Abeil
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Abeil are a race of humanoid bees in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Unlike the Thriae of Golarion, who are comprised exclusively of sexy bee-women, the abeil are a race with both male and female genders; only the ruling queens, who serve as the foundation for their telepathic hive-minds, are exclusively female.
Abeils are insectlike 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. The race is divided into three distinctive castes; Thrall, Soldier and Queen, each of which is reinforced by biology. 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 head 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. Abeils speak Common, Elven, and Sylvan.
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.
Soldiers account for fully a third of an abeil hive-city’s population. The soldiers are the queen’s army — the first and last line of defense for their hive. They are trained to respond swiftly to any danger. Soldiers consider most nearby civilizations to bee threats and treat uninvited visitors with grave suspicion. All abeils can produce a slumber-inducing buzzing sound by vibrating their wings, and sting with a venomous stinger. Soldiers have the unique ability to generate a destructive sonic pulse whilst in flight, called a Stormwing attack.
At the pinnacle of any abeil society is the queen, who rules with absolute power. All the abeils in her realm live and die at her command. Though she was born to rule, the typical queen routinely seeks the advice of her court before committing to any major decisions. The queen selects a mate from her vassal court and personally rears future queens. Each hive-city maintains 1–5 juvenile queens in addition to the reigning queen. Each such young queen has the same statistics as a vassal.
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 socieities in their path must fight for space and resources or bee 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.
Although abeil have the subtopic "Abeil Characters" in their entry in the Monster Manual 2 for 3rd edition, where they debuted, they don't have a proper PC race writeup, being one of those "infer the crunch from the monster stats" races.
In Anchorome[edit | edit source]
Two distinct abeil cultures inhabit the Forgotten Realms region of Anchorome. The older and more widespread version hailed from Abeir, but fled to Anchorome when that continent was transplanted to Abeir by the Spellplague. During this settling process, they lost their two divine patrons; the god Ah'Muzen'Cab, the divine patriarch of the race, was slain by their traditional enemies, the dragons, whilst the goddess known only as the Queen of Queens fled upon the death of her mate. These abeil are pretty much your standard abeil; regimented, loyal to their hive above all else, and not cruel but certainly not sympathetic towards outsiders.
The smaller, younger abeil culture is known as the Bee Tribe. These abeil descend from a colony that was mutated by the touch of the Spellplague, which had the effect of emphasizing their elfin traits over their bee-like traits. Aside from looking more humanoid, these abeil have a significant chaotic streak in them that their "purestrain" counterparts lack. This most prominently manifests in their preferring a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle, aided by swarms of bees domesticated through their innate insectile telepathy, and their more human-like approach to love and procreation. They do make natural go-betweens for humanoids and their purestrain abeil cousins, but they get much worse with the thri-kreen, who seem to regard these "bee elves" as a delicacy.
Purestrain PCs[edit | edit source]
- Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
- Size: Medium
- Speed: 30 feet
- Poison Sting: Once per long rest, you can attempt to sting a creature within 5 feet. The creature takes 1d8 + Str bonus Piercing damage and is Poisoned for 1 minute, unless it passes a DC (8 + your Proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier) Constitution save, whereuipon the damage is halved and it isn't poisoned.
- Drone: Once per long rest, you can force all creatures within a 30ft radius to fall asleep for 1 minute unless they pass a DC (8 + your Proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier) Wisdom save. Immunity to sleep shields a creature against the Drone.
- Subrace: Choose either the Vassal, Soldier or Queen subrace.
Vassal Abeil
- Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity, +1 Intelligence
- Fly Speed 30 feet
- Worker Bee: You gain one Tool Proficiency from the following list: Carpenter's Tools, Mason's Tools, or TInker's Tools.
Soldier Abeil
- Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
- Flying Warrior: You have a 50ft fly speed when unarmored, and can fly whilst wearing Light Armor at the cost of reducing your Fly speed to 30 feet.
Queen Abeil
- Ability Score Increase: +2 Charisma
- Fly speed 40 feet
- Authority: You have Advantage on and double your Proficiency bonus with Persuasion checks when making them against abeil.
Bee Tribe PCs[edit | edit source]
- Abiliy Score Increase: +2 Wisdom, +1 Dexterity
- Size: Medium
- Base Speed: 30 feet
- Insect Eyes: Creatures attempting to surprise you suffer Disadvantage on their Stealth checks. You have Proficiency in Perception.
- Arcane Sting: You can cast Magic Missile as a 1st level spell once per short rest.
- Speak With Bees: YOu can communicate simple ideas with swarms of bees.