Primal Power preview: The Swarm Druid

With the release of Primal Power not so far off, the first previews of the book are coming out, with some very promising material. Today I'll talk one of the most innovative concepts I've seen in a while - the Swarm Druid.

Swarm Druids are one of the two new builds for Druid PCs featured in Primal Power (the other being Summoner Druids, shown in a playtest article long ago), and they are based on a bizarre idea that, somehow, fits the flavor of the class perfectly. When most druids can shapeshift into a beast form, resembling some kind of ferocius animal, the Swarm guys turn into dozens, or hundreds, of tiny creatures. The picture below should give you an idea of what it looks like.

The swarm in action.

This, to me, is one of the most awesome character concepts I've ever seen. Perhaps the most obvious use is to become a bug swarm (flies, roaches, worms), but it's far from the only possibility. Upgrading to vertebrates, we can find several other horror classics: rats, snakes and even bats. But why stop there? Particularly cruel druids could explore the 'adorable' route - imagine their enemies being swallowed by a horde of kittens, puppies, and the like.

Regarding the mechanics, the swarmers come with an interesting twist, both in their defenses and offensively. These druids have Constitution as their secondary stat, but instead of adding this modifier to their AC (as their Guardian Druid counterparts), they use it to gain resistance to damage. This comes with several limitations (it doesn't work against area attacks, nor if you're wearing heavy armor, and you have to be in beast form), but it is undoubtedly a very strong mechanic. At lower levels, the Swarm will be able to almost ignore minions, and stand toe to toe with many types of monsters - as long as they keep away from brutes. The combination of abysmal Druid AC and huge brute damage means these monsters are a natural counter to the Swarm.

Though I haven't seen it in play yet, I'm liking this way of defending, at least at lower levels. However, I'm concerned that it won't work that well at Paragon Tier and beyond, when the loss of AC becomes more pronounced, and the damage resisted is a much lower percentage of what your enemies will be dealing. I expect some feat enhancing the feature for characters above 11th level will fix this problem. At any rate, it will be interesting to see a Druid type that is very resilient in beast form, but quite vulnerable as a humanoid.

The article shows four new attack powers associated with the new build. All of them are either close burst or blast, so we can expect close attacks to be a major theme for swarms, which isn't surprising. There also seems to be an emphasis in attacks that temporarily boost the Druid's defenses, also a natural fit from a flavor point of view. The new at-will is called Swarming Locusts, and will easily become a favourite among Druids of all kinds. It is a close blast attack that works in beast form and creates a zone of insects that distract your enemies for a turn, and it fills a very needed niche - beast form attacks with areas or controller effects. I always liked the original array of beast attacks, but all of them targeted a single melee enemy, feeling more like a defender's powers to me. With this new power, you can now build druids with both close and ranged area attacks, plus a strong melee basic attack, all of them at-will.

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Not at the beginning of their turn: Swarm Attacks

Update: The world has been saved! Needlefang Drake Swarms were toned down to a manageable level in the Great November Errata. Also, swarms from later books such as Monster Manual 2 feature much more reasonable auras, so the problem I talked about only affects a couple of monsters in the first MM now.

Swarms. Deadly, disgusting swarms. These little guys feature some of the most inspired game mechanics in Monster Manual. Their rules include a generous bunch of resistances, vulnerabilities and special abilities, all dripping with flavor. Amazingly, their complexity level has been kept at bay, so using these monsters in an encounter won't result in a noticeable slowdown in gameplay. I think they can even make a great contribution to game strategy and role balance, as they make increase so much the value of area attacks - the perceived utility of controller PCs would improve a lot if swarms were a more common monster choice for encounters.

For all their good features, swarms have one fatal flaw that is probably preventing them to see as much play as they deserve. Even if I'd like every other encounter to include a swarm of two, this is currently not a realistic, nor a recommended option. Unlike most monsters, you just can't expect to replace a couple of guys in an encounter with swarms of the same level without drastically changing the difficulty - swarms are very powerful, their value often closer to an Elite monster than to a standard one. Clearly, this has to be addressed.

Even though they have great defenses (making them the bane of any party lacking good area powers), what really breaks swarms, in my opinion, is their unmatched offensive capability. Consider this:

Swarm Attack - aura 1; the swarm makes a basic attack as a free action against each enemy that begins its turn in the aura.

Assuming its basic attacks deal average damage (and they almost always do), every swarm has a good, built-in area attack. This would actually be an acceptable deal if it was their main attack, but unfortunately, it's not. Swarms can actually use this aura in addition to a Standard Action attack (usually the same basic attack), so they get to attack an enemy of their choice twice per round. Normally, this amounts to double the damage that another monster of the same level would deal against a single target, on top of standard damage against the rest of enemies within the area. Total Party Kill is a frequent outcome.

The solution

Something needs to get changed. Although there are many possible fixes, the one I like the most is the one I applied to warrior stances in this article: change the aura effect to trigger at the end of each enemy's turn. This would be my revision:

Swarm Attack - aura 1; the swarm makes a basic attack as a free action against each enemy that ends its turn in the aura.

Having the damage happen at the end of turn instead of inconditionally makes swarms more interactive, as well as weaker. It even makes sense from a flavor perspective, as it means that PCs will actively run away from swarms, and they will rarely charge against them. However, players will soon learn that these new swarms are anything but tame, when they have to figure out how to escape (without provoking OAs) the damaging aura of a monster that can enter their space and is immune to forced movement. Excuse me for a moment while I cackle maniacally.

Bonus monster: Fixed Needlefang Drake Swarm.

My suggested change should be enough to neuter most swarms, but there are a few that would remain troublesome even after this. Needlefang Drake Swarms are probably the most overpowered monsters in the MM, featuring unbearably high damage even without their swarm aura, as well as their sick, spammable Pull Down attack.

The following version has that damage significantly reduced, and further restricts the use of Pull Down. Still, five of these should prove a terrifying vision for even the strongest adventuring parties:

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