I have tweaked the AC to 18 and HD to 4d10.
Hmm, I find AC 18 and 4d10 HD is acceptable. I was thinking we'd aim for similar HP to the Nandie-Boss, who has 27 hp. 4d10 is five short of that at 22 hp, but that is "within the ballpark" as far as I'm concerned.
Would consider giving them a tweak up on their Constitution to, say,
CON 13 (+1).
Alternatively, how about going back to the first draft's 3d10 and giving them an impressive Constitution bonus, like
CON 16 (+3) for
Hit Points 25 (3d10+9)?
The flavour suggests these things should be pretty resilient!
Am leaning to leaving damage low (as is) as they are supposed to be a lowish level monster.
Well in the original adventure they seem to play the role of "monsters to avoid waking up" since they are so tough.
I'm wondering if we should aim for
Challenge 2 with these critters. They are nastier than a plain old Nandie Boss. Way better AC and a tad more damage, although it's that ridiculous AC that's their "schtick" so we certainly want to make them tough nuts to crack.
A
Gargoyle seems a good model for them. They've got the same "stony thing that's hard to kill due to special defenses" approach.
Upon reflection, they have three attacks so the total damage is a respectable 14.5 so that figure is fine. You might want to consider changing it to "two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws" since claw/claw/bite routines appear less fashionable in 5E.
Shouldn't the attacks be a bit more accurate than +3 to hit though, maybe +4 (like its Dex), or possibly higher?
Also, the Strength could be a bit higher, at least enough to account for its +1 damage bonus - say
STR 13 (+1).
- Multiattack. The shadow dancer makes three attacks: one bite attack and two claw attacks.
- Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) piercing damage.
- Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) slashing damage.
If you go for the "two attack" Multiattack and want to keep the same 14.5 average damage, I'd suggest tweaking the damage dice and
maybe increasing the muscle to Strength 15.
STR 13 (+1)
version:
- Multiattack. The shadow dancer makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.
- Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage.
- Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d6 + 1) slashing damage.
STR 15 (+2)
version:
- Multiattack. The shadow dancer makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.
- Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage.
- Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) slashing damage.
Although I'd rather just give it the same bonus damage with each attack for a point less average damage:
STR 13 (+1)
uniform version:
- Multiattack. The shadow dancer makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.
- Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) piercing damage.
- Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d6 + 1) slashing damage.
STR 15 (+2)
version:
- Multiattack. The shadow dancer makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.
- Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage.
- Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) slashing damage.
Do any of those appeal to you?
Regarding resistances and immunities, this is my problem as am seeing best parts of demon and construct (which is what they are). Not sure what I should drop.
For a start, I'd drop the elemental damage Resistances, since the original monster made no mention of them being immune to normal fire (flaming oil and the like).
Better keep the Magic Resistance as "they are immune to all magical attacks other than magic weapons".
A
Gargoyle has:
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren't adamantine
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, petrified, poisoned
For a comparable low-level Demon, consider the
Quasit which is Challenge 1:
Damage Resistances cold, fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
They don't
have to be loaded with the construct Condition Immunities, since (a) there's no mention of that in the original, and (b) they "come alive" in moonlight, implying they might be living creatures, and (c) that's partially covered by their Magic Resistance, but I guess there's no harm keeping some or most of them.
What do some low-ranked Construct have?
An
Iron Cobra is Challenge 1 and has:
Damage Immunities poison, psychic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren't adamantine
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Which is pretty impressive! The Challenge 7
Shield Guardian has a weaker selection:
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned
For our boy, how about a slightly expanded version of the Gargoyle?:
Shadow Dancer
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren't adamantine
Damage Immunities poison, psychic
Condition Immunities exhaustion, petrified, poisoned
I am bemused by the homogeneity at times of 4e and 5e - so, why can't a weak monster have a high AC at times or vice versa, same with damage. Maybe having something very different to other monsters is a Good Thing - keeps players on their toes (in this case lots of immunities but lowish HP)
Here's an idea, we could give them a lower AC but add a special ability that gives attackers disadvantage on weapon attacks. That'd make them hard to hit, but not nigh-untouchable like AC 25 would.
For example:
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Weapon Resistance. Any creature attacking the shadow dancer with a weapon has disadvantage on the to hit roll.