The candiru, sometimes known as the “____ fish”

[Utensil]

Some creatures can burrow into other creatures, or gain entrance into the body of host.

I want to create a creature to have the ability to enter another creature and yet be a seperate entity and not a disease/poison.

 

How best to build such a creature? 

[Lord Liaden]

The most common way I've seen this handled in Hero System, is for the creature's "burrowing" ability to be represented as Desolidification, with Mind Control to dominate the host creature, and sometimes Telepathy to access the creature's memories. The Advanced Players Guide also has an optional Power, "Possession," which runs all those elements as a single Power. That is generally less expensive and simpler than the first compound Power.

 

Another example, an alien head-burrowing creature in the book Arcane Adversaries, uses a Major Transform: Person to Person With Psychological Complication: Must Obey "Possessor", to cover the whole effect. The creature has a -0 Limitation on the Power, "Creature Has No Separate Existence" while it's in the victim's body.

 

As usual with Hero, what you choose depends on what best models the effect you want, and what feels right to you. There's rarely one "correct" way to do anything.

[LoneWolf]

To give any real advice on how to build this more information is required.  What happens when the creature enters the host?  Can it influence the host in any way, or does it just sit there and not really do anything?  Does it have the ability to tap into the senses of the host?  Do its own senses and powers work while in the host? Can it take any actions while in the host or does it simply use the host to interact with the world?  

[Lord Liaden]

Thank you, LoneWolf, it hadn't even occurred to me that Utensil might just want the creature to be inside the host but not do anything. 😞

[steriaca]

Have you checked out the Possession power in the Advance Player's Guide page 74-77? It sounds like what your looking for (along with Desolification [Projection which is on pages 92 and 93], and Clinging).

[Utensil]

Sorry I was not more specific, so i created the critter as best i could

I have attached Gloom Mite.hdc file (used Hero Designer)

The critter is very small (I not give it physical limitation for being small as being extremely tiny is more advantages then otherwise). I still not fully have it written up yet. Like others should take penalty to see it (not sure if any good way to do that other than shrinking ... it is 8 mm long tops!.

 

It helps if one understands the world of RWBY.

 

Also attached image of power section.

 

Gloom Mite.hdc

Edited April 11, 2022 by Utensil
added a bit more info

[LoneWolf]

 While the character sheet gives us an idea of what you have so far it does not give an idea of what you are trying to accomplish.  

 

From what I can see all that happens when the creature enters a host is that it damages the host.  It has no control over the host, it gets no sensory input from the host.  It basically sits there and slowly drains away the hosts DEX, OCV and DCV.  It also does a small amount of damage to the host when removed If this is the case I would simply write it up as a continual attack and not even bother with a lot of the other stuff. 

 

Let us know what this creature actually does without using game mechanics and we can give better advice.  
 

[Utensil]

The Gloom Mite is a grimm ... it purplose is only to wreak havoc with the nervous system. The not a traditional villain more of parasite. It designed by Salem to vex heroes. 

[Lord Liaden]

In that case I agree with LoneWolf. The creature entering a body and continuing to "eat" its nervous system is just the Special Effect of a Continuous Drain/Blast etc. which is stopped by whatever method is appropriate to remove or kill the gloom mite. Since this grimm does nothing else there's no need to write it up as a creature.

[Utensil]

but it does spread

[Steve]

2 minutes ago, Utensil said:

but it does spread

You could make the effects Sticky.

[Lord Liaden]

How does it spread? What's the mechanism, not in Hero terms, but in "reality"?

[LoneWolf]

The way I would probably write this up would be a drain with the damage over time advantage.  Sticky could be added to allow it to spread from person to person.  Invisible power effects may also be appropriate if the target does not realize they have been attacked.  You do not start to recover the damage from an attack with Damage over time until the time has run out so the delayed return rate may not be needed.  

[Utensil]

Once it reaches maximum number of duplicates (reproduction) or upon host dying they crawl till they find another host.

Think Bed Bugs, just bigger and feed off of nerves instead of blood.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah Desolid and clinging (affects physical world) allows a creature to sit inside something and stay there.  They'll need life support too, usually.

[LoneWolf]

Forget the duplicates and just put a limitation on the sticky advantage.  Probably be about a +1 limitation only when host is dead or dying.  

 

Might also want to drop it down to 1d6 and add Body to the stats it drains.  To me it makes sense that as you damage the nervous system its organs start to experience damage.   If you set the time increment to a day you can have up to 32 intervals for a +0 advantage.  This would create something that will slowly kill just about anything that does not have power defense.  If you want to make it even deadlier you can add the advantage only applies DEF once.  That will kill just about anything but will take time to bring down something with a lot of body and power defense.  
  
A 1d6 Drain Body, DEX, OCV & DCV with damage over time 1 per day for 32 days, Invisible, Sticky (Only when host is dead or dying) should cost about 37 points. 

You have no limits to how often you can use this unless you choose to put limitations on it.  You make an attack and if you hit and the target does not have power defense it loses 3 points from Body, DEX, OCV, DCV every day for 32 days.  Once the target is dying or dead it infects the next creature to touch the target. 
 

[Tjack]

   Don’t forget the limitation   “Must have bodily opening to enter thru.”  That leaves out characters like Iron Man and Silver Surfer.😇

[Utensil]

@LoneWolf: Your write up, WHO is making the attack?  I am Confused. The affected creature needs to be touched for the medical experts to pull the tiny mites out.

The gloom mite was never meant to be a microscopic airborne disease, It is a tiny bug 8mm in length (about 5/16 of an inch long) that crawls around and digs into the creature.

[LoneWolf]

On 4/11/2022 at 9:28 AM, Utensil said:

The Gloom Mite is a grimm ... it purplose is only to wreak havoc with the nervous system. The not a traditional villain more of parasite. It designed by Salem to vex heroes. 

Based on your earlier post I had assumed that the gloom mite was being sent by someone.  The person sending it would be the one making the attack.  From what you said and what I saw on the character sheet you attached it did not look like the characters will really interact with the gloom mite, other than removing it or killing it.

 

In the Hero System special effect is everything.  When you purchase a power, you pay for what you can actually do with it.  So, if all your gloom mite is going to do is to attack and drain the target that is all you need to purchase.  There was Fantasy Hero supplement that had a college of demonology that had spells that would summon up a demon who would bite and claw at the target the mage sent him after.  That is all the demon would do after it attacked it disappeared. The spell was written up as a RKA instead of a summon because that is all the demon did.  That is how I am suggesting building the gloom mite.  

 

As to how I built it I started with a 1d6 drain and applied the following advantages Expended Effect (4 characteristics) +1 ½, Damage over Time 1 per day for 32 days +0, Sticky +1/2.  I had also applied Invisible +1 because I did not know how noticeable this would be.  Without that anyone who is infected knows they are infected and would make it easier to remove.   Depending on how you want this to work you may want some level of invisible power effects.  Without the invisibility that comes to 30 active points.   

 

Since the sticky has extra limitations, we are going to use the rules for partially limited powers. So first we figure out the cost of the power without sticky, which works out to be 25 points without invisible power effects.  The sticky portion is 5 points (Drain is 10 points and it is a +1/2 advantage).  So, we apply a -1 limitation on the sticky to reduce the cost to 2 points.  Last step we add the real cost of the sticky to the real cost of the base power for a total cost of 27 points.   

 

In play the character that is sending the gloom mite makes an attack roll against the target to infect him.  The target tacks 3 character points of DEX, OCV, DCV and Body per day that it is not removed or killed.  If the host dies the gloom mite can infect the next person to touch the body of the previous host.  If the gloom mite is not able to transfer to a new host within 32 days it dies of starvation.  
 

[Utensil]

The following is a link that describe Grimm as a whole. 

Grimm | RWBY Wiki | Fandom

https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Grimm

 

The dark god created a pool that randomly generates Grimm that go forth to attack humanity.

No one throws a grimm, and certainly not Salem. 

 

Yes, only reasons for any characters to interact with Grimm is only to kill Grimm. 

 

The series is found on Rooster Teeth website 

https://roosterteeth.com/series/rwby

 

https://roosterteeth.com/watch/rwby-season-1-episode-5 is first appearance of Grimm and next episodes has battle with them ... many grimm are based on animals ... they always Black, with some White and Red.

 

[LoneWolf]

The links give me a better idea of what you are looking for.  Seems like grimms are pretty much demons with a different name.  Like demons there are so many different types that one write up is not going to be able to cover everything.

 

From what I understand I would probably build this as a swarm instead of an individual creature. Seems that a single grimm of the type you are looking to build would not be that much of a threat and would be easily avoided, but a mass of them all attacking at once would be a threat.  Once infected the target would suffer long term damage. 

 

To build a swarm you build a creature pretty much like normal but give them very high damage reduction that does not work vs area of effect attacks and, or desolidification. Give the swarm bite attack (or whatever fits your concept) and link the attack I suggested in my earlier post to it.  If your swarm has desolidification you may need to add affects desolid to the attack and linked attack.   

 

If you want a single grimm to infect a target that seems more like a plot device and I would not bother writing it up.  Just define what the effect of the grimm affecting the character is and write that up.