Webbing filled the darkened caverns, spiders quickly skittering along the silken strands at the flickering firelight. The torch was borne by the wizened fighter, replacing his traditional shield, as he led the way through the musty tunnels. At his back was the rogue, the crows’ feet around her eyes deepening as they shimmered with excitement at their dive into the depths. Following close behind was the wizard, her nose partially buried in her book, and the young cleric bringing up the rear. He stood out among the elder warriors and ageless elf and paused as a tremor shook the webs. Pausing, he glanced at the thick strands of webbing, eyes plumbing the darkness. As he squinted and stared, he realized that there was a hole beyond the webbing, which was almost immediately followed by an explosion of motion from it. Chitinous claws connected to powerful, scaly limbs erupted from the tunnel, seizing him in their grasp. He uttered a strangled cry as he was brought before a draconic maw fitted with a multitude of eyes and chittering mandibles. At the cry from his companions the head tilted and then, upon spidery limbs, began to retreat down its tunnel, dragging him deeper.
Illustration by SethMonster
It has been a minute since I’ve been able to post an original monster and I am excited to share the newest creature – the scarathax! This is a concept I’ve had in the back of my head for a while, a web drake that fuses the characteristics of a dragon and a spider into one beautifully horrific amalgamation. I wanted this to be a decently powerful creature while still able to be used alongside other spider-like creatures. Unfortunately, most spiders occupy lower levels though there are a few at levels 5 and 6 as well as 11 and 13, so I built it as a sort of bridge in between those two with a level 8 creature. Its attacks all use a high bonus but never exceed moderate damage, as seen on his jaws, since they carry debilitating effects. Web trap can immobilize enemies at range, its claws come with grab, and the bite comes with a venom that makes it harder for enemies to escape by effectively reducing Strength and Dexterity. This ability to lockdown foes can actually have some defensive aspects to it – it prevents enemies from engaging easily and forces them to try to escape, putting them at lower MAP. Which means its high AC is less likely to be pierced and it can stay in a fight longer even though it only has moderate Hit Points.
As a dragon, I obviously wanted the scarathax to have a Breath Weapon of some sort but I originally struggled on choosing between a poisonous breath, a webbing spray, or a mass of spiders and venomous insects. With Webbing Spray, I ended up combining all three. It comes with the webbing that has an extreme DC, since all it does to start with is immobilize, and then escaping the webbing is, as normal, a high DC. But a creature that doesn’t escape becomes a meal for the magically manifested spiders that infest the webbing and deal poison damage, like the other aspects that I considered. I also wanted to reflect that despite how it is viewed by other dragons, it is still a true dragon so it has some of their classic abilities – Draconic Momentum will let it recharge its Webbing Spray on a critical hit, but when it has victims available already trussed up for the slaughter, it can use Draconic Frenzy instead to unleash some swipes and bites.
In addition to these dragon abilities, I wanted to make sure to include some more spider-like abilities. As such, it can entrap its unfortunate victims with its Cocoon Prey, taking them from immobilized or grabbed to restrained. This is meant to interact with its Absconding Skitter so that it can than skitter away with its prize to devour at its leisure. But Cocoon Prey is somewhat limited, based on similar requirements to the astradaemon's Devour Soul, which is mainly to prevent the scarathax from taking somebody to untouched to restrained with only a single attack roll. This is probably less necessary with the upcoming changes to Grab, but I haven't fully transitioned to those rules yet. Snatch Prey is a reaction to help the scarathax in this effort - it is a good way for a sneaking scarathax to open a fight and can also lead to guerilla tactics where it pulls away from a fight to hide and lay in wait. It also allows the scarathax to seize a creature out of turn and thus start their turn with Cocoon Prey.
Finally, I didn't want the scarathax to have true flight, given the state of its wings, but it can weave webbing between them so that it can Glide.
Pathfinder 2e:
The biggest difference between the Pathfinder 1e and Pathfinder 2e version of the scarathax are its spells and feats. In particular, I like Forest Ambush being a sort of stand-in for Snatch Prey and Powerful Poisoning to enhance its poison. For its spells, it focuses more on spiders and swarms rather than poison effects. Cocoon was interesting to adapt - I didn't have to worry about the multiple attack penalty for its design and instead designed it as standard action that it can use to wrap up entangled prey. Since the clumsy and enfeebled condition don't exist in PF1e, its poison simply inflicts straight Strength and Dexterity damage.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Through the Trapdoor: While venturing towards their next destination, the heroes find themselves beset by a scarathax that has devised a hunting method based on trapdoor spiders. It may use this trapdoor as a hazard, throwing prey into a pit as it crawls along the sides. It may have even lined the bottom of its pit with other dangers, making it more difficult for its victims to escape or survive.
Worldwide Web: The heroes are tasked with investigating recent disappearances in a forest where hunters and others have not returned from. Depending how quick the heroes are in investigating, people may even start disappearing from the village. If they manage to track down the disappearances, they discover that unusually powerful web lurkers accompanied riding ogre spiders have been kidnapping villagers and taking them back to their cave. Through the trap-laden cave, the heroes discover that the plot is orchestrated by a scarathax that is gathering sacrifices to try to bring about a new spider god.
If you're interested in joining the discussion on what creatures I'm working on or just discussing your own homebrew works, check out our Discord! If you want to get some teasers or help us get to our yet unlisted milestones for extra content, check out the Twitter.
I'd also appreciate you checking out the video on the scarathax from the YouTube channel I started. If you've been around for a while, you've seen me post plenty of original monsters here, but this will be the first one for the YT channel! You can also check out the Monster Mash where we tested the scarathax.
Have a monstrous Monday!
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