Runt (3.5e NPC Class)

Runt
"How many of them did you say there were!?"

Runts are the endless hordes of nasty little creatures, individually insignificant but dangerous as part of a whole, especially when led by a competent commander. Runts should not be playable in game, as they represent creatures too stupid or poorly trained to possess the significant abilities of a PC. Because the runt's class features also rely on the presence of other runts, they will also likely not derive any benefit from this class in a party of diversified characters.

Abilities: Most runts are small and agile creatures that lack physical power and have to compensate by swarming over their foes. But since Dexterity is what they typically have, Dexterity is their primary attribute.

Races: Gibberlings, goblins, kobolds, maybe even the occasional halfling or dwarf; all of these are among the tumult of creatures that make up for their lack of stature and might with overwhelming numbers. Essentially any creature that meets the size requirement can be a runt regardless of its Intelligence.

Alignment: Any.

Starting Age: Simple.

Requirements

 * Size: Must be Small or smaller.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the runt.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Runts are not proficient with any weapon or armor.

 : Thanks to its small size and natural agility, a runt can share a single five-foot space with a number of other runts equal to its runt level. If multiple runts of different levels are sharing a space, use the highest level runt’s level to determine how many of them can share a space.

 : A runt gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls per other runt inside the same square.

 : Multiple runts occupying the same square can make an grapple as one. Each participating runt rolls a grapple check, and the highest result gains a +2 bonus for every other runt sharing the same square. In addition, all runts that occupy the same square count as one creature of their size for the purposes of determining the maximum number of participants in a grapple. In addition, each runt participating in this grapple makes the group count as a creature one size larger for the purposes of determining auto-fails on grapples.

 : A runt of second level gains a +1 bonus to Armor Class per other runt in its square.

 : A runt is able to propel itself over its fellows, allowing it to move faster when surrounded by comrades. A 3rd level runt gains a +10 bonus to its base speed per runt with which it shares a square. In order to gain the benefit of this ability, the runt must start its move in a square with other runts, but doesn’t need to finish in such a square.

 : So long as a 3rd level runt shares a space with another runt, all runts in that space are immune to fear effects. In addition, they cannot be flanked or surprised.

Trading Out Runt Levels
Runts are usually little more than fodder for the PC's to slaughter. If you wish to make a runt a named character, you should switch all runt levels for levels in a base class.