Abeil, Vassal (CR 2)
Medium Monstrous Humanoid
Alignment: Usually lawful
Initiative: +1 (Dex); Senses: darkvision 60 ft. and Listen +3
AC: 11 (+1 Dex), touch 11, flat-footed 10
Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp)
Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +4
Speed: 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (average)
Space: 5 ft./5 ft.
Base Attack +6; Grapple +10
Attack: Claws +1 melee and sting -4 melee, or light flail +1 melee and sting -4 melee, or javelin +2 ranged
Full Attack: 2 claws +1 melee and sting -4 melee, or light flail +1 melee and sting -4 melee, or javelin +2 ranged
Damage: Claw 1d4, light flail 1d8, sting 1d6 plus poison, javelin 1d6
Special Attacks: Drone, improved grab, poison
Abilities: Str 11, Dex 13, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 9
Special Qualities: hive mind
Feats: Dodge
Skills: Craft or Knowledge (any one) +4, Listen +3, Search +1, and Survival +4
Advancement: By character class
Climate/Terrain: Temperate or warm hills, plains, or desert
Organization: Solitary, pair, team (3-8), or crew (10-40)
Treasure/Possessions: Standard
Source:
Monster Manual II
Abeils are insect-like humanoids known for their industriousness and their complex social structure. They are commonly referred to as "bee people." Their society has an expansionist philosophy -- a fact that troubles those whose lands they intrude upon. Rather than resorting to war, abeils prefer to overcome rivals through superior resourcefulness and industry.
An abeil looks like a cross between an elf and a bee. A vassal or queen stands more than 7 feet high and has slender but sinewy legs and arms. A soldier is at least 10 feet tall and considerably more muscular than either of the other two varieties. An abeil's hands and feet have four digits each. Its body is covered with bristly fur, colored in alternating bands of black and yellow. The creature's bead and facial features resemble those of an elf, except that the abeil has black faceted eyes and long antennae. Like a bee, an abeil has translucent wings.
Vassals are the backbone of abeil society. It is they who provide the menial labor for the hive. They gather pollen, maintain the hive-city, and obey their queen's every command. Vassals produce the necessary goods for the abeil society, provide both mundane and specialized services, and advance the culture and technology of their hive city. A few even choose to leave behind their mundane tasks and pursue more individualistic paths, such as philosophy, art, religion, and politics. These abeils form an elite conclave called the vassal court that reports directly to the queen and serves as her council.
Abeils speak Common, Elven, and Sylvan.
Combat
Unless ordered to attack, vassals flee combat to notify the hive of the threat. When armed for battle, they fight with light flails.
All abeils prefer to fight from the sky, making ranged attacks and sonic assaults upon their foes below. If forced to fight on the ground, they coordinate their attacks to make the best use of their ranged weapons (and spells, for those capable of casting them). In melee, they prefer to swarm around particularly tough opponents and sting them with their enfeebling poison. Abeils fight to the death because they believe that cowardice on the battlefield could doom the hive. They rarely wear armor because it impedes their ability to fly.
Drone (Su): As a full-round action, an abeil can beat its wings to create a droning buzz in a 60-foot spread. Each creature in the area must make a Will save (DC 9) or fall asleep as the sleep spell. There is no Hit Dice limit for this effect Abeils are immune to their own drone attacks as well as those of other abeils.
Improved Grab (Ex): If an abeil hits a single target that is at least one size category smaller than itself with both claws, it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. (A vassal's grapple bonus is +1.) If it gets a hold, it automatically hits with its sting. Thereafter, the abeil has the option to conduct the grapple normally, or simply use its claws to hold the opponent (-20 penalty on grapple check, but the abeil is not considered grappled). In either case, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals damage from both claws and the sting.
Poison (Ex): A vassal delivers its poison (Fortitude save DC 10) with each successful sting attack. The initial and secondary damage is the same (1d4 points of Strength damage).
Hive Mind (Ex): All abeils within 25 miles of their queen are in constant communication. If one is aware of a particular danger, they all are. If one in a particular group is not flat-footed, none of them are. No abeil in such a group is considered flanked unless they all are.
ABEIL SOCIETY
The hive-city is the central hub of the abeils' busy society. Vassals buzz here and there, ensuring that vital city services continue, while patrols of soldiers vigilantly keep the peace and protect the hive against outside threats.
Abeils are highly imperialistic, though they are not so much concerned with conquering other races as they are with setting up new hive-cities. Nevertheless, this goal puts them into conflict with nearly every other race they encounter since societies in their path must fight for space and resources or be pushed out by the abeil civilization.
When a hive-city becomes too large, one of the young queens is given a substance called royal jelly, which converts her into a full-fledged queen. She then takes twenty vassals and five soldiers and leaves to set up a new hive-city at a previously scouted location.
ABEIL CHARACTERS
Although abeil society is extremely rigid, there is enough freedom within a hive to allow an individual abeil its own choice of profession. Even so, relatively few abeils desire to progress as characters. For those that do, the favored class is druid for queens or vassals and ranger for soldiers.
An abeil PC's effective character level (ECL) is its class level plus the appropriate modifier: vassal +3, soldier +11, queen +21. For example, a 1st-level vassal druid has an ECL of 4 and is the equivalent of a 4th-level character.