Would a Jumping Spider be a good familiar?

it's a crab

an aqua spider, yes.

Spidercrabs are the only crabs I wouldn't feel guilty about killing myself for food.
It's CLEARLY an us or them question with those hideous bastards.

You'd kill yourself to fed a crab?

As in: I'd kill a Spider Crab with my bare hands (and a screwdriver) and no remorse whatsoever. Normal crabs are adorable, these things are fucking terrifying.
Luckily evolution has dealt them the same bum hand it dealth the DoDo and the Manatee: They are unfortunately, delicious.

I intend to have a flying spider as a familiar in our next campaign (should be starting tomorrow).
I'm playing a spider too though, so I may be biased.
A lot of poison and silk should be spilled this summer.

Dodo wasn't even particularly tasty. Manatees, yes, tasty. Giant turtles? So tasty they didn't make it back to england for decades, because every science team just said "Fuck it, eat 'em". Sea cow, fucking DELISHIS.

Dodo? Just really fucking stupid and not poisonous. They were better than shitty dried worm-infested sea rations, but not delicious.

Tiny Jumping Drider that sits on your shoulder and is mascot/the brains of the party.

Dog-sized spiders would be the best

> Can make accurate jumps, sometime guided by a thread
> Good eyesight
> May use a catching net, or spite venom
> Tend to be smarter than other spiders
> More likely to eat spiders than other spiders
> Doesn't really make spiderweb
Regular spider may be too static to follow an adventurer but jumping spiders are hunters, so they fit better I think. Regular spider familiars are to protect your lair.

>tend to be smarter than other spiders
Yes and no. They have very limited amounts of neurons so when they "plan" they literally just sit there. For hours. They tend to find one single spot and find the best place for ambushes but this can take hours or possibly an entire day of simple motionless observation. Like a simple biological turing machine made of neurons.
>eyesight
Again. Yes and no. It depends on the lighting. They thrive in green light and fumble in red. This means they don't do as well during daylight, dusk, and dawn.
>jump with accuracy
They actually jump like grasshoppers do when they're startled or don't have a few seconds to do that sit-and-stare routine to get properly prepared. If you don't know grasshoppers have zero clue where their going or why they jumped. its like that twitch where your arm just spazz's on its own, entirely between your arm and spinal cord no concious action taken. Except for the spider it does that as a kneejerk reaction no thinking required when startled as a survival mechanism because, as mentioned earlier, it requires a few seconds to actually aim jumps.

This is why they're ambush predators as they can determine the perfect perch during safe times and then observe from safety until ready to jump.

What about the Fringed Jumping Spider? I thought they were really good with what almost seemed like abstract thinking.

All jumping spiders. They are however good at abstract thinking. It just takes some time.
Spiders don't have a lot of neurons to work with as around 50% of them are for the central ganglia which controls and coordinates the general movement and involuntary functions. Another 20% are spread throughtout the body for functioning. And finally 30% for the actual brain, a LOT of which is devoted solely to vision. This doesn't leave a lot for complex thinking. So rather than seeing the big picture almost instantly like us. It has to build the pieces, put them together to make a single puzzle piece, put the compound pieces together to make a final piece, then put the final puzzle pieces together to see the big picture only to find that picture is a final compound puzzle piece. Not to mention they have to figure out how those pieces together. Honestly its a miracle and there's good reason for studying that shit as it may be a phenomenal way to make AI that can actually think and perceive but i wouldn't call it "smart" until the spider finds a way to speed that shit up. Even at dog size it would "hesitate" visibly before each and every jump and that usual leg adjustment as well in preparation of launch.

So you are saying they work with preptime?
That make them the batman of the spiders, so they are smart. Checkmate webfag.

More seriously I didn't knew we had brainstat for spiders, that's interesting. I would have thought spiders using spider-webs would be less... well smart probably isn't the right word I guess. Comparatively.

To be fair, dog size fantasy spider would probably have more neurons to work with, but it's interesting to know what exist in reality before making a fantasy version.

Could I have a small swarm of them as my familiar instead of just one?

As I would love that that would be awesome

It would probably be able to think pretty decently compared to other nonsapient creatures of similar size, it'd just need to sit still and stare at a problem for a little bit, puzzling through it all.

Possibly while the sound of an old modem can be faintly heard dialing up.

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It's a trap!

Can I keep it?

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Now if only the tiny jumping spider that jumping spider was holding was holding another jumping spider.

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> The adventurers encounters an enemy party and soon engage battle.
> The spider familiar stay immobile and stare at the battle.
> Suddenly, when everyone had forgot about it, it jumps on someone's back, immobilizes him before injecting a venom that start liquefying his inside.
C...cute?

Only if it's a Peacock spider and you're a Bard.

youtube.com/watch?v=d_yYC5r8xMI

Yes. I want one of these glorious things, I love it when there's one in my room hunting flies.

>The druid gains a smug loli jumping spider arachne as a familiar
>Having very limited use in combat, she mostly makes snarky comments

In 5e familiars can be the point of origin for touch based spells.

Having a super sneaky and small jumping spider sneak onto foes stealth like and hit them with long distance touch attacks is pretty damn broken.

Actually an aqua beetle.

That is adorable.

What is that from?

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They run the web...

I remember in my very first campaign, our ranger had a spider as his animal companion. We called him buggy and he was the fanciest thing on our team, which included a goddamn princess.

>yfw you just saw some shit and survived it in one piece.

They can see well enough to chase a laser pointer. It's adorable.

Due to the number of eyes and large portion of the brain given over to vision their tracking capabilities are immense. If you put them under redlight however such as at dusk or fire light and tried with a different colored laser they'd be all over. My point was to say that if you and your party are in a dark dungeon all carrying torches the light given off would be in the red spectrum and your spider would "hesitate", do the little spider dance he does to orient properly, and probably jump into the wall. They literally can't focus their vision under red light which is an issue when you have 8 eyes with 360 degree view and you're seeing octuple vission trying to aim a jump.

DOTA 2 It's name is Itsy

Fucking Australians.

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