Homebrew Sentient Giant Spider Species Details

Some mad wizard's castoff experiment, this group of sentient giant spiders has thrived in jungles or caves. Attempting to rise above their beast-like nature and these individuals have a culture and life outlook that is alien to most sentient races. 

They are curious and industrious, always seeking to understand the world and their place in it. 

Arachnid Bodies

Sentient Spiders are rare in the world and do not often present themselves to other sentient races due to their limited ability to communicate with those races and the response others typically have to the spiders. When they venture further from their settlements it will usually be at night.

Most of these creatures appear to be a large jumping spiders, but some may look like widows, tarantulas, or any other type of spider. The males are about the size of a mastiff, extremely dexterous and have very colorful abdomens. The females are closer in size to a human, with more muted coloration, and typically stronger than their male counterparts.

Web Weavers

One of the defining characteristics of this race is their webbing. They build settlements called “nests.” This can be high up in the trees with tightrope-like walkways between structures, or underground with camouflaged trap doors leading to the surface. Due to the biological nature of the web, the settlement is constantly being unworn and resounding in new configurations. 

Fire is a rare sight in a spider nest due to the flammable nature of the web. They, instead, prefer to light areas with bioluminescent Padres made from fungi or the glands of insects. Due to this any metal the nests have is usually scavenged. 

Octopedal Life

Sentient Spiders do not approach the world in the same ways that bipedal races do. Their society is matriarchal, and the males, while valued as individuals, are not seen as necessary for the survival of the nest. Males vie for the attention of the females by giving gifts and executing complex courtship dances that are an art form among the spiders. Spiders do not attach significant emotional meaning to reproductive activities . Spiders do often form close bonds to another for companionship, but this bond is not unrelated to mating and could even be an individual or another race.

The eggs of the spiders are housed in a common space and tended to by all members of the nest. This is usually at the highest point of the nest so that when the egg hatches, thousands of baby spiders the size of a human hand can weave their first web and let the wind take them away from the nest. These young are not self aware, and behave in much the same way any spider would, and they are not seen as individuals by the rest of the nest.

At about nine months of age the spiders become aware, and begin to follow pheromone cues to locate the nearest sentient spider nest, which they are welcomed into. They are considered adults at one year of age and have an understanding of language and web weaving based on instinct. Few of the spiders born annually survive the first year of life, resulting in relatively small nest sizes. 

Hunters

Spiders are carnivorous and hunt their prey using traps, usually made from their webs. They prefer giant insects and even other spiders, but do eat reptiles and mammals. While it is not uncommon for the spiders to catch prey much larger than themselves it is considered taboo to eat other sentient species. 

 

Sentient Spiders IN THE FORGOTTEN REALMS

It is believed that the spiders are an escaped experiment of a wizard from the ancient past in Chult  over time their settlements have spread throughout the jungles is Chult and into the underdark.

The spiders do not often interact with other races due to the response of others and their limited ability to communicate. However, they have received some level of acceptance among the drow, who see them as children Lolth. 

While the spiders do not like fire, they have out of necessity begun to craft tools, including extremely durable ceramics made in kilns. They use this material for containers, permanent structures, armor, and even weapons. 

Spider Names

The spiders don’t have names as other races see them, but mostly use titles followed by a descriptive name in the nest. However, spiders have been watching the cultures around them, and after a successful first contact with the drow, they are ready to reach out to more races, but understand the danger and challenges that entails.

Spiders with audible names have been named by a member of another race, and the name normally reflects that individuals background, temperament, and relationship with the spider individual. Most other races would not recognize the differences between male and female spiders, and the name does not necessarily indicate the gender. Appropriate name for spiders include, but aren’t limited to: Gary, Zippy, Legs, Webber, Nightmare, Lucy, Beloved of Lolth, Fandango, Fluffy, Portia, or Fabian.

SENTIENT SPIDER BACKGROUNDS

Backgrounds that are most appropriate for spiders include the outlander, the hermit, the sage, .

The small nests of spiders are rare in most of the world and hunting grounds can extend in a mile radius around a nest. As spider culture develops more spiders explore and reach out to other races. These are usually males as females are seen as too vital in the colony. 

Sentient Giant Spider Traits

As a sentient spider you have certain traits in common with your people, including a base climbing speed equal to your movement.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity score increases by 2.

Age

Sentient spiders reach maturity At 1 year of age. Compared to humans, spiders do not usually live longer than 25 years.

Alignment

Most Sentient spiders are lawful, due to a structured and pragmatic mindset. They do not often choose sides toward good and evil. A spider nest closely associated with the drow might be evil, but most tend to be neutral or good and highly value sentient life. 

Size

Male spiders are about 3 feet long and 2 feet tall and weigh anywhere from 50-90 pounds. Their size is small. 

Female spiders are roughly 5 feet long and 3 feet tall. They can weigh between 100-150 pounds and their size is medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Spiderclimb

You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed and can move across difficult surfaces such as walls and ceilings without needing to make an ability check. However, you cannot use this feature to move across slippery surfaces such as those covered in oil or ice. 

Web Walker

At 1st level you can use an action to create a small piece of webbing that you can communicate through or attach weapons and armor to your body. You can also spend one hour to create 50ft of silk rope once per day. 

At 3rd level you can cast Web once short or long rest without using a spell slot or material components. You ignore movement restrictions caused by webbing and know the exact location of any individual touching a web that you are touching. 

At 5th level you can spend one hour weaving a parachute out of web once per day. This behaves  like the feather fall spell(targeting only you) and is consume when used. 

Fangs

You are proficient with your unarmed strikes made with your fangs, which deal 1d4 piercing damage on a hit.

At 5th level add 1d6 poison damage to this attack. This increases to 2d6 at 11th level and 3d6 at 17th level. 

Arachnid Body

At least parts of most armor can be altered to fit your body: a breastplate over your abdomen affixed with webbing, a bracer or part of some greaves over your legs, but some pieces such as helms, gloves, and boots are incompatible with your anatomy and may not be worn

1-handed weapons can be affixed to a Spider’s forelimb, but spiders cannot use any weapon that has the two-handed property, and they may not wield weapons with variant property in two hands.

You have dark vision out to 30ft and  tremmorsense out to 10ft, but have disadvantage on perception checks based on sound out to 30ft and are deaf beyond that.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write beast speech (spiders only). You can read and write common