Buy me a coffeeLocust Swarm: The Devouring Sky That Strips Kingdoms Bare
“A Living Storm of Teeth and Wings That Devours the Horizon in Minutes.”
A Locust Swarm is not a single creature but a ravenous, roiling mass of chitin and hunger — a mobile ecological catastrophe that blots out sunlight, strips landscapes bare, and reduces thriving settlements to hollow skeletons of wood and bone. More force of nature than mere vermin, it moves with eerie cohesion, responding to heat, vibration, and fear as though guided by a shared, insatiable mind.
Overview
Locust Swarm — A massive, semi-sentient aggregation of carnivorous locusts that functions as a single entity. It overwhelms prey through suffocation, stripping flesh and vegetation alike within minutes. Resistant to conventional weapons due to dispersed anatomy, it is most vulnerable to fire, smoke, and powerful area effects. Typically encountered during ecological upheaval, magical blight, or as an omen of famine and divine wrath.
Appearance
A Locust Swarm manifests as a dense, thunderous cloud of fist-sized locusts with serrated mandibles and translucent, veined wings that shimmer like oiled glass. Individually fragile, collectively they form a writhing, opaque mass capable of obscuring the sky. At close range, the swarm resembles a churning wall of chitin, glittering compound eyes catching the light in countless flickers. The air around it vibrates with an incessant, grinding buzz — like dry bones shaken in a drum.
Behaviour
The swarm moves as a unified organism, shifting direction in sudden, fluid arcs. It is relentless and methodical, consuming all organic matter in its path. When sated, it settles in a carpet several feet thick, crawling and layering over itself in constant motion. It is attracted to warmth, fresh vegetation, and the scent of sweat or blood. Sudden movements or loud vibrations can provoke it into aggressive descent.
Habitat
Locust Swarms arise in arid plains, savannahs, farmlands, and drought-stricken regions, though magical variants may manifest in cursed forests or blighted realms. They migrate unpredictably, riding prevailing winds across vast distances. Once an area is stripped bare, the swarm moves on, leaving ecological ruin and famine behind.
Modus Operandi
Rather than targeting a single foe, the swarm engulfs an area. It blinds with sheer density, clogs lungs and throats, and inflicts thousands of tiny lacerations that accumulate rapidly. Creatures caught within are disoriented and slowly stripped of exposed flesh. Weapons that rely on piercing or slashing are largely ineffective; fire, thunderous concussive force, and magical area attacks prove most effective in dispersing the mass.
Motivation
Driven by insatiable hunger and reproductive instinct, the Locust Swarm exists to feed and propagate. Some sages speculate that unusually coordinated swarms may be guided by druidic corruption, abyssal influence, or divine punishment. Regardless of origin, its purpose is singular: consume, migrate, multiply.
Locust Swarm 5e 2024
Locust Swarm Pathfinder
Thousands upon thousands of locusts dance and drone in a dark and ravenous cloud.
Locust Swarm CR 2
XP 600
N Fine vermin (swarm)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +0
DEFENSE
AC 20, touch 20, flat-footed 18 (+2 Dex, +8 size)
hp 18 (4d8)
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +1
Defensive Abilities swarm traits; Immune mind-affecting effects
OFFENSE
Speed 10 ft., climb 10 ft., fly 30 ft. (average)
Melee swarm (1d6)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks devour, distraction (DC 12), voracious (see giant locust)
STATISTICS
Str 1, Dex 15, Con 10, Int —, Wis 11, Cha 2
Base Atk +3; CMB —; CMD —
Skills Climb +3, Fly +10
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Devour (Ex)
A locust swarm causes damage to unattended objects in its space each round as though they were creatures. It even damages inedible objects.
ECOLOGY
Environment temperate or warm deserts or plains
Organization solitary, pair, cloud (3–20), or plague (21–100 or more)
Treasure none
Under crowded conditions, these normally inoffensive relatives of the grasshopper change color, breed uncontrollably, ravenously consume any available vegetation, and wreak vast destruction to farms and settlements.
The largest swarms, known as plagues, can include billions of locusts and cover hundreds of square miles. Locusts in these swarms are larger and more aggressive than common ones, making the swarm a true danger to everything edible in their path and even to inedible objects as well.
Section 15: Copyright Notice
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 4 © 2013, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Dennis Baker, Jesse Benner, Savannah Broadway, Ross Byers, Adam Daigle, Tim Hitchcock, Tracy Hurley, James Jacobs, Matt James, Rob McCreary, Jason Nelson, Tom Phillips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Tork Shaw, and Russ Taylor.
Locust Swarm
Large Swarm of Tiny Beasts, Unaligned
Armor Class 14
Hit Points 99 (18d8 + 18)
Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover)
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 (−4) | 16 (+3) | 12 (+1) | 1 (−5) | 10 (+0) | 3 (−4) |
Saving Throws Dex +6
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, slashing
Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained, stunned
Senses blindsight 10 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages —
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +3
Traits
Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny insect. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.
Swarm Resilience. The swarm has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. The swarm takes normal damage from effects that deal damage in an area.
Obscuring Mass. A creature that starts its turn in the swarm’s space has disadvantage on its next attack roll before the start of its next turn as the insects clog its eyes and mouth.
Actions
Multiattack. The swarm makes two Bites attacks.
Bites. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 0 ft., one creature in the swarm’s space.
Hit: 18 (4d8) piercing damage, or 9 (2d8) piercing damage if the swarm has half its hit points or fewer.
Description
A Locust Swarm is a roiling cloud of chitin and wings that moves like a living storm. Drawn to heat, motion, and vegetation, it engulfs creatures in a suffocating mass of biting mandibles. Weapons pass through it with limited effect, and only flame or wide-reaching magic can reliably disperse the swarm before it strips a field—or a body—clean.