[D&D 3.5e]Monsterous Races: The Swarm

[Serious Paul]

In my current game a player wants to play a Swarm of Insects as a character. We've discussed the background, and I've come to love the idea. But now we're on to the hard part: the crunch.

Currently this is what he has proposed:

Swarm of Insects

+2 Dex
-2 Str
-2 Cha

Special Qualities
Damage Reduction ?/Bludgeoning Weapons and Cold
Immune to Sleep Effects, Paralysis, Lycanthropy, Disease*, and Vampirism

Insect Body: His body is comprised entirely of insects, as such it is not bound to a humanoid shape, and can be "molded" to look like other creatures, even shaped to flow under doors, and through cracks. I need a way to codify this.

We're debating the rest and what ECL this should be weighing in at.

[Reika]

I don't have any of my books available, but aren't there rules for some of the oozes or other such fluidic type critters for going under or around things?

[Heavy_D]

Does a swarm of insects have a mind, more than just a collective instinct? Just changing Dex, Str and Cha is one thing, but also the Wis and Int ratings of a swarm should be heavily discussed, since it will be hard to define this for a body that ultimately is made up of small independant creatures to begin with.

As for the Damage reduction: Add piercing weapons to it. On the body, I like Reika's suggestion of comparing it with an ooze.

[3278]

Does a swarm of insects have a mind, more than just a collective instinct?

My understanding of the D&D swarms is that no, they do not. However, this swarm-guy is actually an Outsider, basically a scout from the Plane of Bugs, if that has any meaning. More complicated yet becomes the whole affair when you consider he also possesses the Swarm and Shapechanger subtypes, as he can go from holding a humanoid form which can carry and wear things - while still being made of bugs - to a standard Swarm. He'll be multiple different types of bug, about half flying, which means he can also split into a couple of different swarms, in theory, although we've made all the ability scores proportionate to the population of the swarm: he'll suffer a -8 modifier to all tasks when dividing in twain.

The problem is, the player sat down and explained to Paul what he'd like to play, and it's up to Paul and I to shove that into D&D's rules, while making up whatever isn't covered by the rules [or is covered in a way we don't like]. Fortunately, the sheer volume of material for 3.5e allows us much inspiration: for instance, Libris Mortis has rules for swarmshifters, like vampires who can turn into a swarm of bats.

Right now, the only thing stopping us is the volume of writing and deciding Paul and I [and ultimately, Paul, as he's the GM] will have to do to make this book-perfect. Frankly, if we didn't want to write it all down, we could just play today and figure it out as we go along.

[JohnnyRico]

I would actually think that a damage resistance to piercing weapons is about right, but if anything a weakness to Bludgeoning ones would be more accurate, since the last time I checked, spiders in my house suffered double damage from a rolled up newspaper.

Just a thought.

Also, you could go with a kind of Hive Mind idea with the character, and the verbal tic of calling itself "we" every so often.

[voiceclass=Infested Terran]For the Swarm![/voiceclass]