Intelligent Skeleton?

[Gnome Alone]

Fellow Playgrounders! Attend my latest ridiculous idea!*

I am running an e6 campaign heavily based on boat travel. There are lots of rivers and lakes in the main country of my setting, and a nearby ocean and archipelago (I loves me some Earthsea.) Right now my players are mainly a riverboat shipping crew who just discovered they have been inadvertent drug smugglers, but knowing the players, I expect that before long they'll end up as full-fledged pirates on the open sea. Even if they don't, I have still been fleshing out some of the details of the setting, including the major "epic" NPCs running around the world.

So I was looking at a drawing I did once of a cocky skeleton pirate captain (wearing a skull-and-crossbones hat on top of his actual-skull head and all) named Cap'n Überdeath, and I thought, hey, this is a great epic character to have sailing around the ocean being piratical and heinous. But I've been looking around and can't really find any undead or undead templates that would work - Skeleton loses most of its ability scores and is basically a mindless automaton to boot, Wight and Ghoul aren't really a good fit, etc. I mean, this guy is gonna be a swashbuckler basically, whether or not I use the class by that name.

So far I'm thinking my best bet is just to refluff the Necropolitan template and have him be a skeleton without the usual mechanics to it. I realize I could just make and refluff a plain human NPC for that matter, but I thought it'd be nice to have some mechanical effects for being an unholy mass of reanimated bones. So how about it, anyone have any ideas for this?

*please

[Togath]

The skeleton template would work fine, you just need to apply awaken undead from spell compendium(which acts like awaken animal but for undead)

[zlefin]

my first inclination would be to either use the lich template (if he's supposed to have a bit of powers, lich template doen'st require spellcasting to be applied to an npc)
Or i might just use a modified skeleton template; since he's a single npc; i don't need to sweat the details for the template, just set his stats where I want them to be, and let him have a mind.

[Dusk Eclipse]

There is the Skeletal creature template in the BoVD which are Skeletons whichnretain their minds and some qualities, otherwise you could use a normal skeleton and said Cap'n Überdeath was awakened (as the spell awaken undead).

[Milo v3]

Death Knight from MM2 would fit. It even gets undead followers so he gets a skeleton crew by RAW. :smalltongue:

Also the Death Knight in the Dragonlance campaign which is a slightly stronger version should work as well.

[Manly Man]

Actually, having him be an awakened skeleton leaves a lot of room for character development as well. If you want him to be grim, cruel and irredeemably evil, then there's no better way to make him an undead who's very much aware of his damned existence. It could also serve well if you want the possibility of the players convincing him that just because he's undead doesn't mean that he has to do evil things to be available.

[hoverfrog]

There is a Dragonstar race called the Eleti (http://dragonstarsrd.freehostia.com/races/eleti.htm) that might be what you are looking for. It's from Galactic Races if you can get hold of a copy (or just google it)

http://demota.sandwich.net/rpg/dragonstar/unsorted/Races/Pics/Eleti.JPG

[Malimar]

Book of Vile Darkness has the Bone Creature template, which is basically skeleton but it retains its intelligence. (It also has Corpse Creature, which is the same but for zombies.)

The third party Tome of Horrors has the Draug, which is "the vengeful spirit of a ship's captain who died at sea", pretty much exactly the pirate skeleton archetype. Same book also offers brine zombies and mummies of the deep for his crew.

Alternately, ToH also has the Skeleton Warrior template, which is basically like lich, but for the BSF.

[Chromascope3D]

You're running the campaign? Just say that it's intelligent, nothing stopping you there. The skeleton is the most basic of templates, you can make whatever alterations you need. I'd also recommend taking a look at Draugr, or maybe Mohrgs.

[Gnome Alone]

Well, thanks everyone. That was quick. Funny how much 3.0 and third party support there is for this.


You're running the campaign? Just say that it's intelligent, nothing stopping you there. The skeleton is the most basic of templates, you can make whatever alterations you need.

Guess that's pretty much the size of it. Gordeon Knot cut. After some consideration, I'm gonna just use the normal skeleton template but retain the original mental ability scores. (Maybe with a charisma penalty.) I will say it's awakened, but I noticed that a) Awaken Undead is like a 6th level spell, and this is e6, and b) I believe it would theoretically obliterate the original consciousness and replace it, as it says it adds an intelligence score of 1d6+4. So, yes, the Cap'n is now a swashbuckling skeleton, awakened by pure handwavium. It was, uh, an ancient curse what did it, yeah. Works for me.

[RndmNumGen]

As a more recent addition, there is also the Skeleton Champion (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/skeletal-champion-CR-1) from Pathfinder.

[John Longarrow]

Gnome Alone,

As DM, you can also create your own custom templates/races/spells as needed. Some times whats in the books isn't all you need for YOUR world. If you wanted, you could change it so all skeletons kept their intelligence/wisdom/charisma when they died. Just say that part of what animates them is having their soul bound to their bodies and they can't go to their eternal rest until their remains are properly taken care of. Could also mean that anyone who's not properly buried / cremated will always rise as a skeleton, something that could be very useful in plot hooks!

[DrMotives]

b) I believe it would theoretically obliterate the original consciousness and replace it, as it says it adds an intelligence score of 1d6+4.


Yup, that's exactly what it does. It supplies a new mind in an undead body, which is completely unrelated to the original person's mind. Also, unlike the normal Awaken spell, or other variants like Awaken Construct & Awaken Ooze, it has a "permanent" duration instead of "instantaneous", so the undead is one failed caster check away from being a mindless goon again. Maybe an updated version changes that, but per original printing that's how it works. I suggest either DM fiat, or the BoVD template instead.

[Mr Adventurer]

I once had the idea of a Bone-template character for a space pirates game (Spelljammer); he was going to sit on top of the mast and angle his skull into the breeze to play his own head as a wind instrument.

Anyway Bone template is what you want, as others have mentioned.

[Manyasone]

The 'dread skeleton' template in the Advanced Bestiary from Green Ronin. They have a 3.5 and a PF version of this book