Weekly Drop 007 - Insectoids / Hive (Patreon)

The hive reaches its highest ranks this week. With the arrival of the final Psithalides, the brood is now complete, bringing the hive to a total of 13 unique statblocks. And this week these are no ordinary troopers — this is the upper caste: powerful psionic entities that command, shape, and dominate the battlefield through overwhelming force and alien intelligence.

• Monsters (with variants): Psithalide Overseer (CR 13), Psithalide Broodmother (CR 18), Psithalide Overqueen (CR 25)

• Item: Crawling Crossbow - a moving crossbow that you can use in a turret-style fashion (Uncommon → Very Rare)

• Spell: Hive Link - a level 3 enchantment spell to sync up your team work and improve your skill checks

• NPC: Caelum Vex - a human cult fanatic fascinated by insects

• Encounter: Broodmother's March (APL 15) - a psithalide swarm is migrating, time to break out some prisoners from them!

Definitely the monsters this week and in particular the Psithalide Overqueen. There is a certain beauty in designing those truly powerful CR 20+ creatures. At that level, monsters stop feeling like stronger enemies and start feeling like events. I just love creating creatures that can genuinely make players think, “Oh no…” before initiative is even rolled...

More content is added every week - and past drops continue to expand with VTT support.

🧟 Monsters

• Psithalide Overseer

• Psithalide Broodmother

• Psithalide Overqueen

🗡️ Item

• Crawling Crossbow

⚡ Spell

• Hive Link

🧝 NPC

• Caelum Vex

⚔️ Encounter

• Broodmother's March