Mike Mearls -- Blazing Skeleton

[Daithi]

I thought others might find this pretty cool---

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dh3L0Q7UEAANnLL.jpg:large

It is basically a 4e skeleton converted to 5e. It is on fire, throws "fire embers" that hits a target within '120 feet, and other creatures within 5' of a hit target also take collateral damage, and creatures killed by the blazing skeleton become blazing skeletons themselves, and when a blazing skeleton is killed it explodes and does damage to those nearby.

You know your necromancer wants a few of these things.

[gloryblaze]

It is a pretty neat monster. As a note - Mearls appears to have used Dex for the attack bonuses of the skeleton's attacks, but labeled them spell attacks. To be consistent with other monsters, such as the Deathlock Wight, either the attack bonus should be +4 or the Charisma score should be increased to 18.

[leogobsin]

I don't think there's any rule that actually says a spell attack has to use Int/Wis/Cha. In fact, there already exists an example of spell attacks that use Dex: Sun Soul Monk's Radiant Sun Bolt

[JackPhoenix]

It is a pretty neat monster. As a note - Mearls appears to have used Dex for the attack bonuses of the skeleton's attacks, but labeled them spell attacks. To be consistent with other monsters, such as the Deathlock Wight, either the attack bonus should be +4 or the Charisma score should be increased to 18.

Nothing says spell attacks must use mental ability score. If the creator of the ability want it to be Dex-based, it's Dex-based.

[gloryblaze]

I agree that there isn't an explicit rule preventing spell attacks from being made with Str/Dex/Con, but it's strikingly inconsistent with the design of other, very similar monsters. As I mentioned, the Deathlock Wight - its "Grave Bolt" spell attack uses Cha while its "Life Drain", which uses Dex, is classified as a melee weapon attack even though it is a magical effect and does not involve a weapon at all. Further, attacks based on Str/Dex typically add the ability modifier to damage while attacks based on Int/Wis/Cha typically do not, so that's another odd inconsistency.

Re: the sun soul monk, I'm relatively sure that Radiant Sun Bolt uses Dex to avoid making the Sun Soul even more woefully underpowered than it already is, but I could be wrong.

You guys are both right that there's no mistake in the stat block, technically speaking. What I should have said is that if I designed it I would key the spell attacks off of Cha OR make them "weapon attacks" and add the Dex mod to the damage, as in my eyes that would better match the trends we can observe in the monster manual, Volo's, Mordenkainen's, and the adventures.

[Nifft]

Nothing says spell attacks must use mental ability score. If the creator of the ability want it to be Dex-based, it's Dex-based.

Fire Genasi has a Con-based racial spell, so yeah.