Ettercap

Nature's take on spider men. They have spider heads and grabby grabby spider fingers, but are otherwise shaped like gangly humans. Males are skinny as a rail. Females are less numerous and somewhat larger than males, being round-bodied and almost bloated, and normally have an external abdomen like a true spider. All have a pretty keen awareness of how weird they are, and so normally try and play down their spidery traits. They hate it when other people talk about parents, because only 1%ish of 'caps ever meet theirs. Their kids are almost always raised by foster parents, if they don't just grow up in a little hunting clan of 'cap children in the woods. Growing youths usually molt in a closet or something, making puberty even a little bit harder than normal. Finally, at the age of about 45, the typical 'cap is approaching 50% tumor material by mass, and so dies. It's a hard, short life for the ettercap, only compensated by never facing the peril of a stepladder.

Adventuring

Ettercaps often have difficulty leaving their comfort zone, which is that place where nobody minds if they accidentally dribble venom in their soup sometimes. Therefor, your average adventuring 'cap will be travelling with at least one close friend. They are great for espionage, with their stealth and agility coming to great use, and they don't fear injury quite as much as folk whose limbs don't grow back. 'Caps need very little food to keep going, and will eat just about anything which at one time could have run away; plants don't go down well. They are a bit sensitive to cold and damp, and so may hold the party back at times, but they will push themselves if their friends encourage them properly.

History

Ettercaps are known to first appear at the border of the Streaching Feld, a massive HMZ (High Magic Zone) in the south of the Western Continent. The emanations of thaumic energy interfered with reproduction processes in the local humans, which were probably similar to criminoids themselves. This didn't end well. Within a few centuries, the folk had taken on a lot of spidery traits, perhaps by magic osmosis from the large apricot spiders native to the region. It could also have been completely friggin random, as magic mutation so often is. One way or another, the folk were corrupted and twisted.
Ettercaps finally made new contact with other human populations shortly after The Fell, when a contingent from the Criminy region marched with arms of war to destroy the Streaching Feld once and for all. The 'caps immediately took a dislike to these pretty foreigners, but shortly changed their minds when it became clear that they all had a common enemy - the centaur hoards of the Feld. In that time, ettercaps became well respected for their abilities in reconnaissance and other woodcraft, and were happily welcomed into the throng.

Culture

Spidery traits such as husband-eating and hermitage are a major problem to their culture, but a few couples in every hundred are known to live their whole lives together. In all other cases, after the mother has eaten her husband during the honeymoon (don't judge), she lays a couple dozen eggs and more or less leaves them. The babies hatch and immediately start foraging like big badgers, but develop human-level intelligence within about two years. At this point, the surviving siblings form a sort of organized urchin gang, and join with other little families to play tag or hunt bears. Many of the orphans will seek out parent figures - either hermits of Ettercap descent or other subraces - and so integrate into society under foster care.

Stereotypes

In this one case, people have a pretty clear idea of what ettercaps are like, so naturally, they feel kinda sorry for them. That's part of why so many ettercap children are adopted and raised by other subraces. The other reason is that they really keep down the number of rats.

Ettercap Racial Traits

Ettercaps are allotted the following racial ability adjustments and perks. Because of the great disparity between male and female body shape, the traits are broken up by sex.
Racial Traits for Males:

• +2 Dex, -2 Con.
• 1 natural armor bonus from a weaksauce exoskeleton.
• +4 racial bonus to Perception, Stealth, Acrobatics, and to CMB and CMD.
• Climb speed 20 ft. May always take 10 on climb checks, and can cling to handholds with their feet.
• Bite natural attack.
• Limb Regrowth. No kidding.
• Funny little face-fingers for eating with.
• Slight self-loathing
• All ettercaps are always proficient with nets, and always treat Craft (trapmaking) as a class skill.
• One Permanent Mutation (see below).
• Ettercaps can withstand twice the normal dose of thaumic energy before exhibiting any symptom of thaumic radiation sickness.

Racial Traits for Females:

• +1 Con, +1 Str, -2 Cha ability score adjustments.
• 1 natural armor bonus from a weaksauce exoskeleton.
• +2 racial bonus to Perception, Stealth, and Acrobatics.
• Climb speed 10 ft. May always take 10 on climb checks, and can cling to handholds with their feet.
• Bite natural attack.
• Web-spinning ability.
• Funny little face-fingers for eating with.
• Significant self-loathing
• Limb Regrowth. No kidding.
• All ettercaps are always proficient with nets, and always treat Craft (trapmaking) as a class skill.
• One Permanent Mutation (see below).
• Ettercaps can withstand twice the normal dose of thaumic energy before exhibiting any symptom of thaumic radiation sickness.

Key:

Bite natural attack (Ex): Once per encounter (roughly once per hour) when you hit with an unarmed strike or an attack with a natural weapon, you can inject venom like a nice, normal person would. The venom deals 1d4 Dex damage, and 1d3 per round after this unless the target succeeds at a Fort save (DC 12). Two consecutive saves ends the effect.
Web-spinning (Ex): A female 'cap's web-slinging can be used to make traps, ropes, or nets. Trap webs work as a Web spell, but with casting time 10 minutes and duration 1 week. This ability can be used once per day as long as no other web abilities have been used that day. A net web or 20 feet of silk rope can be created as a full-round action up to five times per day as long as the ettercap hasn't made a trap web that day. Net webs work exactly as thrown nets, but with twice the HP. Nets created this way can immediately be thrown as a part of the creation action, or can be saved for later. They break down and become useless after 1 week.
Limb Regrowth (Ex): Ability to replace lost limbs over time. After d3+1 molts (each taking about 2 weeks), your limb has grown back. Only not quite right usually. If a hand or foot is lost, you wind up with d4-2 fewer digits (which can, indeed, mean you grow extras). This is purely cosmetic, but can be a real bummer when you start with only 3 digits on each appendage.

Sample Ettercap by Oogalook

Physical Characteristics

Average Height

5'2" (male) or 5'6" (female)

Average Weight

80 lbs (male) or 140 lbs (female)

Skin Colors

Brownish through black, often with symmetrical patterns of light splotches

Eye Colors

Black, like marbles

Average Lifespan

45 years (male) or 55 years (female)

Preferred Classes

Rogue is a field into which male 'caps fit with ease. Their climbing skills and acrobatics are useful to getting into those hard-to-reach places.
Fighter is a common gig for females. They are beefy and robust, as well as perceptive and agile.
Monk attracts members of both sexes. The prospect of marriage is deeply worrisome for both, and joining a social circle intensifies their feelings of out-of-placeness. This means that many 'caps turn to a life of solitary contemplation, becoming woodland hermits. Plus they get kung fu grip with their feet.

Naming Traditions

Names reflect a little of the self-disgust which lingers in the ettercap's racial subconscious: Murp, Dippo, Glischous Ned, Cruddy Meg, Terrible Trevor

Parent ethnicities

• Criminoid or "Tallboy"

Permanent Mutation

You or your ancestor didn't cover up properly in an HMZ, or got buffeted by some thaumic pulse which has baddly widdled your genetic code. You have a congenital trait which is very silly and embarrassing at parties.
 Prerequisites: Screwbro subrace or a past or ancestral case of thaumic anatomical rebellion
 Benefit: When you gain a Permanent Mutation, roll 2d20, compare each result to the table, and select one or both. It's now a permanent feature of your character.

1. One of your eyes wanders, scanning the horizon when you want to focus. -1 on ranged attack rolls, +1 on Spot checks to notice movement.
2. Your skin/scales/exoskeleton is a slightly embarrassing color.
3. You cannot read unless the text is very large or red in color. However, you are not enraged by sensationalized headlines in newspapers.
4. Your left hand passes right through liquids and cannot get wet.
5. All of your hands and feet have 1 fewer digits than normal.
6. You have too few teeth, and it makes your smile look goofy.
7. Your perspiration smells like buttered popcorn. Everything else that comes out of you smells like mustard.
8. You cannot see the color purple, and purple objects appear transparent.
9. Squirrels think you are a squirrel. Rats think you are a rat. Birds think you are a tasty corn-on-the-cob, but can be frightened off by non-corn life forms.
10. Your eyebrows glow in the dark.
11. You occasionally sneeze luminous clouds of bubbles.
12. You are addicted to mothballs. When you eat one, smoke pours from your ears. You can make a cloud like Obscuring Mists in about 6 seconds (a full-round action) if you eat enough to make you Sickened for 1 minute.
13. You cannot distinguish between green and red, nor between butter and dead crabs.
14. When caught by a gust of wind, you are pushed the wrong way.
15. Your right hand has 1 more finger than normal. Also, you have an urge to kill swordsmiths, and are otherwise abnormally cowardly.
16. You are uncontrollably hairy. Hair grows all over your body. Wow.
17. You have an extra ear growing on the top of you head which hears thoughts regarding food.
18. You have a small, useless arm or leg growing off your body. It waves energetically at strangers. This can be removed by a simple surgery before the start of the adventure.
19. A small plant is growing from the top of your head. If you have a head ear, the plant has that ear as a leaf.
20. You can hear twice as far in darkness as other members of your race, but cannot hear well in bright light: +4 or -4 to Perception made to hear things, respectively. "You'll have to speak up, it is pretty bright in here."

 Normal: To become more normal, you can have the mutation epigenetically suppressed if you get a powerful clerc or transmuter wizard to take a look at it. This normally takes about a week and around 1000 GP worth of materials, in addition to whatever the doctor charges. The trait remains in your genome, though, and may affect your genetic progeny.