In my 3e version of Roll of Honor, the PC had an encounter with a fiendish hawk.

When 4e was released, there weren't any hawks, eagles or similar predatory birds in the MM, so I converted the encounter to one with a spiretop drake instead.

Now that blood hawks are in MM2 (and are level 1 skirmishers, the same as the spiretop drake), I've decided to change the encounter to one with a shadowtouched blood hawk instead. This will make it slighly tougher as the blood hawk deals more damage.

As with the shadowtouched spiretop drake, the following example is not a direct application of the shadowtouched alternate advancement. Once again, I made flyby attack synergize better with necrotic smite.

Shadowtouched Blood Hawk, Level 2 Skirmisher
Small natural beast (XP 125)

Initiative +6
Senses Perception +2; darkvision
HP 35; Bloodied 17; see also bloodied retaliation
AC 16; Fortitude 12, Reflex 15, Will 13
Resist 5 necrotic
Speed 2 (clumsy), fly 6; see also flyby attack

Claw Rake (standard; at-will)
+6 vs. AC; 1d6 + 5 damage, and the target takes ongoing 2 damage, or ongoing 5 damage if the shadowtouched blood hawk is bloodied; see also bloodied retaliation.
Flyby Attack (standard; at-will)
The shadowtouched blood hawk flies up to 6 squares and makes a claw rake attack or a necrotic smite attack at any point during that movement. It does not provoke opportunity attacks when moving away from the target of the attack.
Necrotic Smite (standard; encounter) * Necrotic
The shadowtouched blood hawk makes a bite attack. If it hits, it deals an additional 6 necrotic damage and the target is weakened (save ends).
Bloodied Retaliation
The shadowtouched blood hawk gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls against the creature that first bloodies it in an encounter.

Alignment Unaligned
Languages –
Str 13 (+2) Dex 16 (+4) Wis 13 (+2)
Con 11 (+1) Int 2 (-3) Cha 7 (-1)

FireLance