Wild:Custom/Swarmbeing

Swarmbeing

Swarmbeings are sentient creatures that act as a single unified whole, but are actually composed of a swarm of smaller creatures operating in cooperation. The group, together, is more than the sum of its parts.

Swarmbeing is a template that can be applied to any swarm of creatures size Tiny or smaller.

A swarmbeing has two forms, a creature form and a swarm form. Advancement is by HD or class level.

Spawnform: as base swarm, with the following changes:

• Gains type Aberration, loses any animal/beast types
• Space/Reach: 5' for base HD, advances through HD or class level increase it at 5' per two HD/0
• Physical attributes are as base swarm, regardless of the creatureform's abilities.
• Mental attributes are the creatureform's with a -6 penalty
• Additionally, it has a Hive Mind, Cohesive Will, Disruptible and Change Shape, Drain

Creatureform:

• Size: medium
• Type: Gains Aberration type, loses any animal/beast types
• Space/Reach: 5'/5'
• HD: Same as base swarm
• Speed: 20'. If the base swarm has any non-land movement types (fly, burrow, swim), halve it. Reduce flight manueverability two categories (perfect->average, good->poor, etc). If this would reduce the manueverability below clumsy, the creature loses its flight ability.
• AC: 10
• BAB/Grapple: Same as base swarm, plus Swarm Grapple
• Attack: Slam(1D6) and swarm ability or weapon
• SQ: Same as base swarm, gains Hive Mind, Disruptible, Cohesive Will and Change Shape. Immune to crits and other precision damage

Abilities

• Drain
  • Being in swarmform taxes a swarmbeing. Each round, this deals 1 point of damage. This damage ignores any DR or resistances.

• Swarm Grapple
  • A swarmbeing remains a swarm of creatures, even when they are in creatureform. As such, they use their Control Shape skill to make all of their grapple checks. A grapple always activates the Swarm Ability. Additionally, instead of pinning, they may smother an opponent. Smothering deals no additional damage, but the opponent cannot breathe.

• Swarm Ability
  • Each base swarm has some special ability triggered by a swarm attack (poison, wounding, etc.). A creatureform's slam also triggers this ability, although only against one target. The DC should be recalculated for the relevant abilities in Creatureform.

• Change Shape
  • A swarmbeing can take one of two forms- Spawnform or Creatureform. Changing from the creatureform to the swarmform can be done at will. The swarmform loses all class abilities, but retains the HD. Its space is 5' per 2HD, and it must remain contiguous. It takes a -6 penalty to all mental attributes. To change from swarmform back to creatureform requires a DC20 control shape check. A creature attempting to change forms cannot take 10. A swarm can carry small objects in its mass (use the swarm's strength for its carrying capacity), but cannot wield them or gain any of their benefits.

• Cohesive Will
  • Each full day the creature spends in swarmform requires a Will save, starting at DC10 and increasing by 10 for each successive day. If this save fails, the creature loses its sapience and can no longer attempt to make a control shape check to return to creatureform. Its mental attributes return to the base for its swarm type, and it loses the aberration type. This is permanent.

• Disruptible
  • If a swarmbeing takes 25HP or more of damage in a single attack, it must pass a DC15 will save, or revert to swarm form. If it takes 50HP of damage in a single attack, it must make a will save instead of a fort save, at the same DC. If it fails, it reverts to swarm form, is stunned, and must make a second will save at the same DC. If it fails again, the change to swarm form is permanent. It cannot be reversed. The character is not "dead" until it fails one of its hourly will saves, as above.

• Hive Mind
  • A swarmbeing's intelligence is controlled by its Hive Mind. So long as a swarmbeing has 1HP per HD, it is an intelligent creature. If it is ever reduced below this, its intelligence drops to 1 and it immediately reverts to its swarm form.

• Stable
  • A swarmbeing is always considered to be stable, even at negative HP. However, they always lose 1HP a round.

CR: Same as base swarm

LA: If the base swarm is 3HD or less, +3, add an additional +1 for each additional 2HD.