Jiang Shi

[Minigiant]

Jiang Shi are undead humaniods that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence from their victims. Thier bodies are surprising hard and their movement is stiff. Their fingernails are extremely long and very sharp. Many jiang shi can scratch through metal with little problem.
Jiang shi are said to be created when a person's soul fails to leave the deceased's body, due to improper death or suicide. Other reports claim they are created when a body of a homesick traveller is buried in an unfamiliar place. Some claim they are created when a troublemaker wishes to continue its way after death.
History DC 20: Many mistake jiang shi for vampires and attempt to try vampiric weaknesses on them with no effect. Many jiang shi abuse this fact and pretend to be vampires to watse the effects of their vitims.
Relgion DC 25: A jiang shi prefer to hop in battle. When they walk, they stiffen their bodies to steel-like hardness.


Jiang Shi--- Level 9 Skirmisher
Medium natural humaniod (undead)--- XP 400
---
Initiative +7; Senses Perception +8
HP 90; Bloodied 45
AC 23; Fortitude 23; Reflex 21; Will 21
Immune disease, posion;
Resist necrotic 10; Vulnerable radiant 10
Speed 5,
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[Basic Melee] Razor Claw (standard; at will): Reach 2; +14 vs. AC; 2d6+6 damage (if it has comabat advantage 2d6+9 damage)

[Melee] Hopping Claw (standard; at-will): The jiang shi shifts up t0 3 squares and attacks. +14 vs. AC; 1d8+6 damage and the target is knocked porne

[Close] Qi Drain (standard; against prone bloodied targets only; recharges when hit) Necrotic: Blast 2; +12 vs Fortitude; 2d6 necrotic damage and the jiang shi gains 22 hit points.

Stiff Hop (move; at-will): The jiang shi shifts 3 squares.

Stiff Body The jiang shi has - 2 to defense and resist 10 against opportunity attacks
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Alignment Evil; Languages Common
Skills: Stealth +9, Bluff +9
Str 22; Dex 17; Wis 18
Con 10; Int 12; Cha 16


Jiang Shi--- Level 4 Lurker
Medium natural humaniod (undead)--- XP 175
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Initiative +7; Senses Perception +2
HP 40; Bloodied 20
AC 17; Fortitude 15; Reflex 15; Will 5
Immune disease, posion;
Resist necrotic 5; Vulnerable radiant 5
Speed 5,
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[Basic Melee] Razor Claw (standard; at will): Reach 2; +9 vs. AC; 1d8+3 damage and the target is grabbed (until escape)

[Melee] Swift Claw (standard; at-will): Reach 2; +7 vs. Reflex; 1d8+3 damage

Stiff Hop (move; at-will): The sealed jiang shi shifts 3 squares.

Broken Seal (while bloodied) The sealed jiang shi gains concealment and deals an extra 2d6 necrotic damage to grabbed enemies.
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Alignment Evil; Languages Common
Skills: Stealth +9
Str 17; Dex 17; Wis 13
Con 10; Int 12; Cha 12

Stiff Corspe--- Level 9 Minion
Medium natural humaniod (undead)--- XP 100
---
Initiative +4; Senses Perception +8
HP 1; A minion never takes damage from a missed attack
AC 21; Fortitude 22; Reflex 19; Will 20
Immune disease, posion;
Resist necrotic 10;
Speed 5,
---
[Basic Melee] Draining Claw (standard; at will) Necrotic: Reach 2; +14 vs. AC; 8 necrotic damage and the target loses all resistances until the end of the stiff corpse's next turn.

Stiff Hop (move; at-will): The stiff corpse shifts 3 squares.

Stiff Body The stiff corpse has - 2 to defense and resist 10 against opportunity attacks
---
Alignment unaligned; Languages -Common
Skills: Stealth +7, Bluff + 7
Str 22; Dex 12; Wis 18
Con 10; Int 12; Cha 12

Ancient Jiang Shi--- Level Elite 13 Skirmisher
Medium natural humaniod (undead)--- XP 1600
---
Initiative +13; Senses Perception +12
HP 240; Bloodied 120
AC 30; Fortitude 25; Reflex 26; Will 24
Saving throw +2
Immune disease, posion;
Resist necrotic 10; Vulnerable radiant 10
Speed 6
Action points 1
---
[Basic Melee] Razor Claw (standard; at will): Reach 2; +19 vs. AC; 1d8+5 damage

[Basic Melee] Low kick (standard; at will): +17 vs. Reflex; 1d6+5 damage and the target is knocked prone

[Melee] Hopping Claw (standard; at-will): The ancient jiang shi shifts up to 3 squares and attacks. +17 vs. AC; 1d8+6 damage and the target is knocked porne

[Melee] Old Style Fighting (standard; at will): The ancient jiang shi makes a basic attack, shifts, and makes another basic attack.

[Close] Qi Drain (standard; against prone bloodied targets only; encounter) Necrotic: Blast 2; +17 vs Fortitude; 2d6 necrotic damage and the jiang shi gains 60 hit points.

Stiff Hop (move; at-will): The jiang shi shifts 3 squares.

Qi Counter (free, when the ancient jiang shi is hit by an enemy it has combat adavntage over, at-will) the ancient jiang shi makes a razor claw attack. If it hits, the target loses a healing surge and qi drain recharges.
---
Alignment Evil; Languages Common
Skills: Stealth +18, Bluff +15
Str 23; Dex 21; Wis 18
Con 10; Int 13; Cha 16

The hopping corpses! Run away!

Comments? Suggestions? Corrections?

 

[Saagael]

Do these creatures have resist 10 along with their normal resist 10 necrotic? In that case, wouldn't it be easier to put the resist 10 in the header of the monster and leave the "-2 to defenses against opportunity attacks" for the powers? I'm not sure if there's a difference, it just seems redundant to say "resist 10 necrotic" and then later say "resist 10 all".

Perhaps you mean resist 10 to opportunity attacks, in which case I'm not sure how that works. Why is a creature able to resist those attacks and not regular attacks? Other than that it looks good. Perhaps you can describe the Jiang Shi.

 

[Mesh Hong]

I like these.

I will echo Saagael's comments about Stiff body, do the creatures have resist 10 against all attacks and -2 defence against opportunity attacks or do both the resistance and the lower defences just count towards opportunity attacks?

-Reading it a couple of times it looks liek it just gets the resist for opportunity attacks, which fits with the description of the creature.

Jiang Shi
10 radiant vulnerability is pretty significant for a standard creature, admittedly it has a chance of healing but I would still expect a vulnerability of 5.

Otherwise I do not think this creature is dealing enough damage. The damage expression range for a level 9 skirmisher is:-
low: 1d8+5
standard: 2d6+5
high: 2d8+5
Your creature is doing 1d6+5 with is basic attack and 1d8+5 and 2d6 with its other attacks. Only one of these is equal to the low damage expression (which are generally used for soldiers or non type attacks, i.e. melee from an artillery)

Also a skirmisher usually has an ability that grants it bonus damage or an added effect when it has combat advantage, yours does not has this.

I would suggest that its basic attack, Razor Claw should be doing 2d6+6 damage. Its Hopping Claw should stay as is, and its Qi Drain should be doing 2d8+4 necrotic damage.

I would also add a power that allowed it to deal an additional 1d6 damage with Razor Claw and Hopping Claw when it had combat advantage.

Stiff Corpse
Draining Claw I would change to a standard 8 damage instead of 1d6+5 as it is a minion. The added resistance stripping is nasrty on paper but probably wouldn't be a factor in game play, unless you really built an encounter around it.

Anyway, I like the flavour of these guys. Anyone facing them would certainly remember them which is always the sign of an interesting creature.

 

[Minigiant]

The resist and defense penalty is for opp. attack only.

I boosted the razor claw damage too.

The intended strategy for using them is to gang up on a foe, knock them down, scratch them to bloodied, then feed 'til they die. Qi drain counters the hits they take. The radiant weakness is to counter the rapid healing. Non-strikers wont even want to attack it for it might end up with more life with qi drain.

I might create an epic one that really discourages weak hits.

 

[Mesh Hong]

The resist and defense penalty is for opp. attack only.

I figured as much, the rewording makes it nice and clear.

I boosted the razor claw damage too.

It stands a little more chance of looking like a threat now that it is dealing standard damage.

Have you considered instead of giving it 3 more damage with combat advantage, adding 5 ongoing bleeding damage (save ends) when it has combat advantage? (if you wanted you could also add that if the target is already taking bleeding damage the amount of bleeding damage increases by 1 point)

Also have you considered Qi Drain doing 2d6 necrotic damage and also taking a healing surge from its target? This would work very well with the healing aspect of its attack and would certainly add to the player hatred factor, if there is one thing I have learnt it's that players hate losing healing surges.

The intended strategy for using them is to gang up on a foe, knock them down, scratch them to bloodied, then feed 'til they die. Qi drain counters the hits they take. The radiant weakness is to counter the rapid healing. Non-strikers wont even want to attack it for it might end up with more life with qi drain.

Personally I am a little dubious as to wether you will see this reaction from a group of PCs. I still think that anyone playing a defender is going to be standing infront of one of these guys while his striker mates shred it in a couple of rounds, I don't think the healing will keep it around that much longer.

In fact Defenders will be the best people to fight these guys as they attack AC and Fortitude both of which are a Defenders strong point, with Fortitude generally being a Strikers weak point. If you want to punish defenders and favour strikers then you should attack Reflex, which strikers are good at and defenders are generally poor at.

Anyway, good creature.