Besm

Edit Swarm

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A character with this Attribute can transform into a swarm of small creatures, such as rats, bats, wasps, crows, or other creatures or things (such as tiny attack robots). Vampires and demons most often possess this dramatic ability. The type of Swarm creature must be determined during character creation. The character can create one critter from their body for every current Health Point, multiplied by the Level in this Attribute.

For example, a character with 130 current Health Points who has Swarm at Level 4 could transform into a horde of 520 creatures (130 x 4 = 520). When transformed into a Swarm, the character cannot use any of their existing Attributes. The actions of the Swarm are limited to three options: move, observe, and attack.

Additionally, all the critters of the Swarm must remain within close proximity of each other (within a radius of five metres per Attribute Level). A swarm’s Attack Combat Value is equal to the Swarm Attribute Level + 4. The attack damage is not calculated in the usual way, however. Instead, it inflicts a flat 1 damage for every 10 critters (round down; minimum 1 damage) in the Swarm. A Swarm can be attacked normally, and each creature in it dies if it is hit (no defence roll is allowed). Unless an opponent is using a Weapon Attribute with the Area or Spreading Enhancements (pages 145 and 141), only a single member of the Swarm can be killed per attack (GM’s discretion). Consequently, a Swarm of 200 creatures requires 200 attacks to completely destroy. Attacks with the Spreading Enhancement can affect multiple critters at a time, while attacks with the Area Enhancement can be devastating to the Swarm. A character who dissolved into a Swarm may choose to revert into normal form during their Initiative in a combat round. To accomplish this, all available critters in the Swarm (those not killed or trapped) must join together. Transforming back to normal form replaces all the character’s actions for that round. The character will return to normal with Health Points equal to the number of critters that recombined, divided by the Swarm Attribute Level (round down).

For example, if a character with 130 current Health Points and Swarm at Level 4 divided into 520 creatures, and after a battle recombined with only 100 available critters, the character would then have a current total of 25 Health Points (100 ÷ Level 4 = 25).

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