Slagswimmer

This symbiote comes from a world where it was necessary to travel through volcanic areas and endure immense heat, so the symbiote (changed some, of course), offers abilities reflecting that.

Host Type: Most mortal creatures.

Host Environment: The shoulderblades, right between the arms; partially burrows inward until needed for it's purposes.

Reproduction: The symbiote is not used to meeting others of it's kind, thus it has been pushed along (by bio-wizardry) to produce clone bodies of itself if a mate cannot be found; see Side Effects.

Hit Points: A mega-damage creature with 1D4x100 M.D. and impervious to fire and heat.

Average Life Span: Ten years outside the host, lifetime with it.

Alignment: Effectively a low animal unprincipled.

Powers: The symbiote may do the following things:

• Enable the host to swim through materials regardless of density.
• Temporarily (30 minutes per level of the character) add 6 to P.S., 6 to P.E., 2 to P.P., 30 to Spd, and give the character natural swimming capacity (base skill) or +10% to current capacity.
• Make the host impervious to fire and heat for 2 hours per level of experience.
• Make the host impervious to AMBIENT fire and heat for 4 hours per level of experience.
• Enables the host to do small blasts of lava and heat. Lava blasts do 2D6 M.D. per level of experience and continue to stick and burn. Heat blasts do 3 M.D. per level of experience. The lava and heat must be ambient, the heat must be fairly intense.
• The host may absorb lava and heat for food; 10 pounds of lava equals a meal, while it must be at least low fire temperature to get any food capacity from heat.
• Makes the host gray, red, and black, to camouflage in with lava environments; natural camouflage of 60% when not moving.
• Allows a depth tolerance (in lava) of 300 feet!
• The symbiote may make an armor of lava or heat 3 times a day each. The lava armor has 30 M.D.C. per level of experience, does 4D6 M.D. grappling damage (more of it than the Plasma Harness, but much less heat), and is impervious to most relatively cold fire attacks; plasma attacks and other super-intense heat blasts are reduced by half. The heat armor has 15 M.D.C. per level of experience, is invisible and is completely impervious to fire and heat.
• The symbiote allows the host to restore health from the lava! 20 pounds of lava restores 1D4x10 H.P./S.D.C. or M.D.C
• 4 times per day, as long as the host is standing in super-hot material, he becomes an M.D.C. being; cut current S.D.C. and HP to 1/3 and add together.

Bonuses: +2 to P.E., +2 to P.S., always resistant to heat and fire (half damage). The character gets some food value from ambient heat, constituting 10% of the charater's diet

Side Effects: If the symbiote becomes convinced it cannot find a mate, it takes 10% of the host's food (effectively neutralizing the bonus) and stores it to produce a clone.

Cold attacks do 10% more damage to the owner.

Size: About the size of a softball.

Means of Elimination: The symbiote can be convinced to leave using telepathy or empathy. One can also bait it with a member of it's own race, but this is less appealing. Surgery can also be done and will do little damage to the symbiote.

Market Cost: 10 million credits; somewhat specific powers, but a good selection nonetheless.

Note: If the characters makes a habit of swimming in lava, it develops his muscles and is a very good body-building exercise.