Spider-themed monsters

[kjones]

I'm putting together a dungeon with some recurring spider motifs. Besides monstrous spiders (obviously), spider swarms, and ettercaps, what cool spider-related monsters can I use? Is there anything buried in the depths of the Monster Manual XVIII?

I know that drow have some spider connections, but I'd rather not bring them into this, so no drow, driders, lolthtouched, what have you.

[BooNL]

Aranea (MM1) are spider/human hydrids, with spellcasting as a sorcerer.

Added bonus is they can take class levels, so could be the BBEG or someone getting the party in trouble.

[Flickerdart]

Core has the Phase Spider, a powerful creature that can shift back and forth to the Ethereal Plane, which makes it hard to pin down. Spiders are also a pretty good choice for an entomanothrope (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040621a).

[CTrees]

Spider shaped constructs could be all sorts of fun. Oh, the PCs know they're in for a load of spider-bashing. Oh, the PCs should always be a little wary of statues which are prominent enough to be noted in the flavor text. However, if they're going into a spider-themed dungeon, there's more temptation to write off the giant spider statues as just more fluff, rather than enemies waiting to strike. There's a decent chance of surprise, at least.

Aberration-style hybrids could be fun, too. I mean, dire boars are fairly common enemies - how about some type of half-boar, half-spider monster? Heck, you could even have a human with spider powers. Crawling up the walls suspiciously, using Web SLAs, etc.

[Quietus]

Core has the Phase Spider, a powerful creature that can shift back and forth to the Ethereal Plane, which makes it hard to pin down. Spiders are also a pretty good choice for an entomanothrope (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040621a).

These can be really fun, albeit resulting in a long, drawn out combat. What I'd recommend is making them harass the party during other fights, trying to use their poison to whittle the party down - DC 17 for what, d8 con/d8 con? That's pretty solid for CR5. Using these just on their own, with phasing in, biting, and phasing out in their own turns, expect the combat to take a long time as the players begin second guessing everything.

When I used them I had them on the ethereal plane, ready an action to return to the ethereal plane if fired on, then use their move to go material. This works a lot better if your party doesn't have unlimited ammo, as mine did. Reserve feats got a lot of use that combat, and it took a couple hours to deal with two phase spiders when the players were level.. seven? Adding them as opportunistic sneaks during a regular combat will make them more deadly, but will also make your party absolutely hate them, and possibly spend less time being paranoid.

[Runestar]

Chitines (underdark) might work.

[marcielle]

Have a spider statue come to life as a miniboss( hard but beatable)
Have spider statues in every desciption from then on.
Laugh as they obsessively smash every statue.

[Knaight]

One of the demons might be sufficiently spider like for this.

[kjones]

I should specify - it's a group of 5 3rd level characters, of low-to-moderate optimization. I'd say up to a CR 6 would be appropriate.

Higher-level ideas are still useful, since they might end up passing this particular dungeon and coming back to it later.

[Knaight]

I should specify - it's a group of 5 3rd level characters, of low-to-moderate optimization. I'd say up to a CR 6 would be appropriate.

Higher-level ideas are still useful, since they might end up passing this particular dungeon and coming back to it later.

Monstrous Spiders and template abuse are probably your best bet then.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Spider shaped constructs could be all sorts of fun. Oh, the PCs know they're in for a load of spider-bashing. Oh, the PCs should always be a little wary of statues which are prominent enough to be noted in the flavor text. However, if they're going into a spider-themed dungeon, there's more temptation to write off the giant spider statues as just more fluff, rather than enemies waiting to strike. There's a decent chance of surprise, at least.

Aberration-style hybrids could be fun, too. I mean, dire boars are fairly common enemies - how about some type of half-boar, half-spider monster? Heck, you could even have a human with spider powers. Crawling up the walls suspiciously, using Web SLAs, etc.

So you want Tauric creatures and then create Spiderman.

[SuperFish]

One of the demons might be sufficiently spider like for this.

Bebilith is way too powerful for what the OP wants.

[kjones]

Bebilith is way too powerful for what the OP wants.

A toned-down or otherwise crippled Bebilith might be fun, though.

[Fax Celestis]

Maybe a retriever?

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ccmmii/retriever.jpg

[Lord Il Palazzo]

I seem to recall that one of the books (Dungeonscape, maybe?) has a template for an undead creature to be infested by a vermin swarm. The creature deals additional swarm damage (and poison if the swarm creature has poison) and, when killed, releases one or more swarms from within its body. It might be a fun way to bring the spider swarms into the game.

If any enemy casters appear, make sure they know Web (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/web.htm).

Speaking of webs, I seem to remember another poster a month or two back mentioning a living web monster from an earlier edition (2nd, I think). It looks looks exactly like a spider web, but deals electrical damage on contact so if your players try to brush it aside or attack it to clear a path, ZAP!

EDIT: It was in the Evil DM Tricks thread. Check out pg. 3, starting at post 83 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=215268&page=3).

[Vizzerdrix]

Throw a few watchspiders at them :smallsmile:

You can find them in Waterdeep; City of Splendors.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Maybe a retriever?

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ccmmii/retriever.jpg

They are too strong (CR 11) I once sent a pair of them against a 5 man level 10 party... TPK

[CTrees]

So you want Tauric creatures and then create Spiderman.

:smallwink:

[Seharvepernfan]

The faerun underdark book has the arachnid template which you can add to monsters.

[SuperFish]

They are too strong (CR 11) I once sent a pair of them against a 5 man level 10 party... TPK

Just out of curiosity, how did this occur?