Excerpt: Swarms

[Family]

A Swarm of Flying Mammoth Zombie Minions?

"That's a level of AWESOME you just can't beat..."

 

[frankthedm]

I'm somewhat resistant to using the same monster x4-5. However...

You already ARE using the same monster many times over. Its called a swarm for that very reason

Something else occurred to me. Creatures like the Cavern Choker probably can climb along the walls and snag people. Same with flying monsters loitering at the top of the cave, while the bottom of the cave is covered with bugs.

Dire bats and killer cockroaches with a cavern floor of guano should be remembered for a long time.

Scorpions and Spiders carry their young on their back - I can see a giant scorpion (or giant spider) that, when attacked, all the young *explode* off of it in a wave of destruction.

Nice two part encounter

Symbiotic relationships. Lots of tiny animals get their food by eating parasites off of big animals. These guys making sure parasites and predators like weasels stay away from dinosaur/dragon/something else's eggs, the big nasty monster might tolerate the little guys.

Cloverfield's monster seemed to have that going. And a Megalodon with swarms of remora could make a solid encounter as well.

 

[Rechan]

You already ARE using the same monster many times over. Its called a swarm for that very reason.

I meant from an Encounter Budget perspective, not a literal sense. I mean, an encounter of five kobolds fine, but not five kobold skirmishers, or five slingers, ya know?

 

[hong]

What's wrong with fighting 5 kobold skirmishers?

 

[Celebrim]

Eh.

The 3e swarm mechanics were revolutionary.

This just did some streamlining. I don't have any real complaints, and the RBDM in me is thinking 'Flanking + Swarms' = 'Good Times'

You could have a minion swarm, but it would need to be made of up something reasonable fragile: 'glass beetles' or something. One whack and the whole swarm goes to peices. Alternately, the swarm is made of consumate cowards.

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

You may be right, but that is not what I interpreted when I heard "minion swarm". I got the impression that this referred to an abstraction of the actual number of minions, and the swarm of them didn't get any weaker until the whole of them were killed.

 

[Agamon]

Minions and swarms.

I'm really loving 4e.

Okay, I know Mearls was being funny, but for some reason, this article really switched on the light for me. I've gone from, "Yep, 4e's comin'," to "OMG, I must have these books NOW!"

C'mon June!

 

[baberg]

Seriously, those Drake Swarms? Put two of those into a 40' room and watch as the PCs go "squish". Especially if you've only got one caster with a Burst/Area ability.

 

[Darth Cyric]

Wow, talk about bypassing defenders something fierce. Well, Fighters, anyway. We've seen some burst attacks from Paladins, at least.

 

[Family]

It's all part of their devious plan. The upcoming supplemental books no long make your character better and "cooler" if you buy them. They are necessary to stay alive.

Step 1: Introduce swarms and KotS difficulty adventures.
Step 2: Sell PHBII indicating how not to die.
Step 3: Profit like big oil.