improving vermin attacks?

[rediridesence]

someone came to me with a question about a spider monster, asking if there was a way to improve its web throwing special attack. Initially i thought weapon focus might work but i dont know if a giant spiders thrown weapon counts as a natural attack or not.

so, the question i wanted to ask is: is there anyway to take say a monstrous spider(that's somehow gained an int score) and give it ways to improve its web attack feature? A druid player was looking to improve his animal companion in that fashion.

looking for sources in official print or web enhancements.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Typically, vermin are mindless, which means no feats or skills. You could awaken it with a master of vermin to give it an Int score, which would retroactively give it feats and skill points, as well as the ability to take class levels, then you could spend one of its feats on Ability Focus, from the MMI.

Otherwise, you'll just have to give it more racial HD and increase its Con score. (DCs are calculated as 10+1/2 HD+Con modifier; monstrous spiders gain a +4 racial bonus to that.)

[loky1109]

Improved Web from Savage Species (p. 36).

[Biggus]

Initially i thought weapon focus might work but i dont know if a giant spiders thrown weapon counts as a natural attack or not.


I think it would be eligible. There are other monsters which have weapon focus for unusual or nondamaging attack types, such as the roper and the gibbering orb.

[Gruftzwerg]

I had 3 spider related Rage Mage builds for the Iron Chef competition a while ago:

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?628809-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CX/page3

Have a look at the post #65, #66 and #71 to see the builds. A warlock, a sorcerer and a druid (what you are looking for) build.

The web DC is CON based. This can be improved by many ways (as seen on the build).

_________________________

But what you really need are these here: (mentioned in the druid build)

The feat you are looking for is Vermin Trainer: (from Drow of the Underdark)

You can use the Handle Animal skill to handle and train vermin as if they were animals with Intelligence scores of 1.

Further you want the Spider Companion feat (again Drow of the Underdark), which lets a druid get monstrous spiders as animal companion.

These feats make a great combo. You can now get a new spider animal companion anywhere you want (ignoring the terrain you are at the moment) within 24h for free. The released spider (becomes a regular non companion spider) can be retaimed by the Vermin Trainer feat.
Build up you spider army in downtimes and take over the world.

[Remuko]

Further you want the Spider Companion feat (again Drow of the Underdark), which lets a druid get monstrous spiders as animal companion.

or you can save a feat and just use this: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040705a

[liquidformat]

The entry for the monstrous spider says to treat the web as a net with 10' range 50' max as such it seems reasonable to treat it as a natural weapon and make weapon focus viable.

Another way to get a boost in attack for the web is to make your spider companion a magical beast which can be done by having the Exalted Companion feat. (it seems reasonable to make an evil version of this to snag the fiendish template).

[ShurikVch]

Also, Ability Focus (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm#abilityFocus) (Web) and Weapon Focus (ranged touch attack)