As spiders have the ranged symbol, does this mean that the poisin and web attacks are ranged?

yes.

Apparently I need to add this or FFG says the post is too short.

They are included in the main attack the spiders use. So no matter what you attack with a spider it will get poisoned, and if it's a master spider it will get webbed, as long as you do any damage that is. They are passiv abilities.

If it's got two X chromosomes and no Y, is it female?

Yup, the spiders do not nibble/bite, they magick their poisonous spit towards the target, and the web too.

Look for the symbol in front of the dice: a swordey thing means it is close combat, a bow-thingy means in is ranged, and a fireball, the hallmark of the wizardly trade, means it's magic.

A Bane Spider's attack is actually considered a Magic attack (white base die), not Ranged (blue die). Magic attacks may always (except with Golems) be made as a ranged attack (ie. you can attack an enemy several spaces away, adding up the range on the dice).

Acutally, acording to the card Bane Spiders are a RANGED, not magic attack. The symbol is a little bow. This is one of those wierd exeptions to the normal rules that descent just loves to trick us with.

Brian

Bane Spiders? That's weird. I just checked all of my Bane Spider cards (vanilla and RtL) and they all have the white fireball symbol and a white base die. Are some of the cards printed different?

My spiders have a magic symbol as well. Perhaps your cards have a misprint?

perhaps he just posted that without cheking...I do that a lot lately...

Funny thing related to this topic. The first, oh, 5 or 6 times my friends and I played Descent, I kept thinking the spiders were melee attackers. So I would run them up, they would die real quick, and I thought to myself "man, these spiders suck!". It wasn't until the third quest that I figured out I didn't have to put them adjacent for attacks, which of course made them actually useful. Until that realization though I thought they were worthless (ha).

Sadly, they really are not that great. I'd rather use Kobolds

Big Remy said:

They are awesome outdoors. Spiders in trees can't be easily swept aside (usually 1 kill per attack max and need to get alongside for each attack), they easily block the paths and they have enough movement to get to the 'front' in reasonable time as reinforcements (especially if upgraded).

Just ask Bilbo Baggins what spiders in trees are like...

True, I was thinking more about my experience with them in dungeons.

StarBurn said:

I don't have the cards on hand. I do keep a quick reference sheet I made though. I guess I put the wrong attack type down on the spread-sheet, sorry about that.

Brian

"Just ask Bilbo Baggins what spiders in trees are like..."

Brilliant