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So, a module I'm running has "young shadow" and references pg 295 of the bestiary.
The problem is, as far as I can tell, making a shadow young makes it more powerful in everything except its Str damage:
Shadow to Young Shadow:
AC 15 to AC 18 (no natural armor to reduce (+0 minimum), +2 dex and +1 size)
Melee +4 to Melee +7 (+1 size, +2 dex - the only way the regular shadow is getting a +4 to attack w/o a strength bonus is to use its dex)
Damage 1d6 Str to 1d4 Str
Stealth +8 to stealth +14 (+4 size, +2 dex)
It isn't affected by -4 Str or -4 Con.
Am I missing something?
I noticed a shadow has 3d8+6 hitpoints. Do undead get their hitpoints from Charisma, and should I lower its Charisma since it doesn't have a Con score?
I noticed something similar while statting up undead of various sizes. The giant template and the young template don't really work for undead unless you assume the Constitution modifiers become Charisma modifiers.
That's a reasonable inference from what the template's modifiers are meant to do. I used the Young Creature template to create a ghoul child, and applied to Con mod to Cha. Since the main effect of lowering Str is to lower the creature's damage, I'd adjust a young shadow's attacks down a notch as well. 1d4 points of Strength damage seems reasonable.
Shadow is an edge case to which the young template (rebuild) doesn't work well.
However you are mistaken by some elements of the shadow stat block.
The shadows attack of +2 is based upon it's 3 HD
A 3 HD undead has a base BAB of +2.
Scores of - do not count as a negative they simply do not impose a modifier at all.
So the young undead has a incorporeal touch attack of +3 (BAB +2 Size +1)
Under the rebuild rules the shadow's HP don't change because a shadows HP is a function of HD + Charisma modifier.
The AC gets a +1 size bonus.
Obviously though this is a nonsensical result. Instead I'd be tempted to simply make a 2 HD shadow (lower BAB) with a lower charisma score due to the reduced strength.
We should have probably been a bit more clear in how the simple templates are intended to be used, honestly.
When you see us use simple templates in an adventure like that... it's almost ALWAYS because we didn't have room to totally rebuild the stats and put in a full stat block. This was certainly the case here, compounded by the fact that we had to put in more than one shadow and lots of full-strength shadows would have been a FAR too difficult encounter.
So we used the "young simple template" to sort of cheat the word-space issue. The faded shadows are not MEANT to be rebuilt using the Rebuild rules with the Young simple template, for the obvious reason that doing so actually increases their power quite a bit. BUT! If you use the quick rules for the simple template, which is what we did, the simple template works quite well at making the shadows less powerful by reducing their saves and hit points, making the adjustments to the base shadow stat block on the fly. If you really WANT to rebuild the stat block, in this case you should probably do so by simply reducing the shadow's total Hit Dice down to 1 HD and reducing ALL of its stats by 2.
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There are quite a few errors in the Bestiary. If it is very important that an encounter be accurate as far a CR(which is much better now than in 3.5) I recommend building the monster yourself to verify the stats, then apply the template. If this seems like more work than you are interested in apply the Advanced, Simple Template using the Quick Rules in reverse and you should reach the desired -1 CR.
Shadow is an edge case to which the young template (rebuild) doesn't work well.
However you are mistaken by some elements of the shadow stat block.
The shadows attack of +2 is based upon it's 3 HD
A 3 HD undead has a base BAB of +2.
Scores of - do not count as a negative they simply do not impose a modifier at all.
So the young undead has a incorporeal touch attack of +3 (BAB +2 Size +1)
Under the rebuild rules the shadow's HP don't change because a shadows HP is a function of HD + Charisma modifier.
The AC gets a +1 size bonus.
Obviously though this is a nonsensical result. Instead I'd be tempted to simply make a 2 HD shadow (lower BAB) with a lower charisma score due to the reduced strength.
I would suggest looking at the creatures and templates you're speaking authoritatively on before you hit the "post" button.
Shadows have +4 to hit, not +2. This is because incorporeal creatures automatically add Dex instead of Strength to attack rolls and CMB.
The Young template adds +4 Dex and +1 Size to AC and attack rolls, which would raise its AC by 3 and attacks by 3.
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If you use the quick rules for the simple template, which is what we did, the simple template works quite well at making the shadows less powerful by reducing their saves and hit points, making the adjustments to the base shadow stat block on the fly. If you really WANT to rebuild the stat block, in this case you should probably do so by simply reducing the shadow's total Hit Dice down to 1 HD and reducing ALL of its stats by 2.
This sounds like the best advice so far, I'll probably stat it up with the 1HD and -2 to all stats.
Thank you guys! I'm still getting used to DMing and these APs make it a whole lot easier.