Skittermander

Core Racial Traits

Trait	Effect
Grappler	Skittermanders gain a +2 racial bonus to grapple combat maneuvers.
Hyper	Once per day, a skittermander can take an extra move action.
Low-light Vision	A skittermander can see in dim light as if it were normal light.
Six-armed	Skittermanders have six arms, which allows them to wield and hold up to six hands’ worth of weapons and equipment.

Grappler

Skittermanders gain a +2 racial bonus to grapple combat maneuvers.

Hyper

Once per day, a skittermander can take an extra move action.

Low-light Vision

A skittermander can see in dim light as if it were normal light.

Six-armed

Skittermanders have six arms, which allows them to wield and hold up to six hands’ worth of weapons and equipment. While their multiple arms increase the number of items they can have at the ready, it doesn’t increase the number of attacks they can make during combat.

Vital Stats

Stat	Value
Average Height	2–4 ft.
Average Weight	25–45 lbs.
Age of Maturity	6 years
Maximum Age	60+2d20 years

Alternate Racial Traits

Source Near Space pg. 134
Skittermanders develop a wide variety of social and physical quirks that can place them outside the average suite of abilities presented in the Alien Archive.

Curious

Source Near Space pg. 134
Some skittermanders develop an intense interest in a narrow field and pursue this fascination, slowing the development of their physical coordination. Skittermanders with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus to Perception checks and to checks for one Profession skill of their choice.
This replaces hyper.

Guardian

Source Near Space pg. 134
Most skittermanders are self-sacrificing, and some put themselves directly in harm’s way to protect others. These skittermanders can enter or occupy the space of a single Small, Medium, or Large creature without imposing the normal penalties on either themselves or the creature sharing their space. They take a –2 penalty to AC while sharing their space but provide the creature whose space they share with a +1 shield bonus to AC against ranged attacks.
This replaces grappler.

Scatter

Source Near Space pg. 134
Some skittermanders never master coordinating all six arms for manual manipulation, preferring to instead use their extra limbs for mobility. These extra maneuvering limbs allow a skittermander to wield only two hands’ worth of weapons or equipment, but they also grant a land speed of 35 feet and a +2 racial bonus to Acrobatics and Athletics checks.
This replaces six-armed.

Skitterpunk

Source Near Space pg. 134
Some skittermanders have grown skeptical of the vesk and refined their collaboration instinct, developing a keen eye toward power dynamics and injustice. These skittermanders gain a +2 racial bonus to Sense Motive checks, which increases to +5 when engaging with vesk and citizens of the Veskarium.
This replaces grappler.

When vesk warships appeared in the sky, skittermanders across Vesk-3 were more than happy to get out of the invaders’ way—not out of fear, but more because of their innate desire to help. Skittermanders instinctively recognized the Veskarium’s superior strength and felt they could best aid the empire by simply not being in the same location as its soldiers. In this way, skittermanders believed the vesk could quickly achieve their goals and move on. They didn’t understand the vesk’s aim was to subdue their world. Since vesk’s code of honor forbade them from shooting the cheerfully acquiescent skittermanders in the back, the invaders were confused and infuriated by the situation.

Eventually, in a meeting that the empire notes as the official date that Vesk-3 was conquered, a vesk general plainly told a group of skittermanders that the Veskarium ruled their planet. The skittermanders nodded and got back to their lives. Since then, the empire has ruled Vesk-3, though it hasn’t truly been in control of it. Skittermanders cheerfully accept jobs given to them by vesk, but never truly acknowledge the vesk as being in charge. Some outside the Veskarium believe skittermanders are being deliberately obtuse, reaping all the technological and social benefits the empire offers while still partially maintaining their freedom as a society, but no skittermander has ever confirmed this theory.

Today, skittermanders can be found throughout the Veskarium, often serving in clerical positions that allow them to aid as many people as possible. They have fully embraced technology and enjoy the many sights the galaxy has to offer, traveling to the Pact Worlds and beyond. Those who employ skittermanders quickly learn to give them missions that have open-ended parameters, as a skittermander who feels she has completed a task won’t necessarily report back to a superior for further instructions if she finds someone else who needs her help first. Outsiders often find them cheerfully manic, noting a goblin-like flair for the ridiculous but none of that race’s innate malice.

Though skittermanders are mammals, they begin life in something akin to a larval stage. A skittermander whelp looks like a miniature version of an adult, but with more prominent ears and a tiny, secondary mouth on its abdomen. Once born, whelps are left to fend for themselves. They are truly omnivorous, capable of digesting fruits, leaves, raw meat, and seeds. Additionally, a whelp’s secondary mouth allows it to attach itself to large prey and feed at its leisure. Thanks to a numbing mucus secreted by this mouth, less intelligent animals rarely even notice the whelp’s samplings. A swarm of skittermander whelps has been known to bring down a trundling bovine monoux in a matter of minutes.

After 6 years, whelps mature into adult skittermanders, begin to walk upright, and lose their secondary mouths, but they maintain their taste for anything remotely edible. Skittermanders living in tropical climes have short, soft fur, while their arctic cousins grow tough, shaggy hair. Their coloration varies even more, with tones of blue, green, and violet being the most common, but with no obvious correlation to their surroundings.

The average adult skittermander is 3 feet tall and weighs about 35 pounds.