(Cranium) Rat King PC concept – advice requested

[Segev]

I am toying with a concept whereby an aberrant sorcerer gets his power essentially by being part of a cranium rat swarm. Whether he is a central mind that dominates and draws power from them, is a hapless puppet that is a convenient face for them, or is literally just another body in the hive mind is a question with, conceptually, a deliberately vague answer, at least at this stage (as I could see it going any direction, depending on the game and other factors).

What I am debating right now is whether to simply use a refluffed Mark of Handling Human, or adapt the Yuan-ti Pureblood by changing the target of its unlimited-use animal friendship from snakes to rats

Either way animal friendship can charm a swarm of rats that can be fluffed as his cranium rat swarm.

Any suggestions on which approach to take, or alternative ones, or on how to better get a convincing "cranium rat swarm" ally/companion are welcome.

Thanks!

[Kurt Kurageous]

I am toying with a concept whereby an aberrant sorcerer gets his power essentially by being part of a cranium rat swarm. Whether he is a central mind that dominates and draws power from them, is a hapless puppet that is a convenient face for them, or is literally just another body in the hive mind is a question with, conceptually, a deliberately vague answer, at least at this stage (as I could see it going any direction, depending on the game and other factors).

What I am debating right now is whether to simply use a refluffed Mark of Handling Human, or adapt the Yuan-ti Pureblood by changing the target of its unlimited-use animal friendship from snakes to rats

Either way animal friendship can charm a swarm of rats that can be fluffed as his cranium rat swarm.

Any suggestions on which approach to take, or alternative ones, or on how to better get a convincing "cranium rat swarm" ally/companion are welcome.

Thanks!

And thank you for a great nightmarish concept like this!

I don't think animal friendship is the way to go here. I like the hive mind approach better. And I'd divorce it from game mechanics as quickly as possible and write your own rules.

Is the wizard a wererat-like thing obsessed with rats and rat 'culture?' I'm thinking the concept is very much comic book super-villain. What are their powers beyond wizard? Can the wizard see through the senses of the rats at will? Does this drive him mad? Are the swarms of rats really just a familiar? What does the wizard want, and how can the rats help get it? Power? Spies gather info. Money? Rats infiltrate from below and open locked doors. Knowledge? ...you get the idea.

I'm excited to see where this goes...Ben.

[Segev]

And thank you for a great nightmarish concept like this!

I don't think animal friendship is the way to go here. I like the hive mind approach better. And I'd divorce it from game mechanics as quickly as possible and write your own rules.

Is the wizard a wererat-like thing obsessed with rats and rat 'culture?' I'm thinking the concept is very much comic book super-villain. What are their powers beyond wizard? Can the wizard see through the senses of the rats at will? Does this drive him mad? Are the swarms of rats really just a familiar? What does the wizard want, and how can the rats help get it? Power? Spies gather info. Money? Rats infiltrate from below and open locked doors. Knowledge? ...you get the idea.

I'm excited to see where this goes...Ben.

I mean, if I were making it as an NPC, I could do it just by having a cranium rat swarm or few and an archmage or enchanter with some spells swapped out and the "psionic sorcery" feature to let him do it without components, or something. This is an attempt to design a PC, using as close to RAW as possible (which makes the Mark of Handling Human an attractive choice, but the yuan-ti feels weirdly less cheesy).

Are Dragonmarked versions of races, stripped of their Eberron heritage and just using the mechanics presented without the mark fluff and the setting implications, overpowered? I know even yuan-ti purebloods are high on the power scale.

With Mark of Handling, to answer some other questions here, the ability to see through the rats' eyes would come from the beast sense spell.

Depending on just how much leeway a DM might give, taking the light cantrip and having it apply to the rats' heads to give them the cranium rat glowbrains could be cool, too.

Edit to add: Another thing I've been mentally exploring lately is variation on the Noble/Knight Background of Retainers. They're a trio of commoners by default, but they don't have to look like any particular race. A trio of commoners' worth of hands and heft and activities from your attending swarm of hive-minded rats could be interesting. They won't have the stats of a rat swarm, and as commoners gained by the background feature, they wouldn't fight, but you could have three swarms of rats that fetch and carry, keep watch, etc.

[OldTrees1]

Double checking, by "rat king" do you mean a bunch of rats connected by their tails?

I think refluffing the Yuan-ti might fit better. A rat king is very non-human and Yuan-ti would be an easier jumping off point for refluffing features. For example the Yuan-ti poison immunity could be converted into some form of "Swarm Body" feature with a new defensive effect.

[JLandan]

How accommodating is your DM?

A really off concept would be to just be a cranium rat swarm. Scale it's HD to match PC level and have the 1/day powers kick in at 2nd or 3rd character level. It would have the cantrip at will powers in addition to cantrips from Sorcerer, but none of those are combat spells, so it would not be overpowered

It couldn't wear armor or use weapons but might be able to use some magic items. It's immunities and resistances would make up for it's bad AC, which could also be improved by Mage Armor. It's got a pretty good bite attack (4d6), which halves at 1/2 HP, but that could be tied to PC level or prof. bonus to keep from getting out of hand. Spell casting would be its mainstay anyway.

[JLandan]

And thank you for a great nightmarish concept like this!

I don't think animal friendship is the way to go here. I like the hive mind approach better. And I'd divorce it from game mechanics as quickly as possible and write your own rules.

Is the wizard a wererat-like thing obsessed with rats and rat 'culture?' I'm thinking the concept is very much comic book super-villain. What are their powers beyond wizard? Can the wizard see through the senses of the rats at will? Does this drive him mad? Are the swarms of rats really just a familiar? What does the wizard want, and how can the rats help get it? Power? Spies gather info. Money? Rats infiltrate from below and open locked doors. Knowledge? ...you get the idea.

I'm excited to see where this goes...Ben.

RAW, cranium rat swarms have charm immunity. But DM caveat can fix anything.

[JLandan]

How about the human was passed out or left for dead in an alley. Then a cranium rat swarm swarms over him. Maybe he had a head injury that exposed his brain and the rats tuned into it.

We are already past gross, right?

[Segev]

Double checking, by "rat king" do you mean a bunch of rats connected by their tails?

I think refluffing the Yuan-ti might fit better. A rat king is very non-human and Yuan-ti would be an easier jumping off point for refluffing features. For example the Yuan-ti poison immunity could be converted into some form of "Swarm Body" feature with a new defensive effect.

As cool as that version can be, I was thinking closer to the Nutcracker version, or simply looking like a human or similar race and having the "title." Yuan-ti are attractive for it anyway as the starting point due to the at-will nature of the animal friendship; good for representing the psychic power of the hive mind or the rat king (depending on how the fluff flows with the final character) over the rodentia.

How accommodating is your DM?

A really off concept would be to just be a cranium rat swarm. Scale it's HD to match PC level and have the 1/day powers kick in at 2nd or 3rd character level. It would have the cantrip at will powers in addition to cantrips from Sorcerer, but none of those are combat spells, so it would not be overpowered

It couldn't wear armor or use weapons but might be able to use some magic items. It's immunities and resistances would make up for it's bad AC, which could also be improved by Mage Armor. It's got a pretty good bite attack (4d6), which halves at 1/2 HP, but that could be tied to PC level or prof. bonus to keep from getting out of hand. Spell casting would be its mainstay anyway.

Neat idea, and depending on the game, I might explore it. In this case, I am actually considering it for a game with a brand new DM, so I don't want to go too mechanically off the wall. I might do something totally different in that game, though. This is just a thought exercise/exploratory phase to see what might work. So the advice is appreciated, and may get used in a later iteration of this idea.

RAW, cranium rat swarms have charm immunity. But DM caveat can fix anything.

Technically, cranium rat swarms wouldn't be valid targets for animal friendship even without that immunity: they have Int 11. Even the basic cranium rat (which is a suggested variant familiar, so there is the first one, at least) has Int 4, which is too high for animal friendship. The mechanics I'd be using would be to cast it on normal rat swarms and then find a way to make them flavored into being cranium rats that are part of the character's gestalt hive mind.

How about the human was passed out or left for dead in an alley. Then a cranium rat swarm swarms over him. Maybe he had a head injury that exposed his brain and the rats tuned into it.

We are already past gross, right?

That is pretty cool as a possibility.

[Greywander]

Double checking, by "rat king" do you mean a bunch of rats connected by their tails?

As cool as that version can be, I was thinking closer to the Nutcracker version, or simply looking like a human or similar race and having the "title."

But it would fit an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, right? Playing as a sapient hivemind of rats with their tails twisted together sounds quite Lovecraftian. Like a skaven chaos god or something.

[Segev]

But it would fit an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, right? Playing as a sapient hivemind of rats with their tails twisted together sounds quite Lovecraftian. Like a skaven chaos god or something.

Oh, certainly, and a version of this concept would definitely work that way. Heck, having that (with the statistics of a cranium rat) as an aberrant mind sorcerer's familiar might work.