Lycanthrope; Werespider

[Hell_Born]

I was just reading through my copy of Volume 3 of the Monstrous Compendium Annual, and I found this interesting specimen. Looking it over, I began to wonder; could this creature possibly be used in Ravenloft? Please let me know whether or not you think a Werespider could be used in a Ravenloft game and, if so, how. Also, does anyone know if there are 3.5 stats for it, and if there aren't could someone suggest how to convert from 2nd ed to 2.5 ed? Suggestions for a Racial Class variant would also be greatly apprecieated.

For those who don't have the book I mentioned, a Werespider is a dual-sexed True Lycanthrope (in comparison to the Red Widow, which is a single-sexed Animalistic Shapechanger) with the ability to change from the form of a human to either a giant spider or a form that melds aspects of human and spider. In both hybrid and animal forms, the Werespider can cling to any surface, spin webs and possesses a poisonous bite (the hybrid form's venom is weaker than the animal form's venom).

Wild-dwelling Werespiders normally feed on animals and a huan who stumbles into one of their traps (normally giant spider webs) is as likely to be released as they are to be kept for either infection or consumption. Urban-dwelling Werespiders tend to dine almost exclusively humans and demihumans.

They can infect others, turning them into Infected Werespiders, by injecting them with an "egg" containing concentrated lycanthrope pathogens, which is produced in a special gland in the mouth. After two weeks of "gestation", the egg ruptures and the victim becomes an Infected Werespider, with a cumulative 1% chance per day after infection of spontaneously transfoming. After this initial transformation, they can change shape at will.

[Catman Jim]

A werespider was the main villain of the RPGA Adventurers' Guild game module for Ravenloft 'Legacy of Venom'.

[Luke Fleeman]

First, I think ANY monster can be used in Ravenloft, it is all a matter of making it appropriate to the setting.

That being said, I think they are especially great for Ravenloft. I like the ideas of lairs filled with webs, or cellars under normal homes full of prey dangling in antipation of a feast. I think they could be used well as leaders of a non-drow cult of Lolth, or even be at war with such a group. Lots of good stuff.

I don't know how helpful this is, but the 3.5 MM entry on Lycanthropes tells how to design new ones, and Sean K Reynolds or Wolfgang Baur wrote a good column for WotC on how to make Lycanthrope racial classes. if I remember, i will try to find it/do it.