Skeleton

Skeleton

(Creature)

Common

Skeleton

Undead

Unholy

Level

Varies

Adjective

Skeletal

Images of skeletons

Source: Monster Core, pg(s). 312–313

Legacy 2E: Bestiary 298–299 additionally had

NE

and lacked

Unholy

.

Type

Undead

CR

Varies

Environment

Any

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Adjective

Skeletal

Images of skeletons

Source: Bestiary, pg(s). 250

Ⅰ

Ⅱ

Beset by skeletons, Kyra channels positive energy through her faith in Sarenrae to do them harm.

A skeleton is a typically mindless undead being that was animated through basic necromantic magic from the bones of any creature with a skeletal structure.

Appearance

Skeletons have the skeletal form of whatever creature they were animated from and are not limited to humanoids. They retain features like horns, wings, and tails if they were present and skeletal in nature in life.

Many skeletons are mindless automatons, while others possess enough of their lost intelligence to wield weapons and wear armor, and a rare few retain enough of their former consciousness to exercise sentient free will. (See Adventurers.)

Habitat and ecology

Skeletons are among the most common types of undead and often dwell in old dungeons, deserted graveyards, and ancient battlefields. Skeletal horses often serve other undead as intimidating mounts, while reanimated giants are much more powerful skeletons than those animated from smaller beings. Despite their lack of muscles, skeletons still move with ease, being animated by necromantic negative energy that both grants them false life and makes many of them evil.

Adventurers

See also: Skeletal champion

A rare few skeletons, whether through willpower or unusual circumstances, retain aspects of their memories, personalities, and free will after being reanimated. These aware skeletons broadly lean in alignment toward that of their mortal forms, though most twist toward evil or neutrality over time. They are aware of their animated state but stand out from mindless skeletons by exhibiting a sense of fashion, or through carved tattoo-like decorations in their bones and decorative skull paints.

Intelligent skeletons have little culture to rely on even in nations welcoming to undead such as Geb, which still views them as servants; or Nidal; or the Darklands regions of Sekamina, where they can be tolerated but not respected. They gravitate to deities compatible with their view on their new existence; those who embrace the corruption of undeath turn to Urgathoa, while those who resist it seek powers like Shelyn who represent redemption but hold no prejudice against the undead.

Since skeleton adventurers lack flesh and blood, they mend themselves by collecting bones.

Variants

A burning skeleton.

Many varieties of skeletons exist, including:

• acid skeletons, who are infused with acid that burns any creature they hit
• bloody skeletons, whose bones drip with gore that grant them unholy healing
• burning skeletons, infused with supernatural flames that burn any who come near them, upon death they explode in a deadly fireball
• compact skeletons, animated from smaller ancestries such as halflings and gnomes capable of fitting into small spaces
• electric skeletons, who are infused with electricity that damages any creature they hit
• exploding skeletons, also called bone bombs that detonates on destruction in a blast of bone shrapnel
• fodder skeletons, simple but efficient skeletons animated from humans
• frost skeletons, who are infused with cold that burns any creature they hit
• monstrous skeletons, animated from beasts and monstrous humanoids
• mudra skeletons, also known as whirlwind skeletons, which have extra arms that can each use a weapon effectively; the fewest-limbed mudra skeleton is a four-armed mudra skeleton
• multiplying skeletons, such as a multiplying T-rex skeleton, reform into two smaller-sized multiplying skeletons shortly after destruction making them especially difficult to destroy
• skeletal archers, who can serve as ranged troops in an undead army
• skeletal champions, more powerful versions of a normal skeleton that retain some of their intelligence
• sturdy skeletons, animated from dwarves or orcs and suited to physical hazards

References

Paizo featured skeletons in the "Walking Dead" chapter of Classic Horrors Revisited 52–57 and as an ancestry in Book of the Dead 54–57.

External links

• Skeleton (undead) (real-life mythical entity) on Wikipedia