Vermin Lord

Vermin lords are largely solitary creatures that roam the underground and visit surface jungles in search of tractable creatures they can enslave under their rule. Vermin lords have great power over vermin, and they see their lordship over other creatures as a natural extension of their divine right to rule.

Vermin lords rarely work together due to their jealousy of one another, but vermin lords who meet often have their slaves battle one another to decide primacy. The victor gains the other vermin lord as a vassal and, if of the opposite gender, as a mate.

Vermin lords don’t create anything for themselves and instead scavenge items of use to them from other cultures or force their slaves to make them items as tribute. They particularly value magic items due to their natural affinity for the use of such objects. A vermin lord stands 12 feet tall and weighs 1,500 pounds.

Vermin lords speak several languages in an effort to learn more about the magic of other creatures. Most speak Common, Draconic, Elven, Dwarven, and Undercommon.

Vermin lords are strong melee combatants, but they prefer to allow vermin minions to do their fighting. Vermin lords make judicious use of their magic items and those plucked from fallen foes.

Command Vermin (Su): A vermin lord can compel vermin to do its bidding. As a standard action, a vermin lord can target a vermin within 100 feet. The vermin must succeed on a DC 25 Will save or be controlled. The controlling effect functions as a dominate monster spell from a 20th-level caster. A vermin lord can command up to ten vermin at one time.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a vermin lord must hit with a claw attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it gets a hold and can constrict. A vermin lord can use either its Strength modifier or its Dexterity modifier for grapple checks.

Constrict (Ex): A vermin lord deals automatic claw damage on a successful grapple check.

Poison (Ex): Injury, Fortitude DC 28, initial and secondary damage 1d8 Con. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will⁠—​repel vermin (DC 17); 5/day⁠—​summon swarm (spiders only); 3/day⁠—​giant vermin, insect plague, creeping doom. Caster level 20th.

Vermin Cloud (Su): A vermin lord is constantly surrounded by a 5-foot-radius cloud of flying and crawling insects of all kinds. The cloud grants the vermin lord concealment from any creature outside the cloud.

In addition, when a vermin lord ends its move within 5 feet of a creature or with a creature in its space, the creature takes 2d6 points of damage and must succeed on a DC 28 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based. The damage of the vermin cloud can be reduced by damage reduction normally, but even creatures that take no damage can become nauseated. Vermin and other vermin lords are immune to the vermin cloud’s effect.

The vermin that make up the cloud are unaffected by the repel vermin spell and similar effects. Effects that would damage the vermin of the cloud have no effect, because more vermin instantly appear to replenish the cloud.

A vermin lord can suppress its vermin cloud or renew its use as a free action. If it does not suppress the cloud, it takes a −10 penalty on Move Silently and Hide checks.

Regeneration (Ex): Cold deals normal damage to a vermin lord. If a vermin lord loses a body part, the lost limb regrows in 3d6 minutes. It can reattach the severed member instantly by holding it to the stump. See Regeneration.

Skills: A vermin lord has a +5 racial bonus on Hide, Jump, Search, Spot, and Tumble checks. A vermin lord has a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on a Climb check, even if rushed or threatened.

Possessions: +1 studded leather armor, +2 cold iron scimitar, +1 composite longbow (+4 Str bonus), cloak of resistance +3, wand of fireball. (Different vermin lords may have different possessions.)

A vermin lord’s favored class is rogue. Some indulge their interest in magic, becoming sorcerers or wizards, but most vermin lords that are not rogues become rangers to aid themselves in their wandering.

A vermin lord is most effective on a battlefield thoroughly covered by vermin.

Prior to Combat: Before a battle, a vermin lord uses any protective magic items that it possess on itself and makes several Colossal vermin using its giant vermin spell-like ability. If it has a scroll of greater invisibility, it uses it on itself. If possible, it uses its command vermin ability on the giant vermin to give itself more tactical control in the coming battle. After making preparations, it suppresses its vermin cloud, hides, and follows its giant vermin into combat.

First Round: Summon ten centipede swarms from hiding using creeping doom and place them to hedge in foes against the attacking giant vermin.

Second Round: If not spotted in the first round, use insect plagues around flying foes or summon swarm around a climbing enemy. If spotted, move out of sight, hide behind a giant vermin and then use insect plague.

Third Round: If not spotted, continue to use summon swarm, insect plague, giant vermin, and creeping doom, hoping to entrap enemies and wear them down over several rounds. If spotted, renew the vermin cloud and use a damaging magic item against foes, hoping to remain at range.

Following Rounds: If engaged in melee, disengage and charge a foe that has many obvious magic items or has demonstrated the use of a powerful item. Use a claw attack against that foe, attempting to grapple and then kill the foe and make use of the foe’s magic items.

A vermin lord relies on giant vermin to occupy strong melee combatants while it focuses its attacks on enemies that seem likely to succumb to its vermin cloud and poison.

Vermin lords occasionally rule their own vermin-infested cities and demesnes in the heart of Xen’drik. They occasionally form pacts with the drow, but these alliances are tenuous at best. Although most vermin lords keep a low profile, a vermin lord calling itself Miirkym has taken residence in a ruined keep atop Karthoon Tor, a hill rising from the Vile Swamp in western Droaam. Adventurers seeking to destroy the vermin lord and retrieve the keep’s buried treasures have been driven back by deadly swarms of insects surrounding the structure and larger kinds of vermin within the ruined keep itself.

A few vermin lords have found their way to Khorvaire, taking up residence beneath large cities such as Sharn and Korranberg.

In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, vermin lords typically do not see eye to eye with the drow, although small gangs of them often make their lairs close to drow cities (where vermin are common).