It watched the flickering torchlight dance through the webbing its herd had recently spun. Another group of adventurers had made their way deep into the Wychwood Forest to cleanse and burn its home away. These adventurers, much like the ones before them, would not leave alive.
Slowly, the Ettercap stalked the group of four from high above in the dense network of silken tunnels. Their footfalls on the webbed forest floor reverberated up to the Ettercap. It listened closely. The two in the back had some trouble breaking free from the sticky webbing, but could make a hasty escape if necessary. The one in the middle stepped so lightly that it was nearly imperceptible and moved at irregular intervals to obscure its direction and speed. Finally, its next target: heavy steps plodded their way through the foliage and webbing, the bulky boots getting caught and taking great strength to break free. The Ettercap silently hurried ahead of the group of interlopers. With soft chittering, it gathered its herd of spiders to wait in ambush as it drew a long thin strand of spider silk for a devious trap.
Double and triple layering the tiny silk thread together into a fine rope, the Ettercap lowered the garrote into the forest below, directly in the path of the adventurers. The garrote went taught; the Ettercap lifted it high and let out a bloodthirsty shriek as its herd descended into the killing field. The Ettercap watched with its dark unblinking eyes as the torches were slowly snuffed out and the screams of the adventurers gave way to the silence of the night once more. Their herd will feed well this week.
Overview
The Ettercap is one of my favorite monsters that can easily be placed into most campaigns at an early stage. It fits well into most Gothic/Folk Horror and Dark Fantasy settings for those DMs who like a little creepiness in their games. Additionally if you want to break away from the Goblin, Zombie, or Bandit (or giant rats in the basement) starts for campaigns the Ettercap could be a good alternative that many players may not have encountered before.
The first thing you as a DM should know about the Ettercap is that they are ambush predators. An Ettercap should not engage adventurers directly unless supported by Spiders large enough to block player movement. Ettercaps should utilize their climb speed and Spider Climb ability to move freely while the PCs attempt to navigate the difficult terrain of the Ettercap’s domain.
The second thing is the forest that Ettercaps inhabit transforms into a gloomy, spider and web-ridden forest. Use this to your advantage. No Ettercap will be fighting without at least Spider Swarms to assist them in combat, but do not be afraid to use Giant Spiders as well. The text does not specify if this is a magical transformation or natural, but I would recommend magical for the purpose of PC abilities, like the Rangers “Natural Explorer1” feature, and for added mysticism of the world.
The Third thing is that Ettercaps have an intelligence of 7. While this isn’t high by commoner standards it is high enough to make traps. These won’t be sophisticated in any way, but will be a hindrance that will provide opportunities for Spider Swarms and Giant Spiders to ambush the players. Consider using web covered natural holes in the ground for players to drop into, or tripwires that drop egg-sacks full of Swarms of Spiders on the group. These aren’t meant to be deadly, but to start combat off with a surprise, allowing you to garrote a player to make them panic.
Stats
Let’s take a look at the stat block and breakdown what our little beastie can do.
Missing from the stat block provided from D&D Beyond is the Garrote ability:
Web Garrote. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one Medium or Small creature against which the ettercap has advantage on the attack roll. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 12). Until this grapple ends, the target can't breathe, and the ettercap has advantage on attack rolls against it.
This ability isn’t listed directly in the Monster Manual stat block, but it is an optional variant listed in a text block partially detached from the stats. I would recommend using this as an additional attack the Ettercap can take on its turn instead of Web or the Multiattack. Not only because variety is the spice of life, but also gives you options when planning how Ettercaps act in and start combat.
Looking at the stat block we can note the following:
Low Armor Class and medium Hit Points means you should use guerrilla style tactics. Web a character and have Giant Spiders, Giant Wolf Spiders, and Swarms of Spiders attack that character.
With an intelligence of 7, the Ettercap will be smart enough to create rudimentary traps and ambushes. They won’t let themselves get too injured, and will run away to recuperate. I would recommend only doing this once the Ettercap is below 20 Hit Points, as this will allow the players to be able to get Attacks of Opportunity on the fleeing Ettercap.
Challenge Rating (CR2) 2 allows this creature to be used effectively for Tier 13 adventures, and mostly as a nuisance for Tier 2. Beyond that, I cannot recommend using them as the Difficulty Challenge (DC) is too low to provide a challenge for higher level play.
Web Sense will allow Ettercaps to track players moving through webbed forests with ease, and most importantly, from a distance. I wouldn’t give the Ettercap too much leeway with the fairly vague wording of “the same web,” but I would allow them to have between 30-to-60-foot gap with the party. and be partially obscured by webbing and the tree canopy.
The bite’s poison is likely to only last a round or two. If you have garroted a player in a surprise round, you may be able to bite and poison them, giving the player disadvantage on the Athletics/Acrobatics check to escape the garrote grapple DC.
The Web attack recharges4 on a roll of a 5 or 6. You will more than likely only use this ability once per encounter. Use this or the garrote on turn one after a trap has been triggered.
Combat Example
Here is our first example of combat. The combat includes 1 Ettercap, 4 Giant Wolf Spiders, and a hidden 10’ pit trap against 4 level four characters.
The ettercap has followed the party deeper into its forest with a few of its Giant Wolf Spiders, and the party has not noticed the pit trap ahead of them due to the thick webbing on the forest floor, nor the Ettercap providing a surprise round.
Have the character in the front of the group make a Dex Saving Throw. If they fail, the fall is slowed by the webbing, and they won’t take fall damage. However, at the bottom of the pit are two Giant Wolf Spiders laying in wait. This triggers the surprise round and the start of combat.
The Ettercap attacks the player in the rear with its garrote from directly above them, keeping itself out of direct sight lines. The two Spiders in the pit attack whoever fell in. The remaining two Spiders descend from the trees to attack the rest of the players.
When the garroted player breaks free from the Grapple the Ettercap will leave the combat and leave their spiders to deal with the Adventurers. The Ettercap will not stray too far from the combat; it will remain nearby to keep a close eye on the players, harassing them with small waves of spiders, preventing them from taking long rests.
Our next combat example involves multiple Ettercaps. Now we have 4 Ettercaps, 6 Swarms of Spiders, and 2 Giant Wolf Spiders (look I like wolf spiders) against 6 Level seven adventurers. Much like before, we are going to start off the combat with a trap being sprung on the players. This time however, the trap is spider egg-sacks.
Our intrepid adventurers have made it to the heart of the Wychwood Forest, where it is rumored a lost ruined city of treasure is waiting to be plundered. Unfortunately for the adventurers, a colony of Ettercaps have set up their home in the surrounding Forest and among the ruins.
If the adventurers have not been looking for traps or failed to find the trip wire, then the trip wire snaps, and 6 egg-sacks fall from the branches above the players. Randomly determine where the egg-sacks land, but make sure one lands ON a player; you can have them make a Dex Save to dodge it. This will be the start of combat and a triggered Surprised round.
The surprise round goes as such: 3 of our 4 Ettercaps are going to remain at range for as long as they can, using their Web ability. (This will not last the entire combat, keep that in mind.) The Wolf Spiders descend from the tree tops attacking whoever is closest to them, and the Swarm of Spiders, well, Swarm people.
If a player had a Swarm land on them from one of the falling egg-sacks I would not recommend having the Giant Wolf Spiders or Ettercaps attack them(having a Swarm of Spiders spawn on you is a bad enough time, shouldn’t add insult to injury). Once the 3 Ettercaps that are keeping at range can no longer use their Web ability, the Ettercaps will retreat into the forest to gather more Spiders to start a war of attrition with the adventurers.
Final Thoughts
The Ettercap is a great alternative for an early level boss monster or a mid level skirmisher monster. They should never fight alone or be involved with a fair fight, using traps and ambushes to give themselves every advantage they can muster. While being smart enough to make traps they aren’t going to be planning big schemes to push out past their gloomy forests.
Natural Explorer prevents Rangers from getting lost in their Favored Terrain, unless by Magical means. This is a way to signal to Rangers that odd things are afoot and there may be a chance to use skill checks to determine why.
The Challenge Rating of a monster is used to help DMs plan combat encounters. You can find more information about this in the Dungeon Masters Guide on page 274.
The Tiers of Play indicate the levels of the player characters, they are as follows:
Tier 1 - Levels 1 thru 4 (Local Heroes)
Tier 2 - Levels 5 thru 10 (Heroes of the Realm)
Tier 3 - Levels 11 thru 16 (Masters of the Realm)
Tier 4 - Levels 17 thru 20 (Masters of the World)
For Recharge abilities, once the ability is used, roll a d6 at the start of the creature's turn. If the result is in the provided range, then it can use the ability. Repeat this process each time the creature uses this ability. The ability also resets on a long or short rest if the creature is left alone for long enough.