Swarmhost

Humanoid, Medium

Available with DM subscription

Racial Traits

Speed 30 ft.

Age Swarmhosts mature at the same rate as their host species, but the vermin swarm can extend their lifespan. They typically live up to 200 years, unless the swarm consumes the host prematurely.

Languages Common, One other of your choice, You can communicate simple concepts with insects and other vermin.

Alignment Tendencies Neutral, Chaotic

Ability Score Increases

Beetle Swarm

STRENGTH

CONSTITUTION

Locust Swarm

DEXTERITY

CHARISMA

Carrion Swarm

CONSTITUTION

WISDOM

Racial Features

Swarm Sense

You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet. You can also communicate simple concepts with insects, arachnids, and other vermin, and you understand the crude impressions they return to you. Vermin can relay the presence of recent death, a nearby disturbance, or a general direction, but they cannot convey names, numbers, or detailed descriptions.

Usage:

Verminous Resilience

You have Resistance to Poison damage, and you have Advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Poisoned condition.

Usage:

Splitting Swarm

When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace one of your attacks with an eruption of your vermin swarm against one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The target must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 plus your Constitution modifier plus your Proficiency Bonus). On a failed save, the target takes 1d8 Piercing damage, and on a successful save it takes half as much damage. The damage increases by 1d8 when you reach character levels 5 (2d8), 11 (3d8), and 17 (4d8). You can use this trait a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest. When you reach 17th level, the swarm can briefly detach from you entirely: you can choose for this attack to originate from a point you can see within 30 feet of yourself instead of from your own space.

Usage: Proficiency Bonus uses per Long Rest

Vermin Instinct

You gain proficiency in one skill of your choice from Insight, Perception, or Stealth, reflecting the ways the swarm whispers warnings and hides itself beneath your skin.

Usage:

Rules Compatibility

Primary Ruleset D&D 5.5 / SRD 5.2

Compatible Rulesets D&D 5.5 / SRD 5.2, D&D 5e / SRD 5.1

Ability Scores Base +0; each lineage grants a +2/+1 split totaling +3.

Balance Notes Ability Score Increase budget: base +0, each lineage +3 (+2/+1), for exactly +3 in every playable combination with no score exceeding +2 from the species and lineage together. The base grants one darkvision-plus-ribbon trait, one single damage resistance with a narrow condition advantage, one Proficiency Bonus-scaling single-target attack that consumes an attack and a limited-use resource, and one free skill proficiency. Lineages add only one narrow trait each (a natural weapon plus a grapple rider, a defensive reaction move, or disease and escape advantages) and do not grant flight, armor, spellcasting, or Bonus Action attacks, keeping them at or below the strength of official SRD 5.2 species options such as the Orc, Dwarf, and Dragonborn.

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