Editing Aranea (section)

===BECMI===
Aranea first appeared as monsters in BECMI's Creature Catalogue. But they also received a PC writeup in [[Dragon Magazine]] #183, whose entry in [[The Voyage of the Princess Ark]] brought the protagonists to the realm of Herath, an aranea-dominated [[magocracy]].

::Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, -2 Strength, -2 Constitution
::Mandatory Alignment: Neutral or Chaotic
::Mandatory Skills: Aranea PCs must prioritize using skill slots to acquire Spiderspeech (1 slot, grants the ability to communicate with both normal and giant spiders) and to raise Acting to 18.
::Spider Shifter: Aranea in their natural form are giant spiders, with an alternate Humanoid Form (see below), and can change between forms over the course of a full game turn.
:::Spider Form: In spider form, aranea have an Armor Class of 9 (minus Dexterity bonus) and a movement value of 180'(60') - or 120'(40') on webbing, whether generated by aranea or any giant arachnid. They can make 1 attack per round, and can make a bite attack that does 1d6 damage. They also have infravision, secret-door detection, and can only be surprised on a 1d10 roll of a 1 due to their wide-angle vision. Finally, they possess the Climb Walls ability of a [[Thief]] of equivalent level, save for not suffering a -40% penalty to climb checks made to move along ceilings. In spider form, aranea use their generated Charisma score when dealing with other aranea, but are treated as having Charisma 3 when dealing with other races.
:::Humanoid Form: An aranea selects a single "humanoid" race ([[human]], [[demihuman]], [[goblinoid]], [[rakasta]], [[lupin]], [[gnoll]] or [[tortle]]). In humanoid form, an aranea gains all of the special racial abilities associated with that race (enhanced senses, extra attacks, etc). In humanoid form, aranea have a default Charisma of 8 (or less, if the aranea's intiial Charisma is 7 or lower), but make an Acting check each time they gain an experience level; if successful, the aranea's Charisma in humanoid form permanently increases by +1, to a maximum of 18.
::Racial Class: Regardless of form, aranea use the experience, hit points, saves and spell-casting abilities of a [[human]] [[wizard]].
::Racial Abilities: Aranea gain a number of special abilities as they gain levels:
:::Level 2: Aranea can generate silk, using it either to spin webs (1 square foot per round) or silken strands (20' per round). Silk strands can be used like rope, with half the encumbrance value. Webbing functions like a web spell, although it needs to be big enough to cover the creature it's trying to hold, and a small web (3'*3') can be tossed at creatures like a net.
:::Level 3: Creatures bitten by an aranea must pass a save vs. poison or be paralyzed for 1 turn per level of the aranea.
:::Level 5: Aranea can sense the presence of all normal spiders within 30', and can control up to 4HD worth of them at will.
:::Level 7: Once per day, an aranea can summon a swarm of spiders, which arrives within 1d4 rounds and obeys its commands.
:::Level 9: A creature bitten by an aranea whose hit dice are equal to or lower than the aranea's must make a second save vs. poison if it succumbs to the paralysis. If this second roll is failed, the creature dies within 1d4 turns.
:::Level 12: Once per day, an aranea can summon giant spiders to its side and command them. This power summons Hit Dice of giant spiders equal to or less than 1/3rd of the aranea's experience level.