Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

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My first contact with ettercaps was in Neverwinter Nights, where if you found a bunch of giant spiders in a lower-level module you could be sure an ettercap wasn’t far behind. They’ve been around since at least 2nd edition, when they appear in the Monstrous Manual. It’s likely earlier editions featured them in a supplement.

In 4e they still fulfill pretty much the same narrative role as before: hostile, non-drow spider-wranglers. They appear only on the MM.

The Lore

Ettercaps are sapient humanoids, give or take a few extra limbs. They’re not terribly bright with a typical Int score of 5. The book describes them as “primitive, instinctual hunters”, which I guess means Stone Age-level technology. If evolution was a thing in D&D they’d probably be related to spiders in the same way humans are to apes.

Ettercaps are carnivorous and hunt using both weapons and their copious natural gifts, which includes a venomous bite, the ability to produce webs, and a “spiritual kinship” with arachnids that give them a nearly unmatched ability to tame these beasts.

Despite being Unaligned, ettercaps don’t mind including other sapients in their menu, such as your PCs.

The Numbers

The MM gives us two ettercap stat blocks. They’re Medium Natural Humanoids with the Spider keyword. Their signature traits are Resist 10 Poison, a climb speed with Spider Climb, and Web Walker, which allows them to ignore difficult terrain and other movement effects from spider webs and spider swarms.

They also get a spider bite and some sort of web-spinning power, though the exact forms these take vary in each stat block.

Ettercap Fang Guard

This level 4 Soldier has 56 HP and all the common traits described above. Its speed is 5 in all movement modes. It wears leather and wields a greataxe in combat.

The basic greataxe attack has the High Crit property but is otherwise pretty standard. The fang guard’s spider bite requires combat advantage and does a less damage than the axe, but triggers a secondary attack against Fortitude that stuns the victim for a turn and causes ongoing poison damage (save ends).

The fang guard gains +2 to attack and damage rolls against a restrained or immobilized target, and it can try to immobilize them with its Web Tangle attack, which targets reflex and immobilizes (save ends) without doing damage.

I suspect a MV-style makeover would likely make the spider bite a single attack against Fortitude.

Ettercap Webspinner

I believe this one is the closest to the “classic model” from previous editions. A Level 5 Controller with 64 HP, the web spinner also possesses the standard abilities outlined at the start of this section.

It fights with a Reach 2 longspear, and its spider bite doesn’t stun but still does ongoing damage. As a 1/round minor action, the webspinner can cast a Range 5 Web Net that targets reflex and restrains on a hit (save ends; no damage). With a bit of effort it can make a bigger net and create a zone of Webbed Terrain (Area 2 Within 10 vs Reflex), which immobilizes everyone it hits (save ends) and creates a zone of difficult terrain until the end of the encounter. This recharges on a 6, so you might end up with quite a lot of webbing all over the battlefield if you roll well or have multiple webspinners in an encounter.

Any ettercap can safely ignore the difficult terrain from the webs, and this is likely true of a lot of other spider monsters, so they’ll want to use this as often as they can.

Sample Encounter and Final Impressions

The sample encounter is Level 4: 1 webspinner, 2 fang guards, and 2 deathjump spiders.

One mechanical problem I see with these ettercaps is that they must usually choose between doing damage and impairing movement on each of their turns. They’re also built with a more “naturalistic” approach that actually makes the Level 5 webspinner do less damage in its attacks than the Level 4 Fang Guard. If neither issue is fixed, they’ll be less of a threat against the PCs than the numbers might indicate.

In the end I see no reason to include ettercaps in your game unless you’re going all-in on the spider theme, and I don’t lament their absence from the Monster Vault.