I need them to be LA 0, so that I can use them as a base race.
Spider Climb as spell (possibly either constant or limited uses per day)
Paralytic poison bite
4 arms (2nd set half strength)
Web as spell (limited uses per day)
I'm afraid these are going to be incompatible, you aren't going to be able to make a balanced LA 0 with those kinds of abilities. I've got to get to work, but I'll try to check back later and give you some ideas after I've thought about it for awhile. My guess is you are going to have to be satisfied with things like EWP(Net) to simulate these things.
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Hmm...
Spider folk
+2 Dex, -4 Cha, -2 Str
Medium Creature - Quadraped
Base Speed 30' ; Climb Speed 20'
Low Light Vision
+2 racial bonus to spot, search
+4 racial bonus on climb
Extra arms - as Thri kreen
Poisonous bite, during a grapple a spiderfolk may bite its opponent and attempt to inject a venomous poison, Fortitude save DC 10 +1/2 hit dice+con bonus - effect Dazed for 1d6+con bonus rounds
Natural Armor: +1 hard carapace
Spiderkin - spider folk gain a racial +8 for handle animal or wild empathy checks involving spiders, and may treat spiders (including monstorous spiders) as animals instead of vermin whenever beneficial. (such as for animal compainion or wild empathy)
Languages Automatic - Spidaran, Spidaran hand signs.
Bonus - any
Favored class - ranger
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By giving it a climb speed you negate the need for spider climb spell like, although you still require ranks in climb. By making the poison a Daze with duration, it is way less powerful than paralytic.
As a quadraped they can carry 1.5 times the normal load, and get bonuses for being knocked back/bull rushed etc.
I seriously thought about giving them a restriction to being unable to speak languages other than their own, like a wookie from star wars, but instead simply made common not an automatic language for them.
I would call it a start.
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Them being a quadraped gives them bonuses for things like being bullrushed, so that could be a problem.
I would make them small to counter that. Also have both sets of arms work at half strength (primary hands would do 1/2 str bonus damage,secondary would do 1/4str bonus damage, using 2handed weapons would apply 3/4 of strength mod to damage. That limits players from making a greatsword/Glaive weilder that can dish massive damage into all spaces up to 10' away.
For stats, I would do,
+2 dex, +2 con, -2 str, -2 cha
No natural armor, the size bonus should be fine for extra AC + the 1 from dex bonus.
Spiderkin is cool from Dragonmann, and I like his bite also, especially how it levels with the PC.
For speed I would just keep it at 20' with a 20' climb speed also.
I think a web effect that acts like the web spell but with an effected area of 5'radius usable 3/day with caster level = to 10+ 1/2HD should work and also another web effect that has the same caster level but works as a 25' max range Mage Hand, limited to line of effect(can't move object side to side just towards you after a ranged touch attack to hit the object), usable at will. That would be cool for getting keys from across a room, hitting levers on walls, possibly pulling small objects off of pedestals, etc. Caster level same as previous web effect.
Also for skills Dragonmann hit it good there also.
I would add a +4 bonus to saves versus vermin poisons.
Thats all I have.
FH
I strongly doubt there would be any way to make this a 0 LA class without making them suck and ruining the core concept. Might I suggest instead you break them down into three levels? Very basics and penalties at 1st level, 2nd level maybe stat bonuses, third level special attacks and abilities?
Have you considered the chitine from the Underdark or Monsters of Faerun supplement? They're small humanoids mixed with spiders with multiple arms and the ability to spin their own web armor/weapons. Could be close enough to what you're looking for.
I'm afraid these are going to be incompatible, you aren't going to be able to make a balanced LA 0 with those kinds of abilities. I've got to get to work, but I'll try to check back later and give you some ideas after I've thought about it for awhile. My guess is you are going to have to be satisfied with things like EWP(Net) to simulate these things.I need them to be LA 0, so that I can use them as a base race.
Spider Climb as spell (possibly either constant or limited uses per day)
Paralytic poison bite
4 arms (2nd set half strength)
Web as spell (limited uses per day)
Agreed. I unfortunately see no way to produce a LA +0 race with extra arms, poison, and both 1st- and 2nd-level spell-like abilities. By way of comparison, gnomes get no extra attacks, no poison, and their spell-like abilities are all 0 level.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. In my homebrew world, the world is shattered into sky islands called shards. The only way to get from shard to shard is via air ships called windriggers. My thought was that spiderfolk would make excellent windsailors with their natural climbing ability, and an extra set of hands would help them in working the rigging. I would love to use an official race, but right now I have limited resources as far as sourcebooks, and limited funds for buying them. So unless it's in one of the books I already have, or can be found on the internet, I have to homebrew it.
How about this: make the extra hands a flavor issue. "Spiderfolk have four arms. The secondary pair is too weak to be used to make effective attacks or to manipulate shields or objects, but they provide a +2 racial bonus on Use Ropes checks." Then give 'em a natural climb speed (which in itself gives them +8 on Climb checks), a +2 Dex modifier (again, thanks to the extra arms), but maybe a -2 Con and a -2 Cha to balance it out. Lose the poison and web-spinning: sorry. Now you've got a reasonable LA +0 race with the flavor you wanted, albeit lacking in some of the crunch.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Kirth's ideas are really good for balancing this race out.
You aren't going to get poison without an LA bump, just isn't going to happen.
For webspinning - eh....maybe, just maybe, if you give it some significant drawbacks it could work too. For example, maybe producing a web causes Con damage that can only be restored with rest/time - thus severely limiting the number of times per day the web ability could be used (b/c it's so exhausting). You would have to limit the size of the web produced too.
