Phase spider

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The phase spider is a monster that appears in some variants.

Origin

Phase spiders are borrowed from Dungeons & Dragons.

The D&D incarnation resembles a large white spider with dark green patterns, and a humanoid head with two eyes. It's an ambush predator, phasing from a parallel dimension to surprise its prey, hence the name.

SLASH'EM

Encyclopedia entry

Phase potion, which is related to oil of etherealness, is more useful for general combat. When imbibed, this potion allows the user to shift in and out of phase with the Prime Material plane at will, much like a phase spider. When out of phase, the user is impervious to all forms of attack except those that reach into Ethereal plane. ... Phase potions are brewed from phase-spider ichor or from the concentrated juices of rare underground fungi.
[ RPG Sheets by Amalor Mymnyx ]

Phase Spiders are not true Spiders, but an alien race which appear as giant spiders with humanoid shaped heads. Phase Spiders speak a whispery language which is reminiscent of the sound of the wind blowing through the trees. ... Phase Spiders are considered Enlightened creatures as they have the ability to phase in and out of our normal space-time into what most scientists would refer to as Void-Space. Phase Spiders use this ability to their great advantage in combat.
[ Alien Update Lexicon by Randy Walker ]

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dNetHack

Phase spiders favor hit-and-run attacks, biting you and then teleporting away to prevent retaliation. This tactic is of questionable use against poison resistant characters, however. Their attack can teleport you, subject to teleport control.

In addition to being able to teleport, phase spiders in dNetHack can phase through walls.

Encyclopedia entry

Sometimes confused with neogi or driders and called planar spiders on some worlds of the Prime, phase spiders are intelligent web-spinners with a raised thorax and a humanlike head. What really makes phase spiders stand out is their enviable ability to phase back and forth between a plane and the plane's Border.

Unknown to most creatures, phase spiders possess large web habitats on the Ethereal (both in the Deep and on the Border) and only appear on other planes while hunting for food. Some phase spiders do live mostly on material planes, but these spiders are the exception, not the rule. Like many more familiar cultures, Ethereally-based phase spiders are not a cohesive race, but instead exist in separate clutches (tribes), each of which claims various Prime territories as its sole hunting ground. Sometimes disparate phase spider clutches cooperate, but sometimes they come into conflict over temtorial disputes.

[ A Guide to the Ethereal Plane, by Bruce R. Cordell ]