Spider Climb. The acid archer can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d8) bludgeoning damage and the target is grappled (escape DC 10). The acid archer can grapple only one target at a time.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit (with Advantage if target grappled), reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage.
Acid Squirt (Recharge 4-6). Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 40/120 ft., one target. Hit: 2d6 acid damage and the target must make a DC 11 Dexterity saving throw, failure results in blindness for 1d6 rounds, on a success the target is only blinded for 1 round and takes half damage. Acid archers are immune to this attack.
Description
Also called acid-shooting vinegaroons, acid archer pedipalps were not created by nature but by the drow magically combining multiple different arachnids. An acid archer giant pedipalp resembles a slender long-legged giant schizomid with a body up to 4 feet long. It has eight eyes like a jumping spider, including two binocular-like eyes in the front of its head. Like a normal schizomid, its segmented abdomen ends in a short tail and can curl over its body like a scorpion. Acid archer pedipalps have the same love of darkness and humidity as the amblypygids, uropygids and schizomids they are descended from.
An acid archer has abdominal glands near its tail able to shoot a jet of corrosive fluid powerful enough to dissolve flesh and corrode bone. The fumes from this fluid are so irritating they cause temporary blindness. Although the drow incorporated scorpions and spiders in their ancestry, acid archers do not have venomous fangs or a sting. They prefer to use their acid spray from a distance, then dash into melee once their opponent is blinded and wounded.
Unlike most arachnids, acid archers are social creatures who often hunt in packs. Many drow enclaves keep tame acid-shooting giant vinegaroons as watchbugs and hunting beasts' these are trained to identify drow elves as being other acid archers, so will only attack dark elves they were raised with if the acid archer is so starved it resorts to cannibalism. Wild populations of these giant pedipalps live in the underdark, jungles and tropical forests, descendants of feral acid archers who escaped drow control.
Acid archers can be any color possible for an arachnid, including white, black, tan or brown, green, blue and red. The drow delighted in creating "show breeds" of acid archer and a dark elf spidermaster can identify what clan or house an acid archer belongs to from its coloration and pattern, whether it's as colorful as a peacock or ghostly white. A feral population of acid archers can vary wildly in appearance from one another, but wild acid-shooting vinegaroons will have camouflage colors that match their surroundings.
(Inspired by the Giant Pedipalps from Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits (1980) by Gary Gygax and David C. Sutherland III, the original author was Sutherland)
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