D&D 5E Wandering Monsters: Creepy and Crawly—Simultaneously!

[Plaguescarred]

Wandering Monsters: Creepy and Crawly—Simultaneously!

Wandering Monsters
Creepy and Crawly—Simultaneously!
By James Wyatt

Spiders, centipedes, scorpions, and more await you in this week’s Wandering Monsters column. Also, what should we do about that lamia? Find out what James has to say about this, plus please do provide us with your feedback!

What do you think?

 

[the Jester]

Hairy Spider: This swarm of Tiny spiders is deadly in numbers. Individual hairy spiders can also serve as familiars for drow wizards. These creatures are also known as a spider swarm (3rd Edition) or bloodweb spider (4th Edition).

Sigh... not quite. The bloodweb is a distinct spider type, first appearing in the 3.5 MM4 or MM5 IIRC.

A forgivable oversight, I guess.

EDIT: And I guess he never read the Scorpion entry in the 1e MM2.

EDIT 2: And all the centipede varieties he says were added in 2e actually came in 1e... and where did he get "the poison of a giant centipede is paralytic" from?

 

[Zaukrie]

Re: Wandering Monsters: Creepy and Crawly—Simultaneously!

Spiders need to throw webs, otherwise they are just a monster that attacks like other monsters.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I just want a variety of spiders, scorpions and centipedes of all sizes. I also want a Swarm template for these critters!

I'd also like to see kruthiks back as well, it dig tunnels, spit acid spray etc..

 

[Zaukrie]

Re: Wandering Monsters: Creepy and Crawly—Simultaneously!

Keep kruthiks, yes.

 

[Nymrohd]

Lolth demands that the myrlochar and chwindencha (did I spell that right?) are part of DDN. And Vulkor's sting upon you if we do not get scorpion swarms!

 

[GX.Sigma]

What happened to phase spiders?

 

[MortalPlague]

This is the first Wandering Monsters column I've vehemently disagreed with.

Why can't we have a whole host of different-sized scorpions? I think he's on the right track with 7 or so distinct spiders, but scorpions (giant or otherwise) are nearly as big of a fantasy critter. There should be a pretty big variety of scorpions to match the spiders. They are not a one-size-fits-all monster. Likewise for centipedes, I want to see all sorts of types of giant creepy-crawly monstrosities. At least a range of sizes, so that at fifth level, when a centipede the size of an anaconda snake scrambles up the well and attacks, there's a sense of desperate challenge!

I will be disappointed to see a 7-creature entry for spider, where there is only one giant scorpion and one giant centipede.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Why can't we have a whole host of different-sized scorpions?

Answer: depends on how much space it would take up. If you need seven entries for scorpions and seven entries for spiders, the book's getting full fast. That's the strength of the 3rd Ed version - but at some cost of creativity. (Also, I think the big ones were underpowered for their size. Huge monsters should never be CR 3.)

 

[Hussar]

It might be easier to simply have decent rules for adjusting monsters up or down, rather than needing seven different entries for what is effectively the same monster. Why not just have Giant Spider (as an example) and then allow the DM to adjust a la 4e? Seems to me to make more sense than having complex monster guidelines.