The Forest Spider card reads: "After Forest Spider engages a player, it gets +1 until the end of the round." The way I read this is that it only gets the bonus the first time and round it engages me. If it has engaged me once it can't "engage" me again in subsequent rounds right? Thanks for the help guys.

no it don't the spider effects trigger "as the engage" so once engaged, the effect dose not trigger.. .so forest spider for example is +1 during the 1st time it engaged, and then it has no +attack bonus from then on (unless it draws a shadow card)

Thank you so much for your prompt response man. That was my feeling though, I have played it both ways before. Glad it isn't that good!

i would play it as it having 3 attack everytime it engages you until that round is over, then back to 2. so say it was sent back to the staging area for some reason, and engaged again then it would be up to 3 again. If it stays engaged with you though, the next time it attacks it would only have 2 attack points

Exactly my thoughts Rich.

That's also how I play it.

Clarification:

We play this by the wording in our group. So if a player chooses to engage said spider we do not count it as having +1 attack. Since a player engaged the spider and not the other way around ("when spider engages a player it get´s +1 attack")

This has always sounded logical to me but what´s your take on it?

I play it like previous posters. Engaging is mutual: If you engage the spider, it also engages you and vice versa. So you should give the spider +1 attack strength in the round it comes out of the staging area.

How about a creature like the hummerhorns then?

"After Hummerhorns engages you, deal 5 damage to a single hero you control"

This will pretty much mean an execution of any 1 hero after threat has passed 40 (at which point it engages automatically if the players haven´t already volunteered to do so)

That's right, Hummerhorns is usually a hero-killer. (You have to use Dunhere or Gandalf or Descendent of Thorondor to get rid of it while it is still in the staging area. or a citadel plate on a hero, but usually that's Gimli and he doesn't have 6 Hitpoints left ).

Nerdmeister said:

Yep, the forced effect on Hummerhorns will trigger regardless of which party initiates the engagement. From p.16 of the rules:

"Whether an enemy is engaged through an engagement check, through a card effect, or through a player’s choice, the end result is the same, with the enemy
and the player engaging one another. In all cases, the player is considered to have engaged the enemy and the enemy is considered to have engaged the player."

So, whenever you engage an enemy, it also engages you. That's why a puny monster like the Hummerhorns is worth 5 victory points.