Arachnophobes: how creepy is an undead spider?

[RangerWickett]

I had a player once who told me she was afraid of spiders. I didn't realize to what extent, so I threw some giant spiders into a game. She actually hid under a blanket for the entire session, refusing to come out while the spiders were being talked about.

I'd say don't do it.

 

[possum]

It is an extremely creepy situation. I'm not deathly afraid of spiders, but a chill certainly went down my spine at my mental image of it.

 

[el-remmen]

In my last campaign, the party fought a Bone Spider - an undead spider that wraps paralyzed victims in webs, who emerge in 24 hours as skeletons or zombies under the control of the spider.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

In my last campaign, the party fought a Bone Spider - an undead spider that wraps paralyzed victims in webs, who emerge in 24 hours as skeletons or zombies under the control of the spider.

Not bad, but not creepy enough.

Are you _seriously_ arachnophobic? Don't open my creepy story below:
[sblock]
The Bone Spider has to put eggs into her victims. And then the go merrily at home, and in an unsuspecting moment, maybe in the tavern or while putting the children to bed, they burst open with a swarm of tiny bone spiders.
[/sblock]

As above. If you read it anyway, remember, it's just an urban myth.
[sblock]
One of my "favorite" creepy spider stories is of a woman who was on vacation somewhere in Africa and, back home in Germany (I think the local story says Emden) notices a small swelling at her head. Thinking she probably bumped against something while sleeping, she doesn't worry much, until one day, she looks in the mirror, the swelling bursts open and a swarm of spiders emerge.
[/sblock]

By the way, is it just an coincidence that I also wrote about my "Crystal Spider" adventure in another thread?
(A dungeon/story-line basically partially inspired by a Star Wars novel (Kessel mines, where some guys begin to worship a Crystal Spider entity... Creatures with crystalline weapons and crystalinne implants/templates, and a spider web consisting of crystals...)

 

[WayneLigon]

It depends on the strength of the phobia. A friend of mine, his wife played with us fpr quite some time. She was a severe arachnophobe, to the point that we could not say the word 'spider' without creeping her out a little. Any spider-like encounter had to wait for a night she would not be there.

 

[Ginnel]

pfft you don't want undead ones and you don't want large, you want hand sized at most for the scare factor, swarming all over people with the argh get them off get them off!! factor.

And they can get anywhere in hair, in boots, components pouches, backpacks, also don't forget the proceeding cobwebs becoming thicker as they near the actual lair/web.

If your going to do a big spider do it huge size and do it in a web when the players fall through a room in a crude spider trap, then you get groovy save checks/skill checks free movement being really handy and maybe falling damage if they try to cut themselves free with a pit trap at the bottom.

 

[Mark Chance]

Sounds good to me (barring the possibility of mental cruelty to a genuinely phobic person). I've used spiders, giant spiders (especially BitD when they were intelligent), spider swarms, undead spiders, phase spiders, et cetera.

Here's a tauric duergar-Large monstrous spider. Add the gravetouched ghoul and swarm-shifter templates from Liber Mortis for undead funtime.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In my last campaign, the party fought a Bone Spider - an undead spider that wraps paralyzed victims in webs, who emerge in 24 hours as skeletons or zombies under the control of the spider.

That sounds familiar. ToH3/Year's Best D20?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

nm

 

[Spenser]

I was going to vote "9" until AZRogue mentioned the "eyes" thing. Yuck.