Homebrew Jorōgumo Species Details

“As the story goes, a woodcutter was chopping trees by the Joren falls and dropped his axe into the pool below. When he tried to get his axe back, a beautiful woman appeared before him and told him she would return his axe if he promised to never tell anyone he saw her. The woodcutter, alone and entranced, fell in love with the woman and made his promise. He went to see the woman every day, but his body grew weaker and weaker with every visit.

The priest of a local temple noticed the woodcutter's strange behavior, and followed him to the falls one day. Along the way, the priest whispered chant and sutras to ward the woodcutter, and when a spider thread wrapped around the woodcutter's neck, the priest let out a great shout and severd the thread. Unaware of this act, the woodcutter fled the falls and went before the local lord, asking permission to marry her. The preist had informed the lord of what occured at the falls, and refused. And yet, the woodcutter would not be stopped, and ran to the Joren falls, where he was entangled in spider silk and pulled beneath the waves of the falls, never seen again."

- A weary priest

Jorōgumo strike an intimidating figure. Appearing from the waist up as a beautiful woman. From the waist down however, they possess the body of a giant spider. They make their lairs in caves, forests, or abandon houses, dark caves, and crypts are equally worthy. They hide their arachnoid appearance to seduce unwitting victims, luring them back to their nests before revealing their true form to prepare their next meal. Many proud adventurers have learned the limits of hubris after mistakenly following a Jorōgumo, and very few have lived to make the same mistake twice.

Masters of Manipulation

Jorōgumo are naturally predisposed to the use of lies and illusions, typically favoring the act of subterfuge during their hunts. By hiding their lower halves with shapeshifting magics, they can pass for human, slipping through crowded city streets unnoticed, haunting seedy bars and brothels. The machinations they employ both real and unreal, are powerful enough to trick the minds of most creatures unwitting enough to listen. Despite common belief, the Jorōgumo are not inherently evil; for some this is done in malice, finding joy in the thrill of the hunt; but others simply kill to eat, regretfully at that, and nothing more. The latter often choosing instead to cloak and hide their true selves to cause as little commotion as possible.

Lonely Web of Lies

Jorōgumo are hunters by nature, preying off of the population around them in order to survive. However, it is not uncommon for them to grow somewhat attached to their unfortunate victims, forcing them into a life of lonely solitude where they are feared by the very people they wish they could love. In some rare cases, a Jorōgumo will disguise itself and enter marriage as a human, hiding its true form from even its lover to prolong its happiness for as long as possible. The unlucky spouses will often be deceived right up until they die of some other cause, at which point their body will mysteriously disappear, secreted away to the Jorōgumo's lair. 

Jorōgumo Society

Jorōgumo live solitary lives, both as spiders and as yokai. When a spider eats their mate and lives to 100 years of age, it may develop spiritual powers, finding the need to feed upon human prey instead of insects to sustain itself. They make their nests in caves, forests, or empty houses in towns. They possess a cunning intellect and withered heart, rarely seeing others as anything more than prey to feed on.

Jorōgumo Names

While Jorogumo put little stock in names for their own use, they will typically try to take on names attractive to their preferred type of prey, in order to more effectively hunt. They are prone to changing their names if the available prey changes, and only rarely find higher meaning in keeping a single name. 

Jorōguma Names: Asazuma, Hanaginu, Hatsuura, Jishi, Koeda, Mikawa, Yoshino

Jorōgumo Traits

Jorōgumo posses bizarre and otherworldly abilities along with a deep connection to spiders.

Ability Score Increase

Your Intelligence score increases by 2 and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age

Jorōgumo mature at roughly the same rate as humans but can live and prolong their lifespans to over 500 years with enough nutrients.

Alignment

Jorōgumo tend towards chaotic or neutral alignments, generally being concerned with little but their own safety, pleasure, and survival.

Size

In their true form, Jorōgumo stand upon eight spined legs almost 8 feet tall, but often contain such mass in their human form, averaging within 4-6 feet tall.

Speed

You have a base walking and climbing speed of 25 feet.

Darkvision

Acclimated to the darkness of your lair, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

True Monstrosity

In addition to counting as a humanoid, you count as a monstrosity for the purpose of spells and abilities that affect them. You also have resistance to poison damage.

Web Shot

You shoot sticky webbing at a target, making a ranged weapon attack. On a hit, the target is restrained by webbing. As an action, the restrained target can make a DC 12 Strength check, bursting the webbing on a success. The webbing can also be attacked and destroyed (AC 10; hp 5; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage). You can use this trait a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of once).

Spider Form

As an action, you can shift to your true arachnoid form. When you transform, your statistics do not change, you becoming octopedal, have a disadvantage on all Charisma skill checks except Intimidation, can speak and cast spells as normal, but your clothing and other equipment merge into your new form. In addition, you gain the following benefits.

Bite. You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, which deal 1d4 poison damage on a hit. If the poison damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, the target is stable but poisoned for 1 hour, even after regaining hit points.

Web Master. While in contact with a web, the spider knows the exact location of any other creature in contact with the same web and you ignore movement restrictions caused by webbing. In addition, you can cast the web spell once per day with this trait with Intelligence as your spellcasting ability.

Corpse Feast. When you feed upon the flesh of a dead humanoid or beast, you gain temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Abyssal.