One could argue that, strictly speaking, any Auton story is also a Nestene story. However, not all such stories include a direct appearance by a member of the race. In the TV series, we have only seen them directly twice, in Spearhead from Space and Rose, although they have perhaps been more common in the assorted spin-off media. But, for the most part, there is, as one might expect, considerable overlap and, unsurprisingly, there are no Nestene stories that don’t also feature Autons.
Description and Biology
The physical appearance of the Nestene is not consistent between their two televised appearances. When they are first seen, in the Third Doctor’s era, they have multiple tentacles, although we can’t see what sort of body these are attached to – illustrations in the accompanying novelisation indicate that the rest of their anatomy also looks much like a cephalopod, but that’s not visible on-screen. When they reappear in the Ninth Doctor’s era, however, they are largely amorphous, a liquid blob capable of forming a crude face, but nothing more. The novelisation of that story indicates that the change had something to do with the Time War, but it’s worth noting that even in the original story we’re told that what we see isn’t their true form, so they’re probably highly mutable and may well be able to take on a variety of different forms as they wish.
What we do know is that, even on their homeworld, they have a close biochemical affinity with plastic. Which is to say that they are carbon-based lifeforms but are composed of some sort of long-chain polymer that differs from the collagen and protein microfilaments that make up much of the non-bony parts of life on Earth. Dioxins are apparently involved in their metabolism; these are a toxic by-product of combustion in our world, but it’s not wholly implausible that a sufficiently alien biochemistry might be able to make use of them.
Beyond that, their basic biology remains a mystery. We have no idea, for example, how they reproduce. The name “Nestene Consciousness” implies that they are a hive mind, rather than individual beings as we would normally understand them, arguably a single entity rather than a ‘race’ in the normal sense. (One of the ‘90s novels claims that the Consciousness is a manifestation of Shub-Niggurath from the Cthulhu Mythos, but this is obviously non-canonical today). They are evidently capable of forming new bodies, whether by budding or through their various invasion schemes, and placing part of themselves within them.
Game Attributes
On the few occasions when we have seen the Nestene take on direct physical form, the result has been huge. I’ll assume for game purposes that they are mutable, being able to form tentacles and so on if they wish to, but not being compelled to do so. In the episode when they are seen to have such tentacles these are remarkably strong, although their slipperiness makes their grasp less powerful than one might suppose. They don’t seem to be particularly well-coordinated, although this could just be due to the ones we see still getting used to their new bodies; they may be more effective once they have had time to settle in.
They are highly resilient to damage, especially so if we take the semi-liquid form seen in Rose – any physical wound could simply close up immediately, and they don’t seem to have blood or any vital organs that can be injured. (This is unlikely in a creature of their size from the perspective of real-world biology but we’ll let that pass). Their alien biochemistry would make them immune to any regular poison, although they can be killed by even a small quantity of “anti-plastic” solvent.
It's a fair bet they are intended to be highly intelligent although this may not manifest in an entirely human manner. Most physical skills simply won’t be relevant to them and instead skill-based systems would focus on their understanding of science and engineering – especially chemical engineering. Their other key ability is, of course, controlling the Autons, which they seem to do using radio waves, forming the basis of their hive mind.
5E - Nestene
Huge ooze, neutral evil
Armour Class: 16 (natural)
Hit Points: 126 (12d12+48)
Speed: 20 ft.
STR 18 (+4) | DEX 12 (+1) | CON 18 (+4) |
INT 16 (+3) | WIS 14 (+2) | CHA 16 (+3) |
Skills: Science +6, Intimidation +6
Damage Resistances: bludgeoning, cold, lightning,
slashing
Damage Immunities: piercing
Condition Immunities: blinded, prone, stunned
Senses: Passive Perception 12, Blindsight 60 ft.
Actions:
Pseudopod. Melee
Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 +4)
bludgeoning damage.
Grapple: Melee
Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: The target is
grappled (escape DC 18). Until this grapple ends, the creature is restrained.
Challenge: 5 (1,800 XP)
BRP - Nestene
STR 3D6+9 (19-20) | CON 2D6+12 (19) | SIZ 6D6+40 (61) |
INT 2D6+9 (16) | POW 2D6+12 (19) | |
DEX 3D6 (10-11) | CHA 3D6 (10-11) | |
Hit Points: 40 | Move: 5 | |
Base SR: 3 | Damage Bonus: +4D6 |
Armour: 3-point amorphous plastic
Skills: Command 70%, Science (astronomy) 60%, Science
(chemistry) 80%, Science (physics) 60%, Strategy 50%
Combat Skills: Brawl 30%, Grapple 60%
GURPS - Nestene
ST 18 | DX 12 | IQ 16 | HT 18 |
Dam: 3d | DR: 8 | Size: 4 | |
Advantages: Damage Resistance 16 v. kinetic, Dark
Vision, Doesn’t Sleep, Extra Arms (8), Extra Hit Points +32, Injury Tolerance
(Homogenous), Puppet (group)
Disadvantages: No Fine Manipulators, No Legs
(slithers)
Skills: Astronomy/TL 9 -16, Brawling-12,
Chemistry/TL9 -18, Engineer (Materials)/TL9 -17, Engineer (Robotics)/TL9 -16,
Physics/TL9 -17, Tactics-15, Wrestling-14
Savage Worlds - Nestene
Agility: d8 | Smarts: d10 | Spirit: d12 |
Strength: d12 | Vigour: d12+4 |
Skills: Battle d6, Electronics d8, Fighting d6,
Science d8
Edges: Hard to Kill
Special Abilities: Tentacles (4)
Pace: 3 Parry: 5 Toughness: 12 (2) Size: 6 (Large)
STA - Nestene
Control: 8 | Fitness: 12 | Presence: 11 |
Daring: 10 | Insight: 8 | Reason: 10 |
Command: 2 | Security: 1 | Science: 4 |
Conn: 1 | Engineering: 4 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 19 | Resistance: 1 |
Traits: Due to its large size, the Nestene has 50%
more Stress than it would normally have.
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