Would giant spiders use environmental advantages?

[Stuvius]

Happy Friday Playground!

In an upcoming session, my players will be exploring the underground lab of a famous alchemist. He has been experimenting with infusing creatures with his creations. In one of his main lab rooms, they will encounter some large monstrous spiders. I was considering placing an acid vat in the room as an environmental hazard. Would the spiders be intelligent enough to attempt to push the adventurers into this? Or would that be a stretch with their low to non-existent INT score. This is a 3.5 game and the players are about lvl 4. Thanks for any input!

[denthor]

The spiders may know to avoid it themselves or they may know that anything to gets drop-in there is no longer considered food so depending on how you want them to fight they may completely avoid it just so they get food or they don't get killed themselves

[daremetoidareyo]

Spiders can't eat what is dissolved by acid. Throw the acidborn template on them and make the PCs go fishing for these mean old spiders who attack and retreat from a giant acidic vat. Up the CR.

[BowStreetRunner]

They would not use it to their advantage against the PCs, but they would avoid it once they recognized it as harmful.

[Geddy2112]

Seconding that they would not be able to use it as a weapon. They would just see it as a no go zone once they learned it is dangerous. Like how they would avoid fire, but not consider the option of killing something by pushing it into the fire.

However, the spiders are large, and the acid vat will be an area the PC's cannot stand and have to move around or jump. You can place this in a location that will be disadvantageous for the PC's and favorable for the spiders. The spiders size and the pit might make maneuvering in combat very difficult.

[frost890]

While they may not be able to eat something that fell in to the acid they can still use it. If the group is winning, knocking someone in or webbing them and hanging them over the pit does not seem out of the question. Also if the alchemist has experimented with the spiders they may be more crafty.

[MisterKaws]

Vermin have no Intelligence, and thus move completely out of instinct. A spider who noticed that the green water hurts will stay the hell away from it, and will probably keep its food away from it, since it wouldn't be able to eat stuff drenched in it.

[frost890]

Vermin have no Intelligence, and thus move completely out of instinct. A spider who noticed that the green water hurts will stay the hell away from it, and will probably keep its food away from it, since it wouldn't be able to eat stuff drenched in it.

Spiders use natural hazards and even build there own all the time. Look up water spiders. In a world full of monsters and magic anything that did not use there surroundings probably wouldn't last long.

[Psyren]

The spiders aren't quite smart enough for this on their own, but if you really want this to be a thing, you can have them be mutated to be smarter (not a stretch given that they're in a lab) or add a guiding intelligence of some kind to the encounter, such as a mutated ettercap who influences their actions.

[MisterKaws]

Spiders use natural hazards and even build there own all the time. Look up water spiders. In a world full of monsters and magic anything that did not use there surroundings probably wouldn't last long.

Yes, but that's their instinct, and I'm pretty sure most spiders would avoid acid out of instinct after the slightest contact.

[BowStreetRunner]

Yes, but that's their instinct, and I'm pretty sure most spiders would avoid acid out of instinct after the slightest contact.

More importantly, these are instincts that developed from countless generations of spiders growing up in the same environment. It's not something that they are likely to acquire after only a few generations around the stuff. However, if these were spiders that were naturally found in an environment with such acid pools then it would be perfectly reasonable that they have such instincts.

[nedz]

It depends upon how much verisimilitude you want - and this will depend upon how much the players know about such things.
IRL spiders react to stimuli and don't really learn except through natural selection. If you are willing to make your spiders more intelligent then anything is possible, but then you are not running a spider encounter.

[Honest Tiefling]

I agree, normal spiders doing this is a bit weird. However, they are spiders found in an alchemical lab. Why aren't they smarter? Have you ever tried to train a darn spider!? It's difficult! That's why you breed them to be smarter, they build their own homes, don't poop all over the place and tidily wrap up their dinners and don't eat as much as a mammal. In all honesty, I think your players would be disappointed if they didn't come across super smart alchemical horrors in a alchemical laboratory. What kind of lame alchemist is he if he didn't have a few hundred horrible monstrosities yearning for human flesh!?