Abeil (Soldier & Vassal)
HD: d8
Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Features |
| 1 | +1 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Abeil Body, Drone, Poison |
| 2 | +2 | +0 | +0 | +3 | Hive Mind, Flight of the Bumble Bee, Insect Grab |
| 3 | +3 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Abeil Soldier, Gut Suspicion, +1 Str, +1 Con |
| 4 | +4 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Special Enemy, Enfeebling Poison, +1 Str |
| 5 | +5 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Growth, Better to Die for the Hive than to Live for Yourself, +1 Str |
| 6 | +6 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Stormwing, Swift Response, +1 Str, +1 Con |
Class Skills (4+ Int Modifier,quadruple at 1st level):Balance, Bluff, Craft(any), Diplomacy, Intimidate Knowledge(any), Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival.
Proficiencies: The Abeil is proficient with simple weapons and whatever natural weapons it acquires from this class.
Features:Abeil body:At 1st level an Abeil loses all racial bonuses it had and gains monstruous humanoid traits(basically darvision 60 foot) and has a base speed 30 ft. An Abeil is a medium monstruous humanoid with two natural claw attacks dealing 1d4+Str mod damage each and a Sting natural attack dealing 1d6+1/2 Str mod damage.
Drone: As a fullround action a number of times per day equal to his HD, an Abeil can beats its wings to create a droning buzz in a 60-foot spread. Each creature in the area must make a Will save (DC 10+1/2HD+Con mod) or fall asleep as a Sleep spell. There is no HD limit for this effect. Abeils are immune to their own drone attacks as well as those of other abeils. With one week of intensive training consisting of submiting an ally to weakened versions of Drone, an Abeil can turn other creature immune to his personal Drone attack, but not that of other Abeils.
At 10 HD the Abeil can affect even creatures normally immune to this effect, but they gain a +5 bonus on their saves.
Poison: An abeil delivers its poison (Fortitude save DC 10+1/2 HD+Con mod) with each successful sting attack. The initial and secondary damage are 1d4 Strenght damage.
Hive Mind: At 2nd level an Abeil develops a mysterious direct connection with those of its own kind. All Abeils whitin 500 feet of each other are in constant communication. If one is aware of a particular danger, they all are. If one in the group is not flat-footed, none of them are. No Abeil whitin range is considered flanked unless all are. An Abeil may also spend 8 hours talking over a matter of diferent topics with a non-Abeil creature to forge a unique bond with them, that allows that Abeil to treat its companion as another Abeil for the purposes of Hive Mind. The Abeil can only maintain a number of such companions at one time up to its highest mental Stat Mod, but he may trade old ones for new ones.
Flight of the Bumble Bee:At 2nd level the Abeil grows short insect wings that can be used to fly at 60 ft speed with average maneuverability, but only for a few seconds at a time, so if he ends his turn in the air he instantly falls. At 4 HD the Abeil can fly at 60 ft with average maneuverability all the time whitout problem.
Insect Grab: At 2nd level if an Abeil hits a single target with both claws on the same round, it deals normal damage and can attempt to start a grapple as a free action whitout provoking an attack of oportunity. If it gets a hold, it automatically hits with its String. Thereafter, the Abeil has the option to conduct the grapple normally, or simple use its claws to hold the opponent (-20 penalty on grapple checks, but the Abeil is not considered grappled). In either case, each succesful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals damage from both claws and the sting.
At 8 HD the Abeil also ignores Freedom of movement effects.
Abeil Soldier:At 3rd level the Abeil starts developing warlike tastes while his chitin hardens. He gains proficiency with all martial weapons and DR/magic equal to his HD.
Gut Suspicion:Abeil soldiers are trained to protect their people from all danger, and as far as their instincts tell them, any other nearby civilization is a threat. At 3rd level the Abeil adds his Con mod to Sense Motive checks.
Ability Score Increase: The Abeil gains a permanent +1 to
Str at levels 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Con at levels 3 and 6.
For a total of +4 Str and +2 Con at 6th level.
Special Enemy: At 4th level an Abeil may select a creature type as a special enemy. This works exactly as the Ranger's favorored enemy ability, except the Initial bonus is +2 plus +1 for each 4 HD of the Abeil. Ranger and Abeil levels stack for calculating when new favored enemies are gained and their bonuses, except the +1/4 HD only applies to the first one.
Enfeebling Poison: At 4th level, the Abeil's poison deals 2d4 Str damage as initial and secondary effect. At 8 HD it will deal 1d8 Str damage instead, and every 4 HD thereafter it increases one extra die size. At 10 HD it can affect even creatures immune to its effects, but they gain a +5 bonus on their saves.
In addition the Abeil can coat his weapons and ammo with his poison whitout risking to poison himself, but such poison only remains "fresh" for 1 hour per HD or untill the weapon strikes, after which it dries out and becomes useless. It has no commercial value.
Growth: At 5th level the Abeil grows one size category. His AC, bonus to hit, base damage, grapple and skills change acordingly, but he doesn't get any ability score bonus or penalties.
Better to Die for The Hive than to Live for Yourself:Cowardice from the individual threatens the group, and Abeil soldiers will rather throw themselves to their deaths than to let their ideals falter. At 5th level the Abeil may choose to automatically suceed on a failed Will save as an immediate action, but then the Abeil becomes flat-footed for 1d4 rounds as he's too focused on his ideals to notice much else.
Stormwing:At 6th level as a fullround action, an Abeil in flight can hover and deliver a destructive sonic attack with its wings. The attack deals 1d6 damage per HD to all enemies whitin a 40-foot burst (Reflex save DC 10+1/2 HD+Con mod for half damage). Once the Abeil uses this ability, it must wait 1d4 rounds before using it again.
1/day per 2 HD, the Abeil may instead deliver an even more devastating sonic attack with its wings. Add the Abeil's Con mod to the damage inflicted and oponents failing their saves are dazed for 1 round.
Swift Response: At 5th level the Abeil's base speed increases to 40 ft and his flight speed increases to 90 ft and increases to Good maneuverability.
Comments
The Abeil Soldier's one of the few MM II monsters that's not grossly over or under-CRd (not the queen of course).
I took the chance and made the Vassal as well, those are the two first levels granting all the base abilities. Drone, poison, grapple, multiple natural weapons, hive mind, limited flight (that gets better), that's one nasty bug. I made the initial poison non-scaling because that was already pretty front-loaded.
Levels 3-6 upgrade the humble vassal to the sturdy soldier. No armor proficiency or natural armor plus just 1d8 HD means it's somewhat squishy, so for one I gave it DR/magic fully equal to HD instead of half like most other monsters. Sure it grows obsolete quickly, but at this levels monsters with magic attacks are still rare, and by 7th level you'll be geting levels of something that can get armor.
Fast flight speed however allows it to keep mobile while peppering oponents with ranged weapons, and I added the BTDFTHTLFY for representing the whole "drone existing only for fighting" thingy. In some cases however it may be better to fail the will save than render yourself flat-footed. Notice that since you can't take immediate actions while flatfooted, you can't either spam it every round.
It also has a wide array of offensive trick between Favored Special enemy, sleep, poison, grapple, wingstorm, it can inflict a wide array of status effects while laying out the pain. Wear down your oponent's strenght and then get a good hold of them!
Trivia, in my mother language Abeil is quite close to abelha, our word for "bee".
So if you want to play abelha-man, the Abeil's for you!
