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Starfinder – Morbius

So Morbius hasn’t exactly managed to conquer the box office with it’s re-release this weekend, Morbin memes non-withstanding, and full disclosure – I haven’t seen the film yet either. But fear not, stalwart Morb-fans! I’m very familiar with the character of Michael Morbius and his long existence in Marvel comics. So how about we bring the Morbin action to Starfinder? Or should I say, Morbfinder!

Morbius

The origin of Morbius is two-fold. In the comics Dr. Morbius is hematologist with a chronic condition that finds a way to treat his affliction with vampire bat blood and electricity. The treatment changes him, giving him vampire like abilities but also a need to regularly feed on human blood. As with any comic book character, he has changed over the years and his abilities have expanded, contracted, changed, gone away, and so on. The other side of his origin is in the real world. Back in 1954 the US was in the grip a ‘moral panic’ that somehow comic books were corrupting the minds of the youth (much like the ‘satanic panic’ of the 80s you can see referenced in the latest season of Stranger Things).  You can read more about it here, but the upshot is that comic book companies agreed to a code of things they would not do in order to avoid government oversight, and one key part of that was that they had to avoid elements of the occult like werewolves, zombies, and vampires. It is because of this that we have the character of Morbius the ‘Living Vampire’ instead of just a Dracula knockoff. Without the code, it’s likely Marvel would have just used an actual vampire instead of creating the character with a scientific origin.

It's Morbin Time.

Enough history, it’s Morbin time. Until recently Starfinder didn’t have a good mechanic to mirror Dr. Morbius’s abilities, but then the Evolutionist class playtest came out. With it, the process is easy. Morbius is an Evolutionist with the Sepulchral niche, slowly becoming more an undead monster as his powers progress. His power level varies by story and medium, but in the movie he clearly has the Sepulchral Step ability so he’s at least 10th level. Species is human, with the Death-touched theme, but also with the Medic archetype as he is a medical doctor. Put all those pieces together (extrapolating an Evolutionist class graft) and you get the following in NPC format ala Pact Worlds.

The Full Morbius.

MORBIUS                            CR10

NG Medium humanoid (human)

Init +5; Perception +24

DEFENSE

HP 150; RP 9

EAC 23; KAC 24

Fort +11; Ref +11; Will +11

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft.

Melee adaptive strike +20 (bite or claws) (2d8+18 P or S, bleed 1d10)

STATISTICS

Str +8; Dex +5; Con +0; Int +3; Wis -1; Cha +1

Skills Acrobatics +19; Athletics +24; Life Science +24; Medicine +24; Perception +24; Stealth +19

Feats mobility, spring attack

Languages common, Latin

Other Abilities augmented potential, doctor, evolution drain, evolution track, extraordinary sense, grim harvest, medical specialist, sepulchral step

Gear advanced medkit, MK2 Black Heart necrograft, MK2 Vampire Voice necrograft

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Augmented Potential Morbius’s augmentations act as batteries for their own transformative powers. Once per day as a move action, they can draw energy and inspiration from your augmentations to gain Evolution Points. The maximum number of EP they gain in this way is 3.

Doctor whenever Morbius uses equipment or one of their abilities to restore Hit Points to a creature, any surplus healing beyond that required to restore the creature to its maximum Hit Points restores that many Stamina Points to the creature. They can tend up to 20 patients with long-term care. When they use the long-term stability task of Medicine, if they succeed at the Medicine check by 10 or more, the patient heals 1 HP and regains consciousness. They can use Medicine to treat disease in only 1 minute instead of 10 minutes.

Evolution Drain Morbius can leech genetic material and raw evolutionary potential from others. As a standard action, they can make a special melee attack against a creature’s EAC. If they hit, the target must attempt a Fortitude save (DC 28). If they succeed, Morbius gains 1 Evolution Point. If they fail, Morbius gains 1d3 Evolution points, and the target is sickened for an equal number of rounds.

In addition, when Morbius hits a creature with a melee adaptive strike or with a ranged adaptive strike within its first range increment, they can gain 1 EP as a reaction.

Extraordinary Sense Morbiuscan manifest physiology for sensing their surroundings in exceptional ways. Choose two of the following senses: life, scent, sound, thought, or vibration. As a move action, they can spend 2 EP to gain blindsense with one of the chosen senses to a range of 20 feet for 1 minute.

Grim Harvest as a reaction when either Morbius reduces a significant enemy to 0 HP with their adaptive strike or a significant enemy within 15 feet of them is reduced to 0 HP, thy can spend 1 EP to regain 5d4 Hit Points; they can spend 1 additional EP when using this ability to roll d6s instead of d4s, or they can spend 2 additional EP when using this ability to roll d8s instead of d4s.

Medical Specialist when Morbius treats deadly wounds and succeeds at the Medicine check by 5 or more, add 10 to the amount of Hit Points they restore. When they treat a creature for disease, drugs, or poison and the patient fails a saving throw that would result in the patient moving to the next step on the condition track, they can spend 1 Resolve Point to keep the creature at its current position on the condition track. The saving throw is not considered to have been successful, but the creature does not get worse. When a creature reaches a non-fatal end state for a disease, drug, or poison (such as that for leprosy), Morbius can still treat them, and if their Medicine check is successful, the creature can still attempt a saving throw to recover.

Sepulchral Step Morbius can spend 2 EP as a move action to become incorporeal and gain a fly speed of 30 feet with perfect maneuverability until the beginning of their next turn. As part of this action, they can also fly up to 15 feet. When this effect would end, they can extend the duration by 1 round by spending 2 EP, plus an additional EP for each previous round they have extended this effect.


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Categories: Article Writing

Jeremy Corff

Artist and Writer