Homebrew Bee Spawn Species Details

A man steps forward with a hand outstretched and a hood covering his entire face. The group of travelers sitting around the fire begin to hear a swarm of buzzing. He steps into the light and from beneath the cloak they see bees crawling and moving as if to create a human face. He speaks, as a human would, “I meeeeeean no haaaaaarm. I siiiimply smeeeelled the smoooooke and waaaaanted to waaaarn you of the beeeeee peeeeeeople.” He sat down...or rather the bees forming his shape sat down. And he spoke of an ancient race of bee people. Bee spawn that formed small hive mind formations in any race you could think of. Many people have told stories of these. But they often speak of leaves and fairies, but the stories all spawn from these bee spawn.

Bee Spawn

A Bee Spawn has it’s own thoughts and memories from another Bee Spawn. They can essentially live forever if the whole spawn is not killed. A Bee Spawn can carry up to 4 times its weight without becoming encumbered, all the while floating and flying. A Bee Spawn’s movement speed is also it’s fly speed.

Hive Mind

Bee Spawn together are called a hive. A hive has no specific leader, as they all share the same thoughts and feelings. One day the eyeball bee could be the butt bee. And so on and so forth. The memory of a hive is long, they pass down knowledge from generation to generation. And although the hive itself never changes, the members do over time, and as such the preferred form of the hive can change as well.

Bee Spawn Adventurers

Bee Spawn adventurers are usually around the 8th generation in their hive, tired of sitting in the forest or highlands “haunting” passerby’s and local bears. They tend to become restless and latch onto any group that they find going somewhere other than where they are. Bee Spawn, while rather independent and mysterious, like to have groups to travel with to mimic and learn other forms that they then can shift into.

ROLEPLAYING A BEE SPAWN

If you’re playing a Bee Spawn, constant attempts to make bee puns and elongated syllables can come across as confusing or irritating rather than entertaining to the other players. You can just as easily describe the sounds your character makes and what they mean. Be clear about your character’s intentions unless you’re deliberately aiming for inscrutable or mysterious. 

Creating a vocabulary of noises for the other players to decode might sound like fun, but it can prove distracting and could slow down the game.

Bee Spawn Names

The names of these creatures can vary depending on the hive mind group that is together. They tend to latch onto somewhat whimsical names. Such as James, Snail, Snapper, Slash, Randall, Beeatrice, Buzz, and many other names in this genre.

Each swarm has an ancient surname that they go by. As time goes on, and generations of swarms die off and are replaced by their children, the surname stays while more often the common shape of the hive changes. Hives prefer surnames that are strong or intimidating, such as Killmonger, Diehard, Huntress, Shadowhand, Petuniasmasher, Whiplash, and so on.

Bee Spawn Traits

Your Bee Spawn character has the following racial traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Intelligence score increases by 1.

Age

Bee Spawn can essentially live forever. However a typical adventuring hive begins their thirst for adventure around their 8th generation. A hive goes through a generation roughly every year.

Alignment

Bee Spawn are chaotic in nature, however they tend to latch onto and follow the example of any party member in their traveling group and begin to align more closely to them. Their primary objective is the care of their hive. As such, they are generally chaotic neutral in outlook.

Size

Bee Spawn are around 5 feet tall and weigh between 90 and 120 pounds. Your size is Medium at this size. A hive can mimic any creature, they then adopt that creatures size category. However, if a hive is normally a medium sized creature, they can only shrink to one size category smaller than they are.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 45 feet. And you have a fly speed of 45 feet. Difficult terrain does not affect you. You cannot swim.

Shape Shift

You can shift the shape of the hive to look like any creature you have come in contact with. You must succeed on a DC 10 Intelligence check before shifting shape, to see if you remember what the creature you are shifting into looked like.

Smoke Vulnerability

You are vulnerable to any sort of smoke. If you enter a smokey area for 1 full round without moving, the whole hive will begin to fall asleep. After 1 full round in smoke, movement speed becomes halved and melee damage is also halved. After 2 full rounds in smoke, you have a movement speed of 0 and you are conditionally asleep. Once the smoke clears, the hive will wake up after a full round of no smoke.

Proficiencies

You are proficient in your choice of two of the following skills: Acrobatics, Arcana, History, Nature, and Survival.

Languages

You can read and write in Common and Primordial.

Natural Armor

A Bee Swarm has a natural armor bonus of +2. The calculation is as follows, 10 + Dexterity modifier + natural armor bonus.

This cannot be used if wearing armor. It is either this or what the chosen class shows for armor class. It does not stack.

Swarm Attack

As an attack action, the hive can take the Swarm action, which allows the hive to occupy the same space as the creature being attacked. This allows the hive player to roll for attack. This is done at the top of the hive player's turn. If successful, this attack does 2d6 piercing damage plus the Dexterity modifier.

This attack can only be used if wearing no armor or wearing a light cloak.