A cross between a grossly-bloated spider and a humanoid

An Ettercap's appearance is a cross between a grossly-bloated spider and a humanoid. It is often found in the company of 2-4 large spiders. An ettercap averages 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds, and speaks Common. An ettercap is not a brave creature, but its cunning traps often ensure that the enemy never draws a weapon. When an ettercap does engage its enemies, it attacks with its keen-edged claws and venomous bite. It usually will not come within melee reach of any foe that is still able to move.

Ettercaps are typically 6 feet tall and weigh about 200 pounds. They are solitary creatures and rarely group with others of their kind, even to mate. When they do group, they tend to attract a variety of different spiders, forming a strange collective of ettercaps and arachnids. Ettercaps are known for building cunning traps out of webs and other natural materials, using them to trap prey. They build shelters out of webbing, often high up in the trees away from other ground-based predators, and use monstrous spiders as lookouts and guardians.

Ettercaps are not brave creatures, but their traps often ensure that the enemy never draws a weapon. When an ettercap does engage its enemies, it attacks with its claws and venomous bite. It usually refuses to come within melee reach of any foe that is still able to move, and flees if an opponent gets free.

Ettercaps are humanoid spiders that tend, feed, and watch over spiders the way a shepherd oversees a flock of sheep. They lair deep in remote forests.

Fine strands of silk stream from glands in an ettercap's abdomen, letting it shoot sticky strands of webbing to bind, entrap, or strangle its victims. It can also use its webbing to fashion elaborate snares and nets, which often festoon its lair.

Quiet Killers

When travelers and explorers venture into an ettercap's territory, the ettercap stalks them. Some meet their end wandering blindly into traps or sections of forest enclosed by webs. Others, the ettercap garrotes with strands of web or envenoms with its poisonous bite.

Sylvan Despoilers

Though they dwell in the wilds, ettercaps have no desire to live in harmony with nature. A forest infested with ettercaps transforms into a gloomy place, choked with webs and infested with giant spiders, giant insects, and other sinister predators. Creatures that wander too far into such a wood are soon lost in a maze of webs that dangle with the bones and lost treasures of the ettercaps' victims.

Enemies of the Fey

Ettercaps are natural enemies of fey creatures. The foul creatures set web snares to catch sprites and pixies, which they hungrily devour, and will encase a dryad's tree in webbing in a vain attempt to trap the dryad. Otherwise timid fey will sometimes approach outsiders for help in dealing with an ettercap infestation, being ill-equipped to deal with the malevolent creatures themselves.

Ettercap

Venomous Arachnid Abductor

Spiderlike hunters, ettercaps lurk in forested depths and seek prey to drag into their web-choked lairs. These vicious predators have arachnid features and hunched, bipedal frames, and they're notorious for their venomous bites and ability to shoot out webs to entrap their victims. Ettercaps often hunt in small groups alongside giant spiders and mundane spider swarms.

Ettercaps frequently overhunt their environment. Left unchecked, ettercaps might fill whole woodlands with their webs and the cocooned remains of past meals, which puts ettercaps in conflict with Fey. Spiteful ettercaps go out of their way to torment and feed on Fey; they prefer to menace those smaller than themselves, like pixies and sprites. They rarely devour other sapient creatures swiftly, preferring to cocoon their captives and terrorize them for days.

Ettercaps avoid fire, which can quickly burn through their webs and the dead trees where they make their homes.

A cross between a grossly-bloated spider and a humanoid

Ettercaps appear to be humanoid arachnids. Their bite is venomous and they can spin silk from their short, stubby tails like a spider does. An ettercap will use this silk to prepare traps around its lair, such as webs and tripwires, and may use a silk-based weapon such as a lassoo or garrotte.