Worm/D&D

[AvatarVecna]

I wish to collect opinions on two questions that are related, but have subtle and important differences. Both are for D&D 3.5, Core+Completes, and both assume that any D&D mechanics are more-or-less being "gestalted" with her superpowers - that is to say, the builds are not a reflection of her cape abilities, but rather are developed alongside them. They will be concerned with Skitter (let's say pre-Weaver post-S9, so experienced with her powers but not nearly as fluid as she is during the Behemoth fight) leveling up as a D&D character in addition to getting better with her superpowers. Finally, going forward let's assume that Skidders alignment doesn't matter for these purposes, and that any class requiring a particular alignment or group of alignments does not.

1) Skitter has encyclopedic knowledge of the allowed sources and fully understands that this half of her abilities are being "built" using those rules, based on her choices. How does Skitter choose to build herself? Does she have enough variety in her swarm, that she values dependable hit points/proficiencies/feats/skills over vancian casting? If she goes caster, is she leaning arcane or divine, spontaneous or prepared? Will she choose abilities/paths that allow her to combine spells easily with her superpowers, or will such combinations be less direct/intentional?

2) Skitter is dropped into a typical dungeon-delving D&D campaign with no class levels or feats beyond what you feel makes sense as a carry-over of her personal skill rather than her superpowers. Her decisions do not directly affect her build, but rather her build is sort-of based on how she approaches problems. This question is essentially "how do you think Skitter would approach being dumped into a D&D world mid-dungeon delve, and how would her build go based on that approach?".

[Eldan]

I can see two things that Skitter can do that probably no one else can, and one she would probably choose to do. These are just a few thoughts on general directions she could go.

First of all, buffing. Area buff effects might well be absolutely crazy for her. She seems to treat each of her insects as an individual, not a swarm, so just imagine if she got a marshal aura (more actions), or dragonfire bard (elemental damage on every single insect within 30 feet of her!).

Second, hive mind. It's bonkers. Now, Skitters already has a hive mind, sort of, in that her mind is in thousands of bodies, but with D&D... well. Let's just say "has a number of sorcerer levels and bonuses to mental ability scores directly scaling with the number of bodies involved". Skitter+hive mind+a million bugs (easy) puts her directly on endgame levels.

Third, what would she actually want to have? I have a feeling that for her world, she mostly has enough raw power, so that's not her primary concern. What she needs is information and intelligence. Also mobility, but that's covered easily with D&D. Therefore, go directly to divination, with a minor in conjuration (teleportation). Because can you imagine anything more terrifying than Skitter, Tattletale and Dinah sitting around a scrying pool for a day casting Contact Other Plane?

[AvatarVecna]

Skitter+hive mind+a million bugs (easy) puts her directly on endgame levels.

I am thoroughly aware, as my Khepri build can attest. :smalltongue:

EDIT: The buffing idea holds merit, although even if we kept things "sane" and said the swarm as a whole is just a bunch of regular Swarms all jumbled together, AoE buffing would still be quite ridiculous.

[Eldan]

Mm. IF we model them as swarms, they'd probably just get distract and swarm attacks, which are decidedly underwhelming, even with a few d6 of elemental damage.

[AvatarVecna]

Mm. IF we model them as swarms, they'd probably just get distract and swarm attacks, which are decidedly underwhelming, even with a few d6 of elemental damage.

Best of both worlds, since Vermin Lord is a caster PrC: Skitter is a buffer, and uses endless spells to buff her swarms, which use their infinity Int/Cha for attacking with spells and stuff somehow (which gets ramped up by buffing). Granted, Bard/Vermin Lord sounds like a kinda silly build, but eh. :smalltongue:

[Eldan]

I just want her to at one point cast Ghost Form on her swarm. Or Giant Size.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Given her regular behavior, her Intelligence is extremely high, while her Charisma (for Intimidate) is good, and her Wisdom is mediocre, at best, with penalties due to her Shard influence. Meanwhile, she's extremely proficient in optimizing what she has access to and dealing with problems on the fly. Thus, we'd have to conclude that she would have to be a Theoretical Ops-level spontaneous caster with access to an extremely wide variety of spells. She'd also have a ton of skills available to save on spell resources, and lots of utility abilities that could be leveraged to her advantage regardless of her situation.

I'm guessing something like a changeling rogue (with the social skills ACF and Able Learner) 1/telepath psion/thrallherd with a convert-spell-to-power erudite as her thrall, whose job is to teach her as many powers and spells (both arcane and divine-as-arcane) as possible, especially action economy boosters, BFC, and buffs that can be used on her swarms and other minions.

Changeling is grabbable via MM3, while the Completes include Complete Psionic, meaning the XPH would need to be available, as well.

[tsheffield]

No specific build advise, just a couple thoughts.

1) If sources were thrown open, Skitter would definitely go Artificer. Given her respect/hate for tinkers, she'd definitely choose to become an uber-tinker with magical solutions to any problem within easy reach. Bonus points if she has a way to activate magic items via her swarm.

Within core, not sure. If her insects count as individual, she could go nanobot to trivialize anything that requires a skill check or attack roll (without even committing to any particular build).

Regardless of her actual build, count on her thouroughly abusing any cheese she can find. In the story, she excels at finding and exploiting loopholes and shortcuts. In DnD, she would unbeatable short of divine intervention (and if she put her mind to it, not even pantheons could take her down).

2) If she were dropped within a DnD campaign with no powers, hmm... She definitely places a premium on information, so she'd have to have access to Divination. Other than that, she'd need a way to secure or create loyal companions. In the story, her greatest source of frustration is when people just can't work together. So I think she'd try to find ways to make them (via charm/compulsion/thrallherd/etc).