Like with my entry on the Tree Fisher, today’s entry is inspired by a monster that came up in my last Pathfinder session.
In the second room of the last session, my players encountered three Skeletal Champions. These skeletons are a little different from the run-of-the-mill Skeleton Guards this group has faced in the past. That led them to make some assumptions about the skeletal champions that turned out to be incorrect and added some fun to the combat. Maybe they can do the same for your game.
skeleton balance by Julia Koefender used under CC-BY 2.0
Stats and Basic Usage
Skeletal Champions have a +4 bonus to bothe their strength and dexterity. In this, they’re not unlike their smaller Level -1 cousins. A little more strength to help with their attack damage, but nothing too exciting on the physical stats.
The real difference from the Skeleton Guards is that Skeletal Champions are not mindless. These skeletons by lore retain a bit of their former selves and are not merely programmed to carry out simple tasks.
This also means that parties could use mental spells on these skeletons and see an effect.
These skeletons will be used to guard areas that need a bit more flexibility in how things are handled. These skeletons will recognize and adjust tactics on the fly, not simply rush at the closest PC and attack. I had a full group use their ability to work tactically to focus their attacks on our Barbarian, the greatest threat to them.
“Tu me matas, yo te mato” by Jen Garcia used under [CC-BY 2.0]
Special Abilities
The GM is left to decide if they want to apply one of the Skeleton Abilities to the Skeletal Champion, but I chose to run them without one for this session and it didn’t hurt the game.
Worth noting are that Skeletal Champions receive the Shield Block reaction and Attack of Opportunity reaction.
Shield Block allows a shield to take damage in place of the creature, completely blocking an amount of damage up to its hardness.
Attack of Opportunity makes having a Skeletal Champion next to you more dangerous, because certain actions on your turn will allow it to take an attack on you out of its turn.
Resistances
Skeletal Champions resist 5 damage from attacks dealing cold, electric, fire, piercing, and slashing damage.
Immunities
Skeletal Champions, as undead, are immune to death effects, disease, paralysis, poison, and effects that would render them unconscious.
Negative Healing
Skeletal Champions are harmed by positive damage and not healed by positive healting effects. They do not take negative damage and are instead healed.
Weapon Choices
The stat block contains sections for Longswords, Claws, and Lances.
Longswords and Lances both deal a d8 damage die, while the Claw deals a d6 damage die. The claw is agile, while the Lance deals an extra d8 on a critical hit and has 10 foot reach.
The weapons are roughly equivalent, depending on what you think adds the right atmosphere to the area where you place the skeletal champion.
Tactics
There’s a bit more to think about here, but Skeletal Champions are best used where you can place a couple to make an enemy flat-footed and make them want to leave their space, which triggers the attack of opportunity.
Licensing
This post relies on information from the Pathfinder Second Edition Bestiary, copyright 2019, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Alexander Augunas, Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, John Compton, Paris Crenshaw, Adam Daigle, Eleanor Ferron, Leo Glass, Thurston Hillman, James Jacobs, Jason Keeley, Lyz Liddell, Ron Lundeen, Robert G. McCreary, Tim Nightengale, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Alex Riggs, David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Chris S. Sims, Jeffrey Swank, Jason Tondro, Tonya Woldridge, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.
Used pursuant to the Open Gaming License v 1.0a
Featured Image
Featured Image is Skeleton by Frankenteacher used under CC-BY-SA 2.0
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