D&D 5E Rot grubs

[dropbear8mybaby]

I've just thought of the perfect creature that rot grubs can turn into. Scarab Beetles. The kind from the Mummy movies. Think about it. Both are flesh destroying, burrowing, horrid monstrosities. It makes perfect sense.

Now, to make a monster stat block for them...

 

[darjr]

What if you use the same stats but give them a fly speed.

 

[77IM]

I think the insect swarm stat block should work nicely for that.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

Not sure if CR 2 is too high or not. I wanted it to be a bit beefier than just a regular swarm of insects and have slightly different effects than the rot grubs in order to justify being a separate monster entry. Plus it's cooler.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I'd say that each scarab should be cut out separately, with a separate action + d4 damage. Also, slashing weapons should work as well but cause more damage, say d8.

"After this time, each scarab must be cut out as an action with a piercing or slashing weapon, causing 1d4 piercing or 1d8 slashing damage to the target and killing the scarab."

I'm not so sure about the rapid reduction to a skeleton effect. I'd just as soon leave the defined six-second duration out of the stat block, because it genuinely doesn't make sense for a single scarab beetle to be able to potentially reduce a human-sized corpse to a skeleton in six seconds.

Overall though that swarm is terrifying.

 

[darjr]

Oh boy that's rough. I'd consider a flying speed, sometimes.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

I'd say that each scarab should be cut out separately, with a separate action + d4 damage. Also, slashing weapons should work as well but cause more damage, say d8.

"After this time, each scarab must be cut out as an action with a piercing or slashing weapon, causing 1d4 piercing or 1d8 slashing damage to the target and killing the scarab."

I'm not so sure about the rapid reduction to a skeleton effect. I'd just as soon leave the defined six-second duration out of the stat block, because it genuinely doesn't make sense for a single scarab beetle to be able to potentially reduce a human-sized corpse to a skeleton in six seconds.

Overall though that swarm is terrifying.

I wanted to try and keep it simple so the piercing only was part of that. The statblock would explode if I took every consideration into account. Plus, everyone has a piercing weapon, it's the most common in the game. And making it separate per scarab makes it far, far more deadly. Consider that a person could be infested with up to 4 per round, and requiring an action to get rid of each one separately would essentially make it an almost invincible monster.

And with the rapid reduction to skeleton, the person is dead, so they're no longer resisting the effect or struggling, or fighting in any way, and therefore the rest of the swarm goes to town unimpeded.

Oh boy that's rough. I'd consider a flying speed, sometimes.

Ooh, yeah, but just a slow one like a 10 ft. or something. Clumsy, slow flying scarabs, but ones that can follow you almost anywhere

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I wanted to try and keep it simple so the piercing only was part of that. The statblock would explode if I took every consideration into account. Plus, everyone has a piercing weapon, it's the most common in the game. And making it separate per scarab makes it far, far more deadly. Consider that a person could be infested with up to 4 per round, and requiring an action to get rid of each one separately would essentially make it an almost invincible monster.

Not really invincible. You've got only a 25% chance of getting infested with four scarabs, and if you are, you and three other PCs could still cut all the scarabs out of you in a single round, or you could take four turns cutting them all out of yourself at the cost of taking 6d6 extra damage over those three extra turns. Nasty, yes, but so are CR 2 Intellect Devourers. And as noted previously, you're unlikely to actually have been infected by four scarab beatles in one blow.

The main advantage from my perspective of having to cut each scarab out separately is that it (1) increases the body horror factor, and (2) reflects what scarab beatles are actually like in The Mummy. None of this "you kill four scarab beatles with one swift stab of your dagger," no, you have to cut them all out of your body separately, unless you have a paladin or something to cure you instantly.