D&D 5E Running an Alien adventure in 5E D&D

There was an adventure in a Dungeon magazine a long time ago (sorry I don't have it or remember the exact one) that had the adventurers explore a ravaged town where a Slaad was lurking. I like the Slaad idea, but as mentioned earlier, Mind Flayer is also very alien and super creepy. With the Mind Flayer, there can be a humanoid thrall that could function like the android that leads the crew into the danger under false pretense (kind of like the movie).
 

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If you want something more like the 2nd movie, the Kruthik could make a good monster.

Imagine the players are exploring an ancient tomb with only a few traps and puzzles here and there. They get to the bottom and disturb something that releases the stasis on all of the Kruthik that had managed to spread throughout the complex. Now it's a running fight back to the entrance as the killer bugs just keep coming.
 

Hi-

The Party should be at 5th level in a months time, I level PC's some what slowly. So I think I will be looking at a level CR 7 or 9 creature to match up against the PC's. The old Wizards Labyrinth will have the same lighting as in the original movie IE dark with blinking lights, the Wizard had eternal emergency lights installed lol.

5th level PCs should easily kill a single CR 7 or 9 creature.
 

You can re-skin anything; I turned a Plesiosaur into the Loch Ness Monster for one encounter.
Once you have created the abilities you want your monster to have, and the stats to make a challenging fight for the PCs, watch the movie and take notes as to descriptions.
At-table, read your notes instead of the original MM text.
 


If you want MM stats, I submit the nycaloth for consideration. It's an excellent ambusher: darkness, invisibility, blindsight, teleportation, ongoing bleed damage, damage resistances, etc. This nasty piece of work has everything you want. At CR9 it will be a pushover for a party of that level in a straight fight. It will need to creep around, weaken the party and use the dungeon to its advantage. I'd also consider giving it trollish regeneration to make it start each encounter fresh--and severed alien limbs attacking the PCs is too good to pass up! The alien face-hugger concept works better in a movie than it will do in an adventure. The slaadi were obviously inspired by Alien, but are more suitable to a weird dimensional invasion storyline than a horror scenario (the tadpoles are weak and easy to kill and the gestation period is three months making it a cruel gotcha for players rather than anything important in the time frame of the adventure itself).

In any case, you should reskin whatever monster you use. Make it more 'alien', more weird. The suspense in Alien comes from the characters not having any rational template for what they are dealing with. Make the appearance more nightmarish--a disgusting mishmash of tentacles, mouths, carapaces, spines, dripping slime, etc. Give it a slight tell-tale sign that its in the general area--such as a faint odor or buzzing sound. Too faint for the PCs to pin-point its location but enough to put them on edge after they learn its significance.

Alien also has the classic slasher film trope of dispatching the characters one-by-one. Unless you want a potential TPK on your hands, you'll need to forgo this aspect. The PCs will not willingly split up or put themselves in danger. They will NOT cooperate to serve themselves up on a platter. To keep the suspense up, you should add allied NPCs to the adventure for the monster to dispatch. Perhaps another adventuring team, soldier's from the king or a group hired by the wizard's order. Play up their off-screen deaths and relish your descriptions of the gory aftermath that the PCs encounter.

Also, consider the dungeon environment. There should be numerous other challenges for the PCs to deal with. Perhaps a self-destruction mechanism that starts when the door is unsealed placing the adventure on a ticking clock. Traps are essentially, especially those that split up the party allowing the monster to attack: falling portcullises, pit traps that lead to chutes, gaps that need to be crossed, crawl-spaces, etc. Also the wizard problem found other bizarre creatures and objects so you have to those in there. Could be a very memorable adventure.
 


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