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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 4751281" data-attributes="member: 18280">Ant (Giant, Monstrous, and Swarm)Ants are among the most common type of vermin.  Normal ants are found everywhere in the world except arctic regions and exist in thousands of subspecies.  They are social insects, so that even though they are individually mindless, they exhibit organized behaviour as a group.  Ant colonies can solve even complex problems, given time.  For example, chasms and rivers may be crossed using a bridge of living ants.  That many ants may be lost creating such a bridge is immaterial – any individual ant is willing to give its life for the colony, literally without thought about the matter.Some types of ants keep livestock (aphids for normal-sized ants), or grow fungi to eat upon a mulch of leaves and/or animal matter.  Honeypot ants store food in the distended abdomens of specialized workers.  Some ants carefully cultivate the areas around their nests to make the region more attractive to allied species.  Others make nests of their own bodies, carrying queen, eggs, and pupae with them as they travel.Giant ants are about 2 feet long, and weigh roughly 60 lbs.  They are divided in castes with workers, soldiers, and a queen.  When a soldier hits with a successful bite, it may sting as a reaction.  Each colony has a single queen, which is Large sized and can only move at a rate of 5 ft. per round.  If the queen is slain, the ants cease acting in a coordinated fashion, behaving instead as though they were under the effects of a confusion spell.  There are also male drone ants, statistically identical to the workers, but they are typically short lived.  When the queens and drones swarm, they have a fly speed of 60 ft.Monstrous ants are about 9 feet long, and weigh roughly 300 lbs.  They are divided into castes as are giant ants, with a Huge queen that cannot move.  Monstrous ants tend to have far smaller colonies than do giant ants.  When wounded, monstrous ants release a spray of formic acid in a five-foot radius around the ant.  Any creature caught in that radius must succeed in a Fortitude save (DC 12) or a Willpower save (DC 18) or lose its next action.  Ants are immune to this effect.Ant swarms consist of thousands or millions of normal ants attacking as a coordinated unit, as do army ants.  Ant swarms also have castes, but as individuals cannot be targeted caste does not matter.  Any being that begins a round within a swarm must make a Willpower save (DC 20) or suffer a –2 penalty to initiative and attack rolls; if this save fails by 10 or more, the creature suffers a –4 penalty instead.  This is due to the distraction being within a swarm causes.  A single ant swarm is roughly 5 feet in diameter.The types of ants described herein should be taken as a starting point.  The GM is encouraged to research additional ant species to create surprises for his players.  Nor should the GM feel constrained by real-world terrestrial species – a campaign world can easily contain ant species that spit fire, glow in the dark, or anything else the GM imagines.  Intelligent ants, as in H.G. Wells’ The Empire of the Ants, could make terrifying opponents, as could ant swarms with the prowess to carry living medium creatures into their nests. TacticsMost ants simply swarm opponents.  Others have developed more clever combat tactics.  The most tactically sound strategy developed by ants requires working as a team.  A group of ants will surround its victim, but only some of them dart forward while others defend.  The attackers seek to disable or sever limbs.  When the victim is helpless, team then dismantles it.In RCFG terms, this group of ants surrounds a foe.  Two thirds of the ants Aid Another to increase the attack rolls of the attacking ants – effectively doing so by confusing the opponent as to where the attack is coming from.  The attackers attempt a minor combat manoeuvre to reduce speed by 10 feet.  With two ants performing a successful Aid Another for each attacking ant, this requires only a normal attack roll.Once the target’s movement is eliminated, the ants perform the same arrangement of aid and minor manoeuvre to damage the target’s attack rolls, causing a cumulative –2 penalty with each success.   As a third of the ants continue attacking to keep movement and attack roll penalties from being fully cleared, the remainder of the team attacks simply to do damage.  There is no longer any need to Aid Another, unless the target manages to become mobile once more.SIDEBAR:  Ant Special QualitiesAnts may have several special qualities.  The three qualities below all exist in actual ant species found on the Earth today.Jumping:  Some ants are capable of using their two rear sets of legs together in order to jump.  A giant ant with this quality can jump up to 20 feet forward and 7 feet upward.  A monstrous ant with this quality can jump 30 feet forward and 10 feet upward.  Jumping does not affect ant swarms.Spraying:  These ants can spray a stream of formic acid from their abdomens.  For giant and monstrous ants, this requires a ranged attack as an action.  Giant ants can spray up to 20 feet for 1d6 damage; monstrous ants can spray up to 30 feet for 2d6 damage.  Ant swarms with this ability do an extra 1d6 damage per round, and can target creatures within 5 feet with this damage.Trap-Jaws:  These ants do not let go once they bite, automatically doing normal bite damage each round after the initial bite.  In addition to the damage, characters bit by these ants are considered to be grappling with them.  In the case of giant ants, a Prowess Action Save (DC 20) can force the jaws apart.  In the case of monstrous ants, a Prowess Action Save (DC 25) can force the jaws apart.  Otherwise, the jaws remain clamped fast (and the character remains grappled) even after the ant is killed.  Ant swarms with the trap-jaws quality do an extra 1 point of damage each round, and continue to do cause distraction and do 1 point of damage each round for 1d6 rounds after the swarm is killed or escaped.Venom:  These ants are poisonous.  In addition to damage, the bites require a Fortitude save to avoid poisoning.  Venomous giant ants require a DC 15 save to avoid suffering 1d6 Con damage.  Venomous monstrous ants require a DC 20 save to avoid suffering 1d6 points of damage for 1d6 rounds.  Venomous ant swarms require a DC 12 save to avoid suffering 1d6 Con damage.</blockquote>

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