Termagant

Proficiencies: Stealth +4

Senses: Sees normally in total darkness

Fleshborer Grubs. A creature hit by the termagant's fleshborer takes 1 toxic damage at the start of its next turn as the grub keeps chewing.

Synaptic Volley. While under synapse, the termagant gains +1 to hit when at least two other termagants within 15 feet fire at the same target this round.

Instinct Without Orders. Out of synapse range, the termagant defaults to skittish pack instinct: it hugs cover, feeds, and flees from real resistance.

Fleshborer. Ranged Attack: +3 to hit, range 40/120 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6 + 1 piercing damage.

Claws and Teeth. Melee Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4 slashing damage.

Morale: Does not make Morale checks under synapse — it advances into fire without hesitation. Without synapse it checks Morale like any frightened animal, and usually fails.

Tactics: Run termagants in broods that shoot as one, walking volleys onto whoever leaves cover. They are ablative: their job is to cost the party ammunition, position, and time while worse things close.

Loot / Evidence / Hooks: A live fleshborer, sedated and boxed, is worth more to a biologis than the termagant carrying it.

The termagant is the hive's basic ranged organism: a scuttling gun-beast whose weapon is alive and hungrier than it is. One is vermin with a firearm; a brood under synapse is a firing line that does not miss on purpose or flee at all.

Use this enemy as the swarm's massed ranged pressure — cheap volleys that make open ground expensive while worse things close.

Threat Profile: Low durability, light bio-weapon fire in volume, swarm coordination under synapse, feral and skittish without it.

Fleshborer. Its weapon fires burrowing grubs; wounds are shallow but the hits keep coming and the grubs keep chewing.

Synaptic Volley. While under synapse, termagants within 15 feet of each other fire as coordinated groups at the same target.

Instinct Without Orders. Out of synapse, it defaults to skittish pack instinct: cover, feeding, and flight from real resistance.

Fleshborer Volley. Massed ranged attack from the brood against one target or zone.

Scuttle and Screen. Advances between cover in low rushes, screening the gaunts behind.

Morale: No Morale under synapse — it advances into fire without hesitation; without synapse it checks Morale like any frightened animal and usually fails.

Tactics: Run termagants in broods that shoot as one, walking their volleys onto whoever leaves cover. They are ablative: their job is to cost the party ammunition, position, and time. Kill the synapse creature behind them and demonstrate the difference immediately — the brood scattering is the party's reward for good target priority.

Full Stat Block Priority: Medium