Arbeelest
Greetings adventurers!
Bees are just the most fascinating insects, and not just for their penchant to produce a delicious sweetener that we all know and love to add to our tea. No, they have complex communities and social signals that they share with one another. They offer up their lives to protect the colony, yet can be extremely docile when they know they are under no threat. They move about pollen in nature, inadvertently helping to spread more plant life that they then use as their own food sources. They live in complex hierarchies with assigned roles. Oh, you just wanted to hear about the weapon, that’s fine then…
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Design notes from Matthew:
This is one of those items that comes in at VERY different points of power when it comes to each of the systems that we design for. I knew this would be the case from the start when I came up with the idea for a bee slinging crossbow, but that still didn’t stop it from being a somewhat interesting design process. The two swarms I wanted to use come in at very different power levels so lets talk about that.
In 5E, the swarm of insects (or swarm of wasps, they’re exactly the same) come with a low AC, low HP, and somewhat minimal damage. They are more of an annoyance and one more thing to deal with/chip away at when you’re in a combat scenario. I knew that I could get away with having them be thrown out more often, so I went a little unconventional and basically gave the skill an hour cooldown. Normally you would have x times per day, but letting players use this a bit more often at this rarity just felt closer to something meaningful.
On the PF2E side, wasp swarms were basically the best option to achieve the type of damage and threat I wanted. They can sting, poison, and overall be a rather big problem until they’re dealt with. Something you have to consider though, is that this is basically the same level of power as a 5th level Summon Animal spell, with a more exclusive pool associated with it. That means you really can’t let it outshine spell casters completely. I got around this with the twice a day limit and also making it a single target the dissipates at the end. Balance is all about knowing what’s out there and avoiding stepping on toes!
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Comments (2)
Love this item but shouldn't the Pathfinder version bee an actual arbalest since that is a weapon in the game.
It could certainly be if you desired. The balancing point for this one made more sense around a heavy crossbow though than an Arbalest considering the Reload 2 vs Reload 1. That was at least my approach.