Dream Wasp, Drone

Small beast, unaligned

Armor Class 14 (studded leather)
Hit Points 36 (8d8)
Speed 10 ft., fly 50 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
12 (+1)	16 (+3)	10 (+0)	5 (-3)	12 (+1)	5 (-3)

Saving Throws Con +9
Skills Perception +2, Stealth +2, Survival +3
Damage Resistances nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
Damage Immunities poison
Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12
Languages Giant
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny insect. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.

ACTIONS

• Stings. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target in the swarm’s space. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, take 17 (5d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage of a successful one. A failed saving throw also charms the target. But this strange, disorienting charm puts the creature in a swirl of hallucinations preventing them from attacking any dream wasp from the same colony. At the start of each turn, a creature currently charmed by the dream wasp’s sting can attempt a DC 12 Will saving throw.

TACTICS

Initial Round-Dream wasp swarms move swiftly to debilitate creatures with their stings. If a drone is among the swarms, it keeps to the edges, swooping in to specifically stubborn or troublesome prey. They have an innate sense for arcane magic and target those using it.

Defensive Round-Swarms give little heed to defense and tend to attack until dissipated or destroyed. Individual drones are cautious, fleeing when reduced to fewer than half of their hit points or when the swarms have taken substantial damage. A drone that escapes can warn the queen and the colony of the new threat within their territory, and such intrusion always provokes reprisal.

Victorious Round-Once victorious, the dream wasps quickly move on. Dream wasps leave their victims to rot on the forest floor, waiting for decay to make the meat more palatable. This typically takes a week, at which point they return to feast.

ABOUT

Amid humid hazes and azure sky, lone wasps drift sightlessly through the jungle forest, searching for overly ripe fruit and rotten meat. When a colony of dream wasps comes together, their nature shifts to violent territoriality that drives them to hunt in swarms. These swarms are led by the larger, more cunning drones and the colony’s queen. When colony size reaches into the thousands, the entire collective displays further heightened aggression and strange magical powers, waging war against neighboring colonies and strangers with equal ferocity.

As a dream wasp colony grows, so does their bizarre ability to use magic. Some believe the wasps somehow connect to the Dreamlands and communicate with each other in that strange dimension. Even more puzzling, while large colonies are capable of intricate planning and devious traps, there seems to be no way of communicating with dream wasps either by symbolic language or magic.

Dream Wasp Colonies

• A small dream wasp colony consists of anywhere between 2-4 swarms, a pair of drones, and a queen.
• A large colony has 4-8 swarms, a trio of drones, and a queen, and each gains the large colony modifications below.
• A massive colony has more than 8 swarms, a half-dozen drones, and a queen, and each gains the massive colony modifications below.

Large Colony Modifications

Drones gain Intelligence increases to 10 (+0), and they gain the following ability.

• Innate Spellcasting. The dream wasp’s innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 10, +12 to hit with spell attacks). The dream wasp can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material component.
  • At will: mage hand, silent image
  • 1/day: sleep, misty step

Each queen’s Intelligence increases to 14 (+2), increasing their spells save to DC 13 and +15 to hit with a spell attack. The gain the following innate spells in addition to the ones they already have.

• At will: poison spray
• 1/day: hold person, invisibility