Spiders have an ancient and primordial hold on the human mind. These tiny, often harmless creatures are nonetheless incredibly frightening to many, and are at least vaguely unsettling and alien to most. It’s no surprise, then, that spiders have a long and storied tradition in fantasy media and roleplaying games, including an entire race of elves whose entire lives seem to revolve around arachnids.
This book presents two spider-themed bloodlines, one for bloodragers, introduced in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Class Guide, and one for sorcerers. Each of these bloodlines grants access to a variety of iconic spidery powers, including poison, draining blood from victims, climbing walls, and, of course, numerous ways to use sticky, silky webs. Sorcerers with the spider bloodline focus more on controlling and manipulating their victims, and while bloodragers can also impede their foes, they focus more heavily on using their arachnid heritage to empower their own abilities.
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A pretty cool little product, though I did notice a few things...
Spoiler:
First of all, I noticed that the spider sorcerer bloodline doesn't have a bonus spell it gets at 9th level, which seems like something of an oversight. Off the top of my head, I'd suggest web cloud from the Advanced Race Guide if you don't mind racial spells; if not, perhaps repel vermin?
Secondly, the spider bloodrager bloodline's spider manifestation ability says it allows you to turn into a large giant spider...but a giant spider is Medium in size, the Large variant is a giant black widow, as it notes in the giant spider entry...did you mean the regular giant spider, or the giant black widow?
Thirdly, the spider bloodrager bloodline's secrete venom and spider manifestation abilities don't specify the level you get them at at the text, and while it should be obvious that they come at 16th and 20th respectively, it really ought to specify in the text of the abilities themselves.
It's also pretty strange that unlike other sorcerer bloodlines, the spider sorcerer bloodline offers two class skills...if someone was planning to take it via Eldritch Heritage, for example...well. Personally, I think it should just be one class skill, but I suppose that's more of a quibble.
Both bloodlines are extremely cool, though, and I'd certainly like to play both a spider bloodrager and a spider sorcerer, so good job there. I kind of wish the spider sorcerer eventually got treated as if they were larger for determining what size creatures it's web bloodline arcana is effective against, though...oh well, it's still cool. Kudos.
Thanks for bringing these things to our attention! We've submitted an updated version of the book, which should be available as soon as the great folks at Paizo have a chance to put it up.
In the meantime, I wanted to take a moment to address your concerns.
In regards to the bonus spell at 9th level, the missing spell is fear.
As far as the giant spider is concerned, while the name of the variant may be "giant black widow," it is still ultimately a Large giant spider. Large is the correct size.
In regards to secrete venom and spider manifestation, you're correct that those are gained at 16th and 20th levels. This oversight has been corrected in the updated version.
The fact that the sorcerer bloodline has two class skills is different from most Paizo bloodlines. In this case, though, we feel both are important. The interaction with Eldritch Heritage is unfortunate, and if you wanted to houserule that you only needed Skill Focus for one of these two feats, that probably wouldn't be unbalancing.
Finally, on the topic of webs effecting larger creatures, this caused a bit of a split on the design team. Some of us feel that that would be cool and flavorful, and certainly shouldn't cause balance issues. Others point out that it stretches believability somewhat, and can alternatively be accomplished by becoming larger yourself (with a polymorph effect of some kind).
Thank you for your response. It's good to know which of the spiders was intended; like I said, due to the wording, I wasn't entirely certain which was meant, though I was certainly hoping for the giant black widow. I'm glad that a minor error or two in an otherwise quite neat little product could be resolved.
Since the spider sorcerer's powers are ultimately a result of magic, personally I don't think the web affecting larger creatures would be a problem, but as I said, it's minor, and there are certainly ways to get around it as you said, even if I wish they weren't necessary. I still would certainly enjoy an opportunity to try both of them out, I think you approached both versions from interesting angles, and if I see more intriguing bloodrager/sorcerer bloodlines from you, I'll probably snag them. Thanks!
Hmm...so...in theory, could the sorcerer bloodline be used to make a Spider-Man-esque character? Say, through Eldritch Heritage?
Personally, I feel the spider bloodrager is better suited for a Spider-Man sort of character, which allows wall-climbing, web-shooting, that sort of thing. The spider sorcerer tends more towards control by entangling people in their webbing, making their spells entangle people, being able to poison people from a distance, and other such things.
