Public Design Workshop

[tcglkn]

I would probably give the actual Bees Stealth Flying. Simplifies both designs a tad.

[Yodaking]

A new insect swarm for Ant-Man to use would be cool. I feel like getting rid of a swarm of bees with a pistol would be a little more difficult than 1 life, 1 def. Like you could shoot at it and kill a dozen bees, but then the other 70 bees just ignore the bullets and sting you.

[tcglkn]

I would just give the Bees Tiny Stealth actually. Then you don't have to have the LEA line in the Bee's power or Swarm's.

[IAmBatman]

Yeah, Tiny Stealth makes a lot of sense on the Bees.

Love that take on Swarm (I'm sure you're not surprised at all ).

The Bees here have the same problem as the Killer Bees, though. They're just not very good. They're nothing offensively, because Stingers Out only works defensively (maybe you should be able to use it on your own turn and make it an unblockable instead of an auto-wound, so Insect Control has some worth?). And right now in order to use Stingers Out defensively, they have to survive. How often does a 1 Life, 1 Defense figure survive an attack?

[MrNobody]

Yeah, I was definitely intending to make Stingers Out a bit useless, but it's probably too useless? Giving them something to do on their own turn would probably make them better Controlees as well.

Not sure about Tiny Stealth here, since the other 2 Swarms don't have it. I usually translate TS as being "too small to see", not just "too small to hit" and I'm not sure a giant swam of bees really fits that role.

What about something like this?

POISON STING
Instead of attacking, choose an adjacent figure. Roll the 20-sided die, adding 1 to the roll for each other Bee Swarm you control adjacent to the chosen figure. If you roll 16 or higher, the chosen figure receives one wound. Continue rolling for Poison Sting until the chosen figure does not receive a wound. Destructible objects are not affected by Poison Sting.

INSUBSTANTIAL 3
A Bee Swarm rolls 3 additional defense dice when rolling defense against a normal attack from a figure who is not adjacent.

FLYING

Does that feel too similar to the Fire Ants? They both would probably share a similar role in the game, so I wouldn't want them feeling too much alike.

[Splash]

Swarm!!!!! Yes!!!

[IAmBatman]

I wouldn't do a D20 roll. Maybe go back to one power and give them a D20 wound avoidance/auto wounding power instead? (Although that still doesn't give you anything to do with them on your turn ....).

[tcglkn]

Since it’s a swarm you could potentially just reuse Evasive Strike from Batman. Evasive Sting would be a better name but I think a straight reuse would be fine too.

[Yodaking]

That feels too similar to the Fire Ants IMO. I would try using a combat die instead of the d20 as a result. You could maybe change the odds based on how many swarms were adj.

SWARMING STINGS
Instead of attacking, you may choose an adjacent figure and roll a combat die. If 1 Swarm of Bees is adjacent to the targeted figure, a blank results in one wound. If 2 Swarms of Bees are adjacent to the target, a shield results in one wound. If 3 Swarms of Bees are adjacent to the target, a skull results in one wound. If more than 3 Swarms of Bees are adjacent to the target, a skull results in one wound, and a shield results in two wounds.

[IAmBatman]

What if it was like the original Stingers Out power but the power triggered when you rolled defense for any Bee Swarm you controlled? So attack one swarm and you could get swarmed?

If you did like that and Deadly Strike and that Insubstantial power, that could be a pretty cool swarming power set.

[tcglkn]

I really prefer keeping common insects to 2 powers if possible since several figures allow you to take turns with multiples of them and I don't want them to take up too much of your brain power, they should just accent the hero not take all the focus.

[IAmBatman]

For sure. The defensive power was the main part I liked there. Basically I liked Nobody's original defensive power, just feared it was unusable. I think the way to make it usable is to have it more like the Civies where it triggers off of any of them being attacked.

Swarm, swarm, swarm!