Is it possible to make giant ants scary to a 15th level party?

[Agent Oracle]

Three words: Death from Below.

Sure, the barbarian can kill one every round, but when the ants start burrowing up from underneath his feet and swarm? he's in trouble. I used to use this tactic back in the old days of Sim-ant. if the evolved spider (the one that shoots laser beams) is invading your territory, dig up from underneath them and swarm.

You could use special rules for mobs (from DMG 2) as the swarm surrounds them. bonuses to hit, bonuses to damage... good stuff.

 

[molonel]

Wow.

So many good ideas. I'm like a kid in a candy store.

I'm going to go with something along the rules of a grappling swarm, add poison, add cave-ins and environmental issues like they haven't had to deal with before. This party is pretty good at dealing out the damage when they have one or two targets to focus on. I want to create an environment of horror, here, where they kill a lot of ants via Great Cleave etc. but then the ants start coming in waves, and grappling folks and doing munching damage.

I'll try and post what I use here when we play it.

Thanks. You guys are awesome.

 

[shilsen]

I'll try and post what I use here when we play it.

Please do. I'm looking forward to hearing how it works out.

Thanks. You guys are awesome.

Your players may disagree

 

[kigmatzomat]

Be forewarned, the biggest challenge when using those tactics is in NOT killing them, especially if they blow their cover too deep in the nest.

Have a back-up plan, like the ants taking the unconscious PCs to a compost heap where they are left and ignored for several hours (giving them time to wake up). Non-sentient ants won't take their gear but the PCs may lose items they were holding in their hands when they went unconscious. Now injured and deep in the nest they will have to find another way out.

 

[Kafkonia]

Be forewarned, the biggest challenge when using those tactics is in NOT killing them, especially if they blow their cover too deep in the nest.

Have a back-up plan, like the ants taking the unconscious PCs to a compost heap where they are left and ignored for several hours (giving them time to wake up). Non-sentient ants won't take their gear but the PCs may lose items they were holding in their hands when they went unconscious. Now injured and deep in the nest they will have to find another way out.

Or perhaps the queen needs hosts in which to incubate her eggs, so they ants take them to a holding pen area until the queen needs them.