Mist Spider

[the Jester]

This is the other nasty nasty the pcs met in the Isles of Gloom. The glumring was nastier than I'd anticipated; this guy's nastier still, but I'd figured that in.

Without further ado...

MIST SPIDER
Huge Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 12d10+84 (150 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 45’, climb 35’
AC: 23 (-2 size, +15 natural)
Attacks: Bite +22 melee
Damage: Bite 2d8+13
Face/Reach: 15’x15’/10’
Special Attacks: Gloom aura, poison, spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: Immunities, SR25, breathsense, tremorsense
Saves: Fort +15, Ref +8, Will +5
Abilities: Str29, Dex11, Con24, Int6, Wis13, Cha14
Skills: Climb +29, Move Silently +20
Feats: Large and In Charge, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite)
Climate/Terrain: Any land (Isles of Gloom)
Organization: Solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 13
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement Range: 13-24 HD (huge); 25-36 HD (gargantuan)
Description: A mist spider is a huge bloated arachnid of evil cunning and terrible spell-like powers. Its body looks hairy, but the hair is white and writhes like mist. A mist spider’s eyes seem to swirl and change from white to grey to a pale blue color. Strange filaments seem to extend and retract from the creature’s body almost like hooks.
Skills: Mist spiders get a +10 racial bonus to climb and move silently checks.
Combat: A mist spider prefers to attack from surprise, closing in invisibly and activating its aura of gloom to attempt to daze and disable as many victims at once as possible and then attempts to slay any resistance with its bite and deadly venom. If severely threatened a mist spider will use its cone of cold ability.
Gloom Aura (Su): As a standard action a mist spider can radiate an aura of terrible gloom in a 20’ radius. All creatures within this radius must make Will saves (DC18) or suffer 2d6 points of Wisdom damage and be dazed for 2d6 rounds. A successful saving throw indicates 1d4 points of Wisdom damage and no daze effect. This is a mind-affecting effect.
Poison (Ex): Bite; Fort save (DC23); initial damage 2d4 temporary Wisdom, secondary damage 1d6 temporary Intelligence and 1d6 temporary Charisma.
Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): Once/day- Cone of Cold; at will- Fog Cloud, Invisibility, Tongues, Web; as a 12th-level sorcerer (base save DC12+ spell level).
Immunities (Ex): A mist spider is immune to cold and negative energy effects.
Breathsense (Su): A mist spider can sense the exact location of all breathing creatures within a 30’ radius. This ability foils concealment and invisibility to the extent that a mist spider can pinpoint its target, although a miss chance still applies.


Do you think it deserves the high CR? From playtesting against my party, I'd say yes. (Look at your wisdom go away...)

 

[Psychotic Jim]

This is a neat monster, especially the description. I would definately think that it makes (maybe even surpasses) the CR 13 mark. I did a rough calculation on the CR chart, and I got CR 14. So you might want to make it CR 14. What might be a neat affect to add is a constant obscuring mist ability surrounding the mist spider that does not affect the monster's own senses.

By the way, what are the Isles of Gloom?

 

[the Jester]

At last a reply! The Isles of Gloom (also called the Isles of Mist) are an area in my campaign world of Cydra that is always choked with a strange fog and mist called the Gloom. They've never been successfully charted and seem to have strangely disorienting effects on people. It becomes frighteningly easy to get lost, for instance. The pcs in my game just spent the last few games there, narrowly escaping with their lives (mostly...). Check out the thread on my other homebrew monster, the Glumring, for a little more on them. Those guys kick out wisdom damage like nothing you've ever seen (which all ties in to the Gloom effect and it's backstory; but I can't really give out to much detail lest my players see it.)

When I make a new monster I try to be specific about where it lives in my world (unless it's very widespread). Since the mist spider is only found in the Gloom and one of the gloom effects is constant fog, it doesn't really need an obscuring mist effect. For a lot of the three games the pcs were there, they could see from 10'-30'. There was one day with 60' visibility but I think that was as good as it got.

As for the CR, after the fight the pcs had with it, I'm comfortable with it as CR13. The pcs that fought it were:
11th level (eldritch master 1/rogue 2/sorcerer 8)
10th level (necromancer 8/fighter 2 orc)
6th level (cleric)
6th level (elementalist [earth, fire] 6) (This is a custom base class, with powerful spells based on con that require a Fort save to avoid subdual damage whenever cast. The DC to resist strain from casting your spell is the same as the spell's DC, making it very interesting... the more powerful the forces you channel, the harder it is on you. This is based on the channeller from the 2nd edition Spells & Magic PO book.)

None of them died, but it was a close fight. In the end, Sith (the orcish necromancer) stepped up and finished the job with a full attack routine from his new magic spiked chain, but it was very close! The fight lasted 12 rounds, the eldritch master fled, Sith was down for a lot of it with wisdom damage... it was brutal. Only the fact that the cleric had a last lesser restoration up his sleeve (and still had a 12 wis exactly) saved them all.

(Let me add that the typical party strength is a little bit higher than that- there are usually five members of the group around at any given time, and they come in and leave throughout the game due to scheduling demands. The total group size is significantly higher, and the sixth-level guys are the party wimps. I was honestly expecting more firepower in the party when I planned the encounter, but one 8th-level pc had already left and the eldritch master had to go to work in the middle of the fight- on round four, actually. So there were some moments when I thought I'd have a tpk there...)

 

[Prince of Stories]

6th level (elementalist [earth, fire] 6) (This is a custom base class, with powerful spells based on con that require a Fort save to avoid subdual damage whenever cast. The DC to resist strain from casting your spell is the same as the spell's DC, making it very interesting... the more powerful the forces you channel, the harder it is on you. This is based on the channeller from the 2nd edition Spells & Magic PO book.)

I don't suppose you could post that class? It sounds interesting.

 

[the Jester]

Well, especially since I've got some spells and prestige classes in my spells & prc documents that I emailed out, I suppose I oughtta....

Interesting that you should resurrect this thread now; this monster (and that fight described above!) pops up in my next story hour update. [blatant plug: check it out, my story hour's easy to find and I'm about five games behind, so I'm updating frequently!]