Swarm Animal Companion [Archive] - Wizards Community

Swarm Animal Companion [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
De_Chain
07-06-06, 11:45 AM I have just hit 12th level with my driud and my DM has offered the idea of a Feat that would allow me to take a swarm as my animal companion. The idea behind it is that we would apply the ideas around a swarm to a murder of crows. We haven't come up with any solid rules for it yet, but will have to do so by next game session. Thoughts?
Xeviat-DM
07-06-06, 12:37 PM Just compare the CR of a crow swarm to the CRs of each of the animals already on the druid list. Heck, since it is an animal, I wouldn't even require you to take a feat.
olshanski_home
07-06-06, 12:42 PM Here is some information I created for a Master DM Competition. This entry won first place, and a number of rules-lawyers examined it with a fine-toothed comb and found it to be playable. In my opinion, a swarm for a familiar is very balanced and playable and shouldn't even require a feat for use.

Swarm as an Animal Companion:
As with other animal companions, a DM can use the CR of the companion as an guide for when a swarm is a balanced companion for a druid or ranger. A reasonable option for 4th level druids would be a rat swarm or bat swarm. Depending on the flavor of your campaign world, you might consider allowing a druid to have a swarm of vermin as a companion. A spider swarm (for a level 1 druid), a locust swarm (for a level 7 druid), or a centipede swarm (for a level 10 druid), are all balanced. As a flavor element, you may want to limit vermin companions to evil characters or underdark races. Not because vermin themselves are evil, but because in many campaigns the use of poison by a being capable of moral judgements is considered an evil act. It is important that the druid understands that the swarm acts as a collective. The druid cannot command an individual creature from the swarm to do any particular task.
In core rules, a druid's animal companion gains increases to Strength as the druid advances. For a swarm, I suggest that increasing Constitution, instead of strength, is a fair alternate method for advancing the companion.

BIRD SWARM
Diminutive Animal (Swarm)
Hit Dice: 3d8 (13 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 5 ft. (1 square), fly 40 ft. (good)
Armor Class: 16 (+4 size, +2 Dex), touch 14, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/—
Attack: Swarm (1d6)
Full Attack: Swarm (1d6)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Distraction
Special Qualities: half damage from slashing and piercing, low-light vision, swarm traits
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +3
Abilities: Str 3, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 4
Skills: Listen +7, Spot +7
Feats: Alertness, Lightning Reflexes
Environment: Temperate forest
Organization: Solitary, flight (2–4 swarms), or flock (11–20 swarms)
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: None
Level Adjustment: —
A bird swarm could be composed of any number of species of birds: a murder of crows, black as night and filling the sky; a group of bold and opportunistic seagulls; a colony of aggressive starlings; just to name a few.
A swarm of birds usually retreats when confronted. They normally live in harmony with nature and people. Once in a while, however, if a food source is threatened or if a nest has been disturbed, a swarm becomes aggressive and attacks relentlessly. For the most part, swarms of birds give ample warning of an impending attack with aggressive calls. The calls serve not only to warn away intruders, but to summon additional birds to defend the area.
Combat
A bird swarm scratches, claws, and pecks at living creatures, dealing 1d6 points of damage to any creature whose space it occupies at the end of its move.
Distraction (Ex): Any living creature that begins its turn with a swarm in its space must succeed on a DC 11 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Adaptability Notes:
The stats for a bird swarm is based on a bat swarm. Birds and bats are small warmblooded animals of roughly the same size and strength. I believe that in removing the wounding special attack, the blindsense special quality, and racial modifiers of +4 to spot and listen is adequate to justify droping the CR from 2 to 1. The largest threat from a bat swarm is the wounding ability, rather than the simple 1d6 damage per round.
As you can see if you compare other 1st level druid animal companions to a bird swarm, you'll see that a bird swarm is appropriate even for 1st level druids.
theblindman
07-06-06, 05:57 PM This is a fantastic idea. I have absolutely zero contribution to make in terms of rules, but offer a big slap on the back to the OP and olshanski.
Darth Sephiroth
07-06-06, 08:04 PM Look at THIS (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040705a) and modify the rules for swarms from there. It only has ones for insects, but it should be useful if nothing else
theblindman
07-07-06, 09:54 AM Great link Darth. Bookmarked :)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
De_Chain 07-06-06, 11:45 AM	I have just hit 12th level with my driud and my DM has offered the idea of a Feat that would allow me to take a swarm as my animal companion. The idea behind it is that we would apply the ideas around a swarm to a murder of crows. We haven't come up with any solid rules for it yet, but will have to do so by next game session. Thoughts?
Xeviat-DM 07-06-06, 12:37 PM	Just compare the CR of a crow swarm to the CRs of each of the animals already on the druid list. Heck, since it is an animal, I wouldn't even require you to take a feat.
olshanski_home 07-06-06, 12:42 PM	Here is some information I created for a Master DM Competition. This entry won first place, and a number of rules-lawyers examined it with a fine-toothed comb and found it to be playable. In my opinion, a swarm for a familiar is very balanced and playable and shouldn't even require a feat for use. Swarm as an Animal Companion: As with other animal companions, a DM can use the CR of the companion as an guide for when a swarm is a balanced companion for a druid or ranger. A reasonable option for 4th level druids would be a rat swarm or bat swarm. Depending on the flavor of your campaign world, you might consider allowing a druid to have a swarm of vermin as a companion. A spider swarm (for a level 1 druid), a locust swarm (for a level 7 druid), or a centipede swarm (for a level 10 druid), are all balanced. As a flavor element, you may want to limit vermin companions to evil characters or underdark races. Not because vermin themselves are evil, but because in many campaigns the use of poison by a being capable of moral judgements is considered an evil act. It is important that the druid understands that the swarm acts as a collective. The druid cannot command an individual creature from the swarm to do any particular task. In core rules, a druid's animal companion gains increases to Strength as the druid advances. For a swarm, I suggest that increasing Constitution, instead of strength, is a fair alternate method for advancing the companion. BIRD SWARM Diminutive Animal (Swarm) Hit Dice: 3d8 (13 hp) Initiative: +2 Speed: 5 ft. (1 square), fly 40 ft. (good) Armor Class: 16 (+4 size, +2 Dex), touch 14, flat-footed 12 Base Attack/Grapple: +2/— Attack: Swarm (1d6) Full Attack: Swarm (1d6) Space/Reach: 10 ft./0 ft. Special Attacks: Distraction Special Qualities: half damage from slashing and piercing, low-light vision, swarm traits Saves: Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +3 Abilities: Str 3, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 4 Skills: Listen +7, Spot +7 Feats: Alertness, Lightning Reflexes Environment: Temperate forest Organization: Solitary, flight (2–4 swarms), or flock (11–20 swarms) Challenge Rating: 1 Treasure: None Alignment: Always neutral Advancement: None Level Adjustment: — A bird swarm could be composed of any number of species of birds: a murder of crows, black as night and filling the sky; a group of bold and opportunistic seagulls; a colony of aggressive starlings; just to name a few. A swarm of birds usually retreats when confronted. They normally live in harmony with nature and people. Once in a while, however, if a food source is threatened or if a nest has been disturbed, a swarm becomes aggressive and attacks relentlessly. For the most part, swarms of birds give ample warning of an impending attack with aggressive calls. The calls serve not only to warn away intruders, but to summon additional birds to defend the area. Combat A bird swarm scratches, claws, and pecks at living creatures, dealing 1d6 points of damage to any creature whose space it occupies at the end of its move. Distraction (Ex): Any living creature that begins its turn with a swarm in its space must succeed on a DC 11 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based. Adaptability Notes: The stats for a bird swarm is based on a bat swarm. Birds and bats are small warmblooded animals of roughly the same size and strength. I believe that in removing the wounding special attack, the blindsense special quality, and racial modifiers of +4 to spot and listen is adequate to justify droping the CR from 2 to 1. The largest threat from a bat swarm is the wounding ability, rather than the simple 1d6 damage per round. As you can see if you compare other 1st level druid animal companions to a bird swarm, you'll see that a bird swarm is appropriate even for 1st level druids.
theblindman 07-06-06, 05:57 PM	This is a fantastic idea. I have absolutely zero contribution to make in terms of rules, but offer a big slap on the back to the OP and olshanski.
Darth Sephiroth 07-06-06, 08:04 PM	Look at THIS (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040705a) and modify the rules for swarms from there. It only has ones for insects, but it should be useful if nothing else
theblindman 07-07-06, 09:54 AM	Great link Darth. Bookmarked :)