Spider

Giant spiders hunt aggressively above and below ground, and most kinds bite first because a limp victim is easier to haul home. Each has eight eyes and eight legs. Web-spinners have swollen abdomens and slender, sleek legs; hunters have smaller bodies, bigger heads and fangs, and bristly hair.

Packs of these black hunters infest jungles, tombs, caves and the deep underworld. They spin nothing but walk freely on others' webs and ignore all spider venom. Up to 40 can blanket a man-sized target, biting at +5 once attached, and rolling or slamming into walls will not shift them; each must be struck or pried off. Their mild venom is saved against at +2; failure brings -1 to AC and attacks and -3 on Dexterity checks for 1d4+1 rounds, beginning a round later. Drow wizards favor them as familiars: they climb walls, carry small items, have 60-foot infravision, do not fear fire, and 40% detect invisibility (4 in 6 each round).

Large spiders spin beautiful, sticky webs and wait for admirers to blunder in. Strength 19 or more tears free at once; otherwise escape takes a round per point under 19. Trapped victims lose Dexterity bonuses to AC and are attacked at +4 by every spider in reach. Their Type A venom acts in 15 minutes for 15 damage, negated by a save vs. poison at +2.

Huge spiders hide in disguised burrows and pounce up to 30 feet, giving -6 to surprise. Their venom is the same, saved at +1. Watch spiders are huge spiders bred as guards for cellars, warehouses and drow homes; with Low Intelligence (5-7) they learn to obey, spare chosen people and target casters. Their bite paralyzes for 2d4 turns after 1-2 rounds unless a save vs. poison at +1 succeeds, and hungry ones eat their paralyzed catch.

Most are oversized web-spinners whose Type F venom kills on a failed save. Variants: the giant water spider (8 feet, 3+3 HD, movement 15, Intelligence 2-4) keeps an air-filled den beneath fresh water and drags prey down to cocoon; it cannot cross webs, bites for 1d4 plus poison and has a huge spider's treasure. The flying or hunting spider (10 feet, 3+3 HD, movement 9, flies 9, MC: D), a drow guard beast, leaps 70 feet and falls any distance safely using its wings, with large spider venom. The giant trapdoor spider (4+4 HD, 2d4 bite, brown or gold with red leg bands) ambushes like a huge spider and seizes on a hit, dragging a victim who cannot fight back unless it makes a Strength check at -2 or friends with total Strength 20+ pull it away; its venom adds 1d6 on a failed save, and it travels others' webs and shoots 3-foot strands that entangle for 1d4 rounds on a hit. The steeder (4+4 HD, movement 12, tarantula markings) spins no silk, but sticky feet hold it to any surface by one foot; half the time it glues prey instead (attack vs. AC 10 adjusted only by magic and Dexterity), biting automatically each round while the victim takes -2 to attack and damage and needs a Strength or Dexterity roll at -10 to escape. Duergar ride them in harnessed saddles; a steeder leaps 240 feet even with a rider, each leap a charge, and climbs walls and ceilings at half speed.

These web-spinners have a raised thorax and a humanlike head, and are mistaken for web-eel slavers or driders. They shift onto the Prime Material Plane, bite and shift away all in one round, at -3 initiative; beating a foe's initiative by over 4 means they are gone before it can answer. Appearing behind the target gives +4 to hit. When losing, they flee to the Ethereal, where their initiative penalty becomes -1 and foes there may strike them each round whatever the roll. Their Type F venom imposes -2 on saves.

A sleek black jungle hunter with brown stripes, spread into the deep underworld by drow traders, its legs armored with ridged bone that cuts like steel. It launches itself up to 30 feet sideways, legs first, with one attack roll; a hit lands three legs on size S, four on M, five on L, six on H, all eight on G. Leaps over 20 feet add +1 damage per leg, and attacks from beneath it suffer -4.

The whisper spider, red-eyed and black with twin gray abdominal stripes, has 8+8 HD and lives in vast forest or cave webs, hiding loot in a hole or hollow tree. Flattened it is 80% undetectable, and its silence imposes -5 on surprise. It sculpts silk into decoys such as a fake spider, a banner or a veil, and throws nets or 2-foot strands against AC 10 instead of biting, holding the victim as a web spell does. Its bite demands a save vs. poison at -2 to avoid a 2d4-turn coma. Giant marine spiders are 7+7 HD cousins that burrow by salt water, carry prey home, keep only incidental loot, have Type F venom and lack the whisper spider's tricks.