Monsters for building unique quests

[PlatinumValor]

A while back I collaborated on a monster idea with a friend and wanted to see what people thought about it, and see if others had unique creatures that they fought

I present the dust spider colony for a unique starting quest experience: Essentially it boils down to 3 major parts

1 is the queen about the size of a full grown man she runs everything with the colony (Like an ant queen)

2 The warriors about twice the size of a dinner plate they go and retrieve food for the queen there are maybe 100-150 in a colony

3 The Drones (this is the best part) About the size of dust motes this would be a swarm creature they hitch rides on the warriors and pretty much ignore armor because of their size (no party suspects that the very dust is dangerous you could make a group paranoid for the rest of the game)

Essentially the colony would post up in a cave or building and start clearing out all the surrounding fauna this could be the plot hook maybe whatever town hired the party already sent people to investigate but they didn't come back, The spiders would be weak to flame and it's just an interesting low level quest with a unique enemy rather than goblins and kobolds

[brian 333]

The Electric Spider

At the time I was experimenting with AD&D's Experience system, attempting to engineer just enough dungeon to level up the characters without repeated trips to re-killthe rats or whatever. I had a nice canyon with dense overgrowth and lots of spiders. At the end of the canyon was the back door to a drow village guarded by a drider. I needed a spider between 6 and 10 hit die...


The web is made of coarse thick bundles of silk coated with a viscuous green-brown slime. It attaches to sticks, logs, shrubbery, and trees to suspend the web about fourteen inches above the ground, with gaps between the diagonally crossed ropes of a square foot or so. Some of the silken ropes dangle, and the waxy coating on them is a very strong adhesive. Other strands are taut, with a grease-like substance similar to the adhesive. Touching such a strand sends vibrations propogating all around the web.

At the center of such webs, which may be several hundred feet in diameter, sits the Electric Spider, waiting for one of her signal strands to vibrate, alerting her to a potential meal. Usually one or more boughs are bent over the center to form the framework for the roof of the Electric Spider's silken lair. With a low, flat cover to keep her dry and exits in every direction, she is poised to strike anything her webs capture.

The characters see a multilegged, multicolored blob headed toward them, the pincers at the tips of its hairy legs grasping the sticky strands of the web without getting stuck. Two curved, articulated fangs are folded against its maw, above which four lidless eyes stare. This spider is the size of a pony, and it pulses.

At various random points inside its exoskeleton, pulses of pastel-colored lights flick on and off, varying in intensity. The pulse may be momentary or it may endure, and multiple flashes may be on at the same time.

Of course, it's not just called the Electric Spider because it likes Eric Clapton's studio works. It can electrify its webs, injuring those on or entangled in the web. In the first mode, it inflicts 8d4 damage, save for half. It can also target an individual within 30 feet for 4d8 damage with half that applied to characters within 5 feet of the target.

Oh, and it can bite and bind up paralyzed characters in cocoons.