Fevered Rat

Fevered Rat Swarm (Swarm; CR 1)

Neutral - Tiny - Animal

Lore:	Know (Nature)
2		17
Basic DC		Full DC

Initiative

1

Perception:
14	+4
Passive	Active

Ambush:

10+

on a d20

Senses:

• Standard Senses
• Low-Light Vision

Movement Types:

• Walk 15 ft.
• Lesser Climb 15 ft.
• Lesser Swim 15 ft.

Defense

AC

14

Man Def

15

Monster Health
62	31	2
Hit Points	Bloodied	Hit Dice

Saving Throws
Fort:	+5
Refl:	+1
Will:	+0

Strong Against:

• (Swarm Role) Hardened (½ damage): slashing (physical, common), piercing (physical, common)
• (Swarm Role) Immune (no effect): Critical Hits and Flanking
• (Swarm Role) Immune (no effect): Any attack that targets Maneuver Defense
• (Swarm Role) Immune (no effect): Any spell that targets a specific number of creatures, except mind-affecting spells (if this creature has an Int score).

Weak Against:

• (Swarm Role) Vulnerable (1.5x damage): area of effect spells (including Channel Divinity)

Offense

Size:	Tiny
10 ft.		0 ft.
Space		Reach

To-Hit

+3

Man Off

+3

Action

0

Points

• (Component Creatures: 2.5 ft. / 0 ft.)

Standard Attack (Melee):

• 1x Feverish Bite (Swarm -- Auto-Hit) (1d6/x2)
  as slashing (physical, common)
  Filth Fever

Full Attack (Melee):

• 1x Feverish Bite (Swarm -- Auto-Hit) (1d6/x2)
  as slashing (physical, common)
  Filth Fever
• 2x Filthy Scratch (Swarm -- Auto-Hit) (1d3/x2)
  as slashing (physical, common)

Standard Attack (Ranged):

Full Attack (Ranged):

Siege Damage: Not siege capable

Statistics

2

STR

15

DEX

13

CON

2

INT

13

WIS

2

CHA

Skills:

• Movement: 8
• Perception: 4
• Stealth: 7
• All other skills: 0 (no ranks)

Languages:

Feats:

Special Abilities

Filth Fever (Ex, Disease) Automatic

Any damage inflicted by a Fevered Rat has a chance to inflict a weak disease: Filth Fever    (Injury vector; Infected intensity) Save: Fort DC 14;     Frequency: 1/day for 3 days Effect: 1d2 DEX damage per interval Fruition: victim becomes Nauseated; this cannot be cured normally. Fruition Duration: 1 day (full-night's rest).

Personal Space Issues (Ex; Swarm Role) Automatic After Damage

Any living creature that takes damage from a swarm also becomes Distracted. While sharing a space with the swarm, affected creatures cannot get rid of the Distracted condition. At the end of any of an affected creature's turn in which they are outside of the swarm's space, the Distraction condition automatically ends. However, it is re-applied if they take further damage from the swarm.

Sum of the Parts (Ex; Swarm Role) Always On

Swarms, troops, and hordes follow the squeezing rules based on their component creature size, NOT the size of the swarm, troop, or horde as a whole. This means these groups of creatures can easily move through doorways that are sized appropriately to their component creature sizes. They can even stop in such spaces without suffering squeezing penalties. In such cases, the swarm's shape is unaffected, except that its space excludes any blocked spaces. That is, its space doesn't deform into a non-square shape, it's just treated as not occupying any blocked spaces within its space. This means it cannot threaten through blocked spaces, since it isn't technically occupying them. Multiple swarms, troops, and hordes can share the same squares without squeezing or movement penalties. They can move through, and even stop on top of (or within) the spaces of other swarms, troops, or hordes. Swarms, troops, and hordes can also move over, through, and into spaces occupied by enemy creatures without provoking attacks of opportunity, even if they pass through or leave a threatened square. Furthermore, creatures inside the space of a swarm, troop, or horde are treated as flanked while they remain in that space (though this doesn't usually matter much, since swarms, troops, and hordes automatically hit with their attacks). Finally, a maximum of two swarms, troops, or hordes can attack a single given creature in a round, even if more than two swarms, troops, or hordes are threatening that creature. There simply isn't enough surface area of the enemy creature for more attacks to be inflicted.

Fevered Rat Swarm

This creature possesses the Swarm role, and therefore counts as 2 monsters for purposes of encounter size, XP award, and treasure.

This monster frequently has the Swarm role, but may be set to other roles if desired.

Ordinary household rats are timid creatures, more than eager to flee from fights and easily killed by nearly any determined foe. But all that changes when rats (and other vermin) become infected by the vile disease commonly called 'Filth Fever'. Filth Fever makes rats crazy, for want of a better term.

Fevered rats still behave like rats in most ways, and the disease will never kill them, alas. It does make the rats more aggressive, cagey, meaner, and sly. A fevered rat is not likely to seek out a fight, but they might. Fevered rats will hunt down, kill, and eat, pets and children if they are able to. The horror of finding tiny bones in a welter of blood in a crib has bred utter revulsion for rats in afflicted communities, even above the common revulsion that rats engender.

The Filth Fever that seethes in a fevered rat makes their bites dangerous, even for strong adventurous types.

And let's be honest. One rat is no threat to any adventurer. But a fevered rats carry their terrible Filth Fever in every bite, and to make it worse, many Rats are encountered in huge swarms. A rat swarm isn't just one rat. It's hundreds and hundreds of rats, so many of them, piled so close atop one another, they form a single seething mass of dirty flesh. Rat swarms are so frenetically active they are almost fluids, flowing this way and that, no fever-stricken rat willing to break away from the safety of its fellows.

This roiling, scrabbling, mass of teeth and claws is enough to be quite a nasty threat, and even the best-armored hero has no defense against a thousand claws and bites every minute. It's best to kill rat swarms as fast as possible, and from a good distance, to boot.

Filth Fever must be treated promptly, even if inflicted by the lucky bite of a single rat, and that endemic disease is the cause of huge numbers of attacks, and is behind many of the vermin that infest the world.

Combat Tactics

Fever stricken rats wish to kill and eat small things and drive away large things, where they will hopefully sicken and die for eating later. They will attack size small and smaller creatures without fear, and will not withdraw from such small foes. Against size medium or larger foes, they may attack, but they are very likely (a roll of 1-4 on a d6) to flee at the beginning of round two. Any Filth Fever they have managed to inflict will do their dirty work over time.

Note that rats are very likely to have the 'Swarm' role, in which case, they never roll to flee.

Rat swarms wish to engulf you. They will charge as fast as they can to get into the space of their prey.

Note that multiple rat swarms can move into, stop and occupy up to half the spaces that other rat swarms occupy. No more than two swarms can inflict effects on a single target.

Out of Combat

Fevered rats, and Rat swarms, are fairly common in sewers, or areas with high concentrations of filth and rubbish. They rarely venture into populated areas, unless something more dangerous has driven them from the shelter of their warrens.

Rewards

XP: 800 (Swarm role included.)

Treasure: Sellable Goods worth 438 gp.

Weight: 20 lbs.     Volume: 0.8 cu. ft.

Optional Treasure Rules: Roll a d20 on Table 1 below once per encounter (NOT per creature). Any items discovered are in addition to the normal treasure for the encounter.

Table 1: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 10	Nothing Found
11 - 14	1 Languid Remnant (tier 1)
15 - 17	1 Pale Remnant (tier 2)
18 - 19	1 Bright Remnant (tier 3)
20	Roll on Table 2
###	Nothing to see here!
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 2: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	3 Languid Remnants (tier 1)
6 - 10	3 Pale Remnants (tier 2)
11 - 14	1 Intense Remnant (tier 4)
15 - 17	1 Blazing Remnant (tier 5)
18 - 19	1 Vital Remnant (tier 6)
20	Roll on Table 3
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 3: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	3 Bright Remnants (tier 3)
6 - 8	3 Intense Remnants (tier 4)
9 - 11	3 Blazing Remnants (tier 5)
12 - 14	3 Vital Remnants (tier 6)
15 - 17	1 Prime Remnant (tier 7)
18 - 19	1 Mythic Remnant (tier 8)
20	1 Empyrean Remnant (tier 9)