Beastmaster BeeKeeper

[PinstripedHart]

I was toying around with the idea of having an army of bees as a weapon, and came up with a homebrew companion for the beastmaster ranger. First I took the Swarm of Insects from M.M. pg338 and applied the wasp variant. Changes follow:

- Armor Class 12 (natural armor) - changed to - 11+dex (so that it scales with levels)
- 5d8 hit dice - changed to - 3d8 hit dice
- Bites, +3 to hit, 4d4, or 2d4 at half HP - changed to - Stings (flavor), +3 to hit, 2d6, or 1d6 at half HP (to make the damage similar to other companions)

I then added this custom feature - Hive (Each HP represents a bee, your queen is constantly birthing more larvae, on a short rest you may expend one hit die (max.) to determine how many new bees reach adulthood. On a long rest you expend any remaining hit die before re-gaining them.)

Everything else remains the same, and we should assume they are magic bees or a special breed or something, so they don't just die after stinging a creature. heh

I would also use the two companion skill proficiencies to give them stealth and slight of hand, with 3 strength they could theoretically carry up to 45 lbs as a group XD

So, any thoughts? too over powered? what would you change to make it better?

[Naanomi]

Learn the Goodberry spell and refluff it as magic honey

[PinstripedHart]

Hah! good call, wanted to factor the honey in somehow, was thinking as a tool proficiency for the beehive.

[rmnimoc]

They don't really need to be magic bees, you already used Wasps and they don't die when they sting. Just go with honey wasps and now you've got basically-bees that make honey and don't die when they sting things.

[PinstripedHart]

Yeah, but then you miss out on your DM quoting nic cage with "NOT THE BEES" all the time.
Bees just seems more fun to yell than wasps.