We've had an awful lot of spider-themed monsters in the pages of Pathfinder over the past year or so. Enough that we've actually heard some complaints about how many of the new monsters are spider-themed. Furthermore, when we revealed that the third Adventure Path was going to revolve around the drow, we heard an even more vocal outcry against spiders. I'm not sure how much of the spider backlash is due to all the spider stuff we've been doing in Pathfinder and how much is fueled by arachnophobia, but in the end we are trying to do less spider stuff.
But it's hard to say no to something like the cutlass spider, one of four new monsters appearing in Pathfinder #15's Bestiary. And even though we have a lot of drow in this month's adventure, the cutlass spider's not actually a drow creation. It's actually a construct that often sees use on pirate ships and other nautical locations, where they serve as guardians, bodyguards, or even assassins. One of the most interesting things about them, though, is that they can add magic weapons to their bodies, and in so doing gain the properties of that magic weapon to their natural attacks. A cutlass spider that snatches a vorpal sword would be a menace indeed. And guess what happens if a cutlass spider absorbs an intelligent weapon in this manner?
In any event, for those of you who are growing tired of spider monsters, I apologize. As it turns out, spiders are just too awesome a source of monster inspiration to resist for long!
