I'm a big fan of the idea of including monsters from older editions in these rankings!

“Oh great lady fey of the lake, awaken! For the one called Esper the Bard brings us a new tier list of creatures so vile!”

I'm surprised DnD doesn't have a Jorogumo monster. A spider succubus, would be interesting.

We knew Lolth, sure, but... I was so curious if anything else would be on S-tier with her?! And she answered and went godsmack on me, and said: "I... stand alone." When it comes to ANY DnD content and the best... Esper also stands alone!

I tried to squish a spider before going to bed, and this is the first thing I see upon waking up. That's not concerning at all LMAO.

So with the Spider Tier List we can predict some new videos: Insect Tier List Snake Tier List Carnivora Tier List (covers Cats, Dogs, and other sub-tiers lists) Winged Tier List (covers Bird and Bats sub-tiers as well as other winged animals)

Yay! New tier list! I like how you included older edition monsters. I miss th' monsters from 3.5 too. Ettercaps used to be able to speak in older editions.

Welp, this is gonna be a big trigger for my arachnophobia. I might not make it all the way through, but I'll give it an honest try at least.

This old timer really liked how you mentioned the intelligent spiders from The Isle of Dread. There was a also proto ettercap/chitine: Dragon Magazine had a one off adventure called The Temple of the Chagmat. I thought it was so good that I ran it in 2e and even redesigned it for 5e.

22:17 that's the image from "The Isle of Dread" classic adventure, and that's the one I always think of when someone mentions Aranea. I also seem to remember that in Basic it had a body the size of a pony, not just human size, and the were able to cast spells as a 3rd level Magic-User (think Wizard for 5e or AD&D). I like them because they are just intelligent spiders, no human faces or humanoid parts on them, just smart spiders, and that is scarier than anything else.

Hey esper, the blade spider actually has a official 5e statblock printed in minsc and boos mini book/pamphlet thingy that they made .

As luck would have it I'm actually working on a drow partisan campaign so this will be very useful

I really enjoyed the additional of third and fourth edition entries. The tomb spider really got me thinking of developing a whole Egyptian, Mayan society with these creatures acting as a sort of sacred beast while lolth worshippers nurture them and Revere the spider husks the creat. Sort of the proto version of the more modern drow.

Did anybody else start laughing a bit too hard when they realized the Lhosk is a spider monkey? On another note, I want all of these ranking videos to include older additions, now. My group doesn't play 5E anymore, but the lore and mechanics of older additions can be so intriguing and inspiring. I feel like modern DnD just couldn't do a spider-gorilla hybrid justice. Between the Lhosk and the web golem, I've got some statblocks to homebrew. Gratitude to the bard, as always.

Please back Esper's Kickstarter! It's a great addition to any table. Useful for both players and DMs! I have backed, but my KZfaq account email is different from my KS account. Just in case that skews your numbers. I'm really looking forward to the new book!

The nice thing about Lolth is that sure, she's ultimately an evil creature, but she's also intelligent enough that depending on the campaign you could also have her as an ally. It could make a very interesting role playing scenario where a mostly good aligned party would have to ally with Lolth to defeat a common enemy, starting with a reason as to why would such a thing happen. Also having a powerful evil creature temp the players to align with her after all is done could lead to nice role playing scenarios.

I like you using other editions for this list. I don’t know if this is the first time you’ve done this for a tier list, but I hope you do this for all future lists. 😁 Keep up the awesome work

I forget where I heard the idea from. But it took a Drow you faced and brought them back as a Dryder(mini Boss). This was because while on their trial from Lolth, your party came along and defeated them. This gave them an extra intensive to kill the party.

I LOVE your tier lists Esper. Unironically some of the most inspirational videos that I've ever seen for DMing.

Wooooooot! I always love settling to bed and see there's a new tier list. Absolutely wonderful E man!

Esper, you are an awesome narrator, love just kickin' back and learning more about D&D.

What a beautiful distraction from the world. I appreciate you.

My favorite format of dnd content on youtube thanks Esper

Love it! Learned a lot about spider monstrosities in this video. Finally, something to build up my arsenal!

Just backed the Kickstarter. Esper’s Emporium of Esoterica was great so I’m excited to see what you’ve come up with here.

Lolth is a great villain and a major element in a lot of DnD lore. I feel like the discussion of her is incomplete without mentioning Eilistraee and Vhaeraun or that she and Corellion were once an item. The divine family drama at play here opens a lot of avenues for roleplay and exploration. I can't believe Lolth was ever considered a "lesser goddess." Wow, have things changed.

I used the Dhampir race and reflavoured it for a spider-like character The thirst was him just drinking creatures innards He was a rogue/fighter multiclass that just climbed everywhere

maybe for roleplaying options if you really want spiders to be important in your campaign, give one of the players a custom wearable item that gives it the ability to speak with specifically spiders either as long as they wear it, or a set time per day. This can give even boring spiders a chance to stand out as they chatter amongst each other and about the party. Similar like in the hobbit to when bilbo put on the ring in murkwood and could understand the giant spiders. it gives spiders personality and gives a good roleplay chance for the dm and players, and gives the players a chance to deal with the spiders more creatively other then just kill them on sight.

Great job on all your Videos! Huge help and inspiration.

The children of time series really made me love spiders. Where I am currently staying it is their breeding season, you can see they're such good mothers, they're carrying these big egg sacs while their actual abdomens are very small which means they've basically been prioritizing caring for their little babies over finding food. I like to have a playable race of full-blown sentient spiders in my world that trade with other civilizations and have beautiful glistening web architecture

Note on Volo's Guide: If you try looking these up in D&DBeyond, you'll see it registered as Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse. Reason being they're fundamentally the same book, which is why you can't get digital copies of Volo's or a hard copy of Mordenkainen's. The only difference, and I do mean only, is that Mordenkainen's features Aberrations in remarkable detail- so unless you're running Out of the Abyss or Descent into Avernus, the hard copy would suffice. Of course I learned this after buying both.

The flavor text in the rankings of this video was probably my favorite set. Just down there in f tier like "hey stoopid".

I just watched the mimic video, and now am watching this. I REALLY love you giving attention to previous edition gems. I legit might buy a book just to get the 4e stats for the tower core and a few things here

I just want to give a shout-out to the Fang of Lloth prestige class from Song and Silence (3.0) Basically, it turns the character into a half-spider while giving some rogue progression.

Eddercap lore is kinda fun, Not sure if it was you but there was one about Eddercaps being Druids that went to far in the way of the Spider and became Eddercaps

It's funny that I found this video while researching different spiders for my campaign with Lolth as the BBEG. Thanks for the inspiration.

Excellent list! Really works my arachnophobia! I will say, though, I wish that the Red Widow from Ravenloft made it to the list. She always struck particular fear in me: A spider that disguises itself as a beautiful red haired woman that seduces men so that she can copulate with them to fertilize her eggs, then at his "release" shift into her spider form to devour her lover. A truly horrific monster!

I’d make it so phase spiders travel in packs, maybe eight to nine in a group. Then they could stalk your players and mess with them by quickly appearing and disappearing just in their peripheral, or even appearing suddenly in front of them, only to vanish just as quick. It gives them some RP value and makes for a creepy encounter out of an otherwise unremarkable creature.

That was freaking amazing. Great work Esper!

I'd love more this style video, its wonderful to watch.

I'm happy to see another tier list!

As an arachnophobe, I hate that you made this list, but as a Fantasy TTRPG enthusiast, I understand why you made this and appreciate it.

Love these videos not only for the creatures but also cause I like to sea how many of the artworks shown are mtg original card art

A few cool ones from earlier editions. Planar Spider (mystara) intelligent phase spiders. Head Hunter (ravenloft) their razor sharp webs sever limbs and they wear victims heads. Red Widow (ravenloft) they assune human form to lure in prey. Mishka the Wolf Spider: demon lord

Improved fey spider. It’s a small spider that can mimic voices and sounds like a mocking jay. These voices emit thru the ethereal. A false haunting is what i call it a house infested with these is the perfect surprise twist to a ghost busting mission. They mimic screams also they can knock over objects as they appear and dissapear acting like a poltergeist

I was playing Baldur's Gate 1 yesterday for the first time. Came across a spider nest where an NPC named Centeol lived. Centeol is a powerless, ugly, morbidly bloated woman who relies on spiders to feed her and keep her alive. She was once a beautiful sorceress, who lusted over only one man, but that man was in love with his wife. So Centeol plotted, had his wife killed, and attempted to get him for herself. But the man learned that she killed his wife, so he cursed Centeol , and trapped her in the body she is in now. She has since lost her mind, and after you defeat the spiders, she begs for a mercy killing.

I used spider monsters in a random encounter that seriously unnerved my players. Two ettercaps with web garrotes inside of a disguised trapdoor. Beneath the trapdoor is a vertical tunnel lined with webs, at the bottom of which is a choldrith. One of the PCs was standing watch in the desert at night, failed a perception check, and got dragged into the trap door. The players were immediately agitated, because everyone but the sentry was asleep. So they had to make perception checks with disadvantage to see if they heard him get grabbed. Then once they woke up, they had to make more perception checks to locate the trap door. All while the sentry is being strangled and making constitution checks to stay conscious. Eventually one of the PCs located the trap door and threw it open, leading to a battle to was on a vertical plane instead of a horizontal one. Once everyone was conscious and working together, the battle went pretty quick (especially when someone cast Wall of Water at the bottom of the tunnel). But the panic I inspired in my players is something I cherish to this day.

15:26 Honestly I think the blackspawn stalker has some real horror potential, and perhaps showing a more horrific side to the Cult of Tiamat other than the usual "dragons×10" stuff.

I've been waiting for this for so long

I'd argue that a giant wolf spider is a really great alternative to Goblins. Goblins are such a joke nowadays that they're usually just easy xp... But a giant-ish spider scuttling out of the floor like a trapdoor spider and grabbing the Druid's leg? Oho, that'll keep things fresh when your players get bored

This tier list is amazing, but I will vouch for the low-ranking unaligned predators. Lack of sapience isn't parallel to a lack of sentience, and there are a lot of non-combat based, even rewarding interactions you can have with something as unique as the humble spider.

Always love these rankings! Are you considering expanding into other systems some time, like Pathfinder? Maybe even comparative rankings?

If you look into even older editions, then BECMI has some really cool options. The deity Korotiku is a spider trickster and philosopher as well as shapeshifter who makes a great patron for a good aligned character who likes spiders. The Aranea have a truly amazing civilization in the Kingdom of Herath deepening their lore significantly and resulting in many cool NPCs who get story appearances in the Voyages of the Princess Ark. Aranea in BECMI have three terrifying variations, the mages of Herath have the ability to become invisible and gain innate magical powers called legacies from a curse they unleashed on their neighbors. The Arasheem is an undead Aranea that was powerful enough to "survive" failing the attempt to become a lich, and still retains at least 12-level wizard capabilities on top of all the normal Aranea powers. The Yeshom is a successful Aranea Lich which has become a black ooze spider of pure evil and is ridiculously powerful magically, they have all the abilities of a lich a black pudding an aranea and an 18th level wizard plus a wide selection of special powers from the red curse with none of the drawbacks other lesser entities suffer. In BECMI, Aranea and their kingdom of Herath are absolutely terrifying. The Neh-Thalgu or Brain Collector is a BECMI original that appeared in many other editions and is a denizen of the dimension of nightmares that steals brains and then can use all the memories and abilities of all the brains it has stolen and embedded into its abdomen (dimensions are not merely planes, each dimension is a complete multiverse itself with copies of all planes in the main multiverse, so the dimension of nightmares has a parallel abyss, celestia, aethereal sea, etc.). The Planar Spiders of BECMI are intelligent spellcasting merchants. Shroud spiders are the apex spiders among BECMI's beasts, with glowing eyes, immunity to non-magic weapons, and webs that aren't sticky but instead have a paralytic venom coating them. Sand spiders are the trapdoor variant 5e is missing. The Rhagodessa is a 10-legged spider with suction cups on the extra limbs instead of webs. The crab spider color shifts like a chameleon, and the tarantella has a poison that makes you dance until you die of exhaustion. Even the basic huge wood spider is a little cooler in BECMI as they are most often encountered as the trained mounts of Wood Imps who are fey that lost their immortality and magic and live among the spiders as petty tyrants and bandits.

21:13 Well, the sages might be wrong about the bebeliths being older than the other demons; alternately, maybe the bebeliths are the reason that demons have fire and poison immunities (survival of the fittest).

your kickstarter is so cool!!

For my own OSR game using the Hyperborea system I created two kinds of giant jumping spiders, the first are German Shepherd sized, can leap 90 feet, have a paralytic venom, and a reat chance at surprising, the second are worse yet, these are either long-jawed or greater and have all the first did, but higher damage dice, more hit-dice, and even can take player lvls and be spell casters. My party was rather surprised when they found out that they had to deal with one that was a Priest and further surprised when another that was an Illusionist that knew Invisibility.

1:55 Interesting point of view here, a Giant Spider coming for a winged horse. You can't help but feel bad for him. He is completely out matched. It is a completely unfair encounter. For the spider. Because you would have to remember, while in modern interpretations a winged horse just has normal horse stats with human intelligence plus can fly, the original ancestor of all winged horses, Pegasus, was a demi god.

Their is just nobody who does as great rankings as you do! I love that you look at so many diffrent things and like you sad it is a roleplaying game. I get your rating for the wolf spider but it is actually much better in my opinion not because it is earning more then you rated it but because it is one of the cooler and better animal companions a ranger can get which makes it pretty useful as a creature. The next character I want to make is a beastmaster goblin using the wolfspider and writing into battle on it^^.

I always liked the idea that demons are resistant to fire and poison as adaptations to help stop predation by bebiliths. For ettercaps, there was an article in Dragon Magazine #343 that vastly expanded their lore as corrupted druids and gave more statblocks.

I'd love to see more dnd spider tier list. Dnd Spider Lore and the characters have a special place in my heart. With my very first character being an arachne (half humanoid, half spider).

You forgot the astroid spider from Spelljammer 🕷️🕸️

I had forgotten about the tomb spider! My PC's are going to hate you. Thank you for reminding me!

My older sister is well versed in Lolth because her first character was a half-drow, so she might be able to help me set something up for a close encounter with Lolth. Also, the Lloskh (sorry if misspelled) reads the literal appearance of a spider-monkey

Maybe demons are resistant to fire and poison because of Bebiliths, developing a natural defense against their predators, and the Bebilith have yet to develop new hunting techniques.

Re: Aranae "They're typically neutral aligned" he says while showing the Isle of Dread stat block at 22:28 that labels them as "Chaotic". Also, yes they "keep to themselves" in the sense that they don't hang out with other species, but they are definitely social with each other.

On the Drow and their related monsters, I always thought that the transformation into a Drider being a punishment never made any sense. Looking at it, it’s purely an upgrade to be turned into one of those things. I would instead replace their position with the Chitine and Choldrith, which actually make sense as a cursed punishment. On the Drider, give them the ability to transform into fully humanoid drow, as well as into full giant spiders. Basically, they’d be Lolth’s take on lycanthropy. Only female Drow would be turned into them, and it would be said in lore that it was a gift. for marrying Lolth, who would have many Drider wives. All Matron Mothers would be one of these, as well as certain high ranking priestesses. That’s how I would do Drow society.

There was also Yarnspinner the spider archfey from Domain of Delight , he like to read stories to woodland critters

I received my espers emporium hard cover today!!! It's beautiful!!!!! Top quality book. Great illustrations. You must have had to hire an artist? Wow what a great 5e book. I'm surprised dungeons and dragons haven't hired you.

I agree with your point on Phase spiders. They need more intelligence to make better use if their abilities. I need to point out something that is often missed about Lloth and that is her origin points towards her being God Cursed. She is quite literally one of the VERY few who were personally cursed by a Greater God. One who is considered only second in power on Torill & the D&D universe.

There are also the Chwidencha which are grotesque masses of spidery legs and come into existence when a less powerful drow is tested by Lolth and fails.

Hey Esper, as soon as I seen the thumbnail I knew I had a spider for you, lol. "I am the Spider!" Please let me know what you think if and when you have the time 😊. My conversion below. Quest for the Silver Sword (BECMI). White Widow Spider: use giant spider upper stat block. ACTION. Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (1d8 +3) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw against cryotoxin or be instantly frozen, indefinitely. The target appears dead to all outward inspection. Only magic will reveal that the target is still alive, a lesser restoration spell will end the Effect on the target. Web (Recharge 5-6). The white widow spider can spray her web upto 60 ft. away, filling a 20 ft. square, webbing doesn't require an anchor between two solid masses (such as walls or trees). The white widow's webbing is not used to trap prey, it instead whistles or hums in the wind. The webbing plays magical harp music. The white widow's webbing appears as sparkling strings of ice or jets of water frozen in midair. As an action a creature can make a DC 14 Strength check, bursting the webbing on a success. The webbing can also be attacked and destroyed (AC 12; hp 5; vulnerability to bludgeoning; immunity to cold, poison, and psychic damage). Whistling Web. Every Humanoid and Giant within 30 ft. of the web that can hear the music must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be Charmed until the music ends. The music ends if the web is destroyed. While Charmed by the music, a target is Incapacitated. If the Charmed target is more than 5 ft. away from the web, they must move on its turn toward the web by the most direct route. It doesn't avoid Opportunity Attacks, but before moving into damaging terrain, such as lava or a pit, and whenever it takes damage from a source other than the White Widow Spider, a target can repeat the saving throw. A creature can also repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If a creature's saving throw is successful, the Effect ends on it. A target that successfully saves is immune to this web's whistling music for the next 24 hours. Thanks for the video you have a wonderful day!

Got on that Kickstart, last 9 hrs before it eneded, so let's gooo!!!

Fun idea I like to use. Goblins and giant wolf spiders etc don't have to be weak or boring. If you want to spice them up a bit I love to mount goblins on worlf spiders. Then then mounted goblins can ride the spiders onto the ceiling of the cave or whatever you're fighting in, one of melee reach, and will have a reasonable excuse for all their weapons to be poisoned with giant wolf spider venom. Takes an otherwise bland encounter and somewhat ljterally flips it on it's head (cause the ceiling goblins will be upsidedown).

I wish I'd known about Arasta's art before my players had reached our Big Boss fight. It was a magic spider that had infected the God of Dreams. Arasta's art is way more fitting than Sheoldred's. This was a fun video. Full of neat monsters I'd never heard of and not too rambly about each one.

Thank you for the video!

12:29 ohhh look at the Shrike of Hyperion's Cantos ....sooooo creepy ;=0 23:46 "tomb spider" , Lara Croft next reincarnation ? I just got blessed by the Esper''s inspiring touch : what about a giant tique sucking its victimes into horror ? I called it the "Tique-à-sosie": when the tique fills its big grey-beige belly w/ the life of its victime , the belly cracks, hatches and releases a doppelganger perfect image of the victime which will go back to its people in order to betray them and drive them into the den of the Tique for its next meal and new recruitment of a minion...

Could you please do something covering 3e's epic handbook monsters? Those things are wild, really cool, and I don't think they're talked about enough.

31:36, it's pronounced 'Salvator', yes the 'he's at the end is silent. I know this because I meet him and he has a site call 'Salva-store', a pun that wouldn't work if the 'e' in Salvatore wasn't silent.

I think I'll just listen to this one while looking at something else, thank you 😅

the losk reminds me of something I think its from the second spy kids film the boy like feeds it chocolate and becomes their friend its like a moneky thing maybe its called a spider monkey

I once ran a ranger that had ptsd from a spider attack when he was a boy, which manifested as his Favored Foe. His Arachnophobia literally gave him strength lmfao

The Retriever is very interesting because it kinda looks like a robot because it's skin looks like metal, spider inferno is also interesting because it reminds me of Shark inferno, and also the tome spider so also interesting because it looks like it lives in the deserts in a pyramid!

I appreciate the MTG spider art. so many of the spiders in that game are criminally slept on and I wish I had prints of all of them.

You missed my personal favorite D&D spider! Though I don't blame you -- it's from a fairly obscure setting-specific bestiary, the Dangerous Denizens supplement for the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting. The bouncing spider is a giant spider with a unique combat trick: It can use its webbing as a sort of bungee cord, letting it leap in from a considerable distance to snatch up prey and yoink it back to its web thanks to the springy web tether. And they will absolutely use this ability tactically to divide and conquer groups of intruders in their territory: They're intelligent, with a respectable 11 Int and an actual society and culture hinted at in the book.

Hey Man. Would you do a list for the best homebrew for monsters and races? Think that would be interesting

Cool video. One I think you missed is Ravenloft's Red Widow. Female spider Lycanthropes who breed with humanoids with horrifyingly predictable results

The Phase Spider is my go-to monster for either new players or low level bad ass scary monster. It's just so weird, scary, and *brutal.*

Oh I remember the spider king from the Out of the Abyss. He had to bribed so that he allowed players to go on, good memories :)

Great vid as always though this would be a hard one to eat dinner to.

So I once challenged the party with a group of Drow that had a Retriever because one of the party members worshiped Lolth but then converted to the Raven Queen this had made it an act that Lolth could not overlook and so they found there way into Barovia to capture the traitor. It was a epic battle that took place on a giant bridge and one me and my friends will always remember. I had it hide under the bridge until the traitor had moved just a bit beyond the group and then it strikes them with a paralyzing beam then captured them and began to drag them back to the spider queen herself needless to say they saved there friend and killed all the Drow that had come to capture there friend.. ah good times!

I have used chitine, choldrit and cave fishers, great low level enemies, lot's of memes birthed from "the spiders that walk". One spider I really like is the Bristle spider from 3.5, it's really basic but I think it makes a great mount for BBEGS

Older edition's monsters are always good to see, no matter what the editions is!

Wait a minute, hold up, roll back the cart. You're telling me that you're just gonna stand there hold up the torch while me and the rest of the guys are gonna go down in this dark dungeon. Completely covered in spirit webb's probably a temple of Lolth or what ever eight legged unholy creatures? Yes. Ok i see how it is but remember our partys name Orkin! And if we make it out alive we are charging you a hazardous fee.

The stat scores symbols make me think of the tag the Digichosen had in Digimon.

idea for the phase spider might be to use some to herd the party towards an ambush of some kind

Remembers me of a D&D Adventure where our GM decided it would be 'fun' to pair a clan of Kobolds with a Lair of Spiders resulting in Spider with Kobolds as Riders .... it's at times problematic enoth to fend of a huge eight legged beast OR a hoard of nasty little kobolds with a cave full of traps ... combine them together and a low level group of 'would be' Heros like we where get a really hard time

As a sufferer of arachnophobia, this will be a struggle. 😬🕷️

What about the Cildabrin? Technically it's a giant scorpion but scorpions and spiders are both arachnids. There's also the Chwidencha a giant spider that has 12 legs and can grapple you with them.

Aw man I missed the kickstarter!😢 Looked like a really cool project too.

I feel like the Phase Spider might be linked to the Grey Widowers from The Mist by Steven King