Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Cave Fisher

Creepy arachnids that can pose a significant danger to explorers of cave, caverns, sewers and the occasional dark and dank forest floor, cave fishers have been part of the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop roleplaying game for many decades.
Become a Member:
/ ajpickett
Become a patron: / themightygluestick
Join the Discord community: discordapp.com...
Shop for Mighty Gluestick Merchandise: teespring.com/...
Check out some excellent products: dndwow.com

[@joshuazane3210]

How do I feel about cave fishers? To quote Ross Scott: "There's no excuse for being what you are; you're the reason we have napalm."

[@Greenscyth22]

You’d expect most underdark denizens who have darkvision to be able to avoid these things. At the very least a Ghost Sound spell or any other illusion spell that messes with sound should effectively confuse and disorient them.

[@Mare_Man]

I imagine spells like Thunderclap or Shatter give Cave Fishers a very hard time

[@balthezaar100]

Ah, good old cave fishers. Sprung these on my players a few times. Always a hilarious surprise.

[@mudshrooze]

Good sir. I used to watch your videos every time they came out. But sometime last year. I stopped getting notifications and the nature of youtube I got busy. I wanted to say thankyou so much for all your work. I honestly always come to this channel to help me get my creative juices flowing. I have a lot of videos to catch up on and I'm looking forward to it

[@That80sGuy1972]

That little bell icon, click it. Select "all". You will get every video AJ releases. Well, mostly. I think that is a glitch that sometimes happens because of the sheer traffic of KZbin.

[@AJPickett]

KZbin AI believes that, because a lot of people watch a channel for a while and then lose interest and watch other things, that ALL people do that for ALL channels, so, it does pay to unsubscribe and resubscribe to channels you watch, every few months, just to teach the Google AI a lesson.

[@That80sGuy1972]

@@AJPickett Now I know why I miss some videos I select "all" on. Thanks, AJ! I just saw I missed your Werewolf one and watched it. That video selection thingy on the right actually has a use.

[@unknownnope7543]

I could really use a book that goes over all the uses and body parts sought after by adventures. It seems like every older monster has some cool body part with its weight in gold.

[@AJPickett]

This is a book from decades ago that has that exact information, including what all the various creatures taste like when cooked and eaten. I'll have to make a video about it.

[@unknownnope7543]

@@AJPickett you should I've tried to write down when you do lore on these but it so many spread out randomly among your videos

[@That80sGuy1972]

Great video AJ. I actually read that article you used decades ago and stopped hating Cave Fishers as "lame monsters" to immediately loving them. My players did not understand my shift. Dragon Magazine got me to alter a LOT of what I did as a DM back in the day. They loved it (not at first) because things got interesting. Before that article, Cave Fishers were how DMs trolled their players. They became interesting monsters after that. I actually had a community of Dwarves that sold Cave Fisher Iron Rations as a premium Iron Ration. It tasted better, was lighter, and carried more like a jerky form of Standard Rations. It was the best of Standard and Iron Rations. I also had an intoxication based trade based upon their ecology years later.

[@krispalermo8133]

Bat guano has been used as fertilizer for thousands years and when mixed into hot water and poured through lime stone sand to gain potassium niter/ salt peter. Then factor in what humans will do for .. silk. China instead of figuring out the silk worm which later ended up in Europe and later started up in the US South, the Chinese would have farmed bats wrapping up in cave fisher silk. So in your campaign other than the drow cornering the market on silk production, it would have been the dwarves.

[@CreatorCade]

Loved the little story in the intro it really gives a good perspective on both monster and adventurers.

[@iainzo7]

Couldn't agree more. Really sets the tone. If you're reading Aj you should slot these in when the mood takes you.

[@matthewshroba1511]

@@iainzo7 that would make this videos even better... and they’re already top notch.

[@alanschaub147]

AJ: I love when you start videos off with a story, like this one. They are so entertaining! They also give me ideas regarding how to describe creatures and their lairs to players. 👍🏻

[@michaelkelligan7931]

Good lord AJ,that Cave Fisher on the thumbnail is an absurdly large specimen eh? Awesome video man thanks kiwi!

[@dragonlord498]

i could see the filaments of the cave fisher also being used to craft clothing similar to how drow and such use spider silk for some of their clothing and similar uses like for example i could for sure see groups of drow that worship Vhaeraun using them as replacements given spider silk is quite a useful material but his worshipers tend to be more prown to killing spiders then farming them i would think given one of his favored animals is dead spiders

[@mattnerdy7236]

Hey AJ, great video! Love the fact that you always tell us what the body parts are used for. In the real world, that how it really is. People find uses or make useful items from their prey. Lizardfolk are a great explain of making use of prey. It would make for a great adventure if a wizard or cult hired a group of adventures to go around collecting these different creatures for their valuable body parts. I could see that adventure getting pretty crazy. Thanks AJ & have a great day.

[@finnmcool2]

Somebody thought up a coconut crab that comes with it's own booze and genetic engineers are wasting time on drought resistant crops.

[@iainzo7]

I love the additional information about how you can use the materials of the creatures. It's super useful for bringing the world to life. Any additional bloodied rules are also much appreciated.

[@tonyoliver4920]

Plot hook: 2 months a ago a drow brewery owner died in mysterious circumstances. The high strength alcohol produced by his brewery is a favourite of local dwarfs. Know people are going missing Back story: he’s been milking a female cave fisher as a pet selling its solvent as an underdark high strength spirit (it may be) but now it’s reached sexual maturity and has reproduced

[@linguisticallyoversight8685]

I got a buddy in India that Love's your vids and he translates them for his friends and family because Google Translate is trash

[@apocalypticmoth6040]

Aj and the arcane forge upload two of my favorite monsters in one day?!

[@AJPickett]

Quicklings are great!

[@dboot8886]

So are these bugs suitable candidates for a vermin lord companion? Or has that class not been transfered over to 5e yet?

[@dragonturtle2703]

1.) How much filament can they make at any one time? Can/will they make webs? 2.) Do you have any idea how much those products would cost, or the dc to see the nearly invisible silk rope?

[@michaelkelligan7931]

11:00 Doppler accuracy?! Lolx10

[@AJPickett]

Was I even close?

[@gokification]

Most adventures equipment and their own wait can exceed that weight

[@AJPickett]

Yeah, go with the 400 lbs

[@gokification]

@@AJPickett even then your loudest characters in plate with a high STR end up exceeding it iv had a human fighter who carried alot of stuff for the party his weight was 260 and with gear he exceeded 400lb I'd just give the thing the knowledge of using leverage so it makes a loop on a place above with none sticky and run a line through it and treat it like it's using a block and tackle turning a 200 into 800 and let it plant the line before it approachs for the like

[@dbensdrawinvids8390]

Fisher's Egg Brandy: much like pear brandy, a bottle of this dark red liquor has an object floating in it, in this case, the unhatched egg of a cave fisher. Exactly how the dwarves get the egg into the bottle undamaged is a secret. It is actually an alchemical mixture that blends with and stabilizes the natural alcohols of the egg, making the Consuming a single shot of this brandy has similar intoxicant effects as consuming a "dose" of raw cave fisher egg, but only half as debilitating and lasting half as long.

[@honkthegoose3543]

Catfished < Cavefished

[@mudshrooze]

Also....uh the slime and fungus video was the first one I ever saw and it's still my favorite. I got a question have you ever thought about writing fantasy in the dnd world? Following the pretty graceful copy right guidelines that dnd has for the worlds of course. :)

[@AJPickett]

I've written a bit of science fiction, but never an actual sword and sorcery fantasy story. Perhaps I should.

[@mudshrooze]

@@AJPickett well do what makes you happy. But I'd love it! I also...how would one go about finding your book??

[@tonyoliver4920]

Plot hook: there a new underdark drink on the market; cavear (cave/caviar)

[@tonyoliver4920]

Does the “iron stomach” feat still exists

[@tonyoliver4920]

Pronounced cave-ee-are

[@tonyoliver4920]

Actually you might want to check out ‘Molecular Mixology’

[@andresmarrero8666]

Wouldn't the filament or silk also be very flammable? Certainly makes their fear of fire a lot more reasonable even though the risk of exploding is itself reasonable. Also wouldn't these creatures be vulnerable to thunder damage given that they rely on sound to know what is around them? Generally the more sophisticated the ears, the more loud noises hurt them.

[@AJPickett]

You can certainly modify them to suit those logical considerations, sure.

[@matthill5426]

"Shot their goop wad directly into the adventurer's face" Isn't there enough gnarly Rule 34 out there? Do we really have to go inspiring more? :D

[@AJPickett]

Yes... yes we do.

[@purplehaze2358]

I’m quite literally running on empty, by which I mean 0 hours of sleep, one cup of cola because I ran out of coffee, and the temporary consciousness provided by a cold shower. So I’m probably not going to be able to provide a comment that’s clever, funny, or insightful.

[@AJPickett]

Running out of coffee is pretty much a critical malfunction for me and this youtube channel, so, I feel your pain.

[@dboot8886]

Dr Bright If you aren't back at the institute in an hour we are hiding the Living Legos again.

[@purplehaze2358]

DBoot 888 REEEEEEEEE

[@dboot8886]

Dr Bright DID YOU TAKE 096 _AGAIN!_

[@supersam5802]

So question bright, if you go without sleep and then transfer your necklace to some who has slept to you feel refreshed or still need to go to sleep

[@apocalypticmoth6040]

Hemoglobin is of course the iron rich compound that give blood it’s red color. Hemocyanin is the copper-based compound that gives the blood of cephalopods and some crustaceans it’s blue coloration. I love including traditional dwarvish alcohols with a blue tint. In my world, the ashlore dwarves were pushed out of their stronghold by a red dragon. This lead most of them to immigrate to the city of Ozryn. Here, they were treated as second-class citizens, surviving in the dangerous conditions of the factories and azurite mines. A cave fisher corpse could fetch enough money for a dwarf to finally afford to leave the slums

[@SpidermanandhisAmazingFriends]

The Underdark, DnD for Australia

[@lyrix9753]

Well it is the land down under

[@TheEvilProfessorMonoCulture]

I want to use scaled down versions in a game I plan to run in the future, but more of a nuisance creature that trips you up at the least opportune time. Filaments are more like a prehensile Whisker, and they only have two. Encrusted Shell reflects all but 1/4 of Magical Damage.

[@AJPickett]

That totally works

[@hermionesydneygoldmanphynn498]

On a lighter note the story at the beginning means that someone managed to kill that Kingfisher or in slave it. As in the fact we’re hearing it means that someone manage to get that story!

[@krispalermo8133]

Cave fisher eggs, or cave fishers in of themselves .. dragon food .. Adventures wonder why does that dragon push a rock to and from that cave opening, what is the dragon hiding ?

[@alanschaub147]

Question: Does a Cave Fisher have to make a roll to hit with its sticky filament, or does it hit automatically and then need to be contested by a character’s Strength Save. It seems it is the latter, but I just want to make sure.

[@marshmellow4214]

Alan Schaub So for 5th edition a creature that touches the filament must immediately make a strength saving throw at disadvantage. If they fail then they pulled within 5 ft of the cave fisher.

[@alanschaub147]

Marshmellow421 What if the Cave Fisher shoots its filament at a target? Does it have to hit, or is it just like a grapple where there is a skill contest? AJ is actually addressing this issue now on the video. It doesn’t seem clear from the creature stat block, though.

[@marshmellow4214]

Alan Schaub Hm…the way I would do it is have the cave fisher roll to hit the target, then resolve the grapple afterwards.

[@AJPickett]

@@alanschaub147 It's not clear from the stat block provided.

[@Scarletraven87]

This creature moves vertically at full speed. It's portraited as a crab with a bait tongue. It's more like a spider with pincers. The bait isn't a bait, it's just silk.

[@charlottewalnut3118]

It’s kind of like a tailless whipscorpion

[@mathewbelemont9146]

There is so much to think about when creating monsters, mechanics and other facets of our worlds in any role playing game I rarely stop to consider things like alchohol blood. I totally should but this video got my gears whirling on weird things monster bloods could be used for. So far I'm at trolls blood allowing a potion that let's the player roll hit dice as if they had taken a long rest to the idea that manticore blood can be a keratina supplement ensuring hair to grow faster and more beautiful.

[@MrCoryinnocence]

Thats cool I imagine lots of dnd monsters are inpired by real bugs and animals like this one. There is a worm that does the same in caves I believe their strings might even glow

[@armyaircat2]

Are celestials on the horizon for the future?

[@AJPickett]

Got a preference on which celestials?

[@armyaircat2]

@@AJPickett Any of them that you haven't already covered. Dealers choice.

[@rebellworldwide1776]

Great job on this VIDEO 👍

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

Ignore the 200 lb weight limit. By adventuring standards, a lightly packed average weight adult human male wizard with a backpack a book a component pouch some torches rations and rope will be too heavy but if that wizards were female they will be light enough. What a strange weight limit to set where a moderately packed unarmored adult human male is too heavy and an adult human female is light enough? Seems like it would punish the player for being female or being a smaller race unnecessarily all the while the filament doesn’t work in all but maybe MAYBE one member of an adventuring party that being ONLY small sized races, characters specifically designed to be scrawny and light, or females who aren’t wearing armor or carrying the bag of holding. Why isn’t it a size limit, or a weight of 300 lbs so only the bulkiest heavily armored adventures or centaurs or Goliaths find respite from the cave fisher. These things hunt drow and adventurers. They can’t specialize in small sized meals and expect to be a threat to the party? I’m in three games right now DMing 2 of them and of them all there is a single person who equipment plus body weight is less than 200 pounds. The 100 pound elf rogue with 70 pounds of equipment. There’s even a halfling who weighs 70 pounds but between the full plate armor the multiple weapons the component pouch and carrying the bag of holding and 2 other magic items has 140 pounds of equipment! 200 lbs isn’t a lot when you consider both character weight and equipment in a D&D game that doesn’t use the variant encumbrance rules and the only time a cave fisher can be used against a player, is usually when you as a DM are punishing them for being light weight often because they are a woman! Which isn't a cool thing to punish your players for Just make it "size medium" and not "200 lbs"

[@andresmarrero8666]

It does make some sort of sense however. Males tend to have greater physical strength and integrity and would require more effort to subdue than the females who are built more for agility and would be very much hampered by the silk. Like any predator they go after prey that takes less effort to subdue and propose less risk of harm. There is of course nothing stoping the creature from using more silk to compensate, but they prefer to deal with the easier and less risky prey first. From a biological and predator perspective it does make sense, from a gameplay perspective it is a bit odd.

[@bayoubilly5176]

@@andresmarrero8666 this would ignore your average female adventurer by definition is not the norm. As any adventurer in novels are known as the crazies. Also integrity? How do us males have more integrity?

[@andresmarrero8666]

@@bayoubilly5176 structural integrity as in the bone structure. Men tend to be more heavily built hence greater strength and structural integrity which is why this creature targets women more often.

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

@@andresmarrero8666 "Males tend to have greater physical strength and integrity and would require more effort to subdue than the females who are built more for agility" Males strength female dex isn't true in the system of dnd nor the lore of many non human races. Though it's clearly not evolved to "hunt women" anymore than a fisherman evolves to hunt female fish when it uses a longer rod. The hunting style is very passive and makes no active or conscious decisions about who it hunts. The filament is simply only strong enough to hold 200 lbs, and men tend to weigh more than that and women tend to weigh less. It does make sense. But the fact that this is basically the only place we see the mechanic of how much someone weighs come into play and it almost exclusively does so to discriminate against women. That is bad game design when they could have just said "medium creature"

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

@@andresmarrero8666 The creature doesn't target women, it spends its time on the ceiling with a stationary filament and pulls up anything that's light enough to be pulled up. The pressure the creature has to evolve would be for the filament to be able to pull up as heavy a creature as it possibly can without compromising other essential traits like the filament being hard to see. The designers say that weight limit is 200 lbs, but the 200 lb weight limit is dumb because it limits the monster to only functionally be a threat towards very specific players.

[@chriscalvin5083]

Good video AJ

[@falloutzane]

Could a sufficiently strong character or creature pull the cave Fisher by the filament that it shoots out? If not a player character something like an ogre?

[@luisvazquez4397]

I've watched at least 3 times...so good!

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

Cave fishers use heating and are blind? What a strange monster manual entry to have dark vision 60 instead of blindsight 60 blind beyond this radius

[@mikewaterfield3599]

remind me again what your surname is?

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

@@mikewaterfield3599 not a sir name. It’s a title

[@matthewjenkins4559]

Chinese Slik worms are used to make fabric. Spider webs are light, flexable, and strong like steel. I want my character to cappture the cave fisher for their webbing 🕸 to make a line of fashionable clothing. Strong like heavy armor but light as slik and i can drink their blood like wine and eat their meat

[@llewelynshingler2173]

Are Cave Fishers weak to Thunder Damage?

[@AJPickett]

Sounds logical

[@llewelynshingler2173]

@@AJPickett But I take it that using Thunder Magic would attract other fishers.

[@AJPickett]

@@llewelynshingler2173 and everything else.

[@TheEvilProfessorMonoCulture]

Gem Encrusted Shell deflects all but a 1/4 of Magical Attacks

[@charlottewalnut3118]

I’m gonna catch some of these

[@jgr7487]

did a PC kill a Cave Fisher with a Nat 20? make it go boom, use the damage of a Fireball spell.

[@ivory867]

Do you have a halfling video?

[@AJPickett]

I am literally writing the script for it at this very moment.

[@zhondortoth8699]

I have encountered halflings in games as skirmishes and shock cavalry riding axe beaks often described as chicken riders in foreign lands and the butt of jokes or as sentinel tunnel fighters using spears, crossbow experts and trained war badgers. Supplied with food stocks and shelters to rival the halls of the dwarfs. A deeply secretive if publicly friendly people no one wonders why or how they have outlived the empires that surround them, no driving pride or ambition for conquest just a deep independence and will to live in prosperity and peace.

[@erikmartin4996]

Love using this creature

[@xela12345]

It would be nice to know what source of music you use, I assume its license free music but giving the title and composer would be appreciated.

[@AJPickett]

The music is from Epidemic Sound, the music clip titles are "Forest Dogs" (Edward Karl Hanson), "It Lurks Below" (Trailer Worx) and "Darker Waters" (Experia).

[@karlandersson8652]

Was the sound effect of death on the written message necessary, lol

[@Emil-Tiger02]

Yay!

[@matthill5426]

Google has trouble understanding AJ's accent? Really? Every New Zeaalander I've ever spoken to has a very mild accent. Less noticeable that Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Australian and even some English accents easily!

[@AJPickett]

OOooo buddy, you have only encountered the High Zild speakers. Here is some interesting watching, from New Zealand TV kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z324nn2gdpiee7M

[@zanderfield5960]

Rum Ham!

[@johngleeman8347]

Everyone's favorite Underdark fauna! :3

[@johngleeman8347]

Also enjoy using Harpoon Spiders in a similar role.

[@LordM46]

Ah the cave fisher another d&d original monster I belive. A very interesting and dangerus creature traits from crabs, scorpions and of course spiders.

[@Taylor1989s]

Love these guys had a party try to make it there pet killed 2 of them that night before the others woke up lol good times

[@AJPickett]

This is the Way.

[@RPGmodsFan]

The Cave Fisher made its debut in the A4 "In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords" Mod. In my upcoming video on "The Forge of Fury" Mod, I will mention that it needs a Cave Fisher in one of its levels.

[@davidfletcher6703]

Would the claws of a Cave Fisher make good weapons?

[@AJPickett]

in a pinch

[@davidfletcher6703]

@@AJPickett, 😂😂😂😂😂😂, yeah, literally, lol

[@Ghastly_Grinner]

Could be useful thought I dont often end up under ground as my Dwarfs abandoned the mountains nearly 1000 years ago and are only now sending out mining/colonial expeditions to near by mountains.

[@Ghastly_Grinner]

@Regular Slime LOL Half the civilisation is trying to get back there but in my setting Dwarfs are pragmatic they know it will take thousands of years to get back there so they have set up shop somewhere else ... they are currently Colonizing the shit out of some mountains of the southern continent ... kobolds dont like that *picture of Dwarf and Kobolds wrestling in a tunnel over a knife *

[@floppa2154]

я хочу поднять тост ! я пью яйцо пещерного рыбака , за здоровье и удачу Автора ! :3 I want to toast ! I drink a cave fisherman's egg to the health and luck of the Author ! :3

[@AJPickett]

cheers!

[@sethkrueger5472]

Aj asked before on who would win a fight bahamut the Platinum dragon or great Lord Cthulhu, Bahamut is a god, but Cthulhu is very powerful interdimesional being from the far realm wouldn't that make him just as powerful as Bahamut

[@JamesR1986]

My understanding is that the Gods in D&D are in fact mortal, they defacto immortal because are exponentially more powerful then even the greatest human

[@dalleravn]

Sorry, that is what i dislike about armor in dnd. Why is it Harder for a cave Fischer to catch one in heavy plate then one wearing nothing....

[@ethanwall2443]

One could also Homebrew it to so the adhesive simply doesn't work on metals or at least steel and iron

[@ethanwall2443]

So this has got my mind working. So the reason a cave fishers webbing doesn't work is because the adhesive they use reacts with iron so theoretically the webbing could eat through armor albeit slowly

[@aubreyackermann8432]

@@ethanwall2443 metal armor would be oiled to prevent rust, so if someone escaped the fisher, I imagine they would have corrosion issues from having the protective layer stripped.

[@kendrickrochelanzot2053]

Reupload? Edit: nvm, thinking of someone else XD

[@floppa2154]

мне понравилось ! накрутка лайка и комментарий , для алгоритмов ютуба =)!!!11

[@seamusfish7009]

Here wuz Seamus! Seamus quit his job! Still an officer, but I don't work for the prison anymore, and I don't work at any facility...so an officer in title only at the moment...I think I should very much like a line of work elsewhere, however. Another field. So I'm going full force to get a career as a voice actor started. Not sure how, but I'll find a way. Georgia has a decent film industry after all. Figure getting my KZbin up and running again is a decent start. Put a new video up today too. I'm real proud of that one.. Now that I'm not in the prison 24/7 I actually have time to do that. Ah but I just wanted to update ya on where I'm at. I didn't want you worrying considering the work I was doing in the prison. I'm ok, and should have time to pop in regularly once more. Hope you're doing well!