General Rules: Monsters - Bat Swarm

Bat Swarm (adapted from the Monster Manual and Dragon Magazine #329)
Diminutive Animal (Swarm)

Hit Dice: 3d8 (13 hit points)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 5 feet, fly 40 feet (good)
Armor Class: 16 (+4 size, +2 Dexterity); touch 14, flat-footed 12
BAB/Grapple: +2/-
Attack: Swarm (1d6)

Full Attack: Swarm (1d6)

Space/Reach: 10 feet by 10 feet/0 feet
Special Attacks: Distraction, wounding
Special Qualities: Blindsense 20 feet, immune to weapon damage, low-light vision, swarm traits
Saves: Fortitude +3, Reflex +7, Will +3
Abilities: Str 3, Int 2, Wis 14, Dex 15, Con 10, Cha 4
Skills: Listen +11, Spot +11
Feats: Lightning Reflexes, Skill Augmentation (Listen and Spot)
Environment: Temperate deserts
Organization: Solitary, flight (2 - 4 swarms), or colony (11 - 20 swarms)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: None
Level Adjustment: -

A bat swarm is a mass of small, fierce carnivorous bats with a thirst for the blood of any creature unfortunate enough to cross their path. A bat swarm is nocturnal and is never found above ground in daylight.

Combat
A bat swarm seeks to surround and attack any warm-blooded prey it encounters. The swarm deals 1d6 points of damage to any creature whose space it occupies at the end of its move.

In order to attack, a bat swarm moves into opponents' spaces, which provokes attacks of opportunity. It can occupy the same space as a creature of any size, since it flies all around its prey, but remains a creature with a 10 foot by 10 foot space. Bat swarms never make attacks of opportunity, but they can provoke attacks of opportunity. A bat swarm’s attacks are nonmagical. Damage reduction sufficient to reduce the swarm attack’s damage to 0, being incorporeal, and other special abilities usually give a creature immunity (or at least resistance) to damage from a swarm.

Unlike other creatures with a 10 foot by 10 foot space, a bat swarm is shapeable. It can occupy any four contiguous space and it can squeeze through any space large enough to contain one of its component creatures.

Blindsense (Ex): A bat swarm notices and locates creatures within 20 feet. Opponents still have total concealment against the bat swarm (but swarm attacks ignore concealment).

Distraction (Ex): Any living creature that begins its turn with a bat swarm in its space must succeed at a DC 11 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Wounding (Ex): Any living creature damaged by a bat swarm continues to bleed, losing 1 hit point per round thereafter. Multiple wounds do not result in cumulative bleeding loss. The bleeding can be stopped by a DC 10 Heal check or the application of a cure spell of some other healing magic.

Swarm: A swarm has no clear front or back and no discernible anatomy, so it is not subject to critical hits or flanking. A bat swarm is immune to all weapon damage. Reducing a swarm to 0 hit points or lower causes it to break up, though damage taken until that point does not degrade its ability to attack or resist attack. Swarms are never staggered or reduced to a dying state by damage. Also, they cannot be tripped, grappled, or bull rushed, and they cannot grapple an opponent. A swarm is immune to any spell or effect that targets a specific number of creatures (including single-target spells such as disintegrate), with the exception of mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects) if the swarm has an Intelligence score and a hive mind. A swarm takes half again as much damage (+50%) from spells or effects that affect an area, such as splash weapons and many evocation spells. A bat swarm is susceptible to high winds such as that created by a gust of wind spell. For purposes of determining the effects of wind on a bat swarm, treat the swarm as a creature of Diminutive size. A swarm rendered unconscious by means of nonlethal damage becomes disorganized and dispersed, and does not reform until its hit points exceed its nonlethal damage.

Skills: A bat swarm has a +4 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks. These bonuses are lost if its blindsense is negated.

Vulnerabilities
Bat swarms are extremely difficult to fight with physical attacks. They have a few special vulnerabilities as follows.

A lit torch swung as an improvised weapon deals 1d3 points of fire damage per hit.

A weapon with a special ability such as flaming or frost deals its full energy damage with each hit, even if the weapon's normal damage can't affect the swarm.

A lit lantern can be used as a thrown weapon, dealing 1d4 points of fire damage to all creatures in squares adjacent to where it breaks.

Bat Swarms as Familiars
Bat swarms can serve as familiars for characters eligible to obtain familiars including arcane engineers, hexblades, mind weavers, shadowsworn, sorcerers, and wizards. To do so, the character must take the Improved Familiar feat and be at least a 5^th-level caster. Vampires and vampire-blooded spellcasters often have bat swarm familiars.

The bat swarm becomes a magical beast swarm familiar. Swarm familiars do not gain the ability to speak with others of their kind, and neither the swarm nor its master gains the Skill Augmentation (Listen and Spot) feat. Instead, the following special qualities are substituted for those standard familiar abilities.

Granted Abilities: In addition to special abilities gained as a result of standard familiar progression, swarm familiars also bestow the following abilities upon their masters. The bat swarm's master gains immunity to her swarm's nauseating effect and its wounding attack and can occupy the same space as her familiar without suffering penalties. Swarm familiar granted abilities replace the granted abilities listed for improved familiars.

Hive Mind (Ex): Bat swarm familiars gain a hive mind that connects them to each other by the arcane power of their master. The master gains an empathic link and the ability to share spells with the hive mind of the swarm familiar.

Nonhealing (Ex): When a swarm takes damage, part of it is physically destroyed. Therefore, swarm familiars cannot be healed in the normal manner. Instead, new creatures much be summoned to the swam to replace those that have died. A summon swarm spell "cures" a swarm familiar by replacing dead creatures in the swarm at a rate of 1d6 hit points per caster level. The number of hit points healed in this manner cannot exceed the swarm's maximum hit point total. Only a druid or the wizard to whom the swarm familiar belongs can cure a swarm familiar in this fashion. Summon swarm spells used to heal a familiar create no other effect.

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