8
Legacy of the Dragons
Arachtar Medium Aberration Hit Dice: 8d8+16 (52 hp), dying/dead –3/–15 Initiative: +7 Speed: 40 feet, climb 30 feet AC: 19 (+3 Dexterity, +6 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 16 Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+8 Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d8+2 plus poison) or web +9 ranged (as net) Full Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d8+2 plus poison) and 6 claws +6 (1d6+1); or web +9/+4 ranged (as net) Space/Reach: 5 feet/5 feet (Face/Reach: 5 feet by 5 feet/5 feet) Special Attacks: Animate webs, grasping tendrils, poison, web Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 feet, paralyzing fear, pleasing visage, voice of calm, web sense Saves: Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +7 Abilities: Str 15, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 15, Wis 13, Cha 14 Skills: Bluff +9, Climb* +16, Concentration +9, Disguise +9, Spot +8, Tumble +11 Feats: Defensive Move, Improved Initiative, Multiattack**, Opportunist Environment: Temperate forest or any urban Organization: Solitary, pair, or pack (3–8) Challenge Rating: 6 Treasure: Standard Advancement: By character class Level Adjustment: +3 ** Denotes a feat from the MM.
The cunning, murderous arachtar are a bizarre fusion of humans and spiders. They use a variety of illusions to hide within settlements, spying on their potential victims before closing in for the kill. Arachtar have the forequarters of a humanoid and the rear body of a bloated spider. Eight slender, nimble legs radiate from their rear bodies, while six clawed arms extend from their humanoid torsos. Arachtar have deep blue skin, wide, red eyes, and vicious, fanged mouths. Chitinous plates cover their torsos and lower bodies, while their underbellies are dotted with tiny spinnerets. Their cunning intellect and spiteful hatred of all humanoid life combine to make arachtar feared opponents. They use their psionic talents to hide within cities and towns, usually selecting an isolated, abandoned building, a dry well, or a section of the sewers as a lair. Their illusions allow them to mask their true nature while luring victims into their clutches. Even when their deception is sundered, they remain fearsome opponents. They share a psychic bond with their webbing, allowing them to control its motion and command it to struggle against intruders.
The arachtar share a loose bond, and these creatures sometimes work together to terrorize larger settlements. For all their psionic abilities and cunning, arachtar are at their core paranoid. The racial hatred they harbor toward humanoids is rooted in an irrational fear of such creatures. An arachtar concealed within a city may take joy in the hunt, but when not actively stalking prey it spends hours in a constant state of fear. The prospect of discovery and death haunts these creatures, pushing them to prepare for either eventuality. They form informal networks for safety and support, allowing a hard-pressed arachtar to flee its current lair and seek temporary shelter with its kind. They take care to establish hidden supply caches, bolt-holes, and other resources that could prove useful after a defeat. Arachtar speak Common and have a secret sign language of their own that consists of elaborate hand and leg motions.
Combat Arachtar loathe combat, for if they must resort to physical violence their deceptions have failed them. They prefer to flee if intruders have compromised their lair, but when cornered they can put up a fierce resistance. They usually try to lure opponents into their webs, using their psionic gifts to trap and smother their foes. Most arachtar spin webs embedded with rocks and dirt on the roofs and walls of their domains. Many who venture into an arachtar lair fail to notice these hidden webs until it is too late. * Skills (Ex): Arachtar gain a +8 racial bonus to all Climb checks. Animate Webs (Su): An arachtar enjoys a psychic bond with the webs it spins, causing them to animate and attack its foes. As a standard action, an arachtar can animate a section of webbing that is at least 5 feet by 5 feet and cause it to attack. The webbing fights with the arachtar’s unmodified base attack bonus, which is +6 for a standard arachtar, and deals 1d6 points of bludgeoning damage with a bash attack. The webbing has a reach of 5 feet, and it attacks once per round. It has a speed of 10 feet and can climb through webbing at a speed of 10 feet. An arachtar can animate up to four blobs of webbing at once. Once given motion, a section of webbing fights until it takes 14 points of damage. The web has an AC of 10. It lacks an Intelligence score, and its other ability scores are 10. The webbing can see and hear as normal, but it lacks the intelligence to do anything other than attack. Grasping Tendrils (Su): This variation on the arachtar’s animate webs ability allows it to fling sticky tentacles from its web sheets at foes. As a standard action, an arachtar can cause a 5-foot-by-5-foot sheet of webbing that it has spun to burst into a horde of tentacles. This ability functions as an arachtar’s ranged web attack, but the target loses his
