I am interested in creating a new race for my homebrew setting. I want them to be based on spiders. However I have never created a race for 3e or 3.5 e, so I could use some help in this. There is only one unchangable rule: I need them to be LA 0, so that I can use them as a base race.

I've been thinking about racial traits, and here are some ideas I have come up with, but as I said these are only ideas. Nothing is written in stone yet.

Spider Climb as spell (possibly either constant or limited uses per day)
Paralytic poison bite
4 arms (2nd set half strength)
Possible visual bonuses because of multiple eyes (bonuses spotting secret doors like elves or spotting illusions like gnomes)
Web as spell (limited uses per day)

I'd love to hear your thoughts/ideas on this.

Always start by looking to see what has been done already, and decide whether you think its any good.

One adaptation of a spider race (this time from an older edition of the game( to 3e that is well done would be this one:
http://pandius.com/aranea2.html

Most of the abilities you propose would put them way above LA +0.

The main question I want to ask is would you rather they be medium or small sized? Thats kind of the first thing I try to figure out when designing a race.

Here's kind of how I'd do a size small "Spiderling" race:

I'm assuming a small insectoid humanoid with maybe an unusual body type- 4 legs and 4 arms. Sort of like a mini drider, but less centauric.

• +2 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom*
• Small: As a Small creature, a Spiderling gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but she uses smaller weapons than humans use, and her lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.
• +4 racial bonus on Climb and Move Silently checks.
• Darkvision 60'. (obvious, really)
• Move 20'
• Climb Speed 10' (this is the only one I'm not sure of). The spiderling can take 10 on a climb check even when rushed or threatened.
• Languages: common, sylvan.

Edit: it makes this feel a little better to add:

• Light Sensitivity: Spiderlings are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

This is balanced at +0 LA or so. Although the climb speed kinda pushes it to a +1. (I wonder if Mearls will drop by critique this one. I hear he is busy lately...)

What about those 4 arms and legs? They don't actually provide any bonuses (other than the climb bonus). The character wouldn't be any better at 2 weapon fighting or anything else with such a thing. But that's ok. You just match it up with some cool artwork.

It might be ok to provide the critter with a set of 1d2 claws or a 1d3 bite as a natural weapon too. But I think that kinda pushes it into LA +1 territory. A solid LA +1 design might be boosting move up to 30', providing a 15' climb speed, and giving both claws and bite.



* it's important to have these two sets balance out- one set at +2 and another at -2. This type of Spiderling  race I'm going to try and cast as a "rogue" oriented race, with a few notable arcane casters. An alternate take for a more drow-derived might be +2 dex, -2 con, or +2 dex, -2 int for  more of a monstery type.

Abyssal Maw's advice sounds good.  I'd definitely give them penalties in sunlight or bright light.

You could also consider these additional options to balance out their special abilities:

* Solitary.  You can only have 1 Arachno-Guy in the party.
* Racial class.  They gain the racial special abilities as they gain levels, or take levels in a racial class.
* Unpredictable.  Whenever in complete darkness, they need to make some sort of check (saving throw?) not to attack any adjacent living creature.

That last one is based on things I'd heard (where true or not, I don't know) about pet Tarantulas and the power going out.  Even if it's an urban legend, it's still a cool mechanic that adds some creepy to adventuring with Arachno-Guy.  Hehe.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. In my homebrew world, the world is shattered into sky islands called shards. The only way to get from shard to shard is via air ships called windriggers. My thought was that spiderfolk would make excellent windsailors with their natural climbing ability, and an extra set of hands would help them in working the rigging. I would love to use an official race, but right now I have limited resources as far as sourcebooks, and limited funds for buying them. So unless it's in one of the books I already have, or can be found on the internet, I have to homebrew it.

For a race like this, with a potentially large number of special abilities, I do think that the approach taken in books like Arcana Evolved and World of Warcraft - i.e. 1-3 'racial levels' that the character can take to gain the really funky powers, but still leave the base character at ECL +0 - would probably be best.  I don't think you could fit everything you'd want into the race and keep 'em at +0 without using the racial level model.  This would also allow you to keep the ability bonuses reasonably modest to start, but allow them to gain additional points in (e.g.) Dexterity, or gain their poisonous bite, or whatever, once they take a racial level or two, to reflect their focus on developing their species' special traits.

Also, I wonder if there would be different "sub-races" of the spider-folk; after all, some spiders are patient web-spinners, others lurk in tunnels, others are roving hunters...

Slightly off-topic, Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky explores a spiderlike race. This is the first sentinent alien race mankind discovers. A good book and may provide additional information for your homebrew race.

Quote from: WizardofOwlsThanks for the suggestions everyone. In my homebrew world, the world is shattered into sky islands called shards. The only way to get from shard to shard is via air ships called windriggers. My thought was that spiderfolk would make excellent windsailors with their natural climbing ability, and an extra set of hands would help them in working the rigging. I would love to use an official race, but right now I have limited resources as far as sourcebooks, and limited funds for buying them. So unless it's in one of the books I already have, or can be found on the internet, I have to homebrew it.

This is a great "free" detail and honestly doesn't unbalance the race at all:

• Silk-Cunning +2: This ability grants a Spiderfolk a +2 racial bonus on skills involving silk or webbing. It could apply to escape artist checks (when caught in web spells or when bound by a silk rope), Use Rope checks (anytime using silk rope), or craft skills (working with any kind of silk). Certain profession skills (sailor, tailor) may also benefit from a Spiderfolks expertise with silk webbing.

And if you want to be a bit lenient, you might even allow the free use of Detect Poison 1/day.

Here's a link to the SRD stuff from Unearthed Arcana about racial paragon classes, maybe a way to fit in some stuff that would otherwise cause LA.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/racialParagonClasses.htm