, don’t work so well in this regard, because they’re simulating heroic fiction, notably through such mechanisms as high hit point totals that mean the hero doesn’t have to worry about a random peasant getting lucky. As a result, in the stats below, for D&D only, I am going to provide separate details for the hostile ‘red-eye’ Ood and the docile servants, allowing the former to be a meaningful threat – at least in large numbers. (Although how meaningful will depend on the character level of the PCs…)
Slave Ood will have skills relevant to their profession, which tends to be menial and technical work. For systems that concentrate largely on combat capabilities, this will mean relatively little, but one can imagine that slave Ood are capable at performing basic maintenance and understanding social etiquette. Their mentality as slaves is also key and it’s especially notable that Ood are very poor at resisting mental attack and control, so whichever attribute is used to do this in a given system should be low, perhaps dismally so. Native Ood are peaceful (as they have to be) and would actually rate a ‘Good’ alignment in D&D, but the slaves are under the influence of others, and are yet another race that I’ll describe as ‘Neutral’.
Special Abilities
Ood have two special abilities. The first is that they are telepathic, although, in the slave versions we are describing, they can only sense telepathic signals, and not send any themselves. This isn’t something that would be listed as a special ability in most game systems (as the sending telepathy of non-slave Ood would be) and is really just reflected in their susceptibility to psychic attack.
The other is the ability to use their translation spheres as weapons, delivering a deadly electrical jolt. This, of course, only applies to ‘red-eye’ Ood under the control of hostile telepathic entities, since the race are otherwise pacifistic.
5E - Ood (enslaved)
Medium humanoid, neutral
Armour Class: 10 (natural armour)
Hit Points: 11 (2d8+2)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 10 (+0) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 12 (+1) |
INT 10 (+0) | WIS 6 (-2) | CHA 10 (+0) |
Skills: Perception +0, Technology +2
Combat Skills: Melee Attack +0, Missile Attack +0
Senses: Passive Perception 8
Unarmed Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +0 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature.
Hit: 1 bludgeoning damage.
Challenge: 0 (10 XP)
5E - Ood (red-eye)
Medium humanoid, neutral
Armour Class: 10 (natural armour)
Hit Points: 28 (5d8+5)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 10 (+0) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 12 (+1) |
INT 10 (+0) | WIS 6 (-2) | CHA 10 (+0) |
Saving Throws: Strength +3, Constitution +4
Skills: Perception +1, Technology +3
Combat Skills: Melee Attack +3, Missile Attack +3
Senses: Passive Perception 8
Unarmed Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature.
Hit: 1 bludgeoning damage.
Translation Orb. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature.
Hit: 11 (3d6) lightning damage.
Challenge: ¼ (50 XP)
BRP - Ood
STR 3D6 (10-11) | CON 2D6+6 (13) | SIZ 2D6+6 (13) |
INT 2D6+6 (13) | POW 2D6 (7) | |
DEX 3D6 (10-11) | CHA 3D6 (10-11) | |
Hit Points: 13 | Move: 10 | |
Base SR: 5 | Damage Bonus: 0 | |
Armour: None
Combat Skills: Brawl 25%
Translation Orb: Brawling skill, 2D6 damage, 1H 8 hit points.
GURPS - Ood
ST 10 | DX 10 | IQ 10 | HT 12 |
Thrust: 1d-2 | | Swing: 1d | |
Speed: 5.5 | | Move: 5 | |
Advantages: Extended Lifespan/1, Innate Attack (burning, 2d damage, melee attack [1], cannot parry)
Disadvantages: Pacifism (self-defence only), Weak Will-4
Skills: Computer Operations/TL10-11, Cooking-12, Electrician/TL10-10, Gardening-10, Housekeeping-12, Savoir-Faire (servant, local culture)-12
Savage Worlds - Ood
Agility: d6 | Smarts: d6 | Spirit: d4 |
Strength: d6 | Vigour: d8 | |
Skills: Electronics d4, Repair d4
Edges: Reliable
Hindrances: Pacifist (minor)
Translation Orb: Melee, 2d6 electrical damage
Pace: 6 Parry: 2 Toughness: 6 Size: 0
STA - Ood
Control: 8 | Fitness: 9 | Presence: 7 |
Daring: 7 | Insight: 9 | Reason: 8 |
Command: 0 | Security: 0 | Science: 1 |
Conn: 0 | Engineering: 1 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 9 | Resistance: 0 | |
Attacks: Translation Orb (Melee, 2^, 1H, knockdown)
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