Adapting Swarms into animal companions...

[Wiggz]

Can it be done?

Should it be done?

Animal companions are something completely new to me as I've never had much experience with druids or rangers... for those of you whom have played them, do you think it would be a viable idea? Whether running some sort of pestilence type druid with a swarm of rats that follows him around, a fey ancestor with a swarm of butterflies or a drow with a swarm of spiders that follow his commands, it seems like there's a lot of potential flavor, just not sure on the practicality of it rules-wise.

[Ciaran Barnes]

My first thought was a resounding NO, but then the pied piper came to mind, and that seemed pretty cool.

[mplindustries]

Swarms are way more powerful than normal animals. I think it'd be extremely risky.

[Ciaran Barnes]

I just looked up the Animal Speaker (?) bard archetype. Needs a rewrite I think to capture the essence

For a ranger or druid companion though, that could get tricky, for the reason mplindustries stated.

[Game Player]

This is from the module D1.5 Revenge of the Kobold King

New Feat : Vermin Heart

You have a special bond with things that creep, crawl and sting.

Prerequisites: Wild empathy class feature.

Benefit: You may target Vermin with spells and special abilities that normally only affect animals (although they are still affected by spells targeting vermin as well). You may use wild empathy to influence vermin as easily as you influence animals.

Maybe this can help in targeting vermin in a swarm and making them friendly to you.

Not sure if that was the intent of the feat, but it may be able to be used to go in the direction you are looking at. Also there was this new feat in the same adventure module:

New Feat : Vermin Companion

Your understanding of creepy-crawlies has grown to the point where you can bond with one as a companion.

Prerequisites: Vermin Heart, animal companion class feature, wild empathy class feature.

Benefit: Add the following monsters to your list of potential animal companions at the indicated druid levels.

1st—giant ant (worker), giant fire beetle, Medium monstrous centipede, Medium monstrous scorpion, Medium monstrous spider;

4th—giant ant (soldier), giant bee, giant bombardier beetle, Large monstrous centipede, Large monstrous scorpion, Large monstrous spider;

7th—giant praying mantis, giant stag beetle, giant wasp, Huge monstrous centipede;

10th—Gargantuan monstrous centipede, Huge monstrous spider;

13th—Huge monstrous scorpion; 16th—Gargantuan monstrous spider.

[Rotolutundro]

*Raise Dead*

I would love to see some rules for swarm companions. Nerfing them is tricky work, but the flavor! There's a desert druid I've had in mind for a while that would rock this concept.

As far as I can tell, the auto-damage and immunity to weapons is the main stumbling block. Does anyone have any suggestions for lesser abilities that would replace them but keep the flavor? To my mind, it wouldn't matter if the swarm was less useful than a normal animal companion in combat if they gained the ability to understand and communicate with the druid as a normal companion.

A way to scale the swarm down (and up, later) so you could have it from lvl.1 would be awesome.

[Vestrial]

Rotolutundro wrote:

*Raise Dead*

I would love to see some rules for swarm companions. Nerfing them is tricky work, but the flavor! There's a desert druid I've had in mind for a while that would rock this concept.

As far as I can tell, the auto-damage and immunity to weapons is the main stumbling block. Does anyone have any suggestions for lesser abilities that would replace them but keep the flavor? To my mind, it wouldn't matter if the swarm was less useful than a normal animal companion in combat if they gained the ability to understand and communicate with the druid as a normal companion.

A way to scale the swarm down (and up, later) so you could have it from lvl.1 would be awesome.

They really don't need nerfing. They have significant drawbacks from the standard companion that actually make them a terrible choice.

Bat or rat swarms are fine template to start with. Just flavor them to whatever critter you want, change the initial size to 5', increasing to 10' at 7th. Their damage scales naturally with hd, so there's no reason to mess with that. Immunity to weapons will probably scare your gm, so suggest half damage instead (as per swarms made of slightly larger critters).

[Wind Chime]

I would love to be able to have a swarm of bee's as an animal companion. Actually though most Swarms do really poor damage wise they are just hard to kill.

[fine_young_misanthrope]

Wind Chime wrote:

I would love to be able to have a swarm of bee's as an animal companion. Actually though most Swarms do really poor damage wise they are just hard to kill.

isn't the point of most animal companions? "Come meat shield number 4, I choose you!"

[Vestrial]

fine_young_misanthrope wrote:

Wind Chime wrote:

I would love to be able to have a swarm of bee's as an animal companion. Actually though most Swarms do really poor damage wise they are just hard to kill.

isn't the point of most animal companions? "Come meat shield number 4, I choose you!"

No. Animal companions are a significant source of damage for druids and rangers. Also, in order to be a proper meat shield, you have to actual warrant being attacked. If the little bugs buzzing around your head can't hurt you, there's no reason to pay attention to them.

[Lamontius]

Bees! Bees! Bees in the car! Bees everywhere! God, they're huge and they're sting crazy! They're ripping my flesh off! Run away, your firearms are useless against them!

[johnpaulroth]

KITTEN SWARM! BUNNY SWARM! PUPPY SWARM!

I'd totally make a crazy old lady with a kitten swarm.