Armor Class
12
Hit Points
24
(7d8 - 7)
Speed
10 ft., fly 50 ft.
STR
6
(-2)
DEX
14
(+2)
CON
8
(-1)
INT
3
(-4)
WIS
12
(+1)
CHA
6
(-2)
Skills
Perception +5
Damage Resistances
Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing
Condition Immunities
Charmed, Frightened, Grappled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Prone, Restrained, Stunned
Senses
Passive Perception 15
Languages
--
Challenge
1/4 (50 XP)
Proficiency Bonus
+2
Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny raven. The swarm can't regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.
Actions
Beaks. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target in the swarm's space. Hit: 7 (2d6) piercing damage, or 3 (1d6) piercing damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer.
Personally, I think a DM could rule that 2 swarms merging together would form a new swarm, giving them HP based on the remainder of the adjoining swarms. That's not gaining HP; it's a whole new creature.
I wouldn't allow it. Its too OP for a pet.
These are fair game for beastmaster, although the rest of beastmaster is kinda useless
Personally I rule it as being possible to summon as a beast, given that it specifically has the typing of beast and multiple sources list it as "Medium Beast(swarm)" instead of "Medium swarm of Tiny beasts"
A shepherd druid's summons gains 2 extra hitpoints for every hit die(it's increasing max hp not regaining hp so it'll work) these things have 7 hit die so they will have 38 hp. 8 of them will have 304 hp and resistance to Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing damage(magical too) effectively giving them 608 hp when fighting a large amount of enemies that use weapons. Upcasting for 5th, 7th and 9th level will gives 1216, 1824, 2432 hp respectively(half of that when fighting something that does other kind of damage). The bear totem doesn't work but that's fine, you can instead use unicorn totem to focus on healing your allies.
And that's why a DM should never allow players to change the rules to summon these when they say "Oh what's the big deal, they're also CR 1/4 and have similar stats, just think how cool it'd be when I summon a large hord-" NO DOWN YOU POWER GAMER....but yeah if you end up persuading your DM then you know what to summon when you've used up your 1/short rest totem