PDA

View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Skeleton Template



GalacticAxekick
2022-02-22, 01:54 PM
This is less of a homebrew project and more of an observation within the official rules.

If you compare the the skeleton monsters to their living counterparts (warhorse skeleton to warhorse, minotaur skeleton to minotaur) you see a pattern in how their statistics are changed:
Despite the warhorse having 13 Con and the minotaur having 16, both skeletons have 15
Despite the warhorse having 12 Wis and the minotaur having 16, both skeletons have 8
Despite the warhorse having 7 Cha and the minotaur having 9, both skeletons have 5
Both skeletons gain vulnerability to bludgeoning damage, immunity to poison damage,
Both skeletons gain immunity to the exhausted and poisoned conditions
Both skeletons gain darkvision out to 60 feet
The warhorse skeleton lacks the warhorse's trampling charge, and the minotaur skeleton lacks the minotaur's proficiency in Perception, Labyrinthine Recall and Recklessness. Apparently, skeletons lose certain learned abilities, but not all of them (such as weapon proficiencies and languages)


We don't have a humanoid stat block to compare the generic skeleton to. But if we compare it the other skeletons, we can see it has 15 Con, 8 Wis, 5 Cha, all the same vulnerabilities/immunities, and darkvision out to 60 feet. In addition, the humanoid skeleton and minotaur skeleton both lack the ability to speak language (despite the minotaur objectively and the humanoid presumably speaking language in life).

Put this all together, and you get a very simple system for turning any living creature into a skeleton. This lets you take the very narrow Animate Dead spell (which only creates humanoid skeletons with generic statistics) and replace it with a more flexible version:

Animate Dead
3rd level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: 10 feet
Components: V, S, M (a drop of blood, a piece of flesh, and a pinch of bone dust)
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell creates an undead servant. Choose a pile of bones within range belonging to a medium or smaller humanoid, or to any creature with a CR no greater than 1/4. Your spell imbues the target with a foul mimicry of life, raising it as a skeleton.

As a skeleton, your target retains all the statistics that it had in life with the following exceptions:
Its Constitution score becomes 15
Its Wisdom score becomes 8
Its Charisma score becomes 5
It gains vulnerability to bludgeoning damage and immunity to poison damage
It gains immunity to the exhausted and poisoned conditions
It possesses 60 feet of darkvision
It loses any proficiencies and features gained from its background or class
Though it understands any languages it understood in life, it cannot speak.

On each of your turns, you can use a bonus action to mentally command any creature you made with this spell if the creature is within 60 feet of you (if you control multiple creatures, you can command any or all of them at the same time, issuing the same command to each one). You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the creature only defends itself against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete.

The creature is under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you’ve given it. To maintain the control of the creature for another 24 hours, you must cast this spell on the creature again before the current 24-hour period ends. This use of the spell reasserts your control over up to four creatures you have animated with this spell, rather than animating a new one.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you animate or reassert control over two additional undead creatures for each slot level above 3rd. Each of the creatures must come from a different corpse or pile of bones.

At higher levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you animate or reassert control over two additional undead creatures for each slot level above 3rd. Each of the creatures must come from a different corpse or pile of bones.

Ideally, you would be able to upcast this spell to animate more and more powerful creatures. From humanoids, horses and wolves to giants and dragons.

Thoughts?

Breccia
2022-02-22, 02:17 PM
I mean, I don't see any problems with this at all. It looks like you could tag zombies onto this easily.

GalacticAxekick
2022-02-22, 02:43 PM
I could definitely add zombies! But they're a little more complicated

If you compare the ogre zombie to it's living counterpart you see a pattern in how their statistics are changed:
Despite the ogre having a speed of 40, the ogre zombie has a speed of 30
Despite the ogre having 8 Dex, the ogre zombie has 6
Despite the ogre having 16 Con, the ogre zombie has 18
Despite the ogre having 5 Int, the ogre zombie has 3
Despite the ogre having 7 Wis, the ogre zombie has 6
Despite the ogre having 7 Cha, the ogre zombie has 5
The ogre zombie gains proficiency in Wisdom saving throws (presumably to counteract the negative Wisdom modifier in case of Turn effects)
The ogre zombie gains immunity to poison damage,
The ogre zombie gains immunity to the poisoned condition
The ogre zombie gains darkvision out to 60 feet
The ogre zombie lacks the ability to speak Giant, despite the ogre being able.
The ogre zombie gains Undead Fortitude.


We don't have a humanoid stat block to compare the generic zombie to. But if we compare it the ogre zombie, we can they share a 10 foot reduction in speed, 6 Dex, 3 Int, 6 Wis and 5 Cha, Wisdom save proficiency, poison immunities, darkvision out to 60 feet, the inability to speak, and Undead Fortitude.

But it's unclear why the ogre's Constitution modifier increases from 16 to 18 when it becomes a zombie, while the humanoid zombie has a Con score of 16. Did it increase from 14 to 16? Do zombies just get +2 to their Con scores? We don't have enough examples of zombies and their counterparts to know.

Put this all together, and you get a relatively simple system for turning any living creature into a zombie. You could take this into the Animate Dead spell, no problem.

GalacticAxekick
2022-03-07, 11:13 PM
I just discovered that prolific homebrewers Ninja Prawn had this idea years ago!

She published her vision here:
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?481810-Low-Level-Necromancy&highlight=Necromancy

Sir Shadow
2022-03-09, 03:47 PM
The DMG has a template for both zombies and skeletons. It roughly tracks onto the Skeletal and Zombie versions of monsters with some GM tweaking. Skeleton/Zombie monsters likely have lowered Con as a reference to undead not having CON at all in other editions.