Skeletons are the reanimated bones of living creatures. There are many kinds of skeletal undead, but when spoken without any modifier, the term "skeleton" generally refers to those of humanoids that show no special powers in undeath.
Description[]
Typically, skeletons have the same arrangement of limbs they had in life, though the bones are no longer connected by tendon and flesh, but by magic. A typical example may be seen wearing scraps of armor and carrying weapons like a shortbow and shortsword. Skeletons are capable of only the most rudimentary communication, like nodding their head or pointing a finger. If they were reanimated by a spellcaster, they follow that person's instructions to the letter, though they lack the intelligence they had in life, so the instructions must be carefully worded.[2] Aspiring necromancers often create skeletons as their first animated undead.[1]
Abilities[]
Skeletons have darkvision, but lack any special active abilities. They are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition, and they cannot become exhausted, but they are vulnerable to bludgeoning damage.[2]
History[]
Exandria Unlimited: Calamity[]
Lacrytia Hollow, the Dean of the Throne of Necromancy in Avalir, kept skeletal guards.[3]
Campaign One: Vox Machina[]
The earliest known encounter Vox Machina had with skeletons was when they followed the trail of their disappeared companion Grog Strongjaw to Gatshadow Mountain and into the lair of Drath Mephruhn, a shade on the verge of lichdom; he animated skeletons to attack the party.[4]
Vox Machina later fought off a tide of skeletons in the streets of Whitestone as they led a rebellion against the Briarwoods.[5]
After Thordak's escape devastated Pyrah and left a larger, uncontrolled rift to the Elemental Plane of Fire in its wake, the party briefly gained the assistance of necromancer Gern Blanston and his reanimated skeletons to fight alongside them.[6]
Vox Machina fought groups of skeletons, including a tough minotaur skeleton, in the tunnels beneath the Smouldercrown Mountains, near a siphon leading to the Shadowfell.[7] When they then entered that plane and infiltrated Thar Amphala, Vecna's stronghold city, they saw hundreds of skeletons moving in an unusually coordinated way.[8] They later encountered groups of 12 to 15 skeletons who shambled around with no pattern, which suggested those creatures were simply reanimated by the energy of that plane.[9]
When the party infiltrated the reanimated earth titan that carried Thar Amphala on the Material Plane, they encountered and fought more skeletons within, including dwarf skeletons in the Crypts of Thomara.[10][11] And in their final battle with Vecna, the lich god animated skeletons to attack them.[12]
Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn[]
The low-level adventure hook Start Believing in Ghost Stories involves skeletons and zombies raised by a wight in the Salted Bluffs.[13]
Related creatures[]
Aside from ordinary skeletal humanoids, there are other skeletal undead:
- Centaur skeleton: Not actually the skeletons of centaurs, but the result of the Briarwoods joining the remains of different species together.[14]
- Death knight:[15] Plate armor-clad skeletal knights with burning eyes,[16] once paladins who fell from grace.[17]
- Flameskull: Humanoid skulls that, when active, can fly and alight with green flame, and cast fiery spells.[18] Created from the remains of dead wizards.[19]
- Flaming skeleton: The remains of those who perished in Thordak's fiery breath, driven to spread flames.[20]
- Gnoll witherling: Shambling, skeletal gnolls; gnolls who were consumed by their fellow gnolls during food shortages can be raised by the dark powers they worship, notably Yeenoghu.[21][22]
- Skeletal dragon:[23] The skeletal remains torn from a dragon, animated with eyes of crackling energy,[24] kept together by the active magic of the creator.[25]
- Skeletal fish and crabs: Created by exposure to a night hag's amulet.[26]
- Skeletal slithering bloodfins[27]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 255.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 See D&D: Monster Manual (2014), 5th ed., p. 272.
- ↑ See "Blood and Shadow" (E3x03) at 0:11:47.
- ↑ See Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins II #2, pp. 17–20.
- ↑ See "Gunpowder Plot" (1x31), part 2, at 0:50:25. The fight continued well into "Against the Tide of Bone" (1x32).
- ↑ See "Cindergrove Revisited" (1x46) at 0:11:59. The party first catches sight of the skeletons.
- ↑ See "Unfinished Business" (1x100) at 1:58:20. See also 2:58:13 and 3:55:53.
- ↑ See "Thar Amphala" (1x101) at 2:50:07.
- ↑ See "Race to the Tower" (1x102) at 0:20:06.
- ↑ See "Shadows of Thomara" (1x111) at 1:40:07. See also 2:10:08.
- ↑ See "Dark Dealings" (1x112) at 0:25:17. See also 0:48:32–1:21:03.
- ↑ See "Vecna, the Ascended" (1x114) at 0:51:39. See also 3:29:18.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 74.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, pp. 255–256. See also p. 73.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 138. See also p. 145.
- ↑ See "Race to the Tower" (1x102) at 2:33:18.
- ↑ See D&D: Monster Manual (2014), 5th ed., p. 47.
- ↑ See "Deadly Echoes" (1x82) at 2:16:42.
- ↑ See D&D: Monster Manual (2014), 5th ed., p. 134.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, pp. 255–256.
- ↑ See "The Open Road" (2x05) at 1:26:07.
- ↑ See "The Howling Mines" (2x06) at 0:47:35.
- ↑ Matt repeatedly calls it a skeletal dragon. See "The Final Ascent" (1x113) at 8:14. Others refer to it as a bone dragon.
- ↑ Obatalá as an undead dragon is introduced. See "The Final Ascent" (1x113) at 1:37:44.
- ↑ See "The Final Ascent" (1x113) at 2:38:16.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 92.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 159.
Art:
- ↑ Depiction of a skeleton, by Autumn Rain Turkel from D&D: Monster Manual, page 272. This page contains unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.