I believe that's a hold-over from the first edition of the game (Hero Wars):
it was called an asset, or advantage, or edge, or something similar. That
particular mechanic got shaved off for HeroQuest and HQv2, as far as I know.
You can probably ignore it, and make a mental note that whoever carries The
Big Spear gets to list it under their abilities as an equipment ability and
can augment with it under appropriate situations (where they might not be
able to augment with a mundane weapon because it'd be considered part of
their standard "Use A Spear" ability).
Rules experts can please feel free to correct or clarify -- this is only my
dim understanding of the matter.
v.
2009/12/29 Hal Bowman <hal_bowman1_at_...>
> ....in the HQ1? rules. That is, on the Issaries web site there are some
> downloadable scenarios (Gringles, Flying Trollin, etc.) with stats. Not sure
> which iteration of the rules they are.
>
> The stat notation I don't understand looks like: Big Spear ^3 What does
> the ^3 mean?
>