SR5:Spirits:Insect
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While not all insect spirits have the same social organization, every group can include individuals of these five spirit types. Some types are more or less common, depending on the variety. All insect spirits with wings can fly, and every kind can walk on walls and other flat surfaces.
Spirits of Caretaker
| B | A | R | S | W | L | I | C | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | F+1 | F+1 | F | F | F | F | F | SR5:SG |
| Initiative | (F*2)+1+2D6 | |||||||
| Astral Initiative | (Fx3)+3D6 | |||||||
- Weaknesses
- Allergy (Insecticides, Severe), Evanescence
- Skills
- Assensing, Astral Combat, Leadership, Perception, Unarmed Combat
- Powers
- Animal Control (Insect Type), Astral Form, Guard, Hive Mind, Inhabitation (Living Vessels), Innate Spell (Physical Barrier), Sapience
- Optional Powers
- Binding, Confusion, Enhanced Senses (Smell, Thermographic Vision, or Ultrasound)
Extra Abilities Vary With Type (See Hive Insect Spirits)
Caretaker spirits are summoned to take care of the nest or hive along with the spirits undergoing inhabitation. They are less common, but not unheard of, among solitary insect spirits. Caretakers often create protective wards to defend the hive from intruders or predators.
Spirits of Nymph
| B | A | R | S | W | L | I | C | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F-1 | F | F+3 | F-1 | F | F | F | F | SR5:SG |
| Initiative | (F*2)+3+2D6 | |||||||
| Astral Initiative | (Fx3)+3D6 | |||||||
- Weaknesses
- Allergy (Insecticides, Severe), Evanescence
- Skills
- Assensing, Astral Combat, Perception, Gymnastics, Spellcasting, Unarmed Combat
- Powers
- Animal Control (Insect Type), Astral Form, Enhanced Senses (Smell, Thermographic Vision, or Ultrasound), Hive Mind, Inhabitation (Living Vessels), Innate Spell (any one Illusion Spell known to the summoner), Sapience
- Optional Powers
- Compulsion, Fear
Extra Abilities Vary With Type (See Hive Insect Spirits)
Nymph spir its are juvenile queens or mothers and resemble immature (smaller and underdeveloped) versions of their parent. Lacking the raw size or magical power of a true Queen or Mother, nymphs still make use of their spell-like or pheromone abilities to assist the hive. Insect shamans tend to prefer female vessels for nymphs, as the inhabitations tend to produce better results.
Spirits of Scout
| B | A | R | S | W | L | I | C | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | F+2 | F+2 | F | F | F | F | F | SR5:SG |
| Initiative | (F*2)+2+2D6 | |||||||
| Astral Initiative | (Fx3)+3D6 | |||||||
- Weaknesses
- Allergy (Insecticides, Severe), Evanescence
- Skills
- Assensing, Astral Combat, Gymnastics, Perception, Sneaking, Unarmed Combat
- Powers
- Animal Control (Insect Type), Astral Form, Concealment, Enhanced Senses (Smell, Thermographic Vision, or Ultrasound), Hive Mind, Inhabitation (Living Vessels), Movement, Sapience, Search
- Optional Powers
- Confusion, Guard, Natural Weapon (DV = (Force) Physical damage, AP 0), Noxious Breath
Extra Abilities Vary With Type (See Hive Insect Spirits)
Scout spirits often operate outside the boundaries of the hive, seeking to uncover threats before they arrive or discovering new opportunities to expand. They are the most subtle of insect spirits, using subterfuge and guile to achieve their goals. Whenever possible a shaman or Queen/Mother will attempt to make a fleshform scout (see Inhabitation, p. 195).
Spirits of Soldier
| B | A | R | S | W | L | I | C | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F+3 | F+1 | F+1 | F+3 | F | F | F | F | SR5:SG |
| Initiative | (F*2)+1+2D6 | |||||||
| Astral Initiative | (Fx3)+3D6 | |||||||
- Weaknesses
- Allergy (Insecticides, Light), Evanescence
- Skills
- Assensing, Astral Combat, Counterspelling, Exotic Ranged Weapon, Gymnastics, Perception, Unarmed Combat
- Powers
- Animal Control (Insect Type), Astral Form, Fear, Hive Mind, Inhabitation (Living Vessels), Natural Weapon (DV = (Force + 2) Physical damage, AP –1), Sapience
- Optional Powers
- Concealment, Binding, Magical Guard, Noxious Breath, Skill (a soldier spirit may be given an additional Combat skill instead of an optional power), Venom
Extra Abilities Vary With Type (See Hive Insect Spirits)
Soldiers are second only to the Queen as the most feared kind of insect spirit. They are the militant arm of the hive, protecting its members and eliminating any threats. In solitary species, the soldiers hunt as lone predators, while more collective hives have their soldiers fight with lethal coordination. They are even hardier than the average bug spirit, being highly resistant to physical attacks and even more resistant to insecticides than the other bugs.
Spirits of Worker
| B | A | R | S | W | L | I | C | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | F | F | F+1 | F | F | F | F | SR5:SG |
| Initiative | (Fx2)+2D6 | |||||||
| Astral Initiative | (Fx3)+3D6 | |||||||
- Weaknesses
- Allergy (Insecticides, Severe), Evanescence
- Skills
- Assensing, Astral Combat, Perception, Unarmed Combat
- Powers
- Animal Control (Insect Type), Astral Form, Enhanced Senses (Smell, Thermographic Vision), Hive Mind, Inhabitation (Living Vessels), Movement, Sapience, Search
- Optional Powers
- Concealment, Enhanced Senses (Ultrasound), Venom, Skill (a worker spirit may be given additional Technical or Physical skill instead of an optional power)
Extra Abilities Vary With Type (See Hive Insect Spirits)
Workers are by far the most common type of insect spirit and form the backbone of the hive. They do the work of constructing and expanding the physical space of the hive and acquiring the resources it needs to survive.
Spirits of Queen/Mother
| B | A | R | S | W | L | I | C | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F+5 | F+3 | F+4 | F+5 | F+1 | F+1 | F+1 | F | SR5:SG |
| Initiative | (F*2)+5+2D6 | |||||||
| Astral Initiative | (Fx3)+3D6 | |||||||
- Weaknesses
- Allergy (Insecticides, Severe)
- Skills
- Assensing, Astral Combat, Con, Counterspelling, Gymnastics, Leadership, Negotiation, Perception, Spellcasting, Unarmed Combat
- Powers
- Animal Control (Insect Type), Astral Gateway, Banishing Resistance, Compulsion, Enhanced Senses (Smell, Thermographic Vision or Ultrasound), Fear, Hive Mind, Sapience, Search, Spirit Pact, Wealth
- Optional Powers
- Concealment, Guard, Natural Weapon (DV = (Force + 3) Physical damage, AP –1), Noxious Breath, Venom
All Queen/Mother spirits are free spirits (p. 202)
Extra Abilities Vary With Type (See Hive Insect Spirits)
The Queen or Mother spirit is the central figure in the Hive or group to which she is summoned. Her ability to use the Astral Gateway power to summon more of her kind makes her the single greatest threat of any kind of bug spirit to metahumanity.
Insect Spirit Leg (While Detached)
R 2
A B 2 2 Condition Monitor (P/S) Limits Physical Init. Skills
Powers
Weaknesses
W 4
L 3
I 5
C 3
M ESS EDG 3 2D6 4
S 3
9/9
Physical 4, Mental 5, Social (variable) 7 + 2D6 Gymnastics 4, Running 4, Sneaking 5, Unarmed Combat 2 Dual Natured, Immunity (Age, Pathogens, Toxins), Regeneration Allergy (Salt, Severe), Allergy (Sunlight, Moderate), Dietary Requirement (Metahuman Blood), Essence Loss
Hive Insect Spirits
Ant
The most highly social and cooperative of all hive spirits, ants form a very efficient and populous hive. These hives comprise numerous members of all insect spirit types: caretakers, workers, and nymphs. As exceptional and prolific builders, ant hives quickly expand and are often the largest hives encountered. These hives follow a logic and pattern that only these alien beings can understand, leaving any metahumans that attempt to navigate them utterly confused and easily lost. Ants work to accomplish any goal in groups of at least two or three, never alone. Small groups are only employed by the shaman or queen when subtlety is necessary. In all other cases, ants solve their problems by dedicating a large number (often more than is necessary) of members to the task. Ant spirits are also highly territorial and respond swiftly and with overwhelming force to anything that threatens their territory, be it metahuman or another hive of insect spirits.
- Unique Qualities
- All physical damage done by ant spirits is also considered acid damage (see Acid Damage, p. 170, SR5)
- Ant spirits are highly dependent on their hive mentality and on its controlling force in particular. If a single ant spirit is ever isolated from all others of its hive (e.g., through physical distance or due to a mana barrier), or if the shaman or Queen of the hive is killed, the ant(s) suffer a –2 penalty on all tests.
Locust
While classified as a hive species due to their social organization, locusts do not create a physical hive in a single location. Instead they form into a migratory swarm that moves from place to place. Locusts are the prototypical “destroyer” insect. They travel to wherever a food source is abundant, consume everything in a hyperactive flurry, and then move on, leaving nothing but a barren wasteland behind. The only other time a locust swarm will halt its movement is to replenish its numbers. Locust swarms have a singularity of purpose that functions like a force of nature. When the Queen of the swarm sets a direction to travel, the swarm goes, destroying anything that is in the way and consuming everything in their path. Locusts are legendary for their insatiable hunger and their ability to digest nearly anything as food.
- Unique Qualities
- can fly
- Flight skill
- Devouring power (p. 194)
- Locust spirits are single-minded to the point of being oblivious to their surroundings
- When fighting a foe or feeding, all locust spirits (except the Queen) have a –3 penalty to Perception Tests.
Termite
Termites, like ants, are highly social hive spirits. Though instead of the totalitarian leader system of the ants, termites exhibit a complex caste system, where more mature members of the hive exhibit authority over junior members. Termites build large, highly ordered hives, but whereas ants build them underground, termites build them above ground. Typically they construct them in abandoned buildings in barrens, ghettos, or other isolated urban areas. The most unique aspect of termite hives is the material that makes up their construction. The walls of a termite hive are made of a concrete hard material that is made from mixing sand (or another ballast-type material) and their saliva.
- Unique Qualities
- All termite spirits have the Reinforcement power (p. 198).
Wasp
While described as “wasp,” the term refers to several families of the hymenoptera order, including wasps, bees, and hornets. Wasp insects form a highly ordered society, entirely matriarchal in nature. Most members of the hive, especially the worker and soldier types, are not overly intelligent, but the nymphs and Queen exhibit an above-average to exceptional intelligence, with a high level of malevolence and deviousness. Under the direction of such females, wasp spirits have been observed employing spies, using decoys, feigning retreats, and laying traps. Wasp hives are physically smaller than those of other insect spirits but are more densely populated, so they will have as many or more members. Wasp hives are always built in high places in the open air, such as the upper stories of buildings and other such structures.
- Unique Qualities
- can fly
- Flight skill (p. 394, SR5)
- Venom power (p. 401, SR5).
Solitary Insect Spirits
Solitary insect spirits do not form large hives or colonies, but instead sometimes form small family groups. All solitary insects are far more independent, intelligent, and adaptable as individuals. Any particular spirit in a group would feel comfortable leaving to achieve some individual goal. Although there is no singular totalitarian leader like a Queen spirit, a shaman following the totem of a solitary insect spirit will eventually summon a Mother spirit. In a distinct contrast to hive insects, there can be multiple Mother spirits in a group, as each Mother can summon others. This allows the solitary spirits to spread far more widely and rapidly than their hive brethren.
Beetle
Like the Earthly insects they resemble, beetle spirits come in many different varieties, but all exhibit the same basic characteristics and tendencies. Oddly, summoned beetle spirits will take on the appearance of different kinds of sub-types (stag beetles, dung beetles, etc), despite all coming from the same group. Beetle spirits make their lairs underground, in moist areas, but range far to find sources of food wherever they are available. Beetle hives, when they gather in significant numbers, are overseen by one or more mother spirits. Beetles are among the more territorially aggressive insects and attack any perceived intruder with little provocation or warning. Beetles are known for their exceptionally tough, chitinous hides.
- Unique Qualities
- When calculating the Hardened Armor value for a beetle’s Immunity to Normal Weapons, add +4 to the value
- All beetle spirits also have the Mystic Armor power (p. 399, SR5).
Cicada
Cicadas are grasshopper-like, flying insects. They have wide prominent eyes, and wings made of a thin membrane that is almost transparent. Being extremely migratory, cicadas travel in small packs searching for food sources wherever they can be found, and they have exhibited a preference for plants and other organics. The most prominent feature of cicadas is the noise they produce using their internal membranes. Using this ability as a weapon, a cicada spirit can amplify the sound to over 100 decibels (approximately the noise level of a power tool).
- Unique Qualities
- can fly
- Flight skill (p. 394, SR5)
- power of Sonic Projection (p. 199).
Firefly
Firefly spir its are sof t-bodied fliers that are most well known for the intermittent glow they produce from their abdomens. Fireflies only glow for specific reasons: when agitated, for communication, or when in close proximity to a Mother spir it. When being invested into a new host as a lar va, the firefly emits a fainter, but constant, glow. Mother spir its appear to know the vulnerability this causes, and they make attempts to hide their young, moving to dif ferent locations to reproduce. Fireflies are the least aggressive of all insect spir its, preferr ing to evade foes. For this reason scouts and nymphs are by far the most common type of firefly spir its.
- Unique Qualities
- All firefly spirits can fly
- Flight skill (p. 394, SR5)
- Confusion power (p. 395, SR5).
Fly
Fly spirits, in all their various varieties, subsist as scavengers off of metahuman waste. Thriving in unclean areas where refuse is abundant, fly spirits propagate to match the supply available. They prefer dark, moist environments where disease and pestilence run rampant, inevitably becoming disease carriers themselves. Fly spirits are mostly self-sufficient, but they gather to mate or feed where food supplies are particularly abundant. When they gather and make a nest, the area becomes a noisy, chaotic cesspool, with an overpowering odor that most metahumans find unbearable.
- Unique Qualities
- Flight skill (p. 394, SR5)
- Pestilence power (p. 197)
- Immunity to Disease.
Mantid
Mantid spirits are the most unusual of all insect spirits. They appear as large, bipedal insects, with a pair of large scything talons as upper arms, and two large mandibles around their mouth. The most remarkable aspect of the mantid spirit, however, is their means of reproduction. Mantid spirits are the apex predators of the insect spirit world: they reproduce by “eating” other insect spirits. Mantid spirits are extremely strict about gender roles among their kind, with the females always being the leaders and soldiers, and the males being caretakers and workers. These gender roles are enforced through the sex of the vessels they choose to invest with their spirits. Mantid spirits never have a Queen or Mother and only rarely produce a nymph. In the rare cases that this happens, the other mantid spirits treat the nymph with a high amount of respect and deference, as if she were a sort of tribal elder.
Female mantid spirits reproduce by “eating” other insect spirits. In actuality, the mantid consumes the spirit energy within the host vessel. When a sufficient amount of energy has been accumulated, the female can incubate a new mantid into an empty host vessel (as described under Inhabitation, p. 195). This energy can also be used to enhance the spirit’s own abilities instead.Mantid spirits are notoriously difficult to summon and dangerous to control. Because of their ability to reproduce without the aid of a shaman, they rarely see the need to continue to cooperate with one. Gender roles and the matriarchal nature of mantid culture is so strong that all known mantid shamans have been female. Fleshform mantid spirits have been known to hide and integrate into metahuman society in order to aid in their hunting, reproduction, and survival.
- Unique Qualities
- All female mantid spirits have the Energy Drain (Insect Spirit Force, Touch, Physical Damage) power (p. 195)
- Force drained in this manner can be spent as Karma to improve the skills and attributes of the spirit as per the rules for free spirits (p. 202)
- When a female mantid has gathered Force equal to its own, it can spend it to “give birth” to a new mantid spirit that inhabits a living vessel (see p. 135).
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are a unique type of spirit that subsists off the life force of living beings. They appear as small, hairy, flying insects, with a prominent proboscis in the center of their face. While all spirits appear the same, only the females actually attack to consume blood. They appear to need to draw the life force of other living creatures in order to power the infestation of a new spirit into a host. The males (typically soldiers and workers) act as scouts and protectors of the females so they can focus on propagation. Some have been known to become carriers of virulent diseases. They are among the most hated and actively hunted of all insect spirits.
- Unique Qualities
- Flight skill
- “females” (as determined by the gamemaster) have the Essence Drain power (p. 396, SR5)
- some spirits may also have the Pestilence power (at the gamemaster’s discretion; see p. 197).
Roach
Cockroaches are omnivores, gathering food primarily as scavengers. Unusually for insect spirits, they form what appear to be “family” units, centered around the Mother spirit or shaman that “birthed” them. They also build nests, though not nearly as large as the hive spirits, that can have one or more family units living in them. Roach spirits, like their terrestrial counterparts, are famously hardy and resistant to damage. Roaches can withstand extreme temperatures, radiation, go without food for extended periods of time, and even hibernate when necessary.
- Unique Qualities
- +2 to Damage Resistance tests
- Allergy (Light, Mild) in addition to the normal insecticides Allergy.
