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I am an avid Starcraft 2 player and I love the Zerg. I was thinking about creating a campaign revolving around the race. There are a lot of insect creatures in Pathfinder and I was thinking about finding a way to bring them all together for a Zerg centered campaign. Here are some ideas that I had to make the campaign.
I see the Zerg as a reactionary race. If you have a ranged heavy party that uses a lot of piercing weapons, after several encounters, they would develop DR5/bludgeoning. If you have a caster that is specifically using fire magic, they would spawn a squad of assassins that are specifically resistant to fire. I want the swarm to adapt to perceived threats. I know that I would be walking a thin line with this type of ability, but I think that it would be good for flavor. How do I make sure not to let the swarm get too out of control?
Next, I wanted to figure out how to create creep. For those of you who are not aware, creep is a biomass that spreads along the ground where ever the swarm spreads. Mechanically, in Starcraft, the creep allows Zerg units to travel faster. I was thinking about making the creep difficult terrain for the PCs and not the swarm. Any ideas about how I could make this work? I also wanted to make sure that there was a way to destroy the creep or make it recede.
Also, I am not sure what the endgame would look like. I was thinking that a neighboring town would come under attack and the PCs would have to save the town, only to find that the town is fully infected and nothing can be done to reverse the infection. But I am not sure what type of boss the campaign would have. Any ideas?
Finally I wanted to get your thoughts on creatures that would represent the Starcraft Zerg. I was going to make each creature embody the traits of the creatures they represent... for instance, I would make the Giant Wasp have a ranged attack. (Let me know if these small modifications would break the creatures) I have only found a few so far. Here is what I have:
Zergling:
Roach: Giant Boring Beetle
Baneling:
Queen:
Overlord:
Mutalisk: Giant Wasp
Hydralisk:
Infestor:
Swarm Host:
Corrupter:
Broodlord:
Ultralisk:
So what do you guys think? I am looking for any recommendations or thoughts please.
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I am an avid Starcraft 2 player and I love the Zerg. I was thinking about creating a campaign revolving around the race. There are a lot of insect creatures in Pathfinder and I was thinking about finding a way to bring them all together for a Zerg centered campaign. Here are some ideas that I had to make the campaign.
Just so I have it straight: You plan on running a Pathfinder campaign (set in Golarion or another vanilla fantasy realm) with the addition of the Zerg from the Starcraft series and you're going to represent them with various insect creatures from Pathfinder? Along the lines of a classic Zerg invasion?
This could be a fun cross-genre game. Just make sure your players are Starcraft fans as well.
Those reactionary mutations are a cool idea, but the Zerg will be very difficult to defeat even without those provisions.
A single drone can make a hatchery (in some secluded underground location) and then (very quickly) you'll be up to your ears in Zerg. Although, thinking about it now, I'm not sure how you plan to deal with minerals and vespene gas. Do those resources exist on this fantasy world? Do the Zerg need them to reproduce? Finding and destroying Zerg resource gathering operations could be good adventure-fodder.
On the topic of creep I think you have it figured out mechanically. The rest should just be flavorful descriptions. To make it recede I would think (just like in the game) they would have to destroy the hatcheries, creep colonies, and creep tumors. You might let some spells have special interactions with creep, but that's really up to you and on a case by case basis.
The end-game will more than likely consist of purging every last Zerg from the planet, especially the drones. I have no idea how the PCs will manage this without a deus ex machina i.e. a psi emitter or Xel'naga artifact.
I have no suggestions for insect creatures to represent the Zerg stats-wise. Many of the Zerg are so bizarre (banelings, queens, corruptors, swarm hosts. that you'll undoubtedly have to create a slew of home-brew abilities (or possibly cherry pick from the bestiary) to represent them adequately.
Best of luck.
Many of the Zerg are so bizarre that you'll undoubtedly have to create a slew of home-brew abilities (or possibly cherry pick from the bestiary) to represent them adequately.
This.
It all depends on how accurately you want to depict their abilities. For instance, is the Mutalisk going to be able to hit multiple units at a time with its attack? Is the Ultralisk going to be Gargantuan or Colossal sized? Is the Queen going to actually create more Zerg?
These are important questions to consider, because the Zerg are designed to be on par with SPACE FARING CIVILIZATIONS. That alone makes them very, very deadly.
I don't think there will be minerals and vespene gas per say. However, I think I will have some sort of equivalent with drones and such. I will make the game setting in Golaron with the classic Zerg invasion.
Attempts have been made to put d20 stats to Zerg and other Starcraft stuff. A little searching showed that there are a lot of attempts with d20 Future, and a few for D&D 3.x.
Were I to try and stat Zerg I would stat by looking into what others have already done.
Are you going to have Kerrigan, the queen of blades? Half human, half zerg, all nasty.
Marking this thread for interest, in part because I am a fan of StarCraft (even though I don't get to play it :( ), and the messageboard that I liked to frequent about StarCraft and WarCraft have become pretty sparse in posts.
Now that we've had Iron Gods, you could make a plausible scenario in which another spaceship has crashed on Golarion (or one of the nearby worlds), but before it got into Golarion's solar system, it picked up something REALLY NASTY.
With respect to Minerals and Vespene, these are presumably abstractions of more complex sets of mineral resources such as we are familiar with and organics. Presumably, various ores that we are familiar with would serve as Minerals, and ordinary petroleum would serve as a substitute for Vespene Gas, although possibly needing a different refining procedure to make it fully useful. Of course, if the Zerg end up crash-landing on Golarion without having (or their controller having) had a chance to map out its resources, they will be initially unfamiliar with where the resources are, and thus will only be able to construct their most basic units. As they figure out where to find richer resources, they will be able to make increasingly advanced units, and greater numbers of units, thus pitting the PCs in a race for time against the Zerg.
I would take base creatures and evolve them like an Eidolon, maybe with some added extra options from other monsters/3rd party sources. As for origin/resources... I'd say meteor crash carried the beginnings of the swarm to the planet, and like other hive based creatures, they gather resources(be it animal, plant, or mineral) to bring to the hive. Kind of like a mix of the Zerg and the Arachnids from Starship Troopers.
As for hybrids like Kerrigan, I think taking any base class and giving them evolution options like The Evolutionary Stalker with some flavorful added options from other sources could work. Kind of give them a trying to adapt to the new world feel, especially if they came from a no magic/low magic/different magic environment.
Side thought, you could also have them be originated from the Fey Firstworld plane, or from Limbo with them being a precursor to a Protean invasion.
I have a kind of zergish swarm in my Archmage setting, called 'The Hateful Flesh'. It's an infectious shapeshifting disease that was created when, after the gods withdrew Gene-Magic from the dwarves, a bunch of rebel dwarf mages tried to substitute Chaos magic instead.
There's now one fewer dwarven nations.
… As for hybrids like Kerrigan, I think taking any base class and giving them evolution options like The Evolutionary Stalker with some flavorful added options from other sources could work. Kind of give them a trying to adapt to the new world feel, especially if they came from a no magic/low magic/different magic environment. ...
Good to see MCAs getting some interest!
If you want to see a Base Class that has been likened to a Zerg concept, check out the Symbiote Gunner originally brainstormed on an MCA thread, and now in development as posted long long ago HERE. The Symbiote Gunner as posted needs some refinement, the Symbiont Base Class will differ dramatically from that design path.
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I personally think that idea is cool, in fact, I already had the similar idea for my current sandbox game based around Alien movies but I slightly adapted it so players don't know who they are up against.
Entire continent is pretty much in political, economical and industrial trouble. Bandits are attacking due to lack of food, politicians are plotting for personal benefits, kidnappings are happening occasionally, and in the end, it's all connected behind a single alien entity which dropped 10 years ago on the planet. The alien entity was somehow predicted partially through prophecies, but nobody of course knew when it would happen. Below is example of a single monster designed according to monster creation rules:
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +15
Aura fear (30 ft., paralyzed for 1 round, Will DC 16 negates)
DEFENSE
AC 23, touch 13, flat-footed 19 (+4 Dex, +10 natural, -1 size)
hp 85 (10d12+20)
Fort +9, Ref +11, Will +9
Immune sleep, paralysis
DR 5/piercing; Resist acid 10, cold 10
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Melee bite +15 (2d6+7), 2 claws +12 (1d4+2), tail slap +15 (1d10+7/19-20)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with tail)
STATISTICS
Str 21, Dex 19, Con 15, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 12
Base Atk +10; CMB +16; CMD 30 (can't be tripped)
Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved Critical (tail slap), Multiattack, Weapon Focus (bite, tail slap)
Skills Climb +13, Intimidate +14, Perception +15, Sense Motive +15, Stealth +13, Survival +15, Swim +13
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Fear (Su): Each creature within a 30-foot radius that sees a Ashi, Horror Tail must succeed at a DC 16 Will save or be paralyzed by fear for 1 round. A creature that successfully saves is not subject to the same Ashi, Horror Tail's fear aura for 24 hours. This is a mind-affecting fear effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Impale (Ex): Ashi, Horror Tail's successful tail critical hits cause the target to become impaled. While impaled, target gains grappled condition while Ashi, Horror Tail does not. Violent movement (either by target or attacker) and attempts to free itself cause 2d6 bleed damage. While impaling the target, Ashi Horror Tail cannot use tail attack, but can otherwise move without being hindered (carrying capacity rules apply).
Piercing Tail (Ex): Ashi, Horror Tail has powerful bladed tail used to pierce single target. Critical hits with a tail impale target but alternatively, Ashi, Horror Tail can attempt to impale single target as a standard action in which case critical threat range doubles (17-20).
My personal ramblings a side, I believe that you will have to make those monsters from scratch and I would make them higher CR monsters. Zerglings would be around CR 1 or CR 2, hydralisks CR 4 or CR 5, etc. I would give Zerglings 2x claw attacks at low damage output (1d4+1 or so), Swarming ability and Haste effect which can be used 3/day for 1 round per use. Entire Zerg swarm would have some sort of digging ability so they can make their bases underground. If you don't feel like making monsters from scratch False Spider or some similar scorpion-like creature might be good idea to adapt for Zerglings. That's few ideas at the moment.
Adam
The zergs are famous for the "Zerg rush," where lots and lots of low power creatures attack quickly and all at once. Let's amplify this:
What would be some good tactics for your standard 4-5 person party to face hundreds or thousands of zerglings at once?
Higher levels, access to lots of magic, possibly magi-tech vehicles.
Either that or use lots of strategy. Find a way to bottle neck them so you can manage them in smaller chunks, but that might lead to battle fatigue. Other option is have them be part of a larger army, possibly a strategic strike unit going after the big hitters.
If you want to see a Base Class that has been likened to a Zerg concept, check out the Symbiote Gunner originally brainstormed on an MCA thread, and now in development as posted long long ago HERE. The Symbiote Gunner as posted needs some refinement, the Symbiont Base Class will differ dramatically from that design path.
The first link is broken, and the second link hasn't been updated in a very long time (october 2013?!)
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The zergs are famous for the "Zerg rush," where lots and lots of low power creatures attack quickly and all at once. Let's amplify this:
What would be some good tactics for your standard 4-5 person party to face hundreds or thousands of zerglings at once?
To face a swarm that big, you would have to be high level to start with:
General Tactics: Abuse terrain as much as you can, especially chokes. You want to be able to take as many Attacks of Opportunity as possible to nail Zerglings that get through and into your party (your divine caster and if possible your arcane caster should use Reach Cleric tactics, even if not an actual Cleric). You also want to get your armor class as high as possible, and Damage Reduction is essential, not only for the melee martials, but for everyone else, because some Zerglings will get through. Flight for the whole party is also essential, but don't stick around too long after you get into the air. Even aside from flight, high mobility is essential. Energy resistance is also very important, because moderately advanced Zerg swarms have energy attacks; currently reported Zerg swarms use Acid, but it would be foolish to assume that the constantly and rapidly evolving Zerg won't develop other types of energy weapons. This is particularly important against the suicide-attack types, which are also only moderately advanced. Some of the more advanced types of Zerg also have fast-acting Poison and/or Disease attacks, so poison and disease resistance are very important, and Neutralize Poison and Remove Disease change from highly situational to essential. Some of the more advanced types of Zerg also have Entangling, Ensnaring, or Grabbing attacks, so Freedom of Movement will become essential as you encounter more advanced Zerg swarms. Some of these abilities also function somewhat similarly to Glitterdust, thus making Invisibility less useful in-combat, and some Zerg units have continuous True Seeing and continuously relay their observations telepathically to their swarm, thus making it dangerous to rely upon Invisibility for scouting; fortunately, the less advanced ones of these are limited in mobility. A few Zerg swarms have been known to create and use hordes of Undead, and anti-Undead tactics may be useful against these, but beware that Zerg Necromancy differs sufficiently from standard Necromancy that significant modification of tactics may be necessary.
General Strategy: Even more than most other creatures, Zerg explode in power when they get more resources. Deny their access to resources as much as you can. Their ability to live chemoautotrophically is impressive, and allows them to use mineral resources to build up impressive numbers much more quickly than most familiar chemoautotrophic organisms. ESPECIALLY don't let them get concentrated organic matter -- their chemoautotrophism lets them build impressive numbers, but concentrated organic matter, such as an oil or gas seep, will also let them make much more advanced units and improve the units they already have. Ability to gather information, whether by scouting yourself, divination magic, Familiar, or finding reliable information from other people, is essential to finding out where the Zerg are going or are likely to go to get resources. Skills at interacting with other people will also be important to coordinate your attacks with other people who can have a significant impact, so that one group can preoccupy most of the units in a Zerg swarm while another sneaks around to destroy a Zerg base, or at least kill as many of the base's workers as possible. Watch out: The Zerg are often not as dumb as they look. As an example of this, mind-controlling a Zerg is not as useful as you might think: Many Zerg swarms are highly proficient at recognizing Zerg units that are not part of their own swarm. As another example, a few Zerg swarms have developed the ability to burrow and obscure the holes that they make by burrowing, and use this tactic to set up ambushes, so you need Tremorsense or some other means of divining the presence of burrowed units. As yet another example, Many Zerg swarms are also well aware of the concept of gathering information, denying resources, and otherwise causing economic damage, and have no qualms about sacrificing a few of their own units to do so, since a Zerg unit doesn't actually have to return to its swarm to report its findings; they are also well aware of the concept of killing vulnerable members of a society that are essential for the society's economy, and then running away (while they have no qualms about sacrificing units for a purpose, they are also well aware of the concept of conserving their forces), and they are more generally aware of the concept of terrorism, even though they are themselves generally immune to fear.
Martials: For melee types, you want Great Cleave/Whirlwind Attack and similar abilities. For ranged types, you want to maximize your archery skills, while making sure that you can both fire into melee and fire while in melee, or at least be decent with a backup melee weapon. Some types of Zerg are dangerous even (or especially) when they die (and in fact, they use a suicide attack), so kill these from as far away as possible. Find the good Teamwork Feats and use them. Favored Enemy is always on, so developing this against Zerg can be good; but Smite {Alignment} and Challenge are too single-target oriented, and are only useful if you find a single creature that is controlling a Zerg swarm.
Spellcasters: AoE damage and battlefield control spells (especially Wall of {Whatever} in the latter case), and the Metamagic Feat Widen Spell (AND Metamagic Rods of it) changes from a feat that is too expensive to one that is essential; try to get traits and feats that lower Metamagic cost. You also want Selective Spell. You also want a few spells specialized in destroying structures, so that you can destroy a Zerg base as quickly as possible and get away before the swarm can counterattack.
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It would simply be better not to use hundreds or thousands of zerglings at once against a party because the concept transfers poorly against several lv X heroes. Better idea would be to balance out encounters with them in some way in more theatrical way, such as 20x zerglings attacking a caravan. There is many of them, but PCs are facing only few per encounter.
I'm pretty sure Pathfinder has rules for mass units that could be used to represent the Zero Swarm.
Why would the enemy ever want to play fair? >:)
Also, pathfinder needs more explosive artillery.
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It's not really about fair tactics, it's more about general game challenge. It's pretty pointless to put party against inappropriate challenge so Zerg swarms tactics transfer poorly in the PF CR system. They are just designed to challenge entire civilizations like Inlaa mentioned, but they would still make interesting encounters, such as defending a keep from a swarm through the use of balista's or other artillery.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/creature-types#subtype- troop
There troop rules to use for building Zero Swarms that the players can do battle with.
I realize you might already be familiar with them, but as a means to fuel the flame . . . Do a google search for Tyranids. I get surprized sometimes how people are aware of the zerg, but not the 'nids...
If you want to see a Base Class that has been likened to a Zerg concept, check out the Symbiote Gunner originally brainstormed on an MCA thread, and now in development as posted long long ago HERE. The Symbiote Gunner as posted needs some refinement, the Symbiont Base Class will differ dramatically from that design path.The first link is broken, and the second link hasn't been updated in a very long time (october 2013?!)
Thus my definition of "long long ago." ;)
Sorry - here is the LINK to the Symbiont - Bio-Munitioneer.
Note it is incomplete - the 10th level ability is conceptual, and some of the higher level ammo forms are equally unfinished. You can see that the blog post details an evolution of the theme to more variations.
Yeah, Starcraft is mostly a ripoff of warhammer 40k, which is mostly a ripoff of every other piece of science fiction ever made.
Yeah, Starcraft is mostly a ripoff of warhammer 40k, which is mostly a ripoff of every other piece of science fiction ever made.
+ an attempt at throwing fantasy races into space.
"Uhhh, let's see, elves... let's not call them elves. OH! OH! Eldar! Because they're an ELDER race! Get it?!"
"Orkz. We'll make them cockney and give them guns and that's how you include them proper-like."
"This is good stuff, guys, but let's take DEMONS from our fantasy setting and shove them in here too."
"Genius."
"What about dwarv-" "NO!"
Yeah, that's basically how it went. There used to be ogres and halflings but they had them killed dead.
If you want to see another "Horde of Alien Locusts thrown into a Fantasy Setting" plot, you might want to look up the Codex Alera and their variation on the trope, the Vord Swarm.
So my main concern was about modifying things that are already created. For instance. I figured that the giant wasp could play as a mutalisk, but I wanted it to have a ranged attack instead of a melee attack. I just dont want to break things in such a way as to make the game so the players cant win. Is there a way to balance the system for making your own monsters?
Secondly, with respect to how the zerg would respond to threats... How broken would that make my monsters? I mean if everyone is using slashing weapons and the zerg developed a hard carapace that was DR5/bludgeoning. I think that eventually the zerg would win unless the PCs made a conscious effort to change their fighting style.
Another thing I was thinking about is how fast the swarm would adapt to the PCs. I was thinking about making it so that it could know about them immediately. But the creation of the countering creatures would take a while. I am thinking 1 day per CR of the monster. Also, it would take time for the eggs used to mature. So if I wanted to make a CR5 I would need 1 day for the egg to mature, and then 5 days for the egg to hatch.
Can anyone think of a monster that would act like a baneling?
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"What about dwarv-" "NO!"those of us old enough to have played 40ks precursor (warhammer epic) might remember the 'squats'....
not sure what happened to them.
As a line of their own, they were canceled. As a race, that's where(depending on the edition) they were either wiped out by the tyrannids, never existed, or were another form of abhuman(like the ogyrn(ogres of 40k), and the ratlings(40k halflings). As of 7th edition, they are a species of abhuman that created a massive amount of contention in the imperium of man, mostly due to the Adeptus mechanicus, the inquisition and the Administratum arguing about who is to blame for losing them in the first place. Regardless the numerous excommunications(executions by fire and such) related to the matter were overturned, and the surviving members of those families were compinsated. And apologies were sent.
But in all fairness, 40k is a setting that is rife with numerous elements of previous science fiction, which in turn was later stolen by other games and settings, like gears of war, Starcraft, and several others. Fortunately there is some sci fi media that has not drawn inspiration from the grim dark future where there is only war.
So my main concern was about modifying things that are already created. For instance. I figured that the giant wasp could play as a mutalisk, but I wanted it to have a ranged attack instead of a melee attack. {. . .}
D&D and Pathfinder do have at least one monster that flies and has a missile attack that is not a manufactured weapon: the Manticore, although unlike a Mutalisk it's a clumsy flyer and doesn't have a very large supply of ranged ammunition (and no bounce, but can fire multiple spikes at once, so probably does considerably higher burst damage than a Mutalisk implementation of equal CR), and it has pretty good melee attacks for its CR.
You want reactionary mutants? Every one of them gets 5 evolution points. Off the Eidolon list. Just make sure they are only countering things your party does to them.
When you begin introducing these critters into your game, give the party some cakewalk fights so you can adjust their hit dice, bonuses, etc. It can be difficult to judge the CR of all of these alien abilities. Also, do not try to match the video game versions too closely or you'll end up with too many abilities to keep track of.
For the "creep" thing, don't have it develop during a battle. Just draw the paths or areas on the battle map if it is present. The simplest mechanical effect I can think of is to say that they don't use extra movement when moving diagonally across it. If you say that they gain a speed bonus on it, then you have to worry about when a move action is partially on it and partially off.
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They could just ignore difficult terrain on creep. Its easy to implement, and its not going to ruin the PC's day the way the reverse would.
Also, I was thinking about making this campaign relatively short. Maybe 3 or 4 sessions.
1st session, protoss ship crashes with zerg test subjects. Test subjects are released and all protoss die except one. PCs will be in a nearby town and will hear the massive explosion. The PCs will be tasked with exploring the crash site. They will find the crashed ship and the "dark templar" who still inhabits the area. This encounter will be base zerg creatures. Once they clear the ship area the DT will talk to them and tell them what they are up against. He will give them a small piece of tech to use to fight the zerg.
2nd session, the PCs make their way bac to town only to find that the town has been over-run by the zerg. The town is a town of rangers/archers. When they return they will find that the zerg have developed chitinous plating in order to combat the piercing damage from the rangers. The PCs will have their first encounter with developed zerg and will find the location of a zerg hive nearby
3-4th session, the PCs will attempt to destroy the zerg base. They will find a hatchery and spawning pool that develop the story of the Golaron zerg further. they will enter the hatchery and go deep underground to confront the queen. This will be when the party first encounters zerg forces that have been specifically designed to defeat them. The queen will basically have druid abilities that allows her to summon more zerg.
Then really you'll be using mainly basic zerg units. Easy enough. Write up base stats for like 3 or 4 different unit types. 2 weak units(zerglings/banelings) one tougher brute mob, and a lieutenant mob. And the queen. Give the base units an evolution pool of 2 or 3 points, 5 for the brute, 7 for the lieutenant, and 10 for the queen. Adapt them as needed.
I was thinking that I would have zerglings, banelings, mutalisks, swarm hosts (basically a bigger unit that spawns smaller ones), roaches, overlords (they are going to basically be scouts), and a queen. The one that I would really like advice on is the queen. I was thinking that she would have a summon ability and then maybe some sort of mind control. What do you all think? She would also have a lot of hit points. Also I was thinking about making a grappling type of creature. What do you all think would be good ways to create those?
For mind control, you want an Infestor, as the Queen's lieutenant. By lore, Infestors have Neural Parasite (although they won't necessarily have it researched right away -- a plot hook could be that this Zerg mini-swarm is trying to research Neural Parasite, but being unfamiliar with the resources available on Golarion, they have to hunt around for the resources for this). Note that Infestors are also mid-level Zerg Necromancers, including sometimes being responsible for Zerg-induced zombie plagues.
Queens are really a bunch of different but related Zerg with a common Hatchery/Lair/Hive management theme, but widely differing abilities, ranging from the run of the mill Queens and Swarm Queens that can usually be found 1 (or sometimes more) per Hatchery/Lair/Hive, up through the Brood Mothers that command whole major swarms and often do their own Zerg Necromancy.
One of the aspects of Zerg Necromancy introduced in Heart of the Swarm was that of essence: Basically both the life force and genetic code of various creatures, that the Zerg leader types can take when they defeat a worthy opponent, thus increasing their own capabilities. In this way, even when they're not creating a Zerg zombie plague (which actually isn't enormously common, although it has happened a few times), they practice Necromancy, sort of reminiscent of a Nabassu Demon, but more flexible. A standard Infestor is not far enough up the Zerg command chain to do this, but Brood Mothers and certain specialized (generally unique) Zerg can do this, and it is conceivable than an Infestor might become advanced enough to do this, given time.
Edit: Just had a thought: Maybe the way to think of Zerg Necromancy would be to think up an Alchemical Necromancer. Not sure off the top of my head whether vanilla Alchemist or some archetype is the best starting point (yes, I looked at Reanimator, but while it is a step in the right direction, it seems too specialized). And a Zerg that is going to get into Necromancy needs to be able to take something like the Souldrinker prestige class, even if it doesn't meet the prerequisites. Of course, since they're monsters and not PCs, just follow in the footsteps of the Nabassu, and then add on the alchemical and Eidolon-Evolution stuff.
A zerg campaign? Hmmm... A few things that strike me: You need to make a fantasy Swarm instead of taking wholesale a race designed (as was pointed out) to match spacefaring civilizations. The zerg as written are true horrors. One single drone can destroy a planet given only a little time. Only the extended efforts and research of an entire civilization can beat them back, and then just temporarily. The protoss tried, but despite their near-godlike tech, their homeworld fell in mere days, and they did not manage to contain the Swarm. So, if we are talking villages here, aim a bit lower. =)
Looking through the bestiaries, you have a number of interesting candidates. First and foremost, I think the formians with their taskmasters would make an excellent swarm. Add the adaptivity to them, with the caveat that the stronger some advantages get, the more gets taken out of other things, such as armor class, movement, or the like. More specialized critters lose something somewhere else.
Second, the tarrasque is a magnificent ultralisk. =)
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^Not only that, but in StarCraft 1, super-Ultralisks were called Torrasques. :-)
Broodling swarms! Make them much smaller than the Starcraft ones so yu can have entire swarms burst out of victims or huge clumps of them hurled into battle by Swarmlords far above.
Sissyl, Thank you very much! The formians look like an excellent addition to the game. The question I have now is how to tone down a monster. For instance, the formian queen is a CR14. How would I debuff her to put her at about CR7?
I think that the end of the story is going to show that this will be an endless hunt to uproot the zerg. I am not sure that is a good ending, but it will lead to further game sessions if the players are interested in continuing some time later. *Sequel!*
To tone down a monster several CRs, you could probably simply take the stats from a weaker monster and add in the stuff you specifically want from it, modified according to the backbone monster's stats (meaning that say, poison and dominate DCs would go down because Con and Cha do. Another version is simply reducing HD and stats until you reach the suggested values for AC etc for the desired CR from the Bestiary. You could possibly weaken it through some template-fu. Or, of course, you could add in stuff that powers up the heroes in the actual fight, but it would be a bit much to do that more than a CR or two.
The zergs are famous for the "Zerg rush," where lots and lots of low power creatures attack quickly and all at once. Let's amplify this:
What would be some good tactics for your standard 4-5 person party to face hundreds or thousands of zerglings at once?
Cleave, Great Cleave, Cleaving Finish, Greater Cleaving Finish, Reach, and Fortuitous enchantment -- the one that gives an extra AoO 1x per round, with the with Combat Reflexes and a significantly buffed dexterity. Add dwarf with Cleave Through, Goblin Cleaver -- liberally add size increases.
Or rangers with snap shot, improved snap shot, etc, with zerg as their favored enemies, with bows of endless ammunition.
{. . .} Zerg have been encountered before in the wild, but they were simply mindless beasts disconnected from the hive. Something caused the creep to expand out from the underground caverns and bring the intelligent versions to the surface.
{. . .}
I tend to think of uncontrolled Zerg not as mindless, but rather lacking the will that they have when part of a swarm. In the StarCraft universe, occasional exceptions have been documented, with
I can see that. Independent of the hivemind, they would have unshackled minds. I suppose I was thinking more like Borg from Star Trek or more so the AI and Rachni races from ME.
Specifically, Rachni listen to the "song of the Queen" for direction through quantum entanglement and the AI ( can't remember their name right now ) share processing power. The more you have, the smarter they are.
There are two strains- "hive" zerg (Kerrigan's swarm) and Primal zerg. Primals are actually independent creatures, with a pack social structure, and no hive mind. the hive zerg have NO individual initiative (except for certain higher strains [queens, certain infested terrans, possibly the defiler, overlord]) and just default to kill/eat similar to uncontrolled undead, maintaining just enough intelligence to recognize their own broodmates while they rampage (sometimes not even that much).
I realize you might already be familiar with them, but as a means to fuel the flame . . . Do a google search for Tyranids. I get surprized sometimes how people are aware of the zerg, but not the 'nids...
So I thought a little about this and I like the idea. Both races have an Overmind. what if Zerg units who are under the control of the Overmind have overly impressive wisdom scores. If you have fought as many battles as the consciousness that drives a Hive Tyrant, your wisdom would be outrageous. So if I gave all zerg who have a link to the Overmind a ridiculous 30 to wisdom, but made their link to the Overmind dependent on creatures like overlords. If you severe their contact to the Overmind, not only do they lose the ridiculous wisdom, but they act like Nids who lose their connection. They either get 'attack' mode or 'hide and defend' mode.
What would 30 wisdom really give a vermin type? Vermin types are already immune to most mind control because they are mindless so will saves would matter all that much. I guess their resistance to negative energy would be too high. It would increase their perception a lot. I think perception is the key to the zerg properly adapting though so it makes sense that develop adaptations to their environment.
bump! Is this too much to add to a character?