They're back: Return of the Slivers. [Updated 24/8-2005: Beware the Overlord!]

[dedicated]

exploding chicken swarms

Originally posted by Solarious
Exploding Chicken Swarm
Tiny Magical Beast (Swarm)
Hit Dice: Irrelevant [6d10, 25HP, if you must know]
Initiative: +3
Speed: 30’, fly 10’ (clumsy),
Armor Class: 15 (+2 size, +3 Dex)
BAB/Grapple: +6/-
Attack: Swarm (2d6)
Full Attack: Swarm (2d6)
Space/Reach: 10'/0'
Special Attacks: Explode, Distraction
Special Qualities: Half damage from slashing and piercing, swarm traits
Saves: Fort +5 Ref +8 Will +2
Abilities: Str 4, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 1, Wis 10, Cha 7
Skills: Listen +9, Spot +9
Feats: Alertness, Ability Focus [Explode], Ability Focus [Distraction]
Environment: Temperate or warm land.
Organization: Solitary, Pack (2-4 swarms), Flight (5-12 swarms), Horde (13-25 swarms), or Devastation (26-125 swarms)
Challenge Rating: (would like some input on this)
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: -

A swarm of, otherwise utterly banal, maddened chickens surges towards you.

The Exploding Chicken Swarm is an incredibly dangerous foe to face. Besides being disgusting, stinky, and generally irritating, the critical number of Exploding Chickens exponentially increases the power of their Explode special ability, making them exeptionally destructive. A Devestation of Exploding Chickens earns it's name fairly, as the first known concentration of Exploding Chickens this size leveled an entire castle, leaving only a enormous crater twice the size of the fortress. It is a useless, but interesting, fact that pieces of stone blocks were found raining several miles away days later.

Combat:
Exploding Chickens clumped into such numbers have a tendency to go completely insane, due to an 'accidental' trait that was bred into them by Alik the Fish. They attack any creature they locate and attempt to peck it to death. Obviously, Exploding Chicken Swarms are very short lived, as are anyone in it's path.

Explode (Su): When a Exploding Chicken Swarm takes 3 or more damage (in total, so reducing the average swarm to 22HP triggers this ability), the entire swarm immediately explodes with shocking force. Each square the swarm occupies blossoms into a 120' Fireball, dealing 25d6 damage to everyone caught in the area of effect. This is usually enough to melt right through solid stone walls, so take this into account.
Distraction (Ex): Any living creature that begins its turn with a swarm in its square must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.

 

[Krishnath]

exploding chicken swarms

Edit: No not really.

 

[Krishnath]

other than Jeweled dragons, what would sliver's natural enemies be?

Slivers are the pinnacle of evolution run rampant, they have no natural enemies. But very powerful entities can destroy them, and they are aware of this fact.
Thus the slivers of Rath obeyed Volrath and the Phyrexians to an extent, and slivers on the Outer Planes would do their best not to upset the lords of those realms. They also have a healthy respect for dragons of ancient or older age categories, Mostly because of the latters breathweapons. But if they think they can slay the offending dragon that has moved into their territory, they will try. But only rarely will the Hives Queen or Overlord engage the dragon directly.

In short: Very few creatures can stand up against a hive, and the slivers either try to appease or drive off those that can.

 

[Mental Duck]

keep up the good work!

first of all, I want to say that this is awesome and thay you (Krishnath) and everyone who has helped with this has done a great job so far (and saved me a lot of work )

I was plannig to use slivers in my campaign even before I got to these forums, and started to browse the dnd forums for some ideas... and then i encountered this (well, actually the former two topics about slivers through a link) topic and stood amazed!

but (there's always a "but"), I wouldn't be myself if I didn't give comments on everything, so here are my comments, ideas, help, 2 cp, or whatever you want to call it...

* Wizards with access to the polymoprh spell can easily polymorph into slivers and therefore gain all the shared abilities from slivers around them. While this isn't really all that powerful (one polymorphed sliver vs 20 normal slivers is still going to bite the dust), it just doesn't feel quite right. I believe you said in this or another topic that the shared abilities are the result from pheromones (or something like that) so it sound logical to me that slivers will only want to grant their special abilities to other slivers that are accepted in their hive. You can (for example) gin slivers an additional trait, the Archetypal Shape (the very same as the Sharn in the Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerun, oh I love those Sharns ) which would forbid other creatures to take on the form of slivers...

* You may want to include a creation process for metallic slivers (they are constructs after all) or you may want to say that this process is known only to slivers. If you choose to include a creation process, you may want to say that metallic slivers aren't able to hibernate and therefore can't evolve into more powerful slivers. Otherwise, every little wizard who knows the process of creating metallic slivers will have the ability to create his/her own personal sliver hive (a thought I find rather amusing ).

* Just a detail; one of the sliver traits is a +4 bonus on grapple checks, I think that this bonus comes from the sliver 'tails'. Muscle slivers however, don't have tails, but legs, as your description says. so I'd say muscle slivers don't gain the +4 bonus on grapple checks or, because I don't find the artwork of the muscle sliver very clear about this fact, you can just say muscle slivers to have tails....

* just some nitpicking: you may want to add that the stat increases of muscle, quick and mnemonic slivers also increase the skills based on those stats, as I said, just some nitpicking .

* This next one is rather important, hunter slivers, as cool how their two heads may be, grant the scent ability to their fellow slivers. This is rather oblivious (or how do you say that) since one of the slivers racial traits is scent. To solve this, you can let all the slivers around the hunter sliver gain double scent range (I believe there is a feat in the Savage Species called Improved Scent that does exactly this, not sure though, don't have that book on me here). Or you can just scratch scent as a sliver trait (which I think is best).

* Another detail, this time about mistform slivers. You say that they need to meet the creatures to gain the ability to change into those creatures, what do you exactly mean by "meet", do they need to interact, speak or even fight with the creature, or do they just need to see the creature??? And the other slivers that gain this ability, do they have to meet the creatures themselves in order to change into the creatures, or do they gain the ability to change only into the creature that the mistform sliver granting the ability is able to change into. And the fact that slivers always communicate with each other, doesn't this mean that once one sliver has met a creature, then all slivers have met this creature?

* as someone else noted earlier in this (or one of the other) topics, muscle slivers have a better shared ability than barbed slivers, while the muscle sliver is just a worker and the barbed sliver is specialist. Okay, the barbed sliver has more HD, but still.... I'd say, increase the damage bonus to +2, it's also more in the same line (qua power level) with the other spelcialist slivers granted abilities. A few mnemonic slivers working together for example will too gain incredible high DC's on their psi-like abilites, so that one additional damage, isn't really that more powerful.

* now some notes about the mindwhip and mnemonic slivers, ... First, the psi-like abilities of the monsters in the Expanded Psionics Handbook (oh I do love that book ) are all augmented based on the manifester level, so I think you should do this too with the slivers. It would give something like this:
Mindwhip Sliver: Concussion Blast (2d6 damage OR 2 targets, your choice), Empty Mind (+4 bonus), Mental Barrier (2 rounds), Mind Thrust (6d10, DC 15), Recall Agony (5d6, DC 15). (The other psi-like abilities aren't augmentable.)
Mnemonic Sliver: Psionic Daze (8 HD, DC 13). (The other psi-like abilities aren't augmentable.)
This does increase the CR of the mindwhip sliver as a 6d10 mind thrust (at will) can kill almost every 3rd lvl character in one blow. Second, if other slivers gain access to the shared abilities of these two sliver, will it be at the manifester level of the mindwhip or mnemonic sliver or at a manifester level equal to their own HD??? And third, but that's probably just me, I find it odd that the primary ability score for these two slivers (Charisma) is not the highest of their mental stats. Okay they are supposed to be intelligent, but still... but then again, it's probably just me.

* Who the hell is Lanariel Shadowwing??? Is he/she someone from the books or someone from your own creation?

* and last; I find it rather amusing that you often say (type) "otherVise", sounds like a german that speaks english with a heavy accent.

Well, okay, rather a long post for my first post on these boards, but who cares...

I hope these comments are constructive to your work and keep those slivers coming

I'll probably post other comments and stuff when future slivers are being post, but they are al meant for the greater good of slivers (if you can't work against them, you better work with them!)

a fellow magic and dnd player
Mental...

 

[Wolf72]

so I'm guessing there won't be any slivers granting elemental immunities? or would that just push them over top and get kinda silly (since they're kick ass already).

hey ... almost hit submit and then thought of something ... slivers have to be grouped relatively close togother, so a really old dragon's breath weapon (maybe with some metabreath feats) could really take a chunk out of them.

good for melee, bad for area of effect stuff.

 

[Krishnath]

first of all, I want to say that this is awesome and thay you (Krishnath) and everyone who has helped with this has done a great job so far (and saved me a lot of work )

I was plannig to use slivers in my campaign even before I got to these forums, and started to browse the dnd forums for some ideas... and then i encountered this (well, actually the former two topics about slivers through a link) topic and stood amazed!

Thank you.

but (there's always a "but"), I wouldn't be myself if I didn't give comments on everything, so here are my comments, ideas, help, 2 cp, or whatever you want to call it...

* Wizards with access to the polymoprh spell can easily polymorph into slivers and therefore gain all the shared abilities from slivers around them. While this isn't really all that powerful (one polymorphed sliver vs 20 normal slivers is still going to bite the dust), it just doesn't feel quite right. I believe you said in this or another topic that the shared abilities are the result from pheromones (or something like that) so it sound logical to me that slivers will only want to grant their special abilities to other slivers that are accepted in their hive. You can (for example) gin slivers an additional trait, the Archetypal Shape (the very same as the Sharn in the Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerun, oh I love those Sharns ) which would forbid other creatures to take on the form of slivers...

The polymorph spell does not grant subtypes, thus the polymorphed wizard would not be granted the Sliver abilities.

* You may want to include a creation process for metallic slivers (they are constructs after all) or you may want to say that this process is known only to slivers. If you choose to include a creation process, you may want to say that metallic slivers aren't able to hibernate and therefore can't evolve into more powerful slivers. Otherwise, every little wizard who knows the process of creating metallic slivers will have the ability to create his/her own personal sliver hive (a thought I find rather amusing ).

No need to put a "how to create metallic slivers" subtitle into it's description as the process is not meant for PC's. Also, since Metallic Slivers are neiter Proto-, Worker, or Specialist slivers, they cannot Hibernate. Also, they are constructs.

* Just a detail; one of the sliver traits is a +4 bonus on grapple checks, I think that this bonus comes from the sliver 'tails'. Muscle slivers however, don't have tails, but legs, as your description says. so I'd say muscle slivers don't gain the +4 bonus on grapple checks or, because I don't find the artwork of the muscle sliver very clear about this fact, you can just say muscle slivers to have tails....

Well, since the muscle slivers art doesn't show all of the muscle sliver....

* just some nitpicking: you may want to add that the stat increases of muscle, quick and mnemonic slivers also increase the skills based on those stats, as I said, just some nitpicking .

I thought that was a given. Not my problem if the DM using them can't figure it out.

* This next one is rather important, hunter slivers, as cool how their two heads may be, grant the scent ability to their fellow slivers. This is rather oblivious (or how do you say that) since one of the slivers racial traits is scent. To solve this, you can let all the slivers around the hunter sliver gain double scent range (I believe there is a feat in the Savage Species called Improved Scent that does exactly this, not sure though, don't have that book on me here). Or you can just scratch scent as a sliver trait (which I think is best).

Ahrg! I'll scratch Scent from the sliver traits, don't even remember why I put it in there in the first place...

* Another detail, this time about mistform slivers. You say that they need to meet the creatures to gain the ability to change into those creatures, what do you exactly mean by "meet", do they need to interact, speak or even fight with the creature, or do they just need to see the creature??? And the other slivers that gain this ability, do they have to meet the creatures themselves in order to change into the creatures, or do they gain the ability to change only into the creature that the mistform sliver granting the ability is able to change into. And the fact that slivers always communicate with each other, doesn't this mean that once one sliver has met a creature, then all slivers have met this creature?

Sight, and you are correct about the mistform and other slivers, to an extent. Once a sliver has met another creature, all other slivers from the same hive can instantly recognize said creature, and if any of those creatures are Mistforms, they are able to mimic the creature as well...

* as someone else noted earlier in this (or one of the other) topics, muscle slivers have a better shared ability than barbed slivers, while the muscle sliver is just a worker and the barbed sliver is specialist. Okay, the barbed sliver has more HD, but still.... I'd say, increase the damage bonus to +2, it's also more in the same line (qua power level) with the other spelcialist slivers granted abilities. A few mnemonic slivers working together for example will too gain incredible high DC's on their psi-like abilites, so that one additional damage, isn't really that more powerful.

Damn, thanks for remining me, I really needed yo update that one.

* now some notes about the mindwhip and mnemonic slivers, ... First, the psi-like abilities of the monsters in the Expanded Psionics Handbook (oh I do love that book ) are all augmented based on the manifester level, so I think you should do this too with the slivers. It would give something like this:
Mindwhip Sliver: Concussion Blast (2d6 damage OR 2 targets, your choice), Empty Mind (+4 bonus), Mental Barrier (2 rounds), Mind Thrust (6d10, DC 15), Recall Agony (5d6, DC 15). (The other psi-like abilities aren't augmentable.)
Mnemonic Sliver: Psionic Daze (8 HD, DC 13). (The other psi-like abilities aren't augmentable.)
This does increase the CR of the mindwhip sliver as a 6d10 mind thrust (at will) can kill almost every 3rd lvl character in one blow. Second, if other slivers gain access to the shared abilities of these two sliver, will it be at the manifester level of the mindwhip or mnemonic sliver or at a manifester level equal to their own HD??? And third, but that's probably just me, I find it odd that the primary ability score for these two slivers (Charisma) is not the highest of their mental stats. Okay they are supposed to be intelligent, but still... but then again, it's probably just me.

I did not augment their abilities on purpose, but now that you mention it...

After all, slivers wheren't meant for 3rd level characters...

* Who the hell is Lanariel Shadowwing??? Is he/she someone from the books or someone from your own creation?

She is an Epic Level Wizard from my homebrew, I really should post her race, they are native outsiders, have wings, and a LA of +3

* and last; I find it rather amusing that you often say (type) "otherVise", sounds like a german that speaks english with a heavy accent.

Well, I am from Scandinavia, so some spelling errors are bound to show up.

Well, okay, rather a long post for my first post on these boards, but who cares...

I hope these comments are constructive to your work and keep those slivers coming

I'll probably post other comments and stuff when future slivers are being post, but they are al meant for the greater good of slivers (if you can't work against them, you better work with them!)

a fellow magic and dnd player
Mental...

You remind me of a guy named Edena, but you are more coherent and can use tags and paragraphs.

 

[Heir Raktus]

Just wanted to say I love the thread, added it to my Sliver Worship thread...

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=451993


And a Comment, I've read that when you do the Overlord, you intend to treat it as the Queen and make it into an evolve-able creature? Were you aware the Overlord was creatred in an incident with the Mirari, which fused several different sliver types into one? Perhaps you could use that Idea in the evolving of an Overlord, kind of like a mythical brood pit where demons would fight until only the strongest would survive, and that strongest would be regenerated with all the parts of the vanquished... only way I could see it working here, unless you wanted to use the Overlord as a singular entity.

 

[Mental Duck]

The polymorph spell does not grant subtypes, thus the polymorphed wizard would not be granted the Sliver abilities.

From the SRD, I bring you Polymorph (or at least part of it ): "The subject's type and subtype (if any) change to match the new form." So I'd say, yes, yes it does .

No need to put a "how to create metallic slivers" subtitle into it's description as the process is not meant for PC's. Also, since Metallic Slivers are neiter Proto-, Worker, or Specialist slivers, they cannot Hibernate. Also, they are constructs.

I already thought as much, well, that's cleared up

Well, since the muscle slivers art doesn't show all of the muscle sliver....

True, but it still doesn't explain the +4 bonus on grapple checks, although I can imagine an muscle sliver springing up your neck like a big monkey, putting his legs around your neck and start tearing away with is claws and bite attacks...

Ahrg! I'll scratch Scent from the sliver traits, don't even remember why I put it in there in the first place...

Sight, and you are correct about the mistform and other slivers, to an extent. Once a sliver has met another creature, all other slivers from the same hive can instantly recognize said creature, and if any of those creatures are Mistforms, they are able to mimic the creature as well...

Damn, thanks for remining me, I really needed yo update that one.

I did not augment their abilities on purpose, but now that you mention it...

After all, slivers wheren't meant for 3rd level characters...

Glad to be of assistance, but I still like to know if seeing the target is enough for mistform slivers, or if they actually need to interact with the target. And its true that slivers aren't meant for 3rd lvl characters, as my players are soon enough to find out.

She is an Epic Level Wizard from my homebrew, I really should post her race, they are native outsiders, have wings, and a LA of +3

Please do, I'd love to see it.

You remind me of a guy named Edena, but you are more coherent and can use tags and paragraphs.

Well, I'm sorry but I'm not Edena, and that's something I don't hear everyday, me being coherent . Oh well, there's a first time for everything .

Overall, glad to have helped, and keep those slivers coming, I'm looking forward to the acidic sliver...

Mental...

Now why can't I get those colors right??? Can somebody help me with that, I'm a sucker when it comes to layout...

 

[Krishnath]

Just wanted to say I love the thread, added it to my Sliver Worship thread...

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=451993


And a Comment, I've read that when you do the Overlord, you intend to treat it as the Queen and make it into an evolve-able creature? Were you aware the Overlord was creatred in an incident with the Mirari, which fused several different sliver types into one? Perhaps you could use that Idea in the evolving of an Overlord, kind of like a mythical brood pit where demons would fight until only the strongest would survive, and that strongest would be regenerated with all the parts of the vanquished... only way I could see it working here, unless you wanted to use the Overlord as a singular entity.

I know of the story in MTG, of course, I am not going down that route...

 

[Krishnath]

From the SRD, I bring you Polymorph (or at least part of it ): "The subject's type and subtype (if any) change to match the new form." So I'd say, yes, yes it does .

Doesn't matter, Wizard will still get pwned.

I already thought as much, well, that's cleared up

It's pretty darn obvious if you ask me

True, but it still doesn't explain the +4 bonus on grapple checks, although I can imagine an muscle sliver springing up your neck like a big monkey, putting his legs around your neck and start tearing away with is claws and bite attacks...

As I said, you only see about half the muscle sliver in the art...

Glad to be of assistance, but I still like to know if seeing the target is enough for mistform slivers, or if they actually need to interact with the target. And its true that slivers aren't meant for 3rd lvl characters, as my players are soon enough to find out.

As I said, sight...

Please do, I'd love to see it.

Her race is basically the decendants of fallen angels that didn't fall all the way to hell. They're all a bunch of evil bastards.

Well, I'm sorry but I'm not Edena, and that's something I don't hear everyday, me being coherent . Oh well, there's a first time for everything .

Never said you where, just that you remind me of him. He is quite entertaining, if you run across him on the net, ask him to tell you the pirate story.

Overall, glad to have helped, and keep those slivers coming, I'm looking forward to the acidic sliver...

I am sure you'll like it.

Mental...

Now why can't I get those colors right??? Can somebody help me with that, I'm a sucker when it comes to layout...

You need to finish with a color closer for it to work properly. i.e. [ / color ] (remove the spaces). It's not that hard.

-Been posting in colors since planeswalker became MTGnews krishnath (A.K.A. Draco).