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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next 1st Level Spell - Skeletal Servant



LordFluffy
2016-06-23, 12:43 PM
For Wizards, Warlocks and Clerics

Skeletal Servant
1st-level Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour.

You target a skeleton of a Small or Medium creature within range to create a Skeletal Servant. The servant will obey your verbal commands. The servant is identical to the creature Skeleton (modified if need be) with the following exceptions:

-It may not take the Attack action.
-It may not take the Help action.
-It has an intelligence equal to the level of the spell slot used to cast it + 2.

The Servant is completely under the caster's control; any attempt to rest control from the caster, if successful, results in the spell ending and the skeleton crumbling to dust. The Skeleton will obey the casters verbal commands to the best of it's understanding; commanding the servant is an action. Small, well described tasks ("Carry this basket and walk 10 paces behind me") are carried out to the letter as long as the skeleton is able. More vague or complex tasks ("Clean the house" or "Carry that") will require the Servant to make an Intelligence check, usually DC5 or 10, depending on how easy to misinterpret the command is.

At the end of the spell, the Servant collapses. Roll 1d20. On a 1, the skeleton used also crumbles to dust. The same skeleton may be used over and over, otherwise. Once the Skeletal Servant has an intelligence of 8 or higher, it will remember it's experiences from previous castings, even if a different skeleton is used.

When a spell slot higher than 1 is used to cast the spell, in addition to the intelligence adjustment, the duration may be increased by an additional hour. If the same skeleton is used and this spell is cast with a sixth level spell slot or higher, the Skeletal Servant becomes permanent on the third casting; a caster may only have one Skeletal Servant created this way. Unless this first one is destroyed, any attempts to create a new one will automatically fail.

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Whatcha think?

Edited for consistency and clarity

This be Richard
2016-06-23, 12:51 PM
I like it!

The only hiccup that immediately comes to mind for me is that material components without a listed price can substitute the use of a spell focus for the material components. Which I guess means that one would need to define the value of a skeleton if one were to keep the skeleton in the material components.
Animate Dead gets around this by requiring the corpse or skeleton in the text of the spell and having separate components listed. You might consider trying that.

Final Hyena
2016-06-23, 01:00 PM
Duration: Concentration, up 10 1 hour.
You can't have 101 dalmatians! :smalltongue:


Once the skeleton has an intelligence of 8 or higher, it will remember it's experiences from previous castings.
Is this limited to casting the spell on the same skeleton?

LordFluffy
2016-06-23, 01:26 PM
I like it!

The only hiccup that immediately comes to mind for me is that material components without a listed price can substitute the use of a spell focus for the material components.
Updated and hopefully clarified.