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Nostri
2007-10-01, 01:16 PM
This is a race I'm working on for a campaign world I'm making. I'm aiming for a +0 LA race so if you could help me whittle the race down to that if it's above it.

The Arachnadae
A race of humanoid spiders that in far ranging clans in two very disparate environments. This has caused a divergence in development in the race and now there are two distinct sub races- the large mountain dwellers and the smaller forest dwellers. However both types do share some traits:
-Compound Eyes: +2 Spot, -2 Search, Arachnadae have multiple compound eyes that have adapted to catching movement but aren't very good and seeing details.
-Mandibles: Due to the odd shape of their mouth parts arachnadae cannot speak languages other than those of other insectoid races (and other races the DM feels appropriate). They can learn the languages in order to understand other humanoids and while other humanoids can never truly learn to speak their language the same can be done with them.
In addition to the communication problems this presents it also prevents an arachnadae from learning spells with verbal components from non-insectoid races. Spells without verbal componants do not pse this problem. To adapt a spell with verbal componants to their use an arachnadae must make a Spellcraft check (DC 20+spell level) to decipher the verbal componants. Using the spell Read Magic gives the caster a +5 to their Spellcraft check if cast each day during the translation process. This takes the caster 2 days per level of the spell being translated. (Example: An arachnadae wizard wants to learn Sleet Storm from the spellbook of the human wizard she just helped to defeat. TO translate the spell it will take 6 days (3rd level spell times 3 days per level) and she must succeed on a Spellcraft check with a DC of 23 at the end of the 6 days. If she had cast Read Magic on each of the six days the DC would only be 18.)
-Alien Appearance: Because of their strange look an mannerisms arachnadae take a -2 penalty to Charisma
-Natural Hunter: From various physical and cultural adaptations Arachnadae gain a +2 racial bonus to Jump, Hide and Move Silently skills.
-Low-light Vision: An arachnadae can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

Mountain Dwellers: Descended from wolf and other active hunting spiders, these man sized arachnids hunt their territories in family-packs.
-Medium Size:Medium: As Medium creatures, Mountain Dwellers have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
-+2 Dex: Mountain Dwellers are agile and fast.
-Uncanny Speed: Because of the shape of their legs and their physiology Mountain Dwellers have a base speed of 40'
-Leaper: Mountain Dwellers have a +4 racial bonus to all Jump checks and treat the height as 1.5 times what it is for determining the maximum distance they can jump. (This bonus stacks with the bonus all arachnadae have.) A Mountain Dweller is always considered to have a running start when making jump checks.
-Powerful Mandibles: A Mountain Dweller's mandibles have developed to be used as weapons when in combat. Because of this all Mountain Dwellers have the ability to bite for 1d6 damage. Their bite counts as a natural weapon.


Forest Dwellers: With orb and funnel spiders as ancestors, this race of arachnadae live much more stationary lives in the large hive webs they build high above the forest floor in the middle of their territories.
-Small Size: As a Small creature, a Forest Dweller gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.
-+2 Dexterity, -2 Strength: Forest Dwellers are faster than they would appear but not as strong as a being larger than they are.
-Uncanny Speed: Due to the shape of their legs Forest Dwellers have a 30’ base land speed.
-Spider Climb: A Forest Dweller has a climb speed equal to their land speed. Also they can move along spider webs (though not the spell web) at their climb speed without getting caught and can determine the location of anything caught in their webs.
-Net: A Forest Dweller can produce webbing like their vermin ancestors. They can cast a web a number of times equal to their character level divided by 2 (rounded up). This is similar to an attack with a net but has a range increment of 30 ft and is effective on creatures up to Medium size. The web anchors the target in place, allowing no movement.
An entangled creature can escape with a successful Escape Artist check or burst the webbing with a Strength check. The DC for the Escape Artist check is 12+level and the DC for the Strength check is 15+level. Both are a standard action.
Forest Dwellers can create nets of sticky webbing from 5-30 feet square to use as traps for mainly flying creatures though they can set them up to capture ground based creatures as well. Approaching creatures must succeed on a Spot check (DC 20) to notice the web, otherwise they are caught in it can become trapped as though by a successful web attack. Attempts to escape or burst free get a +5 equipment bonus if there is something nearby to grab and pull on while attempting to escape. Each 5 foot section of web has 6 hit points and damage reduction 5/fire. Also each 5 foot section of webbing uses one use of the web attack though multiple Forest Dwellers can work together to create a larger net.

Feats:

Poisonous Bite
Prerequisites:Bite attack, Arachnadae, must be taken at first level
Benifit: You have grown the venom sacks that your ancestors had and used in hunting. When you make a bite attack you also inject poison into your opponent. The poison has a Fort DC equal to 10+your class level+1/2 your Con and deals 1d4 Strength damage as both primary and secondary damage.

Potent Venom [Ceremony]
Prerequisites: Bite attack, Poisonous Bite
Benefit: The poison in your bite becomes more deadly, dealing 1d6 Strength damage now.
Special: In order to gain this feat you need to undergo a week long ceremony, beseeching various spirits and injesting compounds to alter your body chemistry. During this ceremony you must burn insences and drink potions made of rare herbs and animal parts that total 500 gold in worth.

Four Arms
Prerequisites: Arachnadae, must be taken at first level
Benifit: When you hatched you had an extra set of limbs, harkening back to the days when your ancient forbearers were more closely related to the spiders you are descended from. This secondary set of limbs in slight smaller and weaker then your primary limbs, acting as though they had only half the Strength score of your main limbs. They are useful however in a variety of ways. Each of these hands can use a light weapon (though nothing heavier then that) and use it to attack in addition to your normal attacks. However without the feat Multiweapon Attack doing so imposes a -6 to hit with your primary hand and a -10 with each of your other hands as normal. These hands can also use a one handed weapon if you use it in both of the hands, gaining the normal 1.5 times the secondary arms augmented strength modifier. If the character uses all of it's arms to wield the weapon it may use a weapon one size category larger then normal, gaining the same effects as if they were wielding it two handed.
Special: These hands may not be used to cast any extra spells per round or do anything else that would require splitting one's concentration to preform.

Tough Carapace [Ceremony]
Prerequisites: Arachnadae
Benefit: By applying special oils to your skin and preforming exorcises to strengthen your exoskeleton you gain a +1 to natural armor.
Special: To gain this feat you must preform a three day long ceremony honoring your ancestors and applying oils and other treatments to you skin. These oils cost 1000 gold pieces to acquire.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EDIT1: Added text to the Mandibles entry and changed the layout of the post.
EDIT2: Overhaul of the race. Kept most of the things from the part that's common to the entire race. Changed most of the Forest Dwellers and nixed the Mountain Dwellers....for now, mwuahahahahahaha...ahem. Yeah, that is all.
EDIT3: Removed the bonus to init...which I thought I already had, bloody people talking to me while I'm playing god.... :smalltongue:
EDIT4: Readded the Mountain Dwellers.
EDIT5: Fixed Mountain Dwellers, added some feats.

JackMage666
2007-10-01, 02:56 PM
As is, they are both +2 LA.

Question, though, do they have a -2 Cha in general, or a -2 on all Cha checks? Because there is a substantial different.

And, the Spellcasting is confusing... They can't learn spells from Humanoids and such, but can they cast spells with Verbal components if they learned them somwhere else?

smart thog
2007-10-01, 05:02 PM
Living spiders, strange.

Moff Chumley
2007-10-01, 05:29 PM
Interesting. I am very happy there are no ties to our underdark dwelling, dual wielding, spider loving elf friends. As to the above two posts, the -2 Cha should only apply A) To skills and ability checks, and B) to members of humanoid species. Also, the spellcasting restriction shouldn't be there, except for unique spells developed by humanoids, and a DC 15+Spell Level Spellcraft check should solve that. Other than that, very good job. Any chance of adding fluff?

Maldraugedhen
2007-10-01, 11:32 PM
Living spiders, strange.

You're used to...?

Nostri
2007-10-02, 09:48 AM
The -2 to Cha is to the actual ability score and while your right Moff that it should only apply to other humanoids there isn't really a way to do that in D&D without it coming off as akward in my opinion. (This is the same reason all full and half orcs get a straight hit to Cha and not just a hit to social skills when interacting with non orcs.)

As for the spellcasting they can learn any spells but they can't cast spells with verbal componants unless they are spells that the arachnadae or another insectoid race developed. For example Mage Armor has a verbal componant. Because of this an arachnadae couldn't cast the spell from directly learning from a "normal" humanoid because of the differences in the way their mouths make noises and the noises each one's mouth is capable of making. I should probably add a Spellcraft or Knowledge (arcana or religion) check to adapt such a spell for the caster's use.

....I'll finish posting later, right now I'm late for class.

Moribundus
2007-10-02, 01:11 PM
I love it!
they remind me of GIFTS.
aka - Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Spiders
thank you spidweb. (made the Exile Trilogy, where GIFTS appeared)

Nostri
2007-11-05, 10:53 AM
*bump*

Alrighty, got a few people telling me the idea was sound and one person telling me that they were +2 LA with nothing to support the idea. One person however actually gave me a suggestion for what to do, so thank you Moff Chumley for actually giving me advice on this creation. I'll add fluff in a bit (this is also known as when I dig it out of my hard drive), sorry it wasn't up before but I didn't have it written down merely floating around in my head...

So anyway will someone give me more suggestions on how to bring these races down to +0 LA? I want my players to actually be able to play one from the beginning of the game if they want. I'm open to pretty much anything but just telling me that they're not +0 LA doesn't help- I knew that when I posted them.

DracoDei
2007-11-05, 11:43 AM
Eh... not seeing them as +2 LA at least not the medium sized ones and maybe not even the small ones. Maybe not even +1 LA
Net -2 to stats, and only an elfs plus/minus combo for the small ones... with a -2 to Cha on top of it.
Web is the biggest deal I see... look up the web rules for giant spiders in the MM at www.d20srd.org and use those or some variant of them instead... means fewer targets get hit per use. Also makes sense in that it doesn't have a limited duration... but you still gotta watch out because you just let them manufacture silk rope in their down-time.
Tone down the climb speed to be equal to their land speed too... it only BARELY makes sense that the could be quicker along tree limbs and silk strands than on the ground, and for a cliff-face I just don't buy it.

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-05, 01:22 PM
Summary of power:

The Basics:

-Compound Eyes: blahblahblah
-Mandibles: blahblahblah
-Four Arms: blahblahblah
-Alien Appearance: blahblahblah -2 penalty to Charisma
-Natural Hunter: blahblahblah
-Low-light Vision: blahblahblah

My emphasis are the things that really matter, the rest don't give too much. Four arms? +1 LA at least, -2 Cha? Not going to bring it down to much without considering the rest of the stats...

Now the mountain dwellers:


-Medium Size: blahblahblah
-Exoskeleton: blahblahblah +1 natural armor bonus to AC.
-Uncanny Speed: blahblahblah base speed of 40'.
-Powerful Mandibles: blahblahblah

My emphasis are the things that really matter. +1 natural and 40ft base land speed and a bite attack? And that's on top of having four arms? There is no way the only draw backs being communication and a charisma penalty will bring that down below a +2 LA, way too powerful of a warrior. There is no reason for someone to be a spellcaster with this race anyway.

The forest dwellers:


-Small Size: blahblahblah
-+2 Dexterity, -2 Strength: blahblahblah
-Uncanny Speed: blahblahblah 30’ base land speed.
-Spider Climb: blahblahblah climb speed equal to twice their land speed.
-Improved Reflexes: blahblahblah +2 racial bonus to Initiative.
-Net: blahblahblah... the spell web as cast by a sorcerer of their character level. They can do this as a full round action a number of times equal to half their character level rounded down.

My emphasis are the things that really matter. Wow, these guys are even more insanely powerful than the Mountain dwellers. The small size and +2 dex -2 str evens out. But then comes the kickers, one after the other: 30ft land speed, ok fine goblins get that. A climb speed equal to twice their land speed?? A lot of problems with this one, let's compare with the jungle goblin:

-2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Cha
Small size
Base Land Speed 30ft
Low-light vision
+4 racial bonus to Jump checks
Climb speed 20ft, use dex instead of str.
Hmm, +2 dex, -2 str and cha looks the same. 30ft movement, sure. Low-light vision, nothing much. Bonus to jump checks, evens out with the three +2 bonuses. Climb speed 20ft, there it is. The climb speed is slower, not twice the land speed and there is nothing else. The jungle goblin is a +0 LA, there is no way the Forest Dweller or Mountain Dweller could be +0 LA. And I haven't even finished yet. We are to the +2 init and web. +2 init is powerful, especially for a dex-based race. The web is okay for a +2 LA, but I'd limit it to 3/day. Of course this is all on top of four arms.

So, my final analysis: Mountain Dwellers - LA +2, 1RHD mostly on par with Thri-kreen, but a little less so.
Forest Dwellers - LA +3 or LA +2 2RHD, I don't know which one I'd go for.

If you really want these to be LA +0, you need to scrap a lot of stuff. There is now way a race with four arms will get less than a LA +1 just like a race with powerful build unless there are serious drawbacks. Communication drawbacks don't do much and are easily bypassed. Never have a climb speed greater than the land speed. Bites are always tempting to give, but usually are best left out. Very few LA +0 races have spell-like abilities. Only the kobold gets nat armor and they get severe ability score penalties. Catfolk get 40ft land speed and a LA +1.

So, either completely redo the Arachnadae or use those LAs or you will get extremely overpowered meleers especially Forest Dweller rogues.

DracoDei
2007-11-05, 01:29 PM
Note that the extra arms use half the strength SCORE... not half BONUS... half SCORE... might still not be enough to drop the LA but it certainly was worth bolding...

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-05, 01:40 PM
Note that the extra arms use half the strength SCORE... not half BONUS... half SCORE... might still not be enough to drop the LA but it certainly was worth bolding...

Ah, that is a good point and something I missed, I think the "fully-functioning" part threw me off. Might I suggest using what was done with the Diopsid from Dragon Compendium (DR267)? If you do not know them, they are a race of humanoid beetles who have four arms, they get a huge amount of text explain what they do which can basically be summed up as:

Can weild a two-handed weapon with one primary and one secondary arm
Can wield weapons one size category larger by using secondary limbs
Using a shield causes check penalty on attack rolls.
Also note that strength is applied normally to damage.

In fact, you might want to look up this race as a reference since it is only a LA +1.

Somebloke
2007-11-05, 03:12 PM
More fluff please- I like the idea but what are the personality and social traits of these creatures?

Nostri
2007-11-05, 04:10 PM
Thanks for posting more then "It's +2 LA".

@DracoDei: I'll look into the webbing by monsterous spiders more. That was what I was going to base my originally but I didn't for some reason, thanks for reminding me about it.

@Lord Tataraus: If you can name a way for someone to "easily bypass" the complete inability to physically speak any language but your own I'd like to hear it as it would be interesting to know. I can't think of any which is why I added this, it both makes for interesting role-play (everyone let's play charades with the giant spider thing) and (in my opinion at least) a decent drawback. As for the bite attack I was already considering axing it and making the Bite feat available to them because I still want some of them to be able to do that.

@Somebloke: I'll get the fluff up as soon as I can, it'll prolly be tonight though I'm not sure...

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-05, 04:35 PM
Thanks for posting more then "It's +2 LA".
As is always required for a proper critique. I like to do a break down analysis as you can see. :smallwink:


@Lord Tataraus: If you can name a way for someone to "easily bypass" the complete inability to physically speak any language but your own I'd like to hear it as it would be interesting to know. I can't think of any which is why I added this, it both makes for interesting role-play (everyone let's play charades with the giant spider thing) and (in my opinion at least) a decent drawback. As for the bite attack I was already considering axing it and making the Bite feat available to them because I still want some of them to be able to do that.

From a purely mechanical stand point, I've never seen it as much of a drawback. So, I might as well reference good ol' mister Dragon again since I've been doing that a lot recently. So, DR352 page 44 race: Khepri. This is the issue with all the Bas0lag info and Khepri are the cockroach-women how have bugs for heads. In their description, it talks about their mandibles preventing them from speaking any but their own language. Exactly the same as your Arachnadae except no limit on spell casting. The first obvious thing about this drawback is it is not listed in the mechanical description of the race. In fact, there isn't even a sidebar or anything explaining their communication problems, only one little paragraph in the fluff that states basically that the Khepri cannot speak any other language and no other race can speak their's, however there is a sign language they can learn and they can understand languages of other races. Actually they are more limited in communication since no other race can even understand the Khepri language. Then looking at the Automatic/Bonus language entry they only get Khepri for automatic and common as the only possible bonus language. So, given this evidence of official content, communication is not a drawback.

Secondly, Comprehend Language, Tongues, Telepathic Bond, etc. any of those will allow sufficient communication and you can easily allow a group to have an automatic crude sign language system for basic communication especially for combat situations.

Nostri
2007-11-06, 12:08 AM
Okay I remembered Comprehend Languages and Tongues but thought they were both higher level and lasted significantly shorter then they actually do (I thought Comprehend Languages was 3rd level and lasted 10 minutes as a flat duration). As for the psionic power I doubt I even knew that existed, I tend to ignore psionics for the most part...guess I should look into them more.

Currently I'm giving the race an overhaul so I'll be posting that sometime soon. Among the changes are going to be Bite being switched to a feat, web being switched to the way it is for monstrous spiders, among other things. That should be up tomorrow morning at some point.

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-06, 10:41 AM
Oops...I meant Mindlink when I said Telepathic Bond, the latter is a 5th level sorc/wiz spell and not a good representation of easy bypass...Mindlink however is a first level psionic power and a very useful one with 10min/level duration.

I look forward to your revision, I really like the idea (sorry I didn't say so sooner :smallredface: )

Nostri
2007-11-06, 03:59 PM
There we go, revised to halfway. Working on the Mountain Dwellers currently...

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-06, 04:16 PM
Forest dweller critique:


-Compound Eyes: blahblahblah
-Mandibles: blahblahblah
-Alien Appearance: blahblahblah -2 penalty to Charisma
-Natural Hunter: blahblahblah
-Low-light Vision: blahblahblah
-Small Size: blahblahblah
-+2 Dexterity, -2 Strength: blahblahblah
-Uncanny Speed: blahblahblah 30’ base land speed.
-Spider Climb: blahblahblah climb speed equal to their land speed. blahblahblah
-Improved Reflexes: blahblahblah +2 racial bonus to Initiative.
-Net: blahblahblah a number of times equal to their character level divided by 2 (rounded up). blahblahblah The DC for the Escape Artist check is 12+level and the DC for the Strength check is 15+level. blahblahblah
Alright, cut down to the most important stuff (not say the other stuff isn't important).

bonuses: +2 dex, 30ft land speed, 30ft climb speed, +2 init, Net 1/2HD per day

drawbacks: -2 str, -2 cha

Dex and str cancel out. Cha cancels out you 30ft land speed and some of your climb speed. The +2 init and the net bump this up to LA +1, possibly 1RHD becuase of how often you can use the net. That +2 init is very powerful and not to be taken lightly, I would not give a LA +0 to a race that gets an init bonus unless there are severe drawbacks. The net can be used too much, 3/day and scratch the init bonus and you've got LA +0. If you at least lessen the usage to 1/4 HD, then get rid of the 1RHD and you'll be on the low side of LA +1 (only the init bonus keeping you up).

Another point are the Escape Artist and Strength check DC for the net. They just seem a bit...random. I could see it as 10+HD, increased by +5 or +2 for the strength check. Alternately, you could have it 10+con mod+1/2HD, +5 to DC if you use a Strength check.

I'll murder the Mountain Dweller for you when you get that up later :smallbiggrin:

Nostri
2007-11-06, 04:27 PM
I'm not sure where your getting the RHD from. I certainly didn't put any in there so that shouldn't actually be an issue...

As for the plus to init I already thought I'd pulled that. This is why you should proof read everything you edit.

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-06, 05:43 PM
I'm not sure where your getting the RHD from. I certainly didn't put any in there so that shouldn't actually be an issue...

As for the plus to init I already thought I'd pulled that. This is why you should proof read everything you edit.

Racial hit dice are like 1/2 LA basically. They detract from class levels, but actually give you something at least. So with the init bonus removed, I'd say your at LA +0, though 1RHD unless you lower the uses of net to 3/day (ideally) or 1/4 HD at least.

Well, the Forest Dwellers have gone through a serious beating and the shattered remains are still pretty cool (you're a spider come on!) and now the Mountain Dweller's doom is on the horizon....

daggaz
2007-11-07, 11:34 AM
Summary of power:

Only the kobold gets nat armor and they get severe ability score penalties. .

Lizardfolk get +2 str +2 con -2 int and NA 5, with 2RHD and LA+1.
As a fighter class, you lose 1 BaB and max 4 hps, and you are a level behind (for a fighter, who cares), but you get the natural armor and juicy stat increases. Int only hurts if you are going for a trip build and/or dont have a high point buy. I love playing these guys as warrior types.

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-07, 12:41 PM
Lizardfolk get +2 str +2 con -2 int and NA 5, with 2RHD and LA+1.
As a fighter class, you lose 1 BaB and max 4 hps, and you are a level behind (for a fighter, who cares), but you get the natural armor and juicy stat increases. Int only hurts if you are going for a trip build and/or dont have a high point buy. I love playing these guys as warrior types.

I was referring to LA +0 races. Of course a 2RHD, LA +1 race will have nat armor. But the original also had other overpowering features.

By the way, when will the Mountain Dweller be up? I'm bored right now.

Nostri
2007-11-07, 01:32 PM
The Mountain Dwellers are back up. Have at 'em Lord Tataraus (and anyone else that wants to join the discussion for that matter...)

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-07, 02:01 PM
-Medium Size:Medium: As Medium creatures, dwarves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
-Leaper: Mountain Dwellers have a +4 racial bonus to all Jump checks and treat the height as 1.5 times what it is for determining the maximum distance they can jump. (This bonus stacks with the bonus all arachnadae have.)
-Powerful Mandibles: A Mountain Dweller's mandibles have developed to be used as weapons when in combat. Because of this all Mountain Dwellers have the ability to bite for 1d6 damage. Their bite counts as a natural weapon.

....wow, you actually over-nerfed them, but you're a lot closer to the LA +0

Suggestions for bringing them back up above Half-Elf (they're below right now).
Give an ability score bonus of +2 somewhere to counter the -2 Cha. Then add this to Leaper: "A Mountain Dweller is always considered to have a running start when making jump checks". That's a pretty standard bonus for jumping bug-things.

After that, go ahead and give them some other minor bonus(es) or give them the 40ft land speed and you're set. On that note, you left out a land speed so I assume its supposed to be 30ft?

Nostri
2007-11-07, 09:25 PM
Worse then half-elf? Wow, I thought I might've over nerfed them but I didn't think I went that far overboard. I'll add some stuff to it. Like the addition you made for Leaper, makes sense for jumping spiders and is better then my consideration to adding an equivalent to "Leap of the Clouds" to it from 3.0 monk, so consider it ganked.

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-07, 09:32 PM
Worse then half-elf? Wow, I thought I might've over nerfed them but I didn't think I went that far overboard. I'll add some stuff to it. Like the addition you made for Leaper, makes sense for jumping spiders and is better then my consideration to adding an equivalent to "Leap of the Clouds" to it from 3.0 monk, so consider it ganked.

Well all they get is a jump bonus and a bite attack with a few random skill bonuses, but then they have a -2 Cha. Not much there.

Mr. Moogle
2007-11-07, 09:58 PM
A litle nitpick, but when you look at mountain dwellers it says "dwarves" :smallconfused:

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-07, 10:33 PM
On Mountain Dwellers (except for the mention of dwarves):
http://www.ravibrounstein.com/images/thumbs-up.jpg

Nostri
2007-11-07, 10:38 PM
@Mr. Moogle: Thanks for pointing that out. I never would've seen it until I went to print the campaign packet these guys'll be part of for my players. Guess that's what I get for copy-pasting and not going over it again...

@Lord Tartarus: Thanks for the vote of approval, the pic actually made me lol. Needless to say I got a bunch of odd looks from the rest of the people in the computer lab when I did that.

Beyond that how do the feats look? I think they're fairly well balanced.

Opinions?

Nostri
2007-11-07, 10:46 PM
@Mr. Moogle: Thanks for pointing that out. I never would've seen it until I went to print the campaign packet these guys'll be part of for my players. Guess that's what I get for copy-pasting and not going over it again...

@Lord Tartarus: Thanks for the vote of approval, the pic actually made me lol. Needless to say I got a bunch of odd looks from the rest of the people in the computer lab when I did that.

Beyond that how do the feats look? I think they're fairly well balanced.

Opinions?

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-07, 11:09 PM
On the feats (I must have missed those):


Poisonous Bite
Prerequisites:Bite attack, Arachnadae, must be taken at first level
Benifit: You have grown the venom sacks that your ancestors had and used in hunting. When you make a bite attack you also inject poison into your opponent. The poison has a Fort DC equal to 10+your class level+1/2 your Con and deals 1d4 Strength damage as both primary and secondary damage.
Woah! Hold up there, you're saying the Mountain Dwellers get a poison with 1d4 Str/1d4 Str at first level!! Way too powerful, I would suggest more along lines of one of my races' poisonuos bite w/feat:

Naga-Anu
Poisonous bite – DC 10+con+1/2 HD, Paralysis (1d4 rounds)/-
A Naga-Anu may only use this ability 1+Con modifier times per day.

Feat:
Superior Poison
Prerequisite: 3 hit dice, 15 constitution
Benefit: The Naga-Anu's poison from his poisonous bite gains a secondary damage of 1d3 con.
Normal: A Naga-Anu's poison has no secondary damage.
Note that the Naga-Anu is a LA +2 race for the poison among other things.


Potent Venom [Ceremony]
Prerequisites: Bite attack, Poisonous Bite
Benefit: The poison in your bite becomes more deadly, dealing 1d6 Strength damage now.
Special: In order to gain this feat you need to undergo a week long ceremony, beseeching various spirits and injesting compounds to alter your body chemistry. During this ceremony you must burn insences and drink potions made of rare herbs and animal parts that total 500 gold in worth.
Give a high-ish HD requirement it see the above comments on the first feat.


Four Arms
Prerequisites: Arachnadae, must be taken at first level
Benifit: When you hatched you had an extra set of limbs, harkening back to the days when your ancient forbearers were more closely related to the spiders you are descended from. This secondary set of limbs in slight smaller and weaker then your primary limbs, acting as though they had only half the Strength score of your main limbs. They are useful however in a variety of ways. Each of these hands can use a light weapon (though nothing heavier then that) and use it to attack in addition to your normal attacks. However without the feat Multiweapon Attack doing so imposes a -6 to hit with your primary hand and a -10 with each of your other hands as normal. These hands can also use a one handed weapon if you use it in both of the hands, gaining the normal 1.5 times the secondary arms augmented strength modifier. If the character uses all of it's arms to wield the weapon it may use a weapon one size category larger then normal, gaining the same effects as if they were wielding it two handed.
Special: These hands may not be used to cast any extra spells per round or do anything else that would require splitting one's concentration to preform.
Hm, I'm iffy on this, though I see you're reasoning behind it. I would say scratch allowing the extra arms to wield their own weapons, but just give them the ability to wield two-handers in a primary and secondary with a penalty if it is a two-hander, but no penalty if it is a one-hander wielded as a two-hander.


Tough Carapace [Ceremony]
Prerequisites: Arachnadae
Benefit: By applying special oils to your skin and preforming exorcises to strengthen your exoskeleton you gain a +1 to natural armor.
Special: To gain this feat you must preform a three day long ceremony honoring your ancestors and applying oils and other treatments to you skin. These oils cost 1000 gold pieces to acquire.
Looks good.