BX Monsters A to Z: Killer Bee

 One monster that captured my interest right away was the killer bee from the Basic Set. I'm not really sure why, exactly, but when I set out to expand the outdoor map from B2, one of the first encounter areas I wrote up was a hive of killer bees. I'd like to note that in the next revision of the rules, the Frank Mentzer-edited Basic Set, the killer bee was listed simply as "Bee, Giant." Same monster, same stats, but "killer bee" suggests something more than just a big honeybee -- it's aggressive and fearsome. It's a killer. Anyway...

Killer bees are a bit odd among the critters of the D&D bestiary. They're described as being one foot long, which is gigantic relative to normal bees and other insects, but not stupidly large. They're not hard to kill, having AC 7 and only 1/2 Hit Die, but they are not an encounter to be taken lightly, even by mid-level PCs. Why? Because every successful attack features a save-or-die poison. Your 4th-level fighter with 25 hp can take the paltry 1-3 points of damage from the stinger, no problem, but miss that saving throw, and it's time to say good night. You've just been done in by a creature with the durability of a kobold. Regardless of whether the victim saves or not, if the attack hits the bee dies, just like real life honeybees do. That's a pretty rough way to whittle down the number of bees, though. Plus, the stinger continues to do 1 point of damage per round until a round is spent pulling it out, which means skipping an attack and a chance to take out a bee before it can attempt to sting. Get stung by several bees in a round, and even if you make all your saves, the cumulative damage might finish you off anyway, assuming you can only pull out one stinger each round, while the others keep draining your hp. 

Killer bees make their hives underground, and it's kind of implied that this might be within a larger dungeon complex, not just a random hole in the ground. You can encounter 1-6 bees in a dungeon, and 5-30 in the wilderness or a hive, and they'll attack anyone coming within 30 feet of the hive. That's potentially a whole lot of save-or-die attacks. They fly faster than even an unencumbered character can move, at 150' (50'), and have a morale score of 9, so running away is probably not a viable option once they're riled up. 

The hive is always guarded by at least 10 bees, at least four of which will have a full 1 HD (no dice range or formula for how many there are, so apparently the exact number is at the DM's discretion) and one will be a 2 HD queen who can sting repeatedly without dying. The hive will also contain about two pints of special honey that heals 1-4 points of damage if the entire amount is eaten. That's a hell of a lot of honey to gulp down, but if a party can get their hands on it without too much risk, it's a nice score for low-level adventurers without a lot of options for healing.

Probably the best way to take on a hive of killer bees is with a sleep spell, which will neutralize anywhere from 4 to 32 ordinary killer bees, plus, hopefully the soldiers and queen. Smoke seems like a good option, too, though no guidelines are given. It might not make the bees completely docile, but disorienting them feels right. Maybe it makes each bee only 25% likely to attack each round. 

A couple of additional questions come to my mind. What sort of flowers do foot-long bees visit to gather raw materials for making medicinal honey? And why do they venture into dungeons? Is there something in there that they need? Because B/X, to its credit, avoids obsessing over questions of monster ecology, those are things for the individual DM to decide as needed. 

The only thing I'd change about killer bees is to make the honey a little more potent, by which I mean I'd decrease the effective dose to a single pint, and maybe make the hive contain 1d4 pints. It's not going to break the game, and frankly, it's a big risk to take on a hive.