How do Attercops fight?

[helghast]

I just asked Andrew via PM. Let us see what comes up about this. I`m curious.

[Stormcrow]

The solution is obvious: spiders don't have stingers.

[Falenthal]

Great, great summary Hermes. I admit I always had problems with Attercops. The main one, not being able to differentiate if the Seize Victim was an ability or a form of attack. You made it all clear.
Only have one concern. you said:

If a PC rolls an Eye on a failed attack the Attercop automatically makes a Called Shot.

IIRC the enemy's Called Shots are triggered simply by rolling an Eye, not necessarily with a failed attack.

[Hermes Serpent]

Unless it's changed in the RE (and it's not in the revisions document) p65 LMB "whenever the companion attacking it fails his attack roll and obtains a Eye result on his Feat die."

[Corvo]

Unless it's changed in the RE (and it's not in the revisions document) p65 LMB "whenever the companion attacking it fails his attack roll and obtains a Eye result on his Feat die."

It's the same in the RE. Page 232.

[Falenthal]

Thanks Hermes.

It is then one of those rules that I learned wrong and never looked at it again.
You'll always learn something new. Or correct something you learned wrong.

[jamesrbrown]

My guess is that the revised core rulebook accidentally leaves out the explanation for the * on the Ensnare ability. It should be explained under the Spider Weapons table like it is in the Loremaster's Guide:

*If the Ensnare roll is successful and produces a great or extraordinary success, the spider immediately attacks its victim using its sting.

[Brandiwise]

How do creatures use skills, favoured or otherwise? So an attercop has movement 3 but what can it use it for in game terms? Is it for contested skills?

[zedturtle]

How do creatures use skills, favoured or otherwise? So an attercop has movement 3 but what can it use it for in game terms? Is it for contested skills?

If the Loremaster needs to make a skill roll for the adversary, then the skill is used. This could be a contested skill, but it could also be a simple Test. For example, if there's a chasm and the adventure specifies that leaping the gap is a TN 14 Athletics check then the Attercop would roll Feat Die + 3d6 + 3 (because Athletics is Movement, and it's favoured for Attercops, so they add their Attribute Level automatically).

Incidentally, this reminds me of another brilliant little bit of the system that I've been thinking about recently. In a lot of similar games, every time you exceed the basic threshold by a certain amount (say 5 points) you get a bonus. In that system, for a TN 14 test a result of 15 is a basic success, a 19 is a great success and a 24 is an extraordinary success. But in The One Ring extra successes come from rolling dice (and getting tengwars) so an adversary with a lower but favoured weapon skill and a high attribute level is more likely to hit (and cause basic damage) but not more likely to cause additional damage. Whereas an adversary with higher skill and not favoured will cause additional damage more often. It's a very nice subtlety of the system that allows you to make opponents that feel very different in execution.

[Brandiwise]

Many thanks for this. I never really got the opportunity to use skills when LMing previously but I'll look out for out such opportunities. I'm an inexperienced DM in general!