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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11827 Posts |
 Posted - 23 Nov 2018 : 21:03:39
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Hey,
I know there's all kinds of spiders with human/drow bodies or human/drow heads, etc... I also know there's chitines and choldrith and ettercaps and aranea.
However, what I'm picturing is something more like a spellweaver/thri-kreen, but with a spider abdomen for a lower body. Its "chest would be a spider thorax, but upright like a drider. Basically, I'm picturing a spellcasting spider race, with 4 legs devoted to walking and 4 segmented "arms" that have three fingers and are NOT fleshy... they're an exoskeleton like the legs. The head would be very spidery too, with 4 lesser eyes and then two larger eyes, and two chelicerae (fangs). They would be capable of using two of their arms to cast, while also using their other two arms for physical combat.
I'm wondering... I can't think I'm the first person to imagine this, Does anyone know of an existing race similar to this (again, I don't want any references to a mammalian type of race).
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Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Balmar Foghaven
Learned Scribe
Canada
124 Posts |
Posted - 24 Nov 2018 : 05:21:17
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| There's the Nerubians from the Warcraft setting. I even found a link to a homebrewed prestige class on a wiki page: http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Nerubian_Shadow-web_Spinner_(3.5e_Prestige_Class) |
"Despair not, for in the end all things shall work out for the best - in at least one timeline." |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36804 Posts |
Posted - 24 Nov 2018 : 14:06:11
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| Kinda reminds me of the cho-ja from the Riftwar book, though they were 6-legged instead of 8. When they're first introduced, it's only warriors, but in the Empire trilogy, Mara learns of their entire society, including the existence of spellcasting cho-ja. |
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Varl
Learned Scribe
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 24 Nov 2018 : 15:46:50
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I'd also say Nerubians from Warcraft definitely sound like what you're looking for.
http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Nerubian
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I'm on a permanent vacation to the soul. -Tash Sultana |
Edited by - Varl on 24 Nov 2018 15:47:14 |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11827 Posts |
Posted - 24 Nov 2018 : 18:31:55
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| Guess I should have said, is there anything in pre-existing D&D lore that people know of. I was looking to make sure I didn't duplicate something already existing. I'm actually kind of surprised if there isn't such. I mean we have all these driders and spiders with human heads. Then there's the neogi with spider like bottoms, but they have eel heads. No pure insect ones (already in game that is). Even the ones people are quoting, they're usually only 2 armed.... although when I google cho-ja, it looks like the cho-ja queen has 4 arms. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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lookatroopa
Acolyte
Netherlands
38 Posts |
Posted - 24 Nov 2018 : 20:45:51
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Closest thing that comes to mind are the K'r'r'r from Spelljammer, though they only have one pair of limbs devoted to manipulation.
http://www.lomion.de/cmm/krrr.php |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11827 Posts |
Posted - 24 Nov 2018 : 23:18:53
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quote:
Originally posted by lookatroopa
Closest thing that comes to mind are the K'r'r'r from Spelljammer, though they only have one pair of limbs devoted to manipulation.
http://www.lomion.de/cmm/krrr.php
WONDERFUL!! It even has ties to spelljamming. They are very lawful entities who seek to colonize worlds. My interest in them is in relation to the land of the insect men mentioned in the City of Gold and the city of Esh Alakar that is abandoned but once held a powerful race. I'd originally wanted to have spellweavers with thri-kreen servants. However, I then also wanted to have spider folk also in the area and Abeils as well. However, they've made the spellweavers less insect-like and more fleshy. So, maybe MOST k'r'r'r have a single pair of arms, but there's a significant portion of the population born with multiple sets of arms (possibly even up to 3 pair). The more arms, the higher up in the society, and the more inclined to casting spells. While the original lore has these beings inclined towards priestly magics, I'd split them between psionics, divine, and arcane sources (I'll also note that the 2nd edition psionics rules were still fledgling when this came out).
So, I'm thinking, what if these K'r'r'r landed and they had thri-kreen and Abeil servants (the thri-kreen as warriors, the abeil as farmers/terraformers). Their city of Esh Alakar may be filled with anti-gravity type effects, allowing one to use all the surface area of caverns... or maybe one has to have a pair of slippers of spider climbing to traverse the place without issue (the ancient magics having failed). I'd love to have the city possess some ancient k'r'r'r unity ships, made of chitinous shell that doesn't seem to break, with some kind of earthen gate that is broken that they used to open to allow the ships to leave but be protected while in dock.
With their flying ships, they could have become a bit of a thorn in the side of the aearee long ago, and maybe it was the aearee that made them flee their city. The survivors have lost much of their knowledge and have descended into barbarism. Their religion might be more like shamanism. Their arcane practices may be less wizardly and more pact magic. They might still possess some minor telepathic capabilities however and a rigid hive structure that requires the "queens" to be protected by their servitor races.
Their deity is "The Wise Queen" who appears to be like them but with a human-like face, and it wonders if it has a relation to Lolth. On this, I would specifically NOT have it have ties to Lolth. However, given that she has no name, I'd be inclined towards linking her to the Mighty Spirit presented in City of Gold as "Spider Woman" and make her a goddess of the Insect Folk whom the humans have discovered information on and implore sometimes (rarely) for aid, and which rarely involves herself with humanity in return. Also, this spider woman is noted as being a lover of the sun by the Azuposi natives, and perhaps this is because what lore they've seen from these beings involves star charts and a focus on the planetary bodies in the heavens, etc... Her temples are always found deep in the earth, and thus they believe her to be an earth goddess.
From City of Gold
Spider Woman (Sus#146;sistinako, Sus#146;sistanako)
Symbol(s): Beads, shells, spider.
Alignment: Neutral good
Physical Appearance: Two human shapes are taken by Spider Woman. The first is a beautiful young maiden, with exquisite beads of red and white shells and turquoise wound around her arms. The second is a wrinkled old hag. She is also capable of appearing as any sort of spider.
Role: She is the oldest of spirits, along with the sun, and perhaps the most powerful#151; -- the Sun is perhaps her equal. Sus#146;sistinako is said by the Azuposi to have created the world, and all that dwells therein, by the force of her own powerful will, as a spider weaves a web from the stuff of its own body. Certainly she is the force that created the demi-plane of Wenimats. She dwells in Wenimats, in a kiva in the western ocean. Every evening the Sun, her lover, goes to visit her there, before returning his light to the world the next morning.
Although an earth goddess, Sus#146;sistinako is not linked to fertility. Rather, she is associated with the raw, solid substance of the material world. She does not give birth, but rather shapes things and breathes life into them. By naming the essence of any thing, living or inanimate, she can create it by willful thought alone.
Rarely do the Azuposi appeal to Spider Woman for aid. As with the other first spirits, (except for the Sun), her attentions are focused in such a way that human affairs are virtually unnoticeable. Iyatiku, the Corn Mother, is the spirit to which the Azuposi turn for their earthly needs.
(NOTES: in case anyone else comes to this thread and wants to read up on them, looks like they're in the TSR product Legend of the Spelljammer)
Their vessels are a unique catamaran with 3 outriggers at 120 degree angles to each other instead of two. Between each outrigger is a surface deck, such that there is no "top side" in the configuration of these vessels. This is called a triaxial design. Apparently the various ships can "link up" if k'r'r'r are at the helm to form a larger class of vessel for the purposes of ramming, and then whichever ship rammed can board the enemy vessel while the other ships simply break away and reform to attack the next ship. Their helms appear as an ivory staff bound in gold and act as minor helms for other races. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Bladewind
Master of Realmslore
Netherlands
1280 Posts |
Posted - 25 Nov 2018 : 19:16:17
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The spelljamming spiders are indeed an awesome find. Been looking for were it was printed for ages.
I'd give them a unique spell or arcane tactic, magic item and common weapon so they stand out as an adversary. Perhaps a variant web spell, a swarming hive minded pet and somekind of crafters hammer to underpin their utilitarian Dogma. |
My campaign sketches
Druidic Groves
Creature Feature: Giant Spiders |
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moonbeast
Senior Scribe
USA
522 Posts |
Posted - 26 Nov 2018 : 10:14:26
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quote:
Originally posted by lookatroopa
Closest thing that comes to mind are the K'r'r'r from Spelljammer, though they only have one pair of limbs devoted to manipulation.
Oh geez, you suddenly gave me a flashback to Traveller's K'kree alien race. |
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Tauric Spider - is there one of these?
