[ Spoiler ]
I have been thinking about having an insect shaman be the major villian in an upcoming campaign. I've been thinking about making the insect totem a Bee shaman, instead of the ones out of the book. I'm really thinking of using the spirit powers for the Wasps and make it more of a roleplaying aspect to them than any hard stats.
The three major points I'm looking into is:
1) "Give your all for the queen" RP rule: Drone and Worker Spirits and their metahuman quislings would all be motivated to, at all costs, to protect the Queen and Hive, up to and including giving their lives. This pretty much goes off the worker bee killing itself when stinging in defense of the hive. Suicide squads and kamikazes would be the norm here, and I can see Spirits willfully sacrificing metahumans before joining in the fight.
2) Adopting the infiltration angle of the Africanized honeybee, known as "Assassin behavior": the reason why Africanized bees have gotten so prolific has not only been their aggressiveness but the Africanized bees have been known to take over hives in secret, by sending infiltrating workers to locate and kill the infiltrated hive's queen and install their queen, without the invaded hive's drones and workers ever knowing. I'm planning on applying this to the Bee spirits and their followers infiltrating human organizations and corporations and taking them over. Granted, UB did the same thing, but I kinda what the campaign to have it's own paranoia.
3) The defense only behavior: I'm thinking this could allow them to remain undiscovered. If a hive is discovered, they simply compartmentalize the hive, move anything necessary, and route around whatever damage is caused by outsiders. The beehive can simply accumulate and grow passively and cautiously, such behavior advantageous in the post-UB era insects.
I have also been playing around with the concept of having the insect shaman as a Sterile Toxic, kind of a double whammy. I'm probably bending and breaking the rules, but I kinda falling in love with the idea. Desire Reflection and Influence would certainly be benefitial, especially with the high attrition amongst fanatical followers. and the highly regimented and "flawless" lifestyle of Sterile Toxics would be attractive to a shaman interested in the Bee totem. I plan on having a minor runs against an low level insect shamans, to get them familiar with them, but have this sprung on them as they get higher. In fact, I plan on having the insect shaman as an Angel, contacting them, supporting them materially, and providing them with high-paying runs.
The three major points I'm looking into is:
1) "Give your all for the queen" RP rule: Drone and Worker Spirits and their metahuman quislings would all be motivated to, at all costs, to protect the Queen and Hive, up to and including giving their lives. This pretty much goes off the worker bee killing itself when stinging in defense of the hive. Suicide squads and kamikazes would be the norm here, and I can see Spirits willfully sacrificing metahumans before joining in the fight.
2) Adopting the infiltration angle of the Africanized honeybee, known as "Assassin behavior": the reason why Africanized bees have gotten so prolific has not only been their aggressiveness but the Africanized bees have been known to take over hives in secret, by sending infiltrating workers to locate and kill the infiltrated hive's queen and install their queen, without the invaded hive's drones and workers ever knowing. I'm planning on applying this to the Bee spirits and their followers infiltrating human organizations and corporations and taking them over. Granted, UB did the same thing, but I kinda what the campaign to have it's own paranoia.
3) The defense only behavior: I'm thinking this could allow them to remain undiscovered. If a hive is discovered, they simply compartmentalize the hive, move anything necessary, and route around whatever damage is caused by outsiders. The beehive can simply accumulate and grow passively and cautiously, such behavior advantageous in the post-UB era insects.
I have also been playing around with the concept of having the insect shaman as a Sterile Toxic, kind of a double whammy. I'm probably bending and breaking the rules, but I kinda falling in love with the idea. Desire Reflection and Influence would certainly be benefitial, especially with the high attrition amongst fanatical followers. and the highly regimented and "flawless" lifestyle of Sterile Toxics would be attractive to a shaman interested in the Bee totem. I plan on having a minor runs against an low level insect shamans, to get them familiar with them, but have this sprung on them as they get higher. In fact, I plan on having the insect shaman as an Angel, contacting them, supporting them materially, and providing them with high-paying runs.
Well, what do you think, sirs?