The acidwraith looks like it may be a very interesting challenge, but I'm a bit confused by the description.
Dungeon 131, p. 78 says "The acidwraith iself is incorporeal, yet much of its body consists of acidic, poisonous fluid." Since an incorporeal creature is by definition a creature that "has no physical body" (MM 310), how can the acidwraith have a "body of acidic, poisonous fluid"? Is it a disembodied spirit, that possesses no body of its own, but merely uses its spiritual energy to corrupt and channel water at its victims? If so, I assume the standard incorporeal rules apply to weapons attacking it, so that you need a magic weapon, and all corporeal sources of damage only have a 50% chance of affecting it (except ghost-touch weapons, force effects, and positive or negative energy)? Basically, attacking the acid/water doesn't harm the creature's incorporeal essence?
If so, how do its attacks work? Are the skulls a physical manifestation, actually biting the victim as the "melee" entry implies, and thus susceptible to being stopped by armor? Or is its "bite" attack a sort of "corrupting touch" damage like a ghosts, which does HP damage but is still an incorporeal touch attack that ignores armor and shield bonuses to AC? If the bite is physical, how does that square with the creature being incorporeal? (If it is not, the "bite" should be clearly labeled an incorporeal touch attack to avoid DM confusion).
Since the tendril attacks do acid [energy] damage and therefore require only a touch attack, the question of whether or not that attack is incorporeal is not as important, except for descriptive purposes. ("A tendril lashes across your torso and you feel the burning acid seep in through the cracks in your armor" or "a writhing tendril seems to pass right through your armor, leaving a burning sensation that penetrates deeply into your abdomen") As the entry says, its "acidic body" damages natural attacks and unarmed strikes. But how does the acid affect weapons and armor?
I suspect my confusion derives from the basic inconsistency of being incorporeal but having a body--if that problem is clarified, the rest will probably follow logically.
Creative Director
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The acidwraith is a tricky creature. It is indeed incorporeal, yet it also has a liquid body of acid. Think of it as a ghost-like creature that can animate acid and shape it into the form of a draconic body. The acid that makes up its body isn't actually "monster." In order to damage the acidwraith, you have to actually damage it's essence, which suffuses the acid that makes up its form but is not actually the acid. Attack the acid/water doesn't hurt its hit points, but it may trigger its dependancy weakness.
You treat an acidwraith as an incoporeal creautre, but when it attacks, it uses the acid against you or the skulls it manifests to make physical attacks. In a way, the acidwraith has the best of both worlds; it's incoporeal when something tries to hurt it or it wants to move through walls, but when it attacks, it controls or manifests physical matter to do physical damage. Think of its "skulls" as masks the thing wears.
The acidwraith's bite attacks are resolved as normal attacks; they are not touch attacks. The tendril attacks deal acid damage; they don't pass through armor like a ghost, but flow over it and through cracks like water. Once the acid does its damage, it flows back out to rejoin the acidwraith's body. It doesn't harm weapons or armor unless the acidwraith makes sunder attacks against them.
Thanks, James. It makes perfect sense now.
When I describe it, I'll have the skulls manifest only when the thing is about to make a bite attack, then fade out immediately after the attack.
Perhaps you'll be able to add a sentence or two to the description when you go harcover to make all this clear for readers there. It really is quite an interesting monster, and I imagine PCs will have a difficult time with it until the find its vulnerabilities--especially if they haven't figured out that it's undead.