Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

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Spiders have been in the game since the beginning. Here, they’re present in both the Monster Manual and in the Monster Vault’s animal appendix.

The Lore

While some real-world spiders can have a pretty dangerous bite, they’re not really suitable as a combat encounter. The books concern themselves with monstrous giant spiders instead.

There are many species of monstrous spider in D&D and they’re everywhere. Deserts, forests, caverns (“surface” or Underdark), ruins, anywhere a tiny spider would like can be home to a monstrous variety as well. The vast majority of them are simply natural creatures, but some are the blessed of Lolth and enjoy her divine gifts.

Predictably, drow love spiders and frequently train them or control them through magic to serve in all the same capacities someone on the surface would use a dog, horse, or drake for. Kobolds and goblins might also employ them if they’re part of the locally available fauna.

The Numbers

All spiders shown here, with one exception, are Natural Beasts with the Spider keyword. That keyword is important because, among other things, drow tend to have lots of powers that buff spider allies.

The individual stat blocks vary a lot, but all have some level of Tremorsense, and a climb speed equal to their ground speed with the Spider Climb tag (obviously). Their basic attack is always a bite and almost always has some sort of venom effect associated with it.

All of the Monster Vault spiders have Web Walk, which allows them to ignore web-based difficult terrain. While this isn’t explicitly listed in the Monster Manual entries it would be fair to assume all of them have it too.

Spider Swarm (MV)

The least monstrous of the bunch, this is a lot of normal-sized aggressive spiders acting as a swarm monster. The swarm is a Level 3 Soldier with 44 HP, tremorsense 5 and a speed of 6, along with the usual swarm resistances and vulnerabilities.

Its Swarm Attack aura (1) slows enemies caught inside instead of granting extra attacks. They attack with a Swarm of Fangs that targets Reflex because they get inside your armor. It has an ongoing poison damage rider (save ends).

Deathjump Spider (Both)

These Medium spiders are Level 4 Skirmishers with 55 HP. They have tremorsense 5, resist poison 5, and a speed of 6. Though they have Web Walk, they’re not big spinners themselves, and hunt by jumping on their prey.

The stats for the spider’s bite are a bit wonky in the MM version: compared to what the updated math says, their attacks are woefully inaccurate and abnormally strong. The MV version fixes this. In both cases, the rider is ongoing poison damage (save ends).

The deathjump spider’s special attack is Death From Above, in which the spider shifts up to 6 squares by jumping and makes a bite attack at the end. If that hits, the target is also knocked prone. The MM version also does increased base damage.

It can also make a Prodigious Leap as a move-action encounter power, which allows it to shift 10 squares. So this spider could initiate combat by jumping at the party’s wizard from a full 16 squares away!

The MM gives it another trait, Soft Fall, allowing it to ignore the first 30 feet of height of any fall. This is absent from the MV version, probably because they thought it was a bit too finicky.

Bloodweb Spider Swarm

A more powerful version of the MV swarm, these spiders have been brought together and are controlled by magic. Without orders, they’ll default to attacking the nearest living creature until it dies before moving on to the next victim.

This swarm counts as a Level 7 Soldier with 80 HP. It otherwise works just like the level 3 swarm, except that it’s slower at speed 4 and its aura does grant free basic attacks.

Doomspinner Spider (MV)

This chunky Large spider does spin elaborate webs to catch prey with. It’s a Level 7 Controller with 82 HP, Tremorsense 10, Resist Poison 5, and speed 6.

Their bite also has an ongoing poison damage rider, which increases if the target of the bite is restrained, immobilized, stunned, or unconscious. Its special attack is Web Casting (area burst 1 within 5 vs. Reflex), which does no damage but restrains everyone it hits. The area of the burst becomes difficult terrain until the end of the encounter.

As a minor action the doomspinner can also shoot a strand of webbing at someone, in an attack named Drawn to Doom (Ranged 5 vs. Fortitude), which does no damage but pulls the target 4 squares.

Though doomspinners can restrain enemies by themselves, they also pair really well with other monsters that can inflict the conditions that increase the effectiveness of their venom. “Multiple doomspinners” is the obvious setup, but there are plenty of other options.

Blade Spider (MM)

These Large spiders have two blade-like front legs, and attack with them instead of biting. They live in the Underdark and are popular drow pets, having the Mount keyword.

Blade spiders are Level 10 Brutes with 130 HP, tremorsense 10, and speed 6. Unlike most of their relatives, they have no resistance to poison. Their basic attack is a Claw with a rider that does ongoing poison damage and weakens (save ends both). They can make double attacks with that.

When used as mounts, they can make combined attacks, which means they attack with a claw as a free action when their rider makes an attack.

Cave Spider (MV)

These Medium spiders likely behave as a scaled-up swarm, with their size and numbers being such that you can track them individually. They’re level 12 Minion Skirmishers with tremorsense 5, resist poison 10 and speed 6.

Their bite does the usual fixed minion damage, with additional poison damage on top if the target is immobilized, restrained, stunned or unconscious. They can also use a Tethering Web (ranged 10 vs. Reflex) as a minor action to immobilize someone for a turn.

Combine a small horde of these with a leveled-up doomspinner or three, and your PCs are going to have a bad time.

Demonweb Terror (MM)

Native to the Demonweb Pits, these are the true blessed of Lolth. They’re Huge Elemental Beasts with the Spider keyword. All the other spiders in this entry are simple Unaligned animals with Int 1, but terrors have Int 8 and are Chaotic Evil. You can try to talk to them if you know Abyssal, but that will do you no good.

Demonweb Terrors are Level 14 Elite Controllers with 296 HP, tremorsense 10, and a speed of 6. Interestingly, they have no poison resistance, though perhaps they should.

Their bite carries a venom that does ongoing poison damage and slows (save ends). As a 1/round minor action they can shoot a web (ranged 10 vs. Reflex) that does no damage and immobilizes (save ends). After they’re first bloodied, they can use the Poison Spray encounter power (close blast 5 vs. Fortitude) that has the same effects as the bite’s rider over the whole area.

These feel a tiny bit underpowered - they were likely only made Elite to pad out their HP. However, they likely work well when accompanied by other monsters who can capitalize on the immobilization and slowness they inflict.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

The MM gives us 2 sample encounters:

  • Level 11: 2 blade spiders, 2 bloodweb spider swarms, 1 drow blademaster.

  • Level 15: 1 demonweb terror, 1 drow arachnomancer, 2 drider fanglords and 3 drow warriors.

As you can see, the book goes all-in on the whole Lolth connection. Any encounter with drow is likely to involve spiders. And while the lower-level spiders will likely be found as dungeon wildlife, the more powerful ones will very often be accompanied by drow as well.

I think giant spiders are a classic dungeon denizen, and work well when used in moderation. Of course, drow are known for despising the concept of moderation when it comes to arachnids.