Darkweaver

Darkweavers are sinister and alien beings from the Plane of Shadow that have found that the Material Plane offers far more plentiful hunting grounds than their home. Relatively new arrivals to the Material Plane, the darkweavers seek to learn more about the Material Plane and the power of the creatures that reside there so that they can make a bid for control.

Few creatures that have seen a darkweaver truly understand what it looks like. Every darkweaver resides in a thicket of writhing, supernatural shadows, and a creature must delve into the benighted depths of this darkness to find it. At the center of this area, a curious explorer might catch a glimpse of a spiderlike form that is wreathed in protective shifting darkness.

The true form of a darkweaver resembles a spider in only in the vaguest fashion. Its fleshy, gray-skinned body is divided into two segments, each with four tentacles. Clusters of spiderlike eyes cover all sides of its front section, and the underside contains a mouth with deadly fangs. A darkweaver usually walks on all eight tentacles, but it can rear its front section up and move about, which frees its front tentacles to attack foes or manipulate objects.

Darkweavers speak Abyssal, Common, and Infernal.

Combat

A darkweaver relies heavily on its ability to shroud the battlefield in a web of shadow. Capable of seeing through the shadows it creates, a darkweaver prefers to hide in the effect and lure prey in with suggestion. If prey refuses to enter the shadow strands, a darkweaver relies on darkness and confusion to make the creature hesitate while it moves the area of shadow strands over it. When a creature is close to the center of the effect, the darkweaver rears up and lashes out with its front four tentacles, hoping to ensnare the foe and sap its strength.

Improved Grab (Ex): If a darkweaver hits an opponent that is at least one size category smaller than itself with a tentacle rake attack, it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity (grapple bonus +9). If it gets a hold, it automatically hits with its bite, dealing 1d6+3 points of damage and 2d4 points of Strength damage. Thereafter, the darkweaver has the option to conduct the grapple normally, or simply use its tentacle to grapple the opponent (–⁠20 penalty on grapple check, but the darkweaver is not considered grappled). In either case, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals bite damage.

Shadow Strands (Su): At will, a darkweaver can create an aura of weblike, supernatural, semisolid shadow that emanates outward from it in a 60-foot spread. A darkweaver can see normally through the shadow strands, but other creatures have great difficulty doing so. A creature in the shadow strands up to 10 feet away from another creature has concealment; a creature in the shadow strands 20 or more feet away has total concealment. A creature in the shadow strands has no concealment from creatures within 5 feet. Creatures with darkvision suffer these effects, and the shadow strands even baffle blindsight, but true seeing allows a creature to see normally through them.

Any creature that enters this area can freely move toward the darkweaver, but any attempt to move in any other direction is resisted by the semisolid shadow strands. A creature attempting to move in such a fashion must make a Strength check or an Escape Artist check; the creature can move away from the darkweaver 5 feet for each full 5 points by which the check result exceeds 10. If a creature is adjacent to the darkweaver (within 5 feet), it can move freely so long as it remains adjacent to the darkweaver. A creature protected by a freedom of movement spell is immune to the constraining effects of the shadow strands.

The darkweaver can move about as it wishes and bring the area of shadow strands with it. Creatures are not affected by the darkweaver’s moving the strands, but the direction toward the darkweaver will likely change.

Creatures within the strands do not need to guess in which direction the darkweaver lies; it becomes immediately obvious when they try to move away and the shadow strands snarl and twist to block all other routes. When a creature without freedom of movement attempts to move against the strands, the darkweaver is immediately aware of its location even if it cannot see the creature due to invisibility.

Darkweavers are immune to other darkweavers’ shadow strands and can see through them.

Spell-Like Abilities: 3/day⁠—​confusion, darkness, suggestion, tongues, web; 1/day⁠—​shadow walk. Caster level 13th; save DC 13 + spell level.

Strength Damage (Su): Any creature bitten by a darkweaver takes 2d4 points of Strength damage (or 4d4 points on a critical hit). Darkweavers “eat” by sapping a victim’s strength.

All-Around Vision (Ex): A darkweaver can see in all directions at once. Because of this, it has a +4 racial bonus on Search and Spot checks, and it cannot be flanked.

Shadow Jump (Su): A darkweaver can travel between shadows as if by means of a dimension door. The limitation is that the magical transport must begin and end in an area with at least some shadow. The darkweaver can shadow jump up to a total of 320 feet per day; this amount can be split up among many jumps in 10-foot increments. Thus, a darkweaver that shadow jumps 35 feet would use up 40 feet of its shadow jump limit for the day.

A darkweaver in its shadow strands always has enough shadow to jump from unless a light source as bright as a daylight spell is brought within 5 feet of it.

Shadowstuff Armor (Su): A darkweaver is shrouded in a semisolid armor of shadowstuff that grants it a +4 deflection bonus to Armor Class and a +10 circumstance bonus on Hide checks (included in the statistics above). The shadowstuff armor does not provide concealment, nor does it provide the requisite shadows to make a shadow jump. This armor disappears in an antimagic field, but it returns as soon as the darkweaver is out of the field.

Sunlight Vulnerability (Ex): When exposed to sunlight or to light equivalent to a daylight spell, a darkweaver takes a –⁠2 morale penalty on all attacks, saves, checks, and damage rolls. In addition, it does not regain hit points from its fast healing ability.

A darkweaver’s shadow strands provide the creature with total concealment from light that is outside the shadow strands’ area. Any magical light source within the shadow strands must be within 5 feet of the darkweaver to affect it because of the concealment the shadow strands provide.

Tentacle Regeneration (Ex): Foes can attack a darkweaver’s tentacles, but only when those appendages are actually holding an opponent. A tentacle has an AC of 27 (touch 19) and can withstand 20 points of damage. The loss of a tentacle does not harm the creature (that is, the damage does not apply against its hit point total), and it regrows the limb within a day.

Skills: A darkweaver has a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened. See also All-Around Vision above.

Darkweaver Society

Darkweavers are loners by nature, but they often keep dangerous predators as “pets.” When a darkweaver saps all of a creature’s strength (reducing its Strength score to 0 and rendering it helpless), it often carries the creature away and locates a large carnivore or a tribe of evil creatures willing to eat its catch. The darkweaver then ensnares the predator in its shadow strands, forcing the predator to move toward it. When it comes close, the darkweaver drops its still-living prey as a reward and steps back, allowing the creature to feed on the weakened foe. The darkweaver repeats this activity several times until the predator comes to rely on it for food and views it as an ally. The darkweaver’s tongues and suggestion abilities often help to cement this relationship. Darkweavers’ lairs are often guarded by such predators, and it isn’t unknown for a tribe of predatory creatures, such as trolls, to come to worship a darkweaver and aid it as it pursues its dreams of dominance over others.

Source: Fiend Folio, page 39. Changes applied as per the D&D^® v.3.5 Accessory Update. Altered the shadow strands description to adhere to how concealment works in version 3.5.