Ettercap: Shepherd of Spiders

I can see this dude as a unit in Starcraft 2 and I love it.

When I first looked at the Ettercap, I thought he was forgettable. Then I looked at him for this and I thought he was kinda cute. Sure, I wouldn’t want to meet it in a dark alley! But it had a sort of charm to it.

Then I read the lore and all my illusions were dispelled.

Lore: That one weird guy in your office building that keeps the spiders as pets rather than cleaning up the webs from his space

I’m officially running out of material.

These humanoid spider creatures raise spiders in the deep darkness of remote forests. With the webs it stores in glands in its abdomen, it will esnare its prey or fashion elaborate traps to adorn its lair with.

The Ettercap will stalk those that enter its lair. It has many approaches to do this. It could ensnare them and poison them with their fangs, or it could just let the traps do the work. No matter what approach they take, many people don’t leave their lairs alive.

Ettercaps have no desire to live in harmony with nature. Is a forest gloomy and choked by giant webs and spiders? Chances are, there’s likely an Ettercap infection.

They are the natural foe of all fey creatures. These monsters will often lay out their traps specifically to ensnare them, then devour them. If a dryad lives in their woods, they’ll ensnare the tree to trap the spirit. The problem often becomes so desperate that even the most timid fey will approach outsiders in search for aid.

This lore works wonderfully in tandem with fey lore. Perhaps the party could rescue a dryad held in Ettercap captivity. Or maybe they stumble into their lair and get caught up in a war between the two forces. Maybe you don’t even want to use the fey and you just want the party to deal with giant spiders and their shepherds! The possibilities aren’t super expansive, but you can certainly come up with some creative plotlines!

Design: Tell Me It Ain’t A Zerg Unit

Look me in the goddamn eyes and say that it isn’t. I dare you.

*Sigh* Now I’m sad. I’m gonna try and melt my sadness over the death of the Starcraft by breaking this design down.

In my opinion, this dude doesn’t really scream ‘spider’ to me. I mean, if I squint, I guess I can see it. But giant claws and a beer gut don’t really communicate a very arachnid motif to me.

It’s certainly creepy! The idea of this thing shuffling towards me in a dark forest, surrounded by giant spiders, will very likely haunt my nightmares! It definitely looks like the kind of monster that would eat a fairy.

Unfortunately, it does practically nothing to communicate the creature’s story or abilities. Sure, it’s purple, so it isn’t a super far leap to assume that it might be poisonous. But it doesn’t really look like a spider-dude. More like a big tough demon thing.

But that begs the question: is it even that tough?

Stats: A Spider Man

Jesus, I really am out of material!

Ettercaps are far from the most durable monsters in the book. Their AC is pretty low, just barely above a ten, and their HP averages just shy of 50. It could make a half-decent challenge for a low level party if there were numbers to match. But overall, it isn’t exactly durable.

Its unique abilities aren’t especially impressive, either. Sure, it can climb up walls and move on webs. Yes, it can know where everything on its web is when its on it. But none of them are super interesting or impressive.

Attack wise, it’s pretty generic as well. With multiattack, it can attack with both its bite and its claw every turn. Neither one is all that impressive, even with the bite’s extra poison damage that can (shocker) poison you. The only action it can take that might scare a player is the web action, which can ensnare them in a web.

A web that is super easy to cut through. Ooh! Scary!

I’m sure this could make for a fun fight. Pit the party against enough of them in a dark, web-encrusted forest and you could make a pretty intense fight. But whether or not they’ll remember it is unlikely. It’s a very generic D&D fight, all in all.

Placement

The Ettercap isn’t an especially impressive monster. The lore is neat and the design is… fine, I guess. But the stats, while not terrible, don’t really strike me as impressive. Overall, it’s a very forgettable monster.

With all that in mind, let’s put the Ettercap on the Best of the Bestiary!

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Dragon Turtle
4. Green Dragons
5. Red Dragons
6. Blue Dragons
7. Black Dragons
8. White Dragons
9. Silver Dragons
10. Couatl
11. Behir
12. Aboleth
13. Bronze Dragons
14. Brass Dragons
15. Copper Dragons
16. Gold Dragons
17. Chuul
18. Chimera
19. Death Knight
20. Bone Devil
21. Dracolich
22. Ankheg
23. Empyrean
24. Drow (all four of ’em)
25. Shadow Demon
26. Marilith
27. Drider
28. Aarackockra
29. Azer
30. Demilich
31. Spectator
32. Cambion
33. Animated Armor
34. Banshee
35. Basilisk
36. Yochlol
37. Bulette
38. Cloaker
39. Darkmantle
40. Doppelganger
41. Pit Fiend
42. Erinyes
43. Chain Devil
44. Bearded Devil
45. Barbed Devil
46. Spined Devil
47. Ice Devil
48. Nalfeshnee
49. Glabrezu
50. Chasme
51. Barlgura
52. Horned Devil
53. Balor
54. Shadow Dragon
55. Vrock
56. Dretch
57. Goristro
58. Hezrou
59. Manes
60. Duergar
61. Quasit
62. Dryad
63. Planetar
64. Imp
65. Displacer Beast
66. Carrion Crawler
67. Rug of Smothering
68. Bugbear Chief
69. Bugbear
70. Vine Blight
71. Twig Blight
72. Needle Blight
73. Bullywug
74. Ettercap <—————-
75. Cockatrice
76. Lemure
77. Solar
78. Deva
79. Cyclops
80. Centaur
81. Fire Elemental
82. Water Elemental
83. Air Elemental
84. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
85. Earth Elemental
86. Flying Sword
87. Crawling Claw