Nest of Bees?

[Fortinbro]

http://deadliestwarrior.wikia.com/wiki/Nest_of_Bees

Could anyone help me come up with a way to make this a weapon in D&D? I'm thinking of having a group of enemy druids use it in my game.

I'm thinking it should do some amount of d8 with a reflex save? Normally there are 32 arrows but 32d8 seems a bit extreme.

Another problem is that each arrow is usually coated in poison or something similar. Multiple arrow hits should equal multiple doses of poison then, no?

[OzymandiasX]

It would be an area of effect attack. Since it is a physical volley, I'd say that the further you aim it, the larger area it hits but the less damage it'd do. Also, it would never do the full 32d8 to a single target as it is AoE... unless you're attacking a huge+ creature.

Maybe it could be something like this:

At a range of up to 30' it has a radius of 5' and does 8d8
At a range of up to 60' it has a radius of 10' and does 4d8
At a range of up to 90' it has a radius of 15' and does 2d8
At a range of up to 120' it has a radius of 20' and does 1d8
(All with Reflex save for half)

I know the numbers don't add up exactly right, but it could work as simplified rules. You could multiply the range increments by 10 if you want it to actually be rocket-powered and have a range of 1800' as in the link.

As for poison, multiple poisoned hits made from the same attack usually don't poison multiple times. Also, it would take a lot of doses of poison to coat all the projectiles for an area attack like this.


Out of curiosity, other than being called 'Nest of Bees' why would druids be using a gunpowder-based weapon?

[Fortinbro]

They stole some from a downed airship and while they don't have firearms themselves can nonetheless put gunpowder to use.

Maybe I could do AOE and have those damaged by it just automatically have to save vs whatever poison.

8d8 to 10d8 seems reasonable in close range.

[OzymandiasX]

So if your weapon jams are you affected by the bees? Also, you should use a swarm of bees as the base creature. There is no way this weapon does 32d8 points of damage. That's ludicrous.

The weapon has nothing to do with insects. It is a gunpowder-based piece of artillery. lol I think you may have missed that part.

[OzymandiasX]

Also, as an interesting tidbit, Mythbuster did an episode with a variant of this weapon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM2NcPwsngU

[Fortinbro]

Here's what I went with so far for the statistics:

Damage (small) *8d6 + Poison in a 30ft spread Reflex:20 for half damage.

Damage (medium) *8d8 + Poison in a 30ft spread Reflex: 20 for half damage.

Range: 180 ft *

The nest of bees is an inaccurate weapon. It only deals full damage within 60 ft. At 120 ft, it deals 4d6/4d8 and at 180 ft it deals 2d6/2d8

Weight: 6.5 lbs

Reloading a Nest of Bees requires three consecutive full-round actions.

Hardness: 2

Cost: 5 gold for the case. See individual prices for gunpowder, poisons, and arrows.

[Kislath]

Oh!
Ha! I thought it was about an actual nest of bees, too. I killed a character with one of those once, a halfling, when she recklessly rode a horse into a dense apiary and knocked over several hives.

Why would druids be using a weapon like this?