[Oh, Monster Manual IV. It was widely reviled by the fan community at the time, and it does have some questionable decisions. The sample lairs, the 50 pages devoted to Spawn of Tiamat. But there’s a fair amount of cool monsters to be found within it, and it’s generally much better balanced than MMIII.]
Howler Wasp Hovering in the air is a creature with the head of a
monkey and the body of a great insect. Its forelimbs are sickle-shaped claws,
and venom beads from its stinger menacingly.
Howler wasps are
the creation of an eccentric wizard, having been intended as guard animals but
having escaped captivity and spread throughout the world. They are noisy and
territorial creatures, and fight violently to protect their hives. Such hives
are made out of thin layers of material similar to those of paper wasps, but
this “paper” frequently contains bone meal and the hides of their victims as
well as wood pulp and mud. Howler wasps are carnivores, and provision their
larvae with ample supplies of meat to fuel their growth.
In combat, howler
wasps typically seek to overwhelm an enemy with multiple attacks. They are
intelligent enough to rely on flanking tactics, and several of them typically
swarm the same opponent at once. If a howler wasp is overwhelmed, it frequently
will spray pheromones on its aggressor. These chemicals are all but undetectable
to most creatures, but inspire other howler wasps to even more furious
violence.
Howler Wasp Queen This bloated, bear-sized creature has an insect-like
body with the head of a baboon and claws like scythes. Its wings seem too small
to lift it off of the ground, but they buzz furiously.
The queen of a
howler wasp hive is not born different—instead, she climbs to her position
through increased diet and by bullying her way to the top. Any howler wasp
female can become a queen, and failed queens are sometimes found roaming
outside of a hive, having achieved their tremendous growth but being unable to
destroy their rival. Howler wasp queens are rarely found outside the hive
otherwise, and they are always attended by other howler wasps that feed with
her, mate with her and rear her babies.
Howler wasps are native to the deepest jungles of Gladia. No one living knows who created them, but the Kingdom of Kown-Dam expended considerable resources in keeping their populations controlled. As such, it is expected that their numbers have increased since the Kingdom’s fall.
Shores of Swords 