Scarab Beetle

The common grave scarab is arguably the deadliest. The bigger giant scarab is less sneaky but spreads a terrible disease, and the monstrous scarab is a lone horror of remote caverns. None can communicate with outsiders, though grave and giant scarabs share a crude language within the swarm.

Scarabs usually just eat rot and refuse, but anyone passing through an infested area has a 50% chance of being bitten, which sets off a feeding frenzy as the beetles pour over the victim.

A grave scarab swarm counts as one 5 HD monster covering a 10-by-10-foot area. Each round, anyone inside automatically takes damage equal to half the swarm's hit points plus his base Armor Class. Fleeing the area helps only partly, since a quarter of the remaining beetles hang on and keep biting until destroyed.

Weapons barely hurt a swarm; each hit deals just 1 point, and striking beetles that cover a person deals normal damage to that person instead. A victim of small size or bigger can drop and roll to crush them, dealing 1d4 if small, 1d6 if man-sized, 1d8 if large and 1d10 if huge or gargantuan. Flaming oil, spells and other area attacks deal normal damage to the swarm and to anyone it covers.

Strong diggers, they tunnel beside heaps of rot, so bare ground can suddenly erupt with them.

They speed carrion's return to the soil, and gems and other inedible valuables sometimes turn up in their caches.

Up to 6 inches long, these fight like grave scarabs except that each 10-by-10-foot swarm has 6 HD. Each round they draw blood, the victim must save vs. poison or be infected with a disease like that of cause disease. One failure makes it debilitating; a second makes it fatal.

A solitary giant of huge size, it strikes with sharp, mighty pincers for 4d6 damage and is known to bury victims alive in its lair to eat later.