Spiders are often regarded as frightening or dangerous—and indeed, they often are. But spiders also prey upon insects that destroy crops, gnaw at foundations, and carry disease. Arachnid guardians take inspiration from the positive aspects of spiders. Originally composed exclusively of shadow elves, today the order has expanded to include anyone who seeks to fight the dangers lurking in the darkness.
Arachnid guardians train in a wider variety of weapons than most adepts. Beginning at 3rd level, you become proficient with hand crossbows, longbows, rapiers, scimitars, shortbows, and whips. These weapons count as adept weapons for you.
You also gain proficiency with poisoner’s kits. When you use a poisoner’s kit to harvest poisons, you do not poison yourself on a failed roll (though you still do not collect any poison).
Also at 3rd level, you gain some of the sneakiness and vigilance of a spider. You become proficient with the Stealth and Perception skills, and you can move through magical and mundane webs without treating them as difficult terrain or risk of becoming stuck. Finally, you gain tremorsense with a range of 10 feet.
Beginning at 6th level, you gain a climbing speed equal to your Speed, as well as the ability to walk on walls and upside down on ceilings.
Also at 6th level, once per turn when you hit a creature that is unaware of your presence with an unarmed strike or weapon attack made with an adept weapon, you can spend exertion to deal additional damage to it. Each point of exertion you spend increases the additional damage you deal by an amount equal to your martial arts die. When you use this ability, you can spend a number of exertion points up to your proficiency bonus.
At 11th level, you gain the ability to spin ropes and nets from magical spider silk. As a bonus action, you can spend 1 exertion point to conjure one of the following magical webs:
Regardless of what form your webs take, they dissolve after 1 hour.
At 17th level, you learn the most coveted of all arachnid guardian abilities: the fearsome ethereal shifting of phase spiders. As a bonus action, you can spend 3 exertion points to shift to the Ethereal Plane. At the end of every minute you remain on the Ethereal Plane, you must spend 1 exertion point; otherwise, you immediately shift back to the Material Plane. You can return to the Material Plane deliberately as a bonus action, and doing so costs no exertion.