Jungle Mantis Swarm

Large swarm of Tiny beasts, unaligned

Armor Class 15
Hit Points 120 (16d10 + 32)
Speed 20 ft., fly 50 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16 (+3) 20 (+5) 14 (+2) 1 (-5) 10 (+0) 3 (-4)

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained, stunned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +3

SPECIAL 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 mantis. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.

ACTIONS

  • Swarming Bites. Each creature in the swarm’s area makes a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 17 (5d6) piercing damage and is grappled (escape DC 13). On a success, it takes half as much damage and is not grappled. The swarm can move at full speed while carrying a Medium or smaller creature but can’t fly.

REACTIONS

  • Angry Flutter. When the swarm is hit by an attack, the swarming mantises briefly take flight and disperse, spreading out to limit the damage before regrouping. The damage dealt to the swarm is halved. If the swarm is grappling a creature, that grapple ends.

ABOUT

Although adventurers are used to dealing with swarms of bugs in dungeons, crypts, and caverns, the mantis swarms of tropical jungles are a different breed of pest altogether. So-called jungle mantis swarms include mantises of extraordinary size-the longest specimens are up to 1 foot long-with thick exoskeletons and serrated tibial spines.

It’s these extra little claws on the ends of their already sharp limbs that set jungle mantises apart from garden variety mantids. When they combine their strength as a swarm, jungle mantises can grip, hold, and drag entire animals, up to and including large mammals. Though jungle mantis swarms thankfully cannot haul their prey up into the sky, the sight of an ally being dragged into the dark jungle undergrowth is shocking enough to keep most skittish explorers on edge.

Equally alarming are a jungle mantis swarm’s surprisingly cunning tactics.

Jungle mantises know better than to stay put when their prey puts up a fight, and so they constantly bob and weave among nearby flora. They’ve even been known to set up ambushes, separate packs of creatures from one another, and pick out weaker-looking or injured targets when confronting a group. Locals say that the behavior of a jungle mantis swarm is less like a group of wild insects and more like a mobile colony, though there doesn’t seem to be a queen as an ant colony would have. Rather, jungle mantises operate as a finely tuned society of equal-minded-and equally voracious-carnivores.

Large and dangerous as the most well-known jungle mantis swarms are, rumors persist of even larger mantis swarms: flying apocalypses of dozens of towering giant mantids, capable of destroying entire settlements in an evening.

Some jungle-dwelling druids have made attempts to domesticate individual jungle mantises or rehabilitate small groups of insects that have become separated from their swarm. With enough training, a small group can be nurtured into a swarm of mantises and seem to have just enough intelligence to serve as a druid or ranger’s animal companion. Many hopeful mantislovers have delved into the jungle specifically to acquire and tame such a swarm, though far fewer succeed in the endeavor.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Battlezoo Bestiary (5E) © 2022, Skyscraper Studios, Inc.; Authors: William Fischer, Stephen Glicker, Paul Hughes, Patrick Renie, Sen.H.H.S., and Mark Seifter.

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