demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
So take a giant spider, give it an Ex ability to walk on water and an air bubble Sq? And make notes on how land-lubbing adventurers could steal the air bubble for their own use after they kill it?
Converting "Real World" Animals and Vermin
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
That sounds like the right approach. No poison or web spinning, I think, except maybe for the "safety line."
I love the image of the air bubble on the head.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
Web is good, then!
Air Bubble (Ex): When a raft spider climbs under the water, hairs on its body hold an air bubble around it. The raft spider can breath from this air bubble for one hour per point of Constitution before it risks drowning. Because of the air bubble, the spider is bouyant and must climb along rocks, sand, or plants to avoid floating to the surface; the raft spider does not actually swim.
If the raft spider is killed, a Small or Medium creature may sever one of its legs and breath from the air bubble attached to that leg for up to one hour. Smaller creatures may use a fraction of a leg, while Large creatures must use the body and head of the spider. Huge and larger creatures cannot use a raft spider's air bubble to breathe underwater.
Air Bubble (Ex): When a raft spider climbs under the water, hairs on its body hold an air bubble around it. The raft spider can breath from this air bubble for one hour per point of Constitution before it risks drowning. Because of the air bubble, the spider is bouyant and must climb along rocks, sand, or plants to avoid floating to the surface; the raft spider does not actually swim.
If the raft spider is killed, a Small or Medium creature may sever one of its legs and breath from the air bubble attached to that leg for up to one hour. Smaller creatures may use a fraction of a leg, while Large creatures must use the body and head of the spider. Huge and larger creatures cannot use a raft spider's air bubble to breathe underwater.
Cleon
Legend
Hmm...
Real-world raft spiders are venomous, like almost all spiders, so it should have a poison bite.
I'm pretty sure Dolomedes does not trap their prey with their silk, either as a trap-sheet or by throwing, it simply grabs victims with its jaws and front legs (Improved Grab?). They do use their silk for a safety-line, breeding or to build a shelter*. Therefore, I'd drop the silk-throwing and trap-sheets and just leave them a safety line and tough (but non-trapping) web-sheets to make a shelter.
*If I remember correctly, they mostly build shelters for their young.
Real-world raft spiders are venomous, like almost all spiders, so it should have a poison bite.
I'm pretty sure Dolomedes does not trap their prey with their silk, either as a trap-sheet or by throwing, it simply grabs victims with its jaws and front legs (Improved Grab?). They do use their silk for a safety-line, breeding or to build a shelter*. Therefore, I'd drop the silk-throwing and trap-sheets and just leave them a safety line and tough (but non-trapping) web-sheets to make a shelter.
*If I remember correctly, they mostly build shelters for their young.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
I guess so!
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Yeah, I was going to mention all spiders are venomous...
I'm pretty sure that this is less a fishing spider and more a diving bell spider, in which case the web is entirely appropriate.
I'm pretty sure that this is less a fishing spider and more a diving bell spider, in which case the web is entirely appropriate.
Cleon
Legend
I'm afraid not, when I said "Real-world raft spiders are venomous, like almost all spiders" I meant it. Like so much in life there are exceptions. The family Uloboridae includes spiders that have lost their venom glands.
It seems quite clear to me it's meant to be a Dolomedes type "fishing spider". Diving bell spiders don't run across the water as described, indeed most live their whole lives underwater.
More to the point, giant versions of Argyroneta aquatica already had official stats in AD&D five years before that Dragon article saw print. They're pretty obviously the basis for the (Giant) Water Spider in the 1st edition Monster Manual (December 1977), while Dragon #67 is dated November 1982.
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