The Arachnid Bestiary [Monster Thursday]

Everything that creeps and crawls should be destroyed... with fire. - Stephen

This Monster Thursday is based on a request (send in more!) to include more spiders to D&D because there aren't enough! I'm not sure I'd agree with that sentiment, but looking through the old editions, there are a ton worth stealing and updating to this edition. 

Of the dozens in the back catalog, I only chose six that I felt like could be utilized the most or had the ability to really wow players or provide fascinating world-building opportunities. The six that made my first cut are the:

Brain Spider - Aberrations from the Far Realm who like to eat brains (and even attack mind flayers!) They are sentient cowards that will cower for mercy and then attack you when you least expect it. They also have some psionic flavorings, so that's pretty cool! Image of Brain Spider 

Crystal Spider - This spider is a representation from Dark Suns and is a spider made of crystal! It spins crystal webs that will cut you to shreds and can reflect (refract?) light and blind its victims! This is a neat little guy that can make players look at you with disgust when it suddenly appears as if invisible! Image of Crystal Spider 

Giant Water Spider - Based off of the normal giant spider, for maximum flexibility in your own campaigns, this little (large?) guy hangs out in the water and attempts to drown those troublesome players! I've greatly expanded on its lore, as it was about a sentence in 2e, to describe its life in the oceans, forming nests under ships and attacking sailors at night.

Goblin Spiders - No, I'm not talking about goblin driders (I'm calling them gobiders and I'm totally making them one day), these sentient and intelligent spiders once controlled vast swaths of land before the humans came and ruined everything. They are worshipers of an evil spirit known as the Earth Spider and just love to eat humans because who doesn't?

Spider Dragon - It's a spider! No, it's a dragon! No, it's eating all our friends! Tremble in fear as a ferocious dragon with spider legs attacks the party, shooting out webs and venom and controlling the hordes of spiders at its beck and call! These are just genetic experiments gone wrong, and I had to include them! Strangely, in 2e, they are terribly weak compared to proper dragons, but that's fine. Who doesn't want to face off against a legendary creature at level 3? Image of Spider Dragon is attached

Werespider - Another were-creature and, of course, it's called a lycanthrope in 2e's description. Lycanthrope means werewolf, not animal shapechanger! Therianthropes are any humanoids that can change into an animal form, this is a hill, I will die on... unless the werespiders take me and drag me off the hill. These guys are pretty neat, especially if you want some Deadliest Game type nonsense and have your players hunted by one of these through a forest choked in webs! Image of Werespiders 

If you have a monster or a group of monsters you want to see! Let us know! There are loads of old monsters to remake or if you have monster ideas stuck in your head, we'd love to bring them to life.

I'd be remiss if I didn't provide a few shootouts to some that didn't quite make it this time:

Asteroid Spider - It's a beastie that resides in Spelljammers/outer space. It makes nests between asteroids and catches ships... pretty badass. 

Flying Spiders - When you really, really, really, really don't want your players playing outside. It's a spider WITH WINGS!

Planar Spider - It's a lot like a phase spider, but it travels across the planes and not just the Ethereal Plane. 

Vortex Spider - It creates webs in the Ethereal Plane on vortex boundaries. It's web causes time to move slowly for its prey, giving it plenty of time to eat the player... I mean... the character.