Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Frightful (mid-)February! Chihuahua Swarm

Welcome back to another install of Frightful (not so) Fridays! I really missed working on this in January, so I'm making up for lost time this week. At any rate, this one is another "ripped from the headlines" entry (thanks to Treppa most recently, and others before her). While one tiny dog might not be all that formidable to an adventurer, a swarm of them is another story. A note about their trip attack: the swarm cannot benefit from the attack of opporunity incurred when they trip an opponent, but a creature controlling the swarm certainly could.

I hope you like the chihuahua swarm, and I'll be back tomorrow with something new. Thanks for reading!


This gathering of hundreds of tiny dogs unleashes a cacophony of barks, snarls, and yips as it roils along.
Chihuahua Swarm CR 2
XP 600
N Tiny animal (swarm)
Init +7; Senses low-light vision; Perception +3

Defense
AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +2 size)
hp 16 (3d8+3)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +0
Defensive Abilities swarm traits

Offense
Speed 20 ft.
Melee swarm (2d6 plus distraction and trip)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks distraction (DC 12), enthusiastic charge, trip

Statistics
Str 2, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 1, Wis 9, Cha 10
Base Atk +2; CMB —; CMD
Feats Improved Initiative, Stealthy
Skills Acrobatics +7, Escape Artist +5, Perception +3, Stealth +17

Ecology
Environment any temperate or warm
Organization solitary, pair, outrage (3–6)
Treasure none

Special Abilities
Enthusiastic Charge (Ex) Once every 4 rounds, a chihuahua swarm can charge at up to four times its speed.
Trip (Ex) When a chihuahua swarm deals damage to an opponent, it can also attempt to trip that opponent. The swarm's effective CMB is +8, which includes a +2 racial bonus, and any foe tripped by the swarm incurs an attack of opportunity.

Feral dogs do not typically collect in large enough packs to rival rat swarms, but circumstances and environment could factor into such a rare occurrence. When this happens, it becomes a many-toothed terror that shuts down a community while the dogs run rampant. Despite the animals collective excitement, they can remain patient enough to hide from an approaching victim before they boil out of their hiding spot to knock the victim down and gnaw at him—bites which are individually annoying but inflict considerable pain collectively.

While the most common occurrence of this type of swarm involves chihuahuas, giving the phenomenon its name, any collection of small dogs could form a so-called chihuahua swarm. Larger dogs do not gather in sufficient numbers to create a more formidable troop; such a collection of cats would implode in a violent fury of hisses, spits, and flying fur.

A spellcaster with access to summon swarm can cast it as a 3rd-level spell (using an appropriate spell slot) to summon a chihuahua swarm.