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I want to ask whether somebody has designed a monster that works like a swarm of bodies. Not undead but simply human, dwarf, etc. bodies that are corrupted or something similar. I want this monster to work like a swarm in such a way that it can move like a flow until push and destroy windows or doors of a house.

Something without Intelligence, like a horde that kills everything. The monster must be easy to hit for players, but after having killed one body, another is ready. In my mind this swarm is made of singular bodies with someone that is able to fuse with another to create a terrifing tangle.

Can you suggest a monster like this, or do you have a character sheet for a monster like this?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Just to confirm, you don't want any answers that are the Undead creature type? Is every other creature type ok? \$\endgroup\$
    – barvobot
    Jun 5, 2020 at 18:08
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    \$\begingroup\$ So... you want a swarm of bodies but not undead... are you wanting them all to be alive but mind-controlled, or is this a thing where the bodies are dead? Also, could you provide a bit more of the specifics of your situation? Are you going for aesthetic or what? Why is it important that they not be undead? \$\endgroup\$
    – Ben Barden
    Jun 5, 2020 at 18:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ Maybe more ooze than swarm? \$\endgroup\$ Jun 5, 2020 at 20:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm not entirely sure how well this is going to work with the site. It sounds like what you'd just wan't a wide range of equal responses which is much better done by a traditional forum rather than a stack, but I'm going to let others (especially those more familiar with the system) be the judge of that. \$\endgroup\$
    – Someone_Evil
    Jun 5, 2020 at 22:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ Sorry for the delay.. Yes no undead ,an ooze should be good, better then a swarm \$\endgroup\$
    – GiordiX
    Jun 9, 2020 at 17:25

2 Answers 2

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I think you'll probably want to use the Mob rules from DMG II p. 59-61 (pretty good summary here).

A mob is treated as a single entity similar to a swarm, except that it is made of larger creatures. A mob can be composed of Small, Medium, or large creatures, but all the individual creatures must be of the same type. ... "Mob" is an acquired template that can be added to any Small, Medium, or large creature.

If you wanted to make them corrupted humanoids you could use one of your choice as the base creature to apply the template to, or take a standard humanoid and apply another template (e.g. the corrupted template from Book of Vile Darkness p. 186) to it in addition to the mob template.

Alternatively if undead are ok then the corpse gatherer from Monster Manual II p. 51 would probably do the trick.

A corpse gatherer is an animated graveyard empowered by a mean intelligence and a greed for more bodies. It exists only to increase its own size and power by devouring more dead bodies. image

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    \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for your answer. I know the corpse gatherer but, even if is composed by corpes, all the combat can be done like is one single creature; if I will not found a better idea, I can start from this creature making some modification like transfom into a "corrupted ooze" that may can spawn single small monster made by corpse... I will wait if someone have a better idea before accept your answer \$\endgroup\$
    – GiordiX
    Jun 9, 2020 at 17:32
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If you are looking for something along the lines of the rabid swarms in World War Z, generate a single level commoner or similar creature with moderate hit points (I believe the average for a Human is 3) adjust them as though they were a member of a swarm.

Decide how many members are in the swarm and multiply the number of members by your average component creature (in the above example: for a swarm of 100 commoners your hit point total is 300). Give them the Mindless special quality which covers them being directed by the swarm host (as you've indicated) and makes them immune to critical attacks since what you are actually stating at this point is a Human Swarm thus the death of individual components of the swarm don't affect the actual swarm unless significantly reduced (i.e.: if your human swarm with 400 hit points is reduced by AoE spells or other attacks to 30 hit points you no longer have a swarm but 10 mentally challenged humans with a shared goal).

As far as attacks are concerned all swarms have a single attack and the inability to make attacks of opportunity and that's mostly there to streamline the combat round. Doing attacks of opportunity for 300 members of a human swarm would get extremely laborious and time consuming. Instead give your human swarm host the feat Trample, use the swarm as their mount and use the overrun attack option. Adjust the size of your Host's "mount" in accordance with the number of components in the swarm. Under the standard description for Insect swarms indicates 300 Tiny creatures in a Swarm becomes a medium sized stat creature. Scaling up 300 humans increases them from Medium to Huge and would thus get a +8 to hit on this attack against a medium sized target (+4 for each size category larger than the target). If your Swarm Host succeeds in the overrun attempt the defender is knocked prone. Thereafter you can rule that a defender in this situation is affected as though by an effect similar to Improved Grab so long as they are unable to escape the trample effect of the swarm they suffer damage from the swarm.

As far as Damage is concerned to simplify your die rolling set it to 1D6 (standard damage for medium creature slam attack) because individual components of the swarm aren't using weapons and feats to modify their attacks but add 8 to damage as a bonus due to the swarm size (this bonus for size is an effective way to stat multiple creatures running over the defender) and you should end approximately where you want to be for your human swarm. This may not seem like a lot of damage but when you consider doing approximately 11 points of damage (1d6 average roll is 3 + 8 for the size modifier) automatically each round as a swarm of 300 humans trample over your defender for however many rounds that will take and it's starts looking a bit more accurate.

To give your player's hope to survive getting trampled have them make a fortitude save at base 11 (or whatever the average damage would be) per round and increase the target save by one per round they are being trampled to take half damage. So on round one the target number of the save is 11, the next round it's 12, etc.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Have you tried doing this yourself or is the method taken from somewhere? Supporting your answer with citations or experience would make it substantially better. Factors I think I'd like discussed: was it fun for the players (and not just a slog)? Was it easy to run? \$\endgroup\$
    – Someone_Evil
    Jun 26, 2020 at 11:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ Also, Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the tour if you haven't already and see the help center or ask us here in the comments (use @ to ping someone) if you need more guidance. Good Luck and Happy Gaming! \$\endgroup\$
    – Someone_Evil
    Jun 26, 2020 at 11:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ Sorry, yes I have done something similar to this in the past and attempted to treat each component of the swarm individually which as stated was exhausting. So the following encounter I converted to the method I have indicated where your essentially treating the mass as a swarm with a single attack and it was much more functional in a standard combat round. \$\endgroup\$
    – user64626
    Jun 27, 2020 at 4:53

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