Swarm - Hive Mind Edition

[Lestat]

Homebrew Exaltation - Swarm

Happy is the tomb where no psyker hath lain, and happy the town at night whose psykers are all ashes. For it is in such wretched tombs where things that ought to crawl have learned to walk. At times when the body of a deceased psyker, or Exalted is fed upon in a place where the veil between the Warp is thin, small morsels of the original being's soul fill the tiny vessels of the carrion that desecrate their corpse. They leave behind empty graves, wandering out into the night taking on false names, and heavy garbs in order to masquerade as a mortal being. However, underneath their mask of deceit lies only a mass of writhing beasts tugging and pulling at the fragmented mind of the accursed.

Tell: As a Swarm spends more and more resource points it becomes impossible to disguise the true nature of the collective. Individual members begin to fan out, and growls, barks, hums, or whatever natural aggressive noise they would make can be heard. Eventually it becomes almost impossible to view the Swarm as anything other than an indefinite mass of ravenous creatures.

Powers:

Divided We Stand: You are a living swarm of smaller entities that when combined take a particular humanoid shape. When you would be affected by a condition you instead become dazzled for a round if the source wasn't an area effect, a spreading effect, or an effect targeting your psyche.

Hive Mind: Your mind exists as an amalgam inside a pocket of the Warp, providing total sensory awareness with all members of your swarm at all times. Gain the Danger Sense and Light Sleeper feats.

Swarm Physiology: You can squeeze though anything the components of your swarm could. Also, you ignore all critical damage effects except death, and you can't lose limbs (or take cybernetics).

United We Fall: Swarms are particularly susceptible to area attacks, doubling their wounds taken. They can't regain hit points except by spending Union on themselves, replacing their dead members with live ones. Finally without a successful Disguise test mortals are more likely to run in fear than converse with a Swarm, even while disguised most social tests against mortals suffer a -2k1 penalty.

Power Stat: Community
A Swarm's Community is its ability to properly act as one entity through thousands of individual bodies. As a Swarm's Community improves it becomes able to perform tasks more efficiently, and act with greater coordination towards a singular goal.

Resource Stat: Union. Swarms have an amount of Union equal to their Composure + Community. While located within your current residence, hive, or outpost you can regain spent Union freely, with a total daily limit equal to your maximum Union.

Community	Power Gained
★	Unleash the Swarm - You may spend Union as a half action to create six minions in their own squad per point spent. Their speed is equal to yours, their Damage and Threat Ratings are equal to half your (Fellowship + Community), and they can't team up. You may control a number of these squads equal to half your (Composure + Community). You may reabsorb a full squad of six of these minions to restore a Union whenever they would team up with you.
★★	Flurry of the Swarm - You count as 1+Community combatants for the purposes of ganging up, and you gain the Combat Master feat.
★★★	Recuperate - You gain an additional hit point whenever you spend Union to heal yourself.
★★★★	Discorporate - You add 10 to your static defense while dodging attacks that don't affect an area.
★★★★★	Reawakening - When you die as long as the location you use to regain Union remains secure you reform at full strength in 1d5 weeks.

Swarm Composition Assets

Alluring Aspect
Whether through the fickle nature of the Warp, the natural form of your swarm's components, mind altering pheromones, or something else your swarm is not as monstrous as most. You do not require a disguise to function in society, and you do not suffer a penalty to social tests from the United We Fall power. You may communicate fully through your minions created through Unleash the Swarm as if you were there.

Apex Lifeforms
You and your minions created through Unleash the Swarm gain two traits from the Improved Wild Shape, and Wild Shape lists other than Armor Plating, or Aura. The Flyer trait counts as two choices and is considered to be at your normal speed.

Full Metal Genome
You and your minions are effectively machine, not needing to eat, drink, breathe or sleep, and gaining immunity to drugs and disease, while also being comfortable even in extreme temperatures and the vacuum of space. You gain armor equal to your Community which stacks with all sources, and your minions created through Unleash the Swarm gain +5 static defense.

Hive Brilliance
You may spend a Union to cast a spell through your minions created through Unleash the Swarm. The level of spell cast is limited to the number of minions you have in that scene, requiring six minions per level of the spell to cast. When you cast a Touch spell through your minions you may have a minion squad attack to complete it.

Worm That Walks
Increase your social penalty against mortals by 0k1. When you Unleash the Swarm you gain a Fear rating equal to the number of minion squads you create for the remainder of the scene.

[ScrapyardDragon]

y'know, if you had faults with the original, why didn't you just comment on them rather than whip up a whole new version out of the blue?

[Amanojyaku]

Literally nobody has ever done that and you know it.

[Lestat]

Omnidirectional Awareness' Danger Sense, Light Sleeper, and Combat Master feats moved to different areas to make room for Uniform Swarm, which gives access to the old Biocluster table asset, now renamed Swarm Trait table. Uniform Swarm gives 2 fewer points than the asset gave, and the old asset has been replaced with Apex Lifeforms which gives a lot more points.
Unleash the Swarm now gives your full Fellowship as Threat Rating instead of half rounded up, which is 10 more static defense, and 8.2 more average to hit in a full squad.
One Soul has been renamed Reawakening, the primary difference being that you lose all your minions while dead, and that when you are resurrected you and your hive start at 0 Union.
The Gray Goo asset was scrapped to make the hive a core part of every build. There is a new asset replacing it called Silhouette which allows you to have spirits in a similar manner to Overlord, although you must spend Union equal to the spirit level instead of a singular Cohort, and you must have minion squads already out, and the minions themselves become the spirit. It also has some forced traits it gives and bars you from taking, and most potently allows you to have a level one, two, and three spirit all waiting on the bench.

Finally mortals are outright terrified of you, and on a successful disguise you still have a penalty to most social interactions.

Edit 1: Added one extra point to Uniform Swarm to allow for more flexibility, and changed the Toxic property to one point even though it'd likely going to be taken all the time that way.
Edit 2: Added back the last point to Uniform Swarm as the table was designed with 4-6 points in mind. Removed the ability to take certain traits multiple times. Joined every other minion Exaltation by having your minions get 5 Damage Rating, and increased damage for extra raises. Removed Apex Predator asset. Helping Hands asset likely to be removed soon, and have two new assets take their places.
Edit 3: Added a new component to the Helping Hands asset to ignore the social penalties from the Trepidation and Extermination power, and renamed it to Alluring Aspect. Added a new asset called Eugenic Genetics which allows you to swap out points spent for Uniform Swarm whenever you enter your Hive.
Edit 4: Began work on simplifying, and shortening many powers. As a result Hardy is no longer an optional feat, you do not ignore powers that require other hit locations (but you should), some powers were renamed, and Light Sleeper and Danger Sense are given by power 3 instead of power 1. Uniform Swarm renamed Swarm's Form, Trepidation and Extermination renamed Me Myself and I.
Edit 5: Phase two (of likely three) of complexity reduction. Minions don't gain tearing at max squad size. They don't specify rules on grouping with stragglers, they just say they can't team up now. Cut the ability for minions to team up, and your ability to use Aid Another through minions with Alluring Aspect. Cut avoiding double wounds from AoE, and being able to regain hp as normal while resting if a repair test is performed from Full Metal Genome. Cut +1 to mental tests for each minion squad in a scene, and the ability to cast spells through minions for free if they are in the same scene from Hive Brilliance. Cut the Silhouette feat entirely, a feat that traded minion squads for spirit creation NPCs.
Edit 6: Phase three of simplifying the Exaltation. Swarm Physiology now only explains ignoring critical damage effects except death, and your single target condition powers. Squeezing was moved to a renamed power, now Species Specifics, formerly Swarm's Form, as was the inability to lose limbs and limitation on taking cybernetics. Hit locations do not all hit the body, this is a new step in a more humanoid swarm, even if you're entirely ants you still need to armor your "head" "legs" and "arms" as they are still exposed. Hive essentially removed and renamed Hive Mind, the properties of Hive are now tied to the description on how you regain Union, with likely 1/8th the word count. Hive Mind contains the new Warp connected mind fluff which removed the need to specify you have full sensory awareness in Unleash the Swarm. Danger Sense and Light Sleeper feats are located on Power 2 instead of Power 3. Me Myself and I (RIP De La Soul reference) renamed Together We Fall, the word count was slashed. Union regeneration changed: Community per day is now Composure + Community per day, you can't store up to 5x of the old amount anymore. Ego Displacement now has a range limit: 100 meters. It now is a half action instead of a full action, and costs 1 Union not 3, it also only requires a single minion squad to swap instead of two. Reawakening word count dunked on, respawn at your hive in 1d5 weeks not 2d10 - 5 weeks, it now does not specify that your minions are dispersed in the meantime. Full Metal Genome minion squad static defense bonus lowered to +5 from +10.

tl;dr This Swarm version is no longer a "Hive" edition as the hive aspect has been whittled away at. I have renamed it Hive Mind edition to keep it similar but distinct. The goal has been to reduce word counts, and accept vaguer quick explanations over expanding on corner rule cases. I hope if any are encountered the table decides whatever is most fun. New fluff is likely to follow with some picture changes to show off more humanoid swarms, ideally selling the wolf in sheep's clothing angle more than the marauding animal angle. The Swarm Trait table could quickly be a decision between Flyer, Quadruped, and Armor Plating, but I see a fun in fiddling with points to make up or emulate an animal more exactly. But options like -1 Dex or -1 Str are probably just wasted text.

Edit 8: The Swarm Trait table is gone. Animal type traits aren't even core anymore. Eugenic Genetics is now back to its 2nd naming incarnation: Apex Lifeforms, and it now is just about a carbon copy of Biocluster from the other Swarm Exalt. Citing the Wild Shape feat is quick and dirty after all. Swarm Physiology renamed Divided We Stand, moved ignoring crit damage effects from Power 1 to Power 3. Species Specifics is now named Swarm Physiology. Together We Fall now named United We Fall to complete the inverted take on "United we stand, divided we fall". This is much closer to the final vision for Swarm, a savage simple minion exalt with a focus on immortality.

tl;dr 2: Overall nerf, can't fly at double speed, can't get a natural weapon, can't take a bunch of negative modifiers to get better ones, can't get Damage Rating 6. Overall acceptable, between ignoring the majority of all conditions in the game, and the huge DPR minions put out (99% chance to hit a human with 4 + 3 Dex/Wis, if they have 11 or less AP and 7 expected resilience they take a minimum of 2 wounds x 5 = 10 wounds ongoing from just 5 Union + half action) this is still a powerful Exaltation.

Edit 9: New artwork, and new fluff. Much less "this exalt is whatever you want it to be" and more "Worm That Walks". Added some horror and tragedy. Likely next piece on the chopping block is Ego Displacement, as your body is more unique and singular than it was. Your minions are more like your minions and less like a formless extension of yourself.
Edit 10: Ego Displacement axed. Replaced with Discorporate, giving a large bonus to dodging single target attacks.
Edit 11: Got the words Worm That Walks in there with the replacement 5th asset, technically taking Silhouette's spot. An increase in social penalty in exchange for a Fear rating when you summon your minions.

[Lestat]

Swarm has undergone multiple changes since its inception. Most critically the word count has dropped significantly, and it no longer features a table. Various phrasings have been altered and simplified. The artwork, fluff, and some mechanics have changed to make the Exalt more humanoid and less blobby. Assets have all been toned down, some more than others. The spirit creation asset was removed for lack of thematic cohesion. Notably the title has changed from "Hive" to "Hive Mind". The namesake Hive power no longer exists, now being a simple line under resource regeneration, thus the title changed with it. More changes are likely if not probable, particularly with playtesting and feedback, but the overall structure is more final now than before.

Edit 12: Flurry of the Swarm lost always counting your attacks as being at a 3:1 ratio, instead your buff to ganging up for others applies to yourself as well. Your minion's threat and damage ratings are equal to half your (Fellowship + Community) instead of raw Fellowship. Three Threat 5, Damage Rating 5 squads of 6 minions at character creation felt like too much of an explosion of power. Swarm still starts with many squads at creation.