Animus Zombie Servitor

[The_Fan]

Based on a character from my favorite anime, One Piece:

Created by an unusual necromantic process, Animus Zombies are rare among zombies in that they are intelligent and have strong personalities, but they are still completely under their master's control.

Religion DC 10: The essence of life is divided up between the body, soul, and animus. The animus is the animating force that drives a being and keeps the body alive. Most zombies are created by simply restoring the animus already existing in a rotting corpse, or by pulling in stray bits of Animus from the Shadowfell to provide the necessary motile force.

Religion DC 15: Animus Zombies are unique in that they are animated not by the original owner's animus or scraps from the Shadowfell, but by the entire animus of another living creature. The zombie's body is carefully preserved, and a living donor's animus is stolen to power the zombie. With a full living animus, it is intelligent, agile, and takes on aspects of the original owner's personality and fighting style. However, without a soul it has no will of its own and is totally subservient to its master.

Animus zombie servitors are normally created from lithe, attractive, athletic people like dancers or acrobats. They are used to perform domestic tasks, or act as companions for particularly vile necromancers. If pressed into combat they are surprisingly capable, weaponizing serving items like plates to hurl at their foes.

Religion DC 20: The most horrifying aspect of the animus zombie process is that the animus donor must remain alive. Upon having their animus stripped from them, they fall into a coma lasting three days (or until roused with a Heal check, Hard DC). After that, enough animus regenerates to rouse them, but they are cursed to a half-life, only able to take a standard action when in direct sunlight and taking their healing surge value in damage each turn until they return to shadow. The only way to cure this affliction is to destroy the zombie that holds their animus and the necromancer that stole it. In turn, the zombie is destroyed if the animus donor is killed.

Created using the Monster Builder, I didn't feel like doing the format conversion from rtf, so I saved as an image file. I think there's still some formatting issues, this is the first creature I've made with the Monster Builder.

 

[Amaroq]

Yay, Cindry!! That made me smile!

 

[Mesh Hong]

Well I like it, it has a lot of character which is always a good thing.

Personally, I think this should be an Elite creature.

Rib Kick
I am a little dubious about an artillery creature having a basic melee attack at its standard attack modifier (instead of the usual -2) that dazes and allows a shift.

If I wanted to keep this attack as is, I would make it a melee recharge power and give it a standard melee basic attack:

Plate Bash (standard; at will)
Attack +22; 1d10+7 damage

Stack Smash
This is an encounter attack that can only be used when bloodied and drastically changes the creatures tactics afterward, I would increase the damage to 4d10+7. I like the half damage on miss but I am unsure of the ongoing damage on miss (especially on a standard creature).

Embedded Shards
This is a great idea, but on a standard creature it is open to massive abuse and is problematic at best, on an elite at this level it would be much more reasonable.

The problem with it is that if you had 5 of these in a standard encounter it would be quite possible that a level 17 PC could find themselves taking 30 ongoing damage, I know that 1 save ends it all but in my opinion this sort of stacking damage is Epic level.

Further comment
As I said I would prefer this as an Elite, personally I would drop its Dex down to 28 then make its Plate attack a Double Plate attack (throws 2 plates) and up its damage bonus on all attacks to +9 (from +7)

I would also change the Defences to:
AC: 29
Fort: 29; Ref:32; Will: 30

It also may as well have a higher necrotic resist, probably 20 or 15.

If I were to make this an elite I might further change Rib Kick to Roundhouse Rib Kick, and have it as a burst 1 attack;

Roundhouse Rib Kick (standard, recharge )
Burst 1; enemies only; attack +22 vs. Fortitude; 2d6+9 damage; on hit target is pushed 1 square and dazed until the end of Zombies next turn

Anyway, these are only my opinions, I hope they help.

 

[The_Fan]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll lower the attack bonus on Rib Kick. Makes more sense that way.

Some justifications:

I thought about making it Elite, but I'm trying to replicate its abilities from the anime. In the anime it was part of a 4-man encounter, where you could easily peg two of them as Elite and the other two as Standard. One reason I decided to make it a D&D monster was because of how closely that particular fight mapped to the paradigms of 4e (I'll make the other participants later). If you think it's too powerful for a Standard, what would bring it down?

I used the high damage value for Stack Smash. You're saying it should go higher though? Makes sense, since after Stack Smash the creature is essentially helpless aside from Rib Kick, which is more a keep-away than anything. Makes sense too about not wanting to give ongoing damage on a miss for a standard, I'll change that. Perhaps make it a daze so the servitor can get away?

Embedded Shards is based off a similar power by the Spriggan Powrie, a level 7 monster, though that one has the limitation of only working if the Powrie has Combat Advantage. It also works on all types of ongoing damage, so I thought swapping combat advantage for an untyped damage limitation would make it fair.

Again, thanks for the feedback. I'll make some edits.

Oh, and thanks for the XP, Amaroch! One piece is awesome.

 

[Mesh Hong]

I thought about making it Elite, but I'm trying to replicate its abilities from the anime. In the anime it was part of a 4-man encounter, where you could easily peg two of them as Elite and the other two as Standard. One reason I decided to make it a D&D monster was because of how closely that particular fight mapped to the paradigms of 4e (I'll make the other participants later). If you think it's too powerful for a Standard, what would bring it down?

The thing about giving monster advice is that it is always general, not specific. The creature could very well be perfect for the encounter you are planning to use it in, my comments have to take it "as is" and that means as a standard creature in a standard encounter there could be 5 of them.

As you have stated that this is a specific threat, and there will only be one in the encounter it looks a lot more reasonable.

I used the high damage value for Stack Smash. You're saying it should go higher though? Makes sense, since after Stack Smash the creature is essentially helpless aside from Rib Kick, which is more a keep-away than anything. Makes sense too about not wanting to give ongoing damage on a miss for a standard, I'll change that. Perhaps make it a daze so the servitor can get away?

You used high standard damage, I used the medium limited damage expression for a level 17 artillery. The limited damage chart is good for encounter, or some recharge attacks.

If you just want the servitor to be able to get away thn add a shift to the attack (5 squares would be good).

As a general principle I don't like ongoing effects generated from a missed attack, it seems a bit unfair.

Embedded Shards is based off a similar power by the Spriggan Powrie, a level 7 monster, though that one has the limitation of only working if the Powrie has Combat Advantage. It also works on all types of ongoing damage, so I thought swapping combat advantage for an untyped damage limitation would make it fair.

Again this might be fine if you are only using one of these creatures and it is only increasing the ongoing damage that it generated itself. I was pointing out that in the wrong hands this is a powerful effect (and one that I personally use in Epic tier).

Also you will notice that the Spriggan Powrie is a skirmisher, not an artillery. Skirmishers and Lurkers generally gain an additional damage or effects from combat advantage, other monster types usually don't.

However for a single use creature in a blanced encounter you might decide to break that rule.

 

[The_Fan]

Made some edits. Upped the damage and removed the ongoing on miss from Stack Smash, replaced with a daze much like Rib Kick. Also reduced the attack on Rib Kick.

Next up, I'll create its boss: The Mad Chirurgeon, 17 Controller (Leader)