Fast and Dirty Monsters – Ecology of the Skleee
Greetings, Nerdarchist Ted here and and today I present to you a new race and its ecology. I offer up the Skleee. These are from our Fast and Dirty monsters series. Tune in below to see how the race came about. Lets see how they stack up against other creatures in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. 
The Skleee get their name from the sound they make when startled. I would like to thank Jerel Fontenot for his suggestion for the name and concept for the name. The Sklee are an insectoid race that combines several insectoid concepts together. They have a hive mind like that of ants as well as their ability to function together as a unit.
In addition their great carrying capacity is inherent within all Skleee. But they also posses the abilities of termites in chewing through would and other things to burrow and make their dwellings.
The Sklee in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition
The Skleee are insectoid in concept but they posses 2 legs and 2 arms. Their face does present like an insect as they have antenna and mandibles but it is also the same size as a normal humanods head of the same size.
Originally we presented them as very ant-like but Mike Gould offered up other suggestions and I am choosing to go with termites as it offers many cool options. So thank you to Mike for that.
Skleee are a race that exist in numbers and when you throw numbers at a problem it frequently goes away. The Skleee are a race that can communicate very basic concepts with pheromones and other Skleee are able to pick up on it. Things like help, danger, food and your base emotions.
Each Skleee chooses what to give off but most have no reason to deceive as they work for a king or queen 
that can communicate telepathically with any of their subjects within miles of the throne.
When a Skleee hive move into an area they build a massive underground structure of tunnels and begin stock piling resources. Once they are confident that they are secure they begin to expand upward by destroying the things around them. Trees and their roots are easily destroyed by these creatures and at times the Skleee burrow through the trees turning them from inside out into another spire under their control.
A Skleee spire resembles that of a termite mound but towering into the sky like a tower. The Skleee defend their territory but if met with over whelming force, either in numbers or raw power they flee in all directions and are contacted by their ruler to reassemble and build anew else where.
This structure combined with the vastness of their numbers makes exterminating them nearly impossible. At times a lone Skleee losses it mates and wanders the world apart from its hive mind. Doing so is challenging as almost all other races are unable to pick up on the base communication of their pheromones. They also struggle with the lack of direction until they grasp the concept of choice and move on.
Rumor has it that there are even Skleee who posses wings and the ability to fly so be wary of the Skleee!
Player character Skleee can struggle with these base concepts and use them as role playing tools and challenges.
Fast and Dirty Monsters – The Sklee
Custom Race – Skleee for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition
Skleee Traits
Your Skleee character has a variety of natural abilities.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution, Dexterity and Strength Score all increase by 1.
Age. Skleee reach maturity insanely quickly, after just 4-6 years. They typically live between 30-40 years.
Alignment. Skleee typically follow orders of their ruler and are concerned with growth of the hive. Becase they are made to follow orders and not care about good or evil, they tend toward lawful neutral. Player character Skleee may be of any alignment.
Size. Skleee are rather small standing between 3 and 4 foot tall. Your size is Small.
Speed. You have a walking speed of 25. You posses a burrow speed of 15.
Built for work. Made to carry things to or from a work site you have double the carrying capacity for your size and strength.
Insectoid Mind. You posses the ability to naturally communicate with any vermin of an insectoid 
nature. This communication also includes Ankhegs. It is communication not control so be wary what you talk to.
Hive Mind. You can communicate with anyone capable to detecting Pheromones. Only base concepts and emotions but it is done through sense of smell.
Carapace. You posses a thick carapace. You posses a +1 Natural Armor bonus. This stacks with any armor worn and does not limit what armor can be worn.
Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!
Stephen Pilch
January 13, 2016 at 4:06 pmStumbled across this and was designing a very similar creature as a nemesis race. Something I included in my concept was the background that the native tribal human population is the remnant of a once great civilization brought down by what they called the "meat eaters" = carniverous ant race. The meateaters expand in large leaps every few centuries when they spawn a generation of flying males that fertilize new "queens" and spread their colonies like ant nests. So when the natives start to see flying meateaters, a new wave of terror is comming…..