hi friends 
i’ve some problems to make a nice starfish shader like this one:
http://www.erikhenne.com/images/Starfish%20at%20Rialto%20washington%20olympic%20coast%20ocean%20tide%20pool%20beach%20orange%20purple%20spotted%20star%20fish.jpg
some tips and hints to do that 
greets
are you referring to the look of the surface or the displacement for the bumps ? as for the bumps i’d say an electric map set to exponential with an inverted cellmap in the white slot should do the trick with a bit of tweaking.
Thorsten
frankly I would just paint the map manually.
I’d agree with both: a cellular, a mask and some tweaks might prepare a really good base.
It’s so very easy to refine (less so to make organic-looking, but that’s only user skill) with photoshop or equivalent.
Lele
Yes paint the color map.
Then use perhaps the fast sss with the vrayblendmtl
to get the wet look and nice surface shading, and finally use displacement ( variation of the colormap ) to get the small geometry.