Copyright 2009 Wizards of the Coast

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“Ant, Giant” is the actual title for the entry. Now that’s some old-school naming! Giant ants have been part of the game since the beginning, so this style feels appropriate.

The Lore

There isn’t a lot of mystery to giant ants. They’re red ants the size of an adult human. Their colonies can have hundreds of individuals, and though that’s far less than the teeming millions of a mundane anthill, they end up doing a lot more damage due to their larger size. Once a giant ant colony gets going, it will swiftly strip the landscape bare for miles around it.

Most ants are classified as “workers”, and as the name implies they handle the actual work of building the colony and keeping it fed. You also have some larger variants that are more specialized for combat, and protect the workers. And each colony has a single Queen who is responsible for laying eggs and perpetuating the hive. Though the queen is unlikely to leave her chambers once the hive is established, she’s quite dangerous and remains active throughout her life.

Despite being of animal intelligence, giant ants possess the same instinct for teamwork as their mundane counterparts, which means their colonies are more efficiently organized than many sapient societies. They communicate by emitting pheromone clouds, and at this scale the chemicals that make up these clouds can actually be harmful to non-ants. Giant warrior ants are notorious for using them as weapons.

That bit about “stripping the landscape bare” makes me think giant ants combine the traits of both army and leafcutter ants. So they’d both hunt other animals directly and cut up the vegetation to serve as bedding for their vast underground fungus farms. If that’s the case you do not want a giant anthill anywhere near your territory.

The Numbers

Most giant ants are Medium Natural Beasts, with queens being Large. They have low-light vision and tremorsense 10, but none of them are trained in Perception. They all have a climb speed equal to their ground speed, though they lack Spider Climb and so can’t cling to ceilings.

There are several types of giant ant and all of them have some sort of Frenzy ability, which triggers when another giant and within 10 squares drops to 0 HP. The exact effects vary per stat block, but note that if you have a bunch of tightly packed ants the death of a single one will trigger Frenzy for all the rest.

Level-wise they’re all early-to-mid Heroic, on par with the mundane guards and soldiers for most playable peoples. This means fighting the spread of a giant ant colony might be one of the common problems a sapient settlement has to deal with, alongside bandits, stirges, or marauding goblins.

Hive Worker

The weakest and most numerous ant caste. They exist to fulfill the functional needs of the colony and aren’t much good in a fight, but there are a lot of them.

These are Level 1 Minion Skirmishers with ground and climb speeds of 6, and a burrow speed of 2 with Tunneling. They’re the only giant ants with a burrow speed.

Their only attack is a bite. Their Hive Worker Frenzy makes them shift 2 squares, so if you kill one the horde immediately moves to fill the gap.

Hive Warrior

Warriors act as scouts and guards for worker expeditions. They’re Level 2 Skirmishers with 36 HP and a speed of 8. They attack with a Piercing Bite that does physical damage, and also does bonus acid damage if the target was already taking ongoing acid damage. The warrior itself can’t inflict this, so you’ll want to pair it with a soldier, described below.

Their Hive Warrior Frenzy clears any mark or curse on them, and allows them to shift 2 squares. Yes, this will make the party warlock sad.

Hive Soldier

Stronger and scarier than common warriors, soldiers stay inside the hive to guard it unless the queen directs them to sally forth. They’re level 3 Soldiers with 46 HP and speeds of 6.

They fight with their Grasping Mandibles that grab the target on a hit. They can use their Acid Sting against the grabbed victim, dealing both immediate and ongoing acid damage (save ends). Note that this would allow any accompanying warriors to get bonus bite damage against the victim.

When a soldier hits 0 HP it’s wracked by a Death Convulsion (close burst 1 vs. Reflex) which knocks enemies prone. Its Hive Soldier Frenzy gives it +2 to attacks for a turn when an ally dies.

Winged Drones

These flood out of the colony during mating season, ranging far and wide. At the end of the season I guess the males die, and the females shed their wings and burrow to become queens and form their colonies.

A winged drone is a Level 4 Skirmisher with 55 HP. It has ground, climb, and fly speeds of 8. Its basic attack is an Acid Sting that does immediate and ongoing acid damage, and it can perform a classic Flyby Attack maneuver with it. As we already know, this allows the drone to fly its speed without drawing opportunity attacks and sting someone at any point along the movement. Its Hive Drone Frenzy allows it to shift 2 squares and use the sting.

Once bloodied, the drone can choose to violently shed its wings in a maneuver called Shredding Wings (close blast 2 vs. AC), which does high physical damage and causes it to lose its fly speed until the end of the encounter.

Hive Queen

Like their subjects, queens are of animal intelligence. However, they have an instinctive drive for expanding their colony and the capability to direct their subjects to go forth and conquer.

Queens are Level 5 Elite Controllers with the Leader keyword. They’re size Large, and any other ants In the Presence of the Queen (aura 10) gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage. Their greater bulk makes them slower, so they have a ground speed of 6 and a climb speed of 2.

Queens have two basic attacks: a bite and a kick. The kick targets Reflex, does a bit of damage, and pushes the target 3 squares. The queen’s Frenzy allows her to shift 2 squares and use Kick.

Once per encounter the queen can create an Acidic Cloud on a Close Burst 4. This creates a zone that moves with the queen. Any enemy caught inside takes 2 damage for each other giant ant that’s also in the zone. When first bloodied, the queen issues a chemical Call to Arms that instantly summons four giant ant workers to the fight.

They can also spray their pheromones in an Acidic Blast (area burst 3 within 10 vs. Will; recharge 5-6) which does acid damage and dazes (save ends).

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

Giant ant encounter groups will tend to contain only the various types of giant ants: every other creature is food to them. The sample group is level 1 and has 1 soldier, 2 warriors and 4 workers.

Before reading this entry I don’t remember ever seeing much that differentiated giant ants from all the other giant bugs, but their MM2 lore, sparse as it is, has me unusually inspired. Mundane ant colonies can be a major problem to farmers, and the giant version seems to pose even more of an existential threat than a nearby bandit or goblin lair would.