Blade Spider

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Blade Spider (CR 11)

Blade spiders are monstrous arachnids that lurk in nearly any areas with adequate hiding spaces and enough foot traffic to keep them fed. This can be forests, mines, inside wells and even along lightly-traveled roads. Blade spiders have bodies that average about 7 feet in length, and tend to keep their legs tight to their bodies. These spiders get their name from their blade-like legs, which have a razor-sharp point and a cutting edge along the length of the final joint of the leg. Blade spiders prefer fresh prey, rarely killing more than they can eat in a single meal. Humanoids, horses and cattle are their preferred food.

Another aspect of the blade spider is their webs. Blade spiders can rapidly fill an area with webbing that is full of razor-sharp strands. These webs serve to both entrap their victims as well as weaken them through blood loss. These webs are easy to see when seen from an angle, but when seen from straight on, they are nearly invisible. Blade spiders sometimes litter acres of forest with webs as a way of being alerted to activity in their territory.

A blade spider's venom acts to liquify the insides of a creature over about an hour, whereupon the spider slurps out the gooey center like a juice-box. The leftover corpse is little more than a hollow suit of skin wrapped in webs.

Curiously, blade spiders are not ambush predators. They rely on their prodigious speed and their webs to limit their prey's ability to escape. Blade spiders primarily hunt during the day, watching from a high vantage point until prey comes in sight, then running it down and devouring it.

GENERAL

CR 11 Hit Dice 16

XP 12,800

N Large Vermin

Init +5; Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Tremorsense 300 ft. (any connected web; webs only), Perception +17

DEFENSE

AC 31, touch 20, flat-footed 26 (+7 armor, +5 dex, +5 natural, +4 deflection)

hp 229

Fort +14, Ref +11, Will +11

Aura: -

SR: -

Special Defenses: -

Immunities: -

Weaknesses: -

OFFENSE

Speed 90 ft., Greater Climb 90 ft.

Space / Reach: 10 ft. / 5 ft.

Single Melee Bite +19 (2d8+11/x2) plus Venom

Full Melee Bite +19 (2d8+11/x2) plus Venom, 2x Claws +19 (2d6+3/x2)

Ranged Web +13 ranged touch, range increment 20

Special Attacks Web, Venom

Action Points 0

STATISTICS

Str 22, Dex 18, Con 15, Int 3, Wis 3, Cha 6

Base Atk +11; CMB +17; Maneuver Defense: 27

Feats -

Skills -

Languages -

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Web (Ex)

As a standard action, the blade spider can fling a web at an enemy creature within 100 feet (range increment 20 feet). This is a ranged touch attack made at +13 to hit. If the web hits, it explodes in a silent wave of feathery webbing, affecting the target's square and all adjacent squares (if the target is size large or larger, the GM can pick which 3x3 square area is affected). If the web misses, the glob of webbing scatters per the splash weapon rules.

A creature directly struck by the webbing takes no damage but is Entangled and Immobilized. Breaking free requires either a Strength check or an escape artist check, DC 20. Attempting either check, regardless of success or failure, causes the creature to take 3d6 points of damage, and 3 points of Bleed each round at the beginning of their turns, as the razor-edged filaments cut into them. Successfully breaking free ends the Immobilized condition, though you remain Entangled until you leave the area of effect of the web.

Creatures who were not directly struck by the webbing (or those who have successfully broken free of the webbing), but are inside the area of effect of the webbing are Entangled. This status condition ends at the end of any creature's turn in which they are no longer inside a web's area of effect. Entering any square in which a web exists also inflicts a 3 point Bleed condition. Note that bleed conditions do not stack (instead, the worst available bleed is applied and all lesser bleeds are ignored).

Webbing thrown in combat is easily spotted by onlookers, requiring no perception checks to notice. However, webbing woven in an area and left to dry is harder to spot, as it hardens and becomes transparent. The DC of a perception check to notice webbing in an adjacent square is 20. For each 5 above the base DC, the viewer can also perceive webbing at an additional 5 feet of range beyond adjacent, if any exists. Because moving through this webbing inflicts a bleed condition, this is considered a trap, so bonuses to perception to notice traps apply for this check.

Blade spiders are immune to all of the harmful effects of the web, and can move over and through the web without impediment. They can even use the webbing to make use of their climb movement, allowing them to ignore rough terrain or gain some elevation if the web is in an area of trees or other vertical attach points.

Venom

A creature successfully bitten by a blade spider must make a saving throw versus its venom:

• Bite - injury; save Fort DC 20; frequency 1/round for 2 rounds; effect 1d4+1 Str; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution-based.

TREASURE

sell value of approximately 6,500 gp

COMBAT TACTICS

Blade spiders can sense prey up to 300 feet away as long as there is a continuous bit of webbing between the spider and its prey. As a result, blade spiders will sometimes fill an area with webbing, even flat areas such as roadways and fields. Once dry, the webbing becomes clear and harder to spot (DC 20 perception to notice at a range of 5 feet, +5 DC for each additional 5 feet range).

Once prey is noticed, if the blade spiders think the prey is of adequate size to attempt to eat (and not so big that it's too dangerous to approach), they will rapidly approach the prey, use web attacks to cut off escape, and then close in with melee attacks, making use of their venom as much as possible, to kill their opponents.

Blade spiders will wait until all nearby prey are incapacitated or dead before feeding. Blade spiders will flee a fight if their opponents are too strong, but they are not intelligent creatures, acting largely on instinct, so the decision to flee needs to be pretty obvious before it really takes hold.