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Of all hive creatures, slivers may indeed be the most dangerous of them all. Living within the bowls of the earth itself, these creatures roam the underdark at will and are one of the scourges that even the drow dread to speak of.

Slivers are dual natured beasts; their bodies exist simualtaneously on the prime material plane and on the ethereal. On the prime they present an odd looking creature with two tenacles that are 3' long and a third tenacle with a single claw attached. On the ethereal plane the creatures project between 10 to 20 thin tendrils which they use to link each other and share one another's abilities.

Slivers are organized into a hive, and this hive has three distinct ranks. At the bottom are the common, or "worker" slivers. These slivers have no distinct abilities of their own. Captains each inately have one ability, and that ability is transferred to all the slivers their ethereal tendrils link up with. The Sliver Queen is the mind and unity of the hive. She is the mother of all the slivers in the hive, and they all ultimately serve her.

COMBAT
Slivers attack in waves, usually without any tactics at all. They slash with their talon for 1d3 points of damage. PC's will usually encounter 2-20 workers lead by a captain.. All will be linked and share it's abilities. A sliver can move up to 20 feet away from the others without losing it's link. It's link can be severed by a magical sword of at least +1 enchantment, and if this happens a common sliver rolls a save vs. death or dies from shock.

CAPTAINS
The various captains have special abilities which they share with their kindred. There are several types as follows:

Mindwhip Sliver
Hit Dice: 3
THAC0: 17
All slivers gain the ability to drain PSP's from psionicist. For every successful attack they drain 2d10 PSP from the victim. If they attack a spellcaster they erase from his memory the highest level spell he has memorized, working down to the lowest. If Player's Option Spell point rules are employed, the victim loses 3d10 spell points.

Muscle Sliver
Hit Dice: 1 (base)
THAC0: 20 (base)
When a muscle sliver joins the fray, all slivers immediately gain one hit die and gain a strength of 18. For every additional muscle sliver that joins the battle the strength of the others increases 10% (up to a maximum of 18/00) and the hit dice increases by 1 (up to a maximum of 12).

Talon Sliver
Hit Dice: 1
THACO: 20
All slivers gain a longer talon, 7' in length that strikes for 1d8. They can (and will instinctively) use it as a polearm.

Mnemonic Sliver
Hit Dice: 3
THAC0: 17
All slivers gain an intelligence of 9, +1 for every additional Mnemoic Sliver present (to a maximum of 16).

Crystalline Sliver
Hit Dice: 3
THAC0: 17
All slivers gain a 20% magic resistance, +20% for every additional crystalline Sliver present (to a maximum of 80%).

Winged Sliver
Hit Dice: 1
THAC0: 20
All slivers gain flying (Fl 18 (B))

Clot Sliver
Hit Dice: 1
THAC0: 20
Each sliver gains the ability to regenerate at a rate of 3/hp a round. They will lose this ability if slain.

Barbed Sliver
Hit Dice: 3
THAC0: 17
All slivers gain +3 to their damage on talon attacks.

Heart Sliver
Hit Dice: 1
THAC0: 20
All slivers are affected by the haste spell.

Horned Sliver
Hit Dice: 3
THAC0: 17
All slivers gain horns and an additional attack for 1d6.

Acidic Sliver
Hit Dice: 3
THAC0: 17
All slivers gain the ability to shoot a stream of acid which burns for 1d4 points of damage.

Victual Sliver
Hit Dice: 3
THAC0: 17
These specialized slivers secrete the honey that the hive survives on. What they consume to produce this honey varies from Victual sliver to victual sliver, although it will usually be a readily available item to the hive.

Hibernation Sliver
Hit Dice: 3
THAC0: 17
These slivers give the rest of the hive the ability to hibernate.

THE SLIVER QUEEN
Certainly the deadliest single type of sliver, the queen is able to produce a common sliver pupae once per turn, which in turn takes a day to mature. She can produce a captain in one day, and these take a week to hatch. Pupae and eggs are the responsibility of the workers and victual slivers to maintain.

HABITAT/SOCIETY
Like bees, slivers are organized into a highly organized hive with the queen in rule. Unlike bees, the queen is the only female in the hive. In order to reproduce a give type of sliver, she must mate with a sliver of that type.

ECOLOGY
Slivers can convert virtually anything into their honey, but the best source for this material is humanoids, in particular elves.