The Forest have not appeared again in the TV series, but have returned in a couple of stories in the audio anthology Tales of New Earth (which reveals "Cheem" to be the name of a planet to which they were transplanted), and occasionally in the comics.
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.
• The Time Warrior – The first appearance of the Sontarans.
• Invasion of the Dinosaurs – Dinosaurs are real-world creatures and often already statted up in RPGs
The story that follows is Death to the Daleks, which has exactly the main foes that you would expect it to have. It does, however, also feature the Exxilons. While there’s no reason to suppose Exxilons are dramatically different from other humanoids, they can serve as an example of a primitive race and do at least have some minor differences from regular humans. They appeared only once in the TV series, but have appeared twice in audio stories and, because of their history as an advanced space-faring power, have occasionally been mentioned in tie-in novels and elsewhere.
The Exxilons are hairless humanoids with rough skin, flat noses, and large eyes. Since they are alien and not even as visibly similar to humans as Time Lords are, we can’t conclude too much about their biology and internal anatomy. The humanoid shape has some implications for this – the presence of a rib cage implies that that is where the lungs are, for example – but there are limitations. One thing that might be worth noting is that we never see any evident females. This could be due to a patriarchal society that hides their women away, but it’s also possible that they just aren’t mammalian, and the sexes aren’t that easy for we humans to tell apart.
Another difference is the large, dark, eyes which fit with the idea that the Exxilons are naturally nocturnal (or subterranean, as stated in the novelisation). This, of course, does not imply anything like the magical ‘darkvision’ of D&D, but they should be able to see in much fainter light than humans can and be more affected by bright glare than we are.
Game AttributesThe living Exxilons that we see are all warriors and their society appears to be one of hunter-gatherers, so it may be that this is true of the bulk of their population. They seem to be reasonably well-built, as one would expect for someone trained as a warrior, but the average individual is unlikely to be remarkable by human standards. The harsh environment in which they live also implies a reasonable degree of physical fitness.
While they are primitive by the time period seen in the story, in the past they were a highly advanced spacefaring race. This indicates at least human-level intelligence and, although one could argue that their current ‘degenerate’ state has lowered this somewhat, it’s perhaps more likely that it remains the same as it always was. Their limitations are in their skill and knowledge, not their basic brainpower.
Speaking of which, their skills are likely to be the same as any other hunter-gatherer. We know that they can use bows and other simple weapons are surely in their repertoire. Survival skills are also a must and they probably have abilities relating to hunting and the local vegetation (such as it is) even if there’s nothing in the TV story to indicate what their prey might be. Religion is central to their society, so that may be relevant, too, depending on the game system.
They don’t have any particularly exciting special abilities, but their skin looks tough and resilient, so there’s probably some minimal armour, equivalent to leather. And, of course, there’s the night vision.
Medium humanoid, neutral
Armour Class: 11 (natural)
Hit Points: 17 (3d8+3)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 12 (+1) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 12 (+1) |
INT 10 (+0) | WIS 10 (+0) | CHA 8 (-1) |
Skills: Athletics +3, Religion +2, Survival +2
Combat Skills: Ranged Attack +2, Melee Attack +3
Senses: Passive Perception 10, Night Vision (the Exxilon treats dim light as if it were bright light and regular nighttime darkness as if it were dim light, but cannot see in pitch blackness).
Challenge: ¼ (50 XP)
STR 3D6 (10-11) | CON 3D6+3 (13-14) | SIZ 2D6+6 (13) |
INT 2D6+6 (13) | POW 3D6 (10-11) | |
DEX 3D6 (10-11) | CHA 2D6 (7) | |
Hit Points: 13 | Move: 10 | |
Base SR: 5 | Damage Bonus: 0 |
Armour: 1-point leathery skin
Skills: Hide 40%
Combat Skills: Bow 50%, Brawl 50%
Night Vision: An Exxilon’s combat skills do
not become Difficult in conditions of near-total darkness, but suffer the usual
penalties in pitch-black darkness.
ST 12 | DX 10 | IQ 10 | HT 12 |
Thrust: 1d-1 | Swing: 1d+2 | ||
Speed: 5.5 | Move: 5 |
Advantages: Fit, Night Vision-4
Disadvantages: Fanaticism (worship the City)
Skills: Bow-12, Brawling-13, Climbing-12, Stealth-10,
Survival (quarry-like planets)-13, Theology-9
Agility: d6 | Smarts: d6 | Spirit: d6 |
Strength: d8 | Vigour: d8 |
Skills: Athletics d4, Fighting d8, Shooting d6, Survival d8
Hindrances: Vow (Minor, worship the City)
Special Abilities: Low Light Vision
Pace: 6 Parry: 6 Toughness: 7 (1) Size: 0
Control: 8 | Fitness: 10 | Presence: 8 |
Daring: 9 | Insight: 8 | Reason: 8 |
Command: 0 | Security: 2 | Science: 0 |
Conn: 0 | Engineering: 0 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 12 | Resistance: 1 |
• Frontier in Space – While the Draconians are undeniably interesting, this is primarily due to their culture. In terms of basic attributes, they don’t seem that different from humans and can probably be described in the same way. Therefore, I will pass on them.
• I will also pass on the unnamed Ogron-eating blob monster from the same story, on the grounds we know almost nothing about it.
• Planet of the Daleks – It’s still not quite time for the Daleks on this blog yet…
Which brings us to The Green Death… and giant maggots!
• The Time Monster – while the monster of the title is described as belonging to a race of beings (the Chronovores) we don’t see any others, so it’s hard to know what their generic abilities might be, and I will therefore leave them out. I will also leave the Minotaur until later.
• The Three Doctors – while there are antimatter blobs in this story, they’re more a peril than a ‘monster’, and the real foe is Omega, so this is another one I will skip.
Next up is Carnival of Monsters. Despite the title, most of the monsters are only seen briefly over the viewing screen. The only exceptions, and the only ones that are original to the story, are the drashigs. This is their only significant appearance on screen so far, but they have proved popular enough in the ‘deadly alien animals’ niche to appear in two of the spin-off novels and two of the audios – in each case, making one appearance inside a miniscope, and one out in the wild.
The audio Planet of the Drashigs makes the most use of them, as a sort of Jurassic Park homage that introduces two new subtypes of the creatures. But I will stick with the version seen on screen.
The drashigs are large creatures with snake-like bodies. Their bodies appear to be segmented, more like earthworms than snakes, although this may well be a muscular adaptation for a worm-like mode of movement rather than a reflection of genuine segmentation in their internal anatomy. The head is also not snake-like, having a shape similar to that of a dog and decidedly mammalian teeth (for good reason, considering how the prop was made for the series).
From both this, and the description of their behaviour, we can infer a mode of attack quite different from that of either venomous or constrictor snakes. For instance, while they probably do eat smaller prey whole, they are unlikely to swallow larger prey in the way that snakes do; those teeth are clearly there for something.
The other distinctive feature, of course, is the presence of six eyestalks on the head. Although we’re told that they hunt by scent, the number of eyes, and the fact that they’re raised above the level of the head implies that vision is also important - and there are, of course, many real-world animals that use a combination of vision and scent to track prey. The eyestalks make perfect sense for a creature that can ambush prey by hiding beneath swamp water, although such an adaptation could be even more useful for a herbivore wanting to look out for predators around it, so perhaps drashigs evolved from something less dangerous.
That there are six eyes, rather than two, is unusual from a real-world perspective; while spiders, for example, do have multiple eyes, those that require good binocular vision for hunting (rather than allowing prey to fall into their webs) tend to have two that are much larger than the others, which they use for that purpose. This may imply an unusual brain structure.
While there is a published non-canonical source that states otherwise, drashigs are indicated to be alien in the canonical material. This means that we know little about their more detailed biology. For instance, just because they look reptilian, this is no guarantee that they lay eggs or that they’re cold-blooded.
Clearly, our starting point for drashigs is not going to be the humanoid base levels that I have been using for most aliens. For a start, drashigs are much larger than humans. Exactly how much larger is difficult to gauge since there are no shots in the serial that give us a firm basis for comparison, but the creatures are undeniably substantial. This alone would give them significant resistance to damage, and they also seem to have a tough hide, making them difficult to injure.
Their strength at least matches their size and may even be higher than we might typically expect. We’re told, for instance, that they can literally eat a spaceship, although this comes from a man who has good reason to exaggerate and who, even if he is being honest, might simply be repeating an urban legend. Either way, they have a powerful bite, although they don’t look to be agile enough to, say, swat somebody with their tails as a means of attack. Indeed, their overall agility is likely unimpressive, although probably not terrible.
Drashigs are regular, non-sentient, animals, and in some systems will therefore not receive any statistics related to intelligence. Where such figures are given, there’s no particular reason to limit such alien beings to the low ratings often given to crocodiles and the like, and their ability at tracking probably implies something closer to a cat or dog. Speaking of which, since they hunt at least partially by scent, we know that they have a particularly keen sense in that area.
Huge animal, unaligned
Armour Class: 16 (natural)
Hit Points: 105 (10d12+40)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 22 (+6) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 18 (+4) |
INT 3 (-4) | WIS 12 (+1) | CHA 12 (+1) |
Skills: Perception +3, Survival +3
Senses: Passive Perception 13
Bite: Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (1d12+6) slashing damage
Challenge: 3 (700 XP)
STR 4D6+30 (44) | CON 3D6+6 (16-17) | SIZ 4D6+24 (38) |
DEX 3D6 (10-11) | POW 3D6 (10-11) | |
Hit Points: 28 | Move: 10 | |
Base SR: 3 | Damage Bonus: +4D6 |
Armour: 10-point tough hide
Skills: Track 75%
Combat Skills: Brawl 60% (1D10+4D6 damage)
ST 25 | DX 10 | IQ 5 | HT 16 |
Damage: 2d+2 | Move: 5 | ||
DR: 10 | Size: 6 |
Traits: 360° Vision, Discriminatory Smell, No Legs (slithers)
Agility: d8 | Smarts: d6 (A) | Spirit: d10 |
Strength: d12+6 | Vigour: d12 |
Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d12, Notice d8
Special Abilities: Bite (Str+d6)
Powers: Blast, Intangibility, Mind Link, Telekinesis
Pace: 6 Parry: 8 Toughness: 8 (4) Size: 7 (large)
Control: 6 | Fitness: 12 | Presence: 10 |
Daring: 10 | Insight: 5 | Reason: 4 |
Command: 2 | Security: 2 | Science: 0 |
Conn: 0 | Engineering: 0 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 21 | Resistance: 2 |
