Need help with "bugs"

Herobizkit

Adventurer
I've been trying to come up with a really "alien" like race of bad guys for my PCs to beat on. I wanted to avoid mind flayers (despite their resemblance to the Robotech Invid; stupid non-OGC race), drow, or any of the other staple humanoid bad guys. I decided I wanted to have a "bug" motif. As I brainstormed, I didn't come up with much along the way of monsters: formians, swarms, stirges, giant insect varieties, as well as throwing in intelligent plants and oozes for the "ick" factor. I need a "mastermind" race similar to the mind flayer... should I just add wings or something and call them something different, or are there any kind of monsters I'm forgetting about?
 

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There's probably a bunch you've forgotten about.

If you're willing to move away from the core rules a bit, you could use "tohr-kreen" and zik-trin.

In the Dark Sun campaign setting, the tohr-kreen were basically civilized kreen. They came with a bunch of subraces, but you could ignore that, other than most of the subraces didn't have an Int penalty.

In addition to their hidden civilization, they also had zik-chil and zik-trin. The zik-trin were "priests of change", creatures similar to thri-kreen (but with some substantially different abilities). Their roles included leading the inquisition (keeping the tohr-kreen subserviant), "priests of change" (zik-chil who spent their time modifying kreen, often against their will) and battle-hardened (grafted zik-chil fighters). Most zik-chil are lawful evil.

Zik-trin are modified kreen. Their minds have been wiped and basically reprogrammed by the zik-chil. They're extremely loyal to the zik-chil, and also have lots of grafts, some of which are internal and boost stats and natural armor. Zik-trin come in various "flavors" - scouts, warriors, psychics and clerics. They're indistinguishable from other kreen by sight, and indeed thri-kreen (who have forgotten about the zik-chil and zik-trin) generally can't tell the difference. The scouts have been tasked with collecting information about neighbouring civilizations, posing as regular (if intelligent) thri-kreen. The warriors will act as the "point of the spear" when the invasion inevitably occurs - they're got bigger claws, better armor, and at least 9 Hit Dice, and possess enhanced venom, so they're vicious when it comes to decimating regular human troops.

The tohr-kreen empire (called "G'lathuk) kept insectoid slaves as well. You could use dromites as their slaves, and maybe also "rastipedes", which are mercantile bugs (I think they might be called "vrusk" in another setting).
 
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Well, there are thri-kreen and dromites (a race of psionic bug-guys in the XPH.) There are also psurlons, who are worm-men in one of the monster books. You could also tone down the worm that walks template from the Epic Handbook.
 

How about the Kython from the Book of Vile Darkness? They're a cross between insects and lizards.

And there is always the Insectile template from Savage Species or the Hiveblood template in Dungeon Magazine 127.
 

I'd grab they Tyranid Codex from Games Workshop and whip up some stats based on the goodness you see/read in there.
Chad
 

I toss in my vote for Thri Kreen (Savage species, non-psionic version) with perhaps another template on top of them. Give 'em Mineral Warrior (Underdark) if you want them to put the fear in your PCs! :D
 


I say go with Khan's Press' Night Terrors: Alien Parasite. They are a species that can inhabit and control others, but also have a large selection of other abilities and powers that allow them to fill many niches within the hive. I would only change their reproductive potential (it is way too low to produce swarms). And they are faily easy to advance since they can only do so via level gain.

Or, use aboleths and their connection to skum (ie they want to convert all the humanoids to skum).
 

Phase Spiders (from the MM) with the Phrenic template from Expanded Psionics Handbook. Juggle their stat's so they get a decent INT, and advance them a couple of HD. Heck, once you make them reasonable smart tack on a level or so of Psion instead of just extra HD. Instant Ninja-Psycho-Arachnids, and totally doable without buying books, as the Phrenic template is part of the SRD.
 


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