Or: Rating the Xenomorph Knock-offs of D&D and Pathfinder
The xenomorph of Alien, Aliens and a bunch of other movies that aren’t very good is one of the most distinctive film monsters. Which means it’s one of the ones that’s most widely copied, ripped off and cited as “inspiration”. Multiple monsters with decidedly xenomorph-like characteristics have appeared in D&D and PFRPG over the decades. Here’s a survey, in loosely chronological order.
This is included mostly as a formality. The xill isn’t inspired so much by Alien as by Alien’s own inspiration. Voyage of the Space Beagle is a SF novel collecting multiple short stories, one of which features the “ixtl”, which lays its eggs in a crew-member and cannot be killed with conventional weaponry, so is launched into space. The “xill”, first appearing in D&D 1e’s Fiend Folio, is a take on that monster, although it gives them weapons and makes them explicitly sapient. It was promoted to the core Monster Manual in 3.x, which is why it appeared in Pathfinder RPG (and has ended up more prominent there than in “real” D&D for the last 15 years.
Oddly, the xill’s most recent appearance in D&D is in the 5e Mordenkainen’s Folio of Fiends, a semi-canonical book written by Mike Mearls and sold online for charity. The xill’s appearance in that book is the most xenomorph like yet. And yet, it’s said that they abduct people to the Ethereal Plane for “unknown purposes”. It’s to lay eggs in them, guys. We know this.
Xenomorphitude: 2/10, included mostly for completeness sake. 6/10 for that 5e version.
Appearing in the Spelljammer Monstrous Compendium II, this is visually and mechanically a straightforward take on an Alien ripoff (although I love the pointy ears!). Unlike the original, the yitsan isn’t a parasitoid. Presumably the authors of the book realized that in D&D, a character that gets something latched onto them from a mysterious egg is going to get cure disease at the first possible opportunity. Instead, its eggs mimic gold coins, so the PCs will be happy to take them aboard!
Xenomorphitude: 8/10. Pretty darn xenomorphy.
This is a Mystara monster. They seem to be a slantwise take on the Tyranids of Warhammer 40,000 as much as a conventional xenomorph clone. They reproduce by implanting their larvae into humanoids, the hybrid stage of which is called the broodling. These broodlings psychically transmit their skills to a controller, which can then grant them to the various warriors of the hive. Interestingly, they’re neutral in alignment as opposed to some variation of evil.
Xenomorphitude: 3/10. If not for the broodlings, I’d peg them as just another colonial insect species, like the formians or aspis.
Moving now into 3rd edition, these guys are definitely stolen from the Tyranids, as they were originally written to give Monte Cook an excuse to use Tyranid miniatures in his D&D game. They win points for flagrancy of the ripoff by laying eggs that look like “wet stones”—but these can also supply weapons instead of just new individuals! Hey, that’s a thing the Tyranids can (sort of) do! They also don’t have a Queen Alien, instead mutating into “slaymasters” or “slaughterkings”. Because the Book of Vile Darkness is nothing if not subtle.
Xenomorphitude: 7/10. You look at these guys and go, “oh, it’s a xenomorph”, but they have enough tricks to keep you on your toes. Most of these tricks were stolen from a different xenomorph ripoff, but still.
Appearing in the d20 Modern Urban Arcana book, they basically have no flavor text except “yeah, they kill indiscriminately. The hunters protect the queen”. Apparently they can be trained as guard animals. Weyland-Yutani had the right idea, it seems.
Xenomorphitude: 10/10. Take this one to the bank, boys. It’s just a xenomorph with eyes. The most interesting thing about it is how brazen it is.
The kruthiks seem like a way to water down the kythons to make them palatable to publish in a more mainstream book than Vile Darkness. They come in three basic varieties, although the largest being a “hive lord” wasn’t established until 4th edition. They have also been getting progressively less like a xenomorph in appearance, with the 5e version being decidedly more reptilian:
Xenomorphitude: 5/10. Basically the most generic “yeah, it’s a xenomorph but…” I can think of.
From the Secrets of Sarlona book in Eberron, these creatures are described as being “wingless dragons” that hunt down psionics users and drain their mental energy before eating them. Looking at their stats, only the presence of a barbed tail might make you think “xenomorph”, but then you get to that illustration!
Xenomorphitude: 3/10. You got your dragon in my xenomorph! You got your xenomorph in my dragon!
I’m using the Starfinder illustration because it’s better, but these alien tentacle dogs appeared before Pathfinder RPG split off from D&D 3.5, in Children of the Void. Their bite infects people with their worm-like larvae, which turn them into slug-tongued zombies until the tongue breaks off and grows up into a new akata.
Xenomorphitude: 1/10. I had to be reminded that they’re supposed to be xenomorph analogues. The zombies remind me more of Night of the Creeps.
Tentacled parasitoids from space, the lunarma seem to be the crossover of the Venn diagram between “xenomorph” and “metroid”. I do like the barbed defense ability—the fact that fighting a xenomorph in melee will get you killed by its passive defenses is something that gets ignored by most ripoffs and clones.
Xenomorphitude: 4/10. Different enough to be its own thing, similar enough to make the inspiration clear.
Appearing in Horror Adventures for Pathfinder, the Hive creatures have a proper queen/warrior/larva caste system and a parasitoid life cycle with a twist. If you get infected with the larvae but cured, you can start to mutate into an aberrant creature, making use of the Corruption mechanics introduced in this book. It’s the rare xenomorph ripoff that takes inspiration from the later movies (namely, it appears to be “what if Alien: Resurrection made a little more sense?”).
Xenomorphitude: 9/10. About as blatant a ripoff can get without making copyright lawyers’ ears perk up.
