Geonosian Drone
TR 0.5Humanoid · Medium·Recommended levels: 1
Abilities
Saves
- —
Skills
- Perception +1
Languages
- Geonosian
Equipment
Traits
The Geonosian's hard chitin exoskeleton grants a +2 bonus to AC (already included above) and, like all Geonosians, advantage on saving throws against radiation and irradiated environments — it never suffers radiation sickness.
While the drone can see at least one other Geonosian within 30 feet, it has advantage on attack rolls. The caste labors and fights as a swarm, never alone.
Actions
Lore
Geonosian drones are the lowest and most numerous caste of the hive — the service, labor, and worker castes bred by the thousand to dig the catacombs, tend the droid foundries, and die in the arena's opening acts. Unlike the soldier caste, ordinary drones have only vestigial wings and cannot truly fly; they are stripped-down, single-purpose, and utterly expendable in the eyes of the aristocracy that breeds them. A lone drone is barely a threat, clumsy and slow to think for itself.
What makes them dangerous is number and the hive mind that binds them. Cut off from the swarm a drone falters, but among its kind it fights with an eerie, coordinated confidence, moving as part of a single will. On Geonosis the Republic learned quickly that killing one bug did nothing while the tunnels still poured out more.
In Play
Run drones in packs of four or more so their Hive-Minded advantage is always live — a swarm of them is a real threat, a single one is filler. They have no ranged option, so use them to close distance and tie the party down while Warriors and Elites shoot from the air. When a Hive Queen is on the field, treat drones as an endless resource: she can hatch or reanimate more each round.
Adventure Hooks
- The tunnels breathe — The party descends into a Geonosian spire and finds the walls alive with worker drones. They are not hostile — yet — but every chamber deeper draws the hive's attention, and a single raised alarm turns the labor caste into a living flood.
- Salvage detail — A downed ship's cargo has been dragged into a drone work-gang's chamber. Recovering it means slipping past (or through) dozens of preoccupied drones before an overseer notices the intrusion.