Formian

Formians (FOR-mee-unz ) were an ant-like race of outsiders.

Description
Formians were brown and resembled a cross between an ant and a centaur. . Their size and appearance otherwise depended on the rank they were born into:


 * Worker: Formian workers were about 3 feet long and 2.5 feet tall and weighed around 60 pounds. They could not speak.


 * Taskmaster: Formian taskmasters were about 5 feet long and 4.5 feet tall and weighed about 150 pounds. They had neither mandible nor mouth, instead relying on the energy of controlled creatures to sustain them. They were unable to speak.


 * Warrior: Like taskmasters, formian warriors were 5 feet long and 4.5 feet tall and weighed about 150 pounds. They had sharp mandibles and poison stingers.


 * Myrmarch: Formian myrmarchs were 7 feet long and 5.5 feet tall and weighed about 1,500 pounds. They had hands rather than claws. They could speak Formian and Common.


 * Queen: A formian queen was about 10 feet long and 4 feet tall. She weighed about 3,500 pounds and was unable to move, relying on her control of her hive mind to guard her.

Society
Formians were dedicated to spreading their colonies wherever they could. Colonies, also called "hive-cities," consisted of a ruling queen and different hierarchies of workers, from worker (lowest) to taskmaskers, from warriors to myrmarchs (highest below the queen). Formians had a hive mind based on the queen; any formian within 50 miles of a queen could communicate telepathically with any other formian within that range. The most prestigious of myrmarchs was responsible for guarding the queen.

Combat
Colonies relied on their warriors' fighting abilities to defend the hive. Myrmarchs and taskmasters were also proficient fighters and had limited spell-like abilities, such as dominate monster or charm monster.

The queen had no ability to move, but she could cast spells in defense of her hive and had a number of spell-like abilities, such as charm monster, hold monster, shield of law, and true seeing.

Appearances

 * Novels:
 * Neversfall
 * The Gossamer Plain


 * Video games:
 * Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide
 * Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark


 * Adventures:
 * Tales from the Infinite Staircase