Formian: For the Nest!

[sliprunner]

Where one Formian is found an entire nest is soon to be uncovered, constantly seeking out and acquiring resources for the ever growing cities they dig beneath the ground. Their ability to go from just a queen and a few workers to a thriving city in mere weeks has most of the wheel borderline consider them pests, and if not for their terraforming efforts many spheres would be ecologically devastated by them in months. Considered by many across the wheel to be a living force of transformers they are rumored to be a biological experiment gone wrong, or right depending on who is asked, given even a barren world can begin seeing life again at the hands of a Formian nest. Above all the Formians are widely regarded for one thing - Being Way To Friendly.

Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.4-1.6m
Average Weight: 65-90kg
Languages: Trade, Formian
Common Personality Traits: Friendly, Kind, Obedient, Thrifty
Common Physical Traits: Chitinous Body, Antenna, Lithe Figure, Dull Colors
Common Names: Anton, Bryant, Dante, Grant

Racial Statistics
Characteristic Bonus: +1 Strength or Charisma
Skill Bonus: +1 Command and +1 Crafts
Power: Ant Body: You have six legs, They are Ant Legs, You can walk on walls and ceilings with almost no regard to gravity. Your Left leg is your front legs, your right leg is your mid legs, and a result of 3 when determining hit locations hits your back legs. You ignore the penalty for a crippled/lost leg as long as your other 2 leg sets are not injured.
Size: 3

Racial Feats
Mushroom Lover [Formian]
A Rather unhealthy amount of time tending mushrooms, and the dark cramp conditions of a nests mushroom farms, has created a symbiotic mutation. You gain the Dark Sight trait, and have natural mushroom growths that render you immune to toxins; however, you gain a -1k0 to all physical tests in areas of bright lighting.

Caste Born [Formian]

You are a specific variant of ant meant to fulfill a vital role for the nest. Chose one of the following

• Replete: Stuffing yourself to the overflowing isn't a bad habit for you, it's the entire point of your adaption. You can store a number of days worth of food equal to your Size X Constitution in your abdomen, when you've stored at least half as much food allowed, treat your size as if 1 higher for purposes of penalties related to size. If someone doesn't mind the awkward kiss you can feed them from your stockpile.
  
• Phragmosis: Your big boned and that suits you fine if not for a habit of spacing out in the middle of doorways. Your size increases by 1, and you gain Armor Plating (1).
• Alate: GLORIOUS WINGS! You gain the Flyer trait, but can only fly for rounds/minutes equal to your constitution before requiring a round/minute of rest.
• Allometry: Smaller and more flexible than you have any right to be, you make even the average worker seem bulked. Your size is reduced by 1, and you gain +2k0 to acrobatics to fit through areas less than half your size.
  

Warrior Caste [Formian]

Adapted to be stronger, faster, more powerful than a mere worker ant! Chose one of the following

• Gain a Bite weapon (Melee; 1k1 R; Pen 2; Brawling), and +1k0 to strength tests using your mandibles
• Gain an Acid Spray ('Pistol'; 2k2 E; Pen 2; S/-; 20m; Toxic) usable once per scene
• Gain a Stinger (Melee; 1k1 P; Pen 2), once per scene it has the 'Toxic' Quality
  

Nest Pheromones [Formian]
The finer arts of Pheromone manipulation are critical to the success of any nest, even if it's mostly to cheer each other on and praise the queen. You can silently talk with pheromones to other Formians, and you gain +2k0 to Charm tests against creatures able to smell and not immune to drugs.

Nest Queen [Formian, Paragon]
Queen and ruler over a nest, you must be biologically female to take this feat. You gain 2 size and -1 resilience, you also gain a Size 2 Minion Squad with a rating and damage equal to your excellence. Destroyed minions can be replaced after a weeks worth of 'rest'. These Minions are completely loyal to you, are completely fearless, and obey their orders without question. Additionally you may take either Warrior Caste or Caste Born a second time.

Physical Qualities
Formians are by all accounts an ant that the upper body of a human grew out of. Chitin covers their abdomens in otherwise dull colors, leaning towards sandy forms from more desert dwelling Formians, to lighter for tundra dwelling. Their exact coloration's are as far wide ranging as can be found in humans, and sometimes even far more extensive depending on the environment the Formian came from. It is customary for Formians of a specific nest to all have the same colored pattern painted or etched onto their abdomens, making it fairly easy to distinguish related formians. Many nests take to cultivating environmental adaptions in their castes, resulting in countless variations of the otherwise 'Standard' Formian.

The Human like upper torso of a Formian tends to be generic, and in most cases hard to mistake as human from the chitinous plates that grow on the outer part of the arms and back, especially with the pair of antenna that grow from thier head. Their faces while passably human tend to be hard to familiarize, being extremely generic and in often cases identical to other formians of the same nest. Their eyes tending towards an almost universal brown or grey, with only queens developing wider ranges of eye colorings.

Formians are born as larva, growing to their near adult like form in only a single year, and full maturity only a year later. Formains tend massively towards being female, although exact distinction between male and female is hard without knowing nest specific mutations.

Playing a Formian
Formians can be regarded as only existing in one of two states, Hyperactive and Asleep, much to the chagrin of other races. They have a near species wide workaholic attitude made worse by their seemingly hyperactive tendencies, even a small nest can often be seen to function around the clock, even as they begin falling over asleep mid job. It comes as no surprise either when they tend to follow some of the most messed up sleep patterns in the wheel. The only saving grace is the Formians desire to build their nests underground, resulting in what might simply be a hill above ground to contain a city holding thousands, keeping them out of the way of most surface dwellers.

An almost Hive minded race, Formians are extremely willing to cooperate and mingle with everyone they can. From newly born workers to the most oldest scholars, they will put everything they can in to work for their 'nest', be it an actual Formian nest, or simply the people they work with. It is of little surprise that their society not only assumes everyone will give the most effort, but expects it, leaving many Formians unnerved and twitchy in situations they can't take some form of action. Thankfully for both Formians and those near their nests, they rarely have a shortage of work, owing to their efforts to create a sustainable environment for their hive.

While internal relations are always hard to understand with Formians, it's well known that they tend to have an almost instinctual fear of Arachne, and a distinct rivalry with Vespid. Likewise they tend to grow rather irritated when faced with lazy or otherwise slow-acting people, or even simply facing something that disrupts their normal 'order'. In fact Formians who tend to stray to far outside the expectations of a Nest can quickly find themselves exiled and cast out to the wheel at large. Almost ironically the Formians are found to quickly adapt to a new 'order' when confronted with any form of authority, leading many captains and officers to take advantage when they can 'press' a few Formians into service.

Change Log

Edit 1: Redid Caste Born Replete, Edited Brood Warrior, Edited Racial Power

Edit 2: Brood Warrior changed to 'Warrior Caste'

[A nony mouse]

Possibly add in an acid spit feat? Perhaps as a Klackon reference? Possibly as one of the castes.

Paragon Formorians can hit size 7. Was that intended?

[sliprunner]

I think I'll split the Brood warrior to be an option for the biting mandibles or the Acid Spit/Spray. As for the Paragon formians, they only hit size 7 in regards to penalties, They still only actually reach size 6 (3 Base, +2 Queen, +1 Phragmosis). I may rephrase Replete to make it more clear, as given it's based off honeydew ants, when they're 'filled' it's by bloating which would make them a bit more squishy.

Alternative of course would be to add a different penalty to Replete, that being to reduce resilience (Squishy!) and remove the reference to size, instead of taking the penalties of being larger (That is, reduced static defense, spacing, and technically equipment if you want to be a stickler). Note: will wait on editing Replete to think on it.

[Amanojyaku]

Seven. Yes, it's homebrew (this iteration, anyway). Yes, goliaths can do the same with less investment.

With that said, the fact that you'd have to lock sex, exaltation, and 300xp to get there means it's (probably) fine.

[sliprunner]

To be honest I forgot to consider that asset, rather ironic given I stated a character using the small one. Given Small+Allometry result in being Size 1, which is something I'm not sure if I should change as well. This not accounting that I feel like I need to do something for digging (these are ants after all) but not sure what, if anything, I should do for that.