Short answer:
He can influence distant factions.
Explanation:
Here is Roac’s errataed text, for reference:
Roac also has a number of clarifications in the CRF:Unique. Playable at any site in Northern Rhovanion. Tap and discard to attempt to bring any faction into play - treat this influence check as if it was made by a diplomat.
Chad Martin previously answered this question on behalf of the CoE back in 2004 and 2005, but some members of the player community have voiced that extra clarification may be necessary. Here are those original digests:Card Erratum: Replace «no modifications to the influence check are required.» with «treat this influence check as if it was made by a diplomat.»
His special ability may only be used during the site phase.
He can make the attempt by himself.
Using this ally to make an influence attempt does not tap a site, and may be done if his company is at a tapped site.
CoE RULINGS DIGEST #62
09-02-2004 Author: Chad Martin Source
QUERY 20
Re: Roäc the Raven. Do all the usual rules still apply? (i.e. must be at the faction’s untapped site?)
… [H]e need not be at the site, and the site need not be untapped.
To be fair, one could interpret Roac the Raven’s templating such that Chad Martin’s reasoning would be incorrect, in the sense that Roac the Raven’s text doesn’t explicitly supersede the normal active conditions of bringing a faction into play:CoE RULINGS DIGEST #97
28-03-2005 Author: Chad Martin Source
QUERY 6
A request for an official ruling has been made for Roäc the Raven: Can he bring a faction from other site than his company is at? Is faction bringed into play by Röac the Raven played at his company’s current site? If so, any faction is considered playable at site with company containing Röac the Raven?
Röac states that he can bring in any faction, so his company does not need to be at the site where the faction is normally played. The faction is considered to be played at Röac’s company’s current site, but the faction is not considered playable at Röac’s current site. If the faction were considered playable at Röac’s current site, then any faction would be playable anywhere given the existence of cards like Hour of Need.
MELE Rulebook, p. 38:
BRINGING A FACTION INTO PLAY
In order to play a faction card, you must tap one of your characters that is at the "site" indicated on the faction's card. Then you must make an influence check...
MELE Rulebook, p. 42:
RESOURCE CARDS, NON-EVENT
Factions
If one of your characters is at the site specified on a faction card, he may tap during the site phase to attempt an influence check in order to play the faction card. If the character successfully influences the faction as indicated on the faction's card...
However, there are other factors beyond the MELE rulebook that this Committee has considered in order to determine the accuracy of Chad’s original ruling.MELE Rulebook, p. 65:
Influencing an Opponent's Faction
[...] You may only influence an opponent's faction if the influencing character is at one of the sites where the faction is playable.
First and foremost is the designer’s intention. Thematically, Roac flying far away (like an Eagle and/or other winged entity in the game) to recruit help makes absolute thematic sense and sounds exactly like ICE’s story-minded designers would have intended. Conversely, creating a card for Roac that is just a really good diplomat to recruit factions at his current site doesn’t really make … well, any thematic sense at all.
Second, one must keep in mind that Roac’s templating says “any faction” and not “a faction” or something similarly specific. The inherent broadness of “any”, while not explicitly mentioning the requirement that the influencing character be at the faction’s site, could certainly imply that the faction’s site requirement should be overridden.
Finally, our advisor Pedro Mellado found this excerpt from the Middle Earth: The Wizard’s playing guide (p. 138), which our committee found to be the final point of evidence as to how to Roac should be ruled:
Since ICE’s intention in both creative theme and mechanical templating is upheld by the company’s own Wizards guide, this committee is similarly upholding Chad Martin’s previous digests CoE #62 Q20 and CoE #97 Q6, and to answer the original question: yes, Roac the Raven may be used to influence factions at sites far away from his current site.Roäc the Raven is the only ally with diplomat skill. He is useful in that he allows a company travelling up north to attempt to bring any faction into play with only a minor journey (to a site in Northern Rhovanion to get Roäc). This check is made as if a diplomat were doing it, so Lordly Presence, New Friendship, etc. can be used to help guarantee a result. Although Roac must be discarded, it is often worth discarding his one marshalling point in favor of a four or five marshalling point faction. Note that he cannot be used to bring in Army of the Dead.
We also want to note that, as far as we can surmise, it was not ICE’s design to allow Roac to influence factions with additional active conditions, like Army of the Dead – and of course, those are often worth more MPs than any other factions. One might argue that ‘it should be obvious' that Roac can’t influence an Army of the Dead because ‘a diplomat’ is not ‘Aragorn II', but for the sake of clarity as to which active conditions Roac is overriding, this committee feels that it is appropriate to update the CRF to:
Card Erratum: Replace «no modifications to the influence check are required.» with «treat this influence check as if it was made by a diplomat at any site where the faction could be played.»