Wand Wasp

Wand Wasp CR 6



XP 2,400
N Small magical beast
Init +2 Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect magic; Perception +20

DEFENSE

AC 18, touch 14, flat-footed 15 (+2 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 natural, +1 size)
hp 76 (8d10+32)
Fort +10, Ref +8, Will +3

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft., fly 80 ft. (good)
Melee +11 claw strike (1d4+2 piercing, 19-20/x2)
Ranged wand of lightning bolt (120 ft. line, 5d6 electrical, Ref DC 15 half, 4d6 charges)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th concentration +10)

Constantdetect magic
1x/dayidentify (wands only)

STATISTICS

Str 15, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 11
Base Atk +8; CMB +9 (+11 steal); CMD 21
Feats Dodge, Greater Steal, Hover, Improved Steal
Skills Appraise +5, Fly +8, Knowledge (arcana) +15, Perception +20, Stealth +14, Use Magic Device +11; Racial Modifiers +2 Knowledge (arcana), +8 Perception
Languages understands Common or one other language, but cannot speak
Gear wand of lightning bolt (4d6 charges)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Magical Repletion (Su)

As a standard action, the wand wasp can draw energy from any wand it is using. Doing so drains 1d4+1 charges from the wand, healing the wand wasp for 2 HP per every charge drained. Excess healing is lost. If a wand wasp drains at least five charges (which can be from one wand or multiple wands) in a day, the wand wasp does not need to eat or drink for 24 hours.

Wand Master (Ex)

The wand wasp never provokes attacks of opportunity when it uses a wand in a threatened square.

ECOLOGY

Environment warm and temperate urban
Organization solitary, pair or trinary bond (3 adult parents, plus 1d6 wand wasp with young simple template)
Treasure standard (in lair and including gear – keeps various wands exclusively)

Wand wasps are a fairly common breed of mystical pest in mage’s academies and spell scriptoriums. These intensely curious, inquisitive insect-like beings are natural thieves, who perceive an alluring aura around magical creatures and objects, especially wands. Fully charged wands radiate a sensation that the highly intelligent wand wasps describe as both a rush of golden light, a delicate chiming, and the aroma of the most delicious food imaginable. Wand wasps are fairly knowledgeable, self-taught occult experts, though their knowledge of magic is limited to the purely pragmatic, and often strays into esoteric matters of a particular spells ‘flavor’ and ‘ripeness’.

Wand wasps are often daring thieves who plague city-dwelling wizards and wandmakers, stealing a fully charged trinket here and there to nourish them for weeks. Others might be a somewhat unwelcome but accepted part of a magical university’s daily life. Smarter institutions might ‘tame’ a wand wasp by offering it a regular diet of magical wands in exchange for service as a guard-beast. (These wand wasps are almost always provided non-lethal wands rather than deadly evocation-based wands.) Some wand wasps might even do double duty as tutors or identification experts, sometimes for public hire, if the language barrier can somehow be crossed.

Wand wasps are dog-sized elaborations of ordinary wasps.

These creatures lack stingers. Instead, their bulbous thorax terminates in a glowing orifice evolved to grasp and manipulate a wand as dexterously as a humanoid hand. Wand wasps tend to be cowardly, more interested in snatching a tasty wand and fleeing to fight another day than killing a pursuer. The great hazard of dealing with a wand wasp is they tend to favor evocation-based battle wands, and often carry one of these deadly magical weapons with them. These wands are a more than capable substitute for an ordinary wasp’s poisonous stinger, and when threatened a wand wasp is dangerously indiscriminate with the weapon. Wand wasps don’t care if they burn down an entire city district with wild fireballs or lightning bolts, as long as they kill whatever’s chasing them.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Nemesis Unleashed Volume II. Copyright 2019, Otherverse Games. Author: Chris A. Field

scroll to top