Base Class: Warlock
Whether willingly or not, you’ve sworn yourself into the service of a great collective; an unfathomably large hivemind of insectoid creatures. Your patron might be the strange yet powerful entity that presides over them, or perhaps it is the very swarm itself. Whatever the case is, your mind has been linked with the rest of the hivemind, and you’ve learnt how to bend the discordant voices of its thousands of members to your will.
The intentions and goals of the collective to which you belong can range from instinctual to frighteningly intelligent; they might simply be striving to expand their hive and protect their queen, or perhaps they seek to add all living creatures to their hivemind and conquer the world.
As a Swarm warlock, your connection to your patron and insectoid creatures as a whole has led to you developing strange behavioral quirks and unnerving physical traits. Roll on the Swarm Quirks table below, or come up with some of your own!
Swarm Quirks
| D6 | Quirks |
|---|---|
| 1 | You often refer to yourself as “We” instead of “I”. |
| 2 | If one looks closely, the surface of your eyes appear segmented. |
| 3 | You tend to attract insects regardless of your state of hygiene. |
| 4 | Every now and then, a bug will fly out of your mouth while you are talking. This is perfectly normal. |
| 5 | Your skin is covered in stings, bite marks and scars. |
| 6 | You are disappointed that you don't find rotting meat palatable, as you find the smell irresistible. |
Expanded Spell List
The Swarm lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.
Swarm Expanded Spells
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
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1st |
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2nd |
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3rd |
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4th |
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5th |
Compound Eyes
Starting at 1st level, your senses are enhanced to the level of insects. You can add your Charisma modifier to any Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (Perception) checks you make.
Eldritch Swarm
Also at 1st level, you can manifest your patron in the form of a ravenous swarm of insects. As an action, you can summon your swarm in a space you can see within 60 feet of you. Your swarm is friendly to you and your companions. When it appears, it rolls its own initiative and has its own turns. You can command your swarm to take any of the following actions, or one listed in its statblock (no action required by you); Dodge, Disengage, Dash or Hide. If you don't issue any command to your swarm, it takes the Dodge action but otherwise takes no actions. Your Eldritch Swarm lasts for up to 1 hour, until it is reduced to 0 hit points, or until you die.
You can use this feature once per long rest.
At 6th level, your swarm’s attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances and immunities to non-magical damage.
Eldritch Swarm
Medium swarm of beasts
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 5 + five times your warlock level
Speed fly 30 ft. (hover)
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, slashing, piercing
Condition Immunities charmed, petrified, prone, frightened, grappled, restrained, stunned, paralyzed
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12
Languages understands the languages you speak
Challenge — Proficiency Bonus (PB) equals your bonus
[6th] Magic Weapons. The swarm's attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances and immunities to non-magical damage.
Hivemind's Resilience. The swarm adds your proficiency bonus (PB) to any saving throws or ability checks it makes.
Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny insect. The swarm can't regain hit points.
Actions
Swarming Bites. Melee Weapon Attack: your spell attack modifier to hit, reach 5 ft., one target you can see. Hit: 1d8 + PB piercing damage.
Swarming Dodge
At 6th level, you can meld into your swarm to escape dangerous situations. As a reaction to you suffering damage from an attack, you can vanish into a swarm of insects and move up to half your speed without provoking attacks of opportunity. After doing so, you take no damage from the attack that triggered the reaction.
You can use this feature once per short rest.
Hivemind
At 10th level, your mind has become linked together with your swarm. You have advantage on saving throws you make to resist being charmed or frightened, and you cannot be surprised. Additionally, you can use your bonus action on your turn to have your swarm take the Help or Search actions as a reaction.
Swarmcaller
At 14th level, you can manifest the true size of your swarm. Whenever you use your action to use your Eldritch Swarm feature, you can summon two swarms instead of only one. Each swarm has its own initiative and when you use your Hivemind feature to issue a command, you can only command one swarm, not both.
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