I think it could end up making the resulting character pretty MAD. Since they can't cast spells, that basically leaves them with a fighter, barbarian or rogue (or a ****** paladin). All of which use INT as a dump stat. And INT will be important in both creating thralls and in maintaining them, if you implement the long rest save you talk about in the last post. Really, with as much as the resulting thralls seem to be kind of not superpowered, I don't see why it would be a problem for the main host to be a caster. If they are using their action to control a thrall, either they're casting a spell, or using the hive mind ability, so it shouldn't really be an action economy issue. And it would create some interesting tactical choices, like do they leave the thrall standing there limp in the middle of a bunch of enemies so they can cast fireball, or should they get it out of the way first? Honestly, I would imagine not using them much in combat at all, but more in exploration, to have them go set off traps or scout around corners. Though if the host is a caster, and he can use the thralls as meat shields, that could really make sense. I agree with any minions taken over losing their casting ability -- which is all the more reason for the host to be able to be a caster, since it would be more useful for him to take over someone with melee abilities he can use than to take over a caster since a wizard without spells would be pointless.
You also should say specifically what the minion can do in a fight and out of combat. Is it proficient in whatever weapons and armor it had? If it was a 5th level fighter, does it still get two attacks? Can a barbarian rage? Does it have the same skill proficiencies? If it was an armorsmith, is it still just a skilled at creating armor as it had been, or does that go away since it takes on your INT and WIS? Does it (or the collective, I suppose) retain its memories? (So when they decide to bodysnatch the local baron, do they know who he knew, and the political situation, and where the secret cache of jewels is hidden, and what his private nickname was for his daughter, and other things that might give him away.) Also there should be a range for how far away from the minion the main host can be. And specify what a thrall does when its not being actively controlled.
Do you intend for the host to be able to turn into a swarm of beetles at will? Because I'd use that pretty much anytime I wanted to go under a locked door or in a window with bars on it and just let the party in from the inside. I don't think its really OP, just making sure you realize it. And if that happens, would swarm rules (resistance to non AoE effects) apply if they are attacked? And would they be able to control a minion while in swarm form? can they send off one beetle just to look around a corner, familiar-style? Also, you should clarify how long it takes. I'd say 1 minute (both to unform and reform) unless you want them to be able to do it in a fight.
I would also see this race as being absolutely hated by everyone else, attacked on sight in civilized areas, and actively hunted by both good and evil forces. Maybe that questing Paladin Vedexent was talking about is part of an order dedicated to hunting the creatures.
I sorta wanted the race to force a player to be reliant on multiple abilities. It would make managing their thralls more complicated and hopefully have them focus on lower level creatures instead of higher level creatures. Basically you are going to be less likely to overpower the NPC as you should never be able to get all three saving scores maxed out.
As for the spell casting specifically, I just disliked the idea of the race being able to create spells, I feel like you could easily find ways to cheese certain systems if you are able to cast spells as well. Which should make me clarify, they have to use an action to control an individual Hive Minion, its only supposed to be a bonus action to give it a command, similar to Animate Dead
On each of your turns, you can use a Bonus Action to mentally Command any Hive Minion you have, if you control multiple Hive Minions, you can Command any or all of them at the same time, issuing the same Command to each one). You decide what action the Hive Minion will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general Command, such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the Hive Minion only defends itself against Hostile creatures. Once given an order, the Hive Minion continues to follow it until its task is complete
Does it keep its abilities? Like a wolf, should still be able to bite, but should the Hive Mind know what rage is and how to use it? I actually didn't think about that. You don't gain the knowledge of the creature by taking it over, so if you don't know anything about armorsmith, the minion shouldn't know how to do it either. You are basically just forcing your knowledge into the host of another creature. This comes complicated to word now that you point it out. For example, I would personally rule that the creature loses its abilities, such as rage, spellcasting, etc... But does a Wolf lost the ability to bite, or does a bear lose the ability to claw?
I can start to see the advantage of creating a generic stat block, I just disliked that because it made it to similar to Animate Dead.
As for is the host a swarm of beetles, Yes and no, for now, the creature was designed to be in control of a single host for its entire life. I was debating on adding rules for leaving the host body, but that just seemed overly complicated. I am assuming you are referring to the host body's internal system being replaced by replicated beetles. This was done for RP reasons, as the player wanted to have it look like something was moving under the skin and it also explains where the beetles come from that are used for the One of Us feature. If I was to add the ability for the parasite to leave the host body, I would add restrictions like if it does, it must find a new body within 10 minutes or something like that or it will parish too. The problem is that the swarm actually still relies on the creatures structure to hold itself up right, it just helps it move. So if I allowed it to turn into a swarm mode, it actually wouldn't have a shape to go back to.
I think making this an entire race opens up a whole other can of worms ( or in this case, beetles ), insofar as your campaign setting is concerned. It opens up the possibility that other Characters could decide they want to do this as well - which isn't a problem if/when you've got all the bugs ( again ... beetles ... ) worked out of the mechanics - but until you do, you probably don't want this to be replicated.
I think the only way to make sure your mechanics aren't going to get away from you is to play-test them.
Until they're well play-tested, I would hold this to being an ability that is extremely rare, at least for now. I understand that you expressed some interest in having there be NPC hive mind controllers that the Party may need to contend with ( or I'd have said keep this Necromancer/Hive-mind-controller unique ) but you could make the circumstances around the origin of these controllers be so rare and/or improbable that there are very few of them, for now.
Who knows - maybe one of the elements that evolves out of the campaign could be the genesis of this species - but by then, you'll have your experimentation, play-testing, and revisions in place to make sure that it's all balanced.
I've already told other players this race can only be used by one player. The other characters have stuff to that makes them special, I do think this race wouldn't be very balanced if you opened it up to an entire party to use. I think I can make it seem fair if one player though. So yes, its going to be restricted to just one player, I have another player already play testing a homebrew skeleton race I designed.
I actually like the idea of the race being kinda rare, the fact that it infects humanoids and can basically go unseen is actually a story point I want to build on. I've already started working on a NPC party that is basically "The Good Guys" because this party is leaning evil, they haven't done anything out right evil, but they are heavily focused on necromancer and now this race (taking over creatures is in no way a good thing). So I think it would be cool that another group of adventures starts hearing about them and tries to hunt them down. Who knows maybe this band of necromancers are actually out trying to do good. Only time will tell.
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I sorta wanted the race to force a player to be reliant on multiple abilities. It would make managing their thralls more complicated and hopefully have them focus on lower level creatures instead of higher level creatures. Basically you are going to be less likely to overpower the NPC as you should never be able to get all three saving scores maxed out.
As for the spell casting specifically, I just disliked the idea of the race being able to create spells, I feel like you could easily find ways to cheese certain systems if you are able to cast spells as well. Which should make me clarify, they have to use an action to control an individual Hive Minion, its only supposed to be a bonus action to give it a command, similar to Animate Dead
Does it keep its abilities? Like a wolf, should still be able to bite, but should the Hive Mind know what rage is and how to use it? I actually didn't think about that. You don't gain the knowledge of the creature by taking it over, so if you don't know anything about armorsmith, the minion shouldn't know how to do it either. You are basically just forcing your knowledge into the host of another creature. This comes complicated to word now that you point it out. For example, I would personally rule that the creature loses its abilities, such as rage, spellcasting, etc... But does a Wolf lost the ability to bite, or does a bear lose the ability to claw?
I can start to see the advantage of creating a generic stat block, I just disliked that because it made it to similar to Animate Dead.
As for is the host a swarm of beetles, Yes and no, for now, the creature was designed to be in control of a single host for its entire life. I was debating on adding rules for leaving the host body, but that just seemed overly complicated. I am assuming you are referring to the host body's internal system being replaced by replicated beetles. This was done for RP reasons, as the player wanted to have it look like something was moving under the skin and it also explains where the beetles come from that are used for the One of Us feature. If I was to add the ability for the parasite to leave the host body, I would add restrictions like if it does, it must find a new body within 10 minutes or something like that or it will parish too. The problem is that the swarm actually still relies on the creatures structure to hold itself up right, it just helps it move. So if I allowed it to turn into a swarm mode, it actually wouldn't have a shape to go back to.
I've already told other players this race can only be used by one player. The other characters have stuff to that makes them special, I do think this race wouldn't be very balanced if you opened it up to an entire party to use. I think I can make it seem fair if one player though. So yes, its going to be restricted to just one player, I have another player already play testing a homebrew skeleton race I designed.
I actually like the idea of the race being kinda rare, the fact that it infects humanoids and can basically go unseen is actually a story point I want to build on. I've already started working on a NPC party that is basically "The Good Guys" because this party is leaning evil, they haven't done anything out right evil, but they are heavily focused on necromancer and now this race (taking over creatures is in no way a good thing). So I think it would be cool that another group of adventures starts hearing about them and tries to hunt them down. Who knows maybe this band of necromancers are actually out trying to do good. Only time will tell.