Half-humanoid, half-spider, Arachne are a species originating from a vicious curse, but survived, and have grown into a small but adventurous communes
Physical Description: Lesser Arachne are a half-humanoid, half spider-like races; their upper bodies are that of human woman, or in the rare case of men, with a lower body of an arachnid that begins at their waist. Many arachne are born with strong chitinous shells of varying colors and patterns: Black shells with red, widow-like birthmarks, some with brown shells, extreme bulbous anthraxes and long legs, others with blue-gray patterns that can form into a face. The Upper, humanoid portion of an arachne can be of a combination of any human racial pigmentation and their lower body of any genus of spider.
Society: Most Lesser Arachne are often solitary, claiming small territory within their respective regions and surviving on their own shortly after reaching adulthood. They often create bungalow made of webbing and crude materials to make as their home; although they are not above simply dwelling in caves and other suitable crevices. Lesser Arachne that do participate in a community of other Arachne often follow a simple matriarchal system; designating the oldest Arachne of the group as the leader. The leading Arachne is often referred to as "The Mother" or "Elder Spinner". Communities of Lesser Arachne tend to take place in isolated areas due to an instinct to remain high above predators. Locales that may contain a group of Lesser Arachne would be gorges, ravines, valleys in between, mountains dense tropical forests, great plains with scattered shrubbery and on rare occasions, coastal swamps.
It is only in areas of extreme tolerance that Lesser Arachne can participate in humanoid settlements like Villages and hamlets. Lesser Arachne are often treated as fearful, second-class citizens due to their appearance. However, more industrious societies see the value of the arachne as natural weavers, surprisingly effective labor force, and spies for subterfuge.
Relations: The Lesser Arachne often keep to themselves. This creates a perception of mystery to many other races. Some races simply fear the Arachne due to their physical relation to spiders. Tribal races, such as Seeq, Bangaa, Lupin, Viera, and Hrothgar simply see the Lesser Arachne as their many-legged neighbors; No more, no less. Humes, Moogles, Lalafells, and Roegadyn have a history of being very wary of the Arachne. They often fear for their homes being overrun by a nest of them. This leads to the Lesser Arachne being either subject to Mild indifference or strong suspicion by other races. Making it difficult for the half-woman spiders to create their own social ties outside of race.
Alignment and Religion: Some Arachne worship the "Mother Spider", the First arachne that was born as a pseudo-deity; believing that she still roams the world, cursed by a hateful rival. Other arachne can find themselves worshipping or, at least, informed of the local religions and practices of their region. Solitary Arachne only believe in the rule of nature as the only truth needed to survive. Lesser Arachne can be of any alignment but most tend to have neutral or chaotic tendencies due to being more in tune within their survival instincts.
Adventurers: Very few Lesser Arachne make the effort to lead an adventurous life outside of their own homes or societal havens due to the mixed stigma the world perceives them as. However, the few that would often do so to try and form more close-knit friendships, family units, or as a way to appeal to larger societies.
Naming Conventions: Lesser Arachne do not have a specific naming convention.
Standard Racial Traits
Ability Score Racial Traits: Arachne are derived from a woman cursed for her beauty. They gain +2 Strength, +2 Charisma and -2 Wisdom
Size: Arachne are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Type: Arachne are monstrous humanoids
Base Speed: Arachne have a base speed of 30 feet, and a Climb Speed of 20 feet.
Languages: Arachne begin play speaking Common. Arachne with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Elven, Sylvan, Moogle, and Undercommon. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages. Arachne also gain one language based on what race they were before their curse, or what race their parents originally were. Otherwise, this original race has no mechanical bearing on the race.
Defensive Racial Traits
Chitinous Hide: Arachne are mostly composed of tough chitin, and thus gain a +1 natural armor bonus
Arachnid Legs: While having eight legs, Arachne gain the benefits of four, increasing their CMD against trip by +4
Feat and Skill Racial Traits
Spider Carry: Arachne increase their carrying capacity by 1.5x, as if they were a quadrupedal creature.
Magical Racial Traits
Webbing: Arachne can cast Web as a spell-like ability with a cooldown of one minute. When an Arachne has 10 HD or more, they can cast Web Cloud instead.
Once-Cursed, Once Changed: Due to their already cursed nature, Arachne gain a +2 racial bonus against spells with polymorph (such as toad or imp), effects or curses. If it is a curse with a polymorph effect, these bonuses stack.
Offense Ratial Traits
Weapon Familiarity: Arachne with a base attack bonus of +4 or higher are considered fully proficient with razor wire.
Senses Racial Traits
Darkvision: Arachne can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
Websense: While on a web that the Arachne has created with their Webbing racial trait, the Arachne gains Tremorsense, with a range of the webbing created, and only functioning on anything in direct contact with the webbing.
Subraces
Scorpion
Scorpion Arachne oft hail from desert landscapes, and have thus adapted or been cursed in a different manner
Ability Score Modifiers: Scorpion Arachne are veritable fighting machines. They gain a +2 to Strength and a +2 to Constitution, but suffer a -2 penalty to Charisma and Wisdom.
This replaces the base ability score modifiers
Striking Scorpion: Rather than being formed of a spider’s lower half, some Arachne are actually scorpions. They gain a sting attack, dealing damage as normal for a medium creature, with the following poison attached:
Scorpion’s Kiss —injury; save Fort DC 10 + Con Mod; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect sickened for 1 round; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution-based. Once a creature saves against this poison and passes, they are immune for 1 hour.
in addition, instead of a climb speed, the arachne gains a 20 foot burrow speed and has tremorsense 20 feet at all times
Striking Scorpion replaces Webbing, Websense and Climb Speed and Weapon Familiarty.
Trapdoor Spider
Trapdoor Arachne are usually cursed from smaller races like Lalafell, and thus take on a much more ambush focused manner.
Ability Score Modifier: Trapdoor Spider Arachne gain a +2 Dexterity and +2 Wisdom bonus, but suffer a -2 Constitution Penalty
Small Build: Trapdoor Spider Arachne are Small, rather than medium, and thus gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
Ambush Predator: Rather than using their webs to strike, these spiders build a den, and strike from the shadows. They gain a bite attack, dealing damage as normal for a small creature.
Ambush Predator replaces Websense and Chitinous Hide
Favoured Class Bonuses
Bard: Add +1/4th to the morale bonus provided by battle tempo.
Beastmaster: Add +1/2 to handle animal checks related to arachnid creatures.
Black Mage: Reduce the amount of rest a black mage needs to recover MP by 10 minutes. MP spent within eight hours of recovering MP still counts against the MP he can recover.
Dark Knight: Lose +1/3 fewer hit points when using darkside, to a minimum of 1 point per die rolled.
Ranger: Choose a one terrain type. Add +1/2 to Acrobatics and Stealth checks while in the chosen terrain. The ranger may choose a different terrain each time this bonus is taken.
Warrior: Add +1 to the number of rounds the warrior can advance per day.
White Mage: Reduce the amount of rest a white mage needs to recover MP by 10 minutes. MP spent within eight hours of recovering MP still counts against the MP he can recover.
