Homebrew Giant Spider Species Details

Animals granted the gift of sapience are not uncommon in stories, but it's not often that the animal in question is something as widely feared as spiders. Few adventurers would hesitate to attack a Giant Spider, and without mouthparts capable of speech, the adventurers may never know what it was they killed.

Having a humanoid mind means being a social creature. It doesn't matter how introverted someone is, companions of some sort are vital to living a good life, and a spider is bound to find some interesting ones.

Wild Animals

They may be sapient, but they’re still animals, and these Giant Spiders will still act like it. Animals raised in captivity will have an easier time acclimating to an intelligent mind, but as Giant Spiders are known to be violent at the best of times, they make terrible pets and are rarely kept as one except by the insane, and the insanely rich.

To an adventurer, the grinding and crunching of their arachnid mouthparts are most likely to be taken as a threat no matter the circumstances. Unfortunately, there isn’t really any other way these normally asocial creatures can verbally communicate, so reasoning with humanoids is a nearly impossible task. 

Of course, inability to speak does not mean inability to listen, and some intelligent spiders may understand, read, and even write once they’ve learned how to. But as with everything else for these unlucky animals, learning a language means either being taught by a kind—though likely unhinged—person, or by eavesdropping on an especially loud and oblivious group of travelers for a very long time.

Wherever you find them, Giant Spiders are rarely active in the day, and they typically avoid open areas. Stalking prey is best done quietly, in darkness, and behind cover, but in the context of a social mind, this habit of sneaking around may come across as suspicious, or just extremely shy.

Woodlands and Caverns

Giant spiders can be found anywhere you would expect to find spiders, assuming it's open enough to accommodate their nearly two-meter-long legs. This usually means deep and dark corners of woodlands and caves.

It’s usually best to have specific details on where your characters come from, but most spiders wouldn’t bother remembering what the humanoids called their home. Instead, consider how their home shaped them, and how they got where they are now.

The Purpose of a Mind

Most animals will keep to their native range unless brought by humanoid travelers, but a mind brings many new possibilities. Intelligent spiders may choose to travel to sate an ever-growing loneliness, or to see what this world has to offer to something that can properly understand it, but more likely their adventures will have something to do with whatever—or whoever—gave them their sapience.

Whatever decided to make spiders capable of complex thought probably did so for a reason. It might have been a power hungry god hoping to create a champion, a capricious Fae trying to make a strange joke, or a completely accidental side-product of some other magical force. Regardless, whatever makes these spiders sapient will probably be relevant to the spider’s story to come.

If the source of a spider’s sapience is fiendish rituals, they might be asked to perform acts of worship, or to fight in the fiends’ names. If the spider simply found a mind-granting magical item, they may try (to varying success) to use said item in other ways. If a forest spirit wanted a friend to talk to, the spider may act as a friend to such spirits.

Regardless, think carefully about what made your spider smart, and be sure to take that information into account to decide what sort of spider you want to play.

Playing as a Spider

As a (formerly) wild animal, you might not have a name unless someone was kind enough to give you one, but really, what would a spider need an identity for in the first place?

The most believable classes are probably spellcasters, and backgrounds that are most appropriate for intelligent animals like these include the outlander, the hermit, and the Inheritor.

You should probably choose a class that won’t require opposable thumbs, but I cannot stop you from giving a spider a sword. If you do choose to use weapons, come up with a good explanation as to how. Maybe your spider has minor short-range telekinesis, or can innately cast multiple Mage Hands. Or maybe they just tied a sword to one of their legs with silk.

If you want to wear armor, it would have to be custom-made to fit a spider, and you’ll probably need someone to help with putting it on and taking it off. But despite these limitations such a large abdomen can make for a wonderful space for decoration. You may wear a saddle if your party is short on horses, or if you have an artificer in your party, you may even mount some sort of artillery on your back. Anything you could think to do with a wide, flat horse can likely be done with a giant spider.

Giant Spider Traits

As a Giant Spider, you have certain traits in common with your species. As always, talk to your DM before using Homebrew rules for a character, especially considering this is literally just a playable monster.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age

Giant Spiders reach maturity by age 3. After reaching maturity, males don’t usually live longer than 2 years, but females can live up to 35.

Size

Giant Spiders are about 3 feet tall and 6 feet long. They weigh between 100 and 160 pounds. Your size is Large.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Spider Climb

You have a climbing speed of 60 feet.

Venomous Fangs

Your fangs are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d8 + your Dexterity modifier, and poison damage equal to 1d8 + your Constitution modifier.

Languages

You can understand, read, and write one language of your choice, but you cannot speak.

Spiderwebs

You can cast the Web spell three times with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.