Drider

Drider Creature6

CE Large Aberration

Senses Perception +13; darkvision

Languages Elven, Undercommon

Skills Arcana +14, Athletics +12, Intimidation +14, Religion +13, Stealth +15

Str +4, Dex +3, Con +3, Int +2, Wis +3, Cha +4

Items +1 composite longbow (20 arrows), glaive

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AC 24; Fort +13, Ref +13, Will +15; +1 status to all saves vs. magic

HP 95; Immunities sleep

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Speed 30 feet, climb 20 feet

Melee [one-action] glaive +16 (deadly 1d8, forceful, reach 10 feet), Damage 1d8+10 slashing

Melee [one-action] fangs +16, Damage 1d6+10 piercing plus drider venom

Ranged [one-action] composite longbow +16 (deadly d10, magical, propulsive, range increment 100 feet, reload 0, volley 50 feet), Damage 1d8+8 piercing

Ranged [one-action] web +15 (range increment 30 feet), Effect web trap

Arcane Innate Spells DC 20; 4th clairvoyance, suggestion; 3rd clairaudience, dispel magic, levitate; 2nd darkness (at will), faerie fire (at will); Cantrips (3rd) dancing lights, detect magic

Arcane Prepared Spells DC 24, attack +17; 3rd fireball; 2nd acid arrow, invisibility; 1st magic missile (-2), ray of enfeeblement; Cantrips (3rd) ghost sound, mage hand, ray of frost

About

The first fleshwarping process mastered by the drow remains both their most successful and most infamous: the drider. Fusing the body of a drow with that of a giant spider, driders are a sexually dimorphic fleshwarp-the only fleshwarp known to be able to produce young. While female driders have the upper torsos of elegant drow women with mouths featuring sharp poisoned fangs, male driders have hideous, mutated countenances that further blend the humanoid form with that of a spider; the difference in appearance is perhaps a reflection on the matriarchal nature of drow society. In combat, all driders are equally dangerous.

Although the fleshwarping process was originally intended to be a punishment for drow who fell from grace, the significant powers and strengths gained from the horrifying transformation are attractive to some drow, and an increasing number of lower-ranking citizens in drow cities volunteer themselves for the painful procedure.

In return for mandatory time (typically measured in decades) serving as a guardian, soldier, or other public servant, such volunteer driders are later allowed to lead their own lives, typically in caverns located in a city’s periphery. The painful truth is that for most driders, they do not live long enough to see this reward, for the drow have a penchant for working their fleshwarped slaves to death or deploying them in deadly war missions in which survival is a only a remote possibility.

Most driders use arcane magic, but driders who use divine magic are well known, while a rare few use occult or primal magic. A drider’s innate spells remain the same regardless of the magical tradition, but those who use different types of magic as prepared spells may well have entirely different spells prepared than the drider presented below.