A skeleton is one of the weakest undead creatures in existence, made by apprentice necromancers from the dried bones of a creature. Fragile and weak, they are nonetheless easy to create, and fill out the lower foot-soldier ranks of nearly any undead army.
Description[]
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Appearance[]
Personality and alignment[]
Abilities and traits[]
Skeletons wield weapons in a basic fashion, and are incapable of anything much more elaborate. Being mindless undead, they have little to fear from trickery or charm, and their physical structure keeps piercing weapons from doing much damage to them.
Weaknesses[]
Blunt weapons are highly effective at crushing them.
Ecology[]
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Environment[]
Lair[]
Life cycle[]
Skeletons can be created by using animate dead on a creature's remains, instantly consuming the creature's flesh and muscle, and leaving only the skeleton.
Skeleton servants can be created that obey the commands of the creator via the undead servant spell. Such skeletons are more automatons than "wild" skeletons, though these servants may become uncontrolled and dangerous under certain conditions.
Diet[]
Skeletons do not eat, drink, or breathe.
Treasure[]
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Harvesting[]
History[]
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Society and culture[]
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Organization[]
Allies[]
Enemies[]
Religion[]
Language[]
Skeletons understand the languages they spoke in life, but cannot speak those languages themselves.
Notable skeletons[]
For a full list of skeletons, see Category:Skeletons.
Related creatures[]
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Many skeleton variants exist:
- Bone creature: A skeleton that retains knowledge and skills it possessed in life.
- Crystal skeleton
- Dust skeleton
- Fiery skeleton: Burns with neverending flames, it is immune to fire.
- Frost skeleton: Immune to cold and deals cold damage with its attacks.
- Lightning skeleton: Immune to electricity and deals electricity damage with its attacks.
- Nimble skeleton: More agile than standard skeletons and able to climb as fast as it can walk.
- Obsidian skeleton: Also called defiling skeletons.
- Skeletal dragon: Created from dragons and retains some of their deadly abilities.
- Skeleton warrior
- Soldier skeleton: Often arising from the sites of massive battles, these skeletons gain benefits when fighting cooperatively in groups.
- Spike skeleton:
- Vicious skeleton: Able to rend flesh and deal horrific wounds with their claw attacks.
Forgotten Realms[]
Faerûn hosts a number of the variant skeletons listed above, as well as the following:
- Baneguard: First developed by priests of Bane, these skeletons can phase in and out and hurl bolts of magical energy.
- Blazing bones: Fiery skeletal undead created when a spellcaster's contingency spell goes wrong, these rare undead can be found in Myth Drannor.
- Direguard: Baneguards improved by the Red Wizards of Thay, these skeletons are wreathed in a shadowy field of force that functions as armor. They can also see invisible foes.
Publication history[]
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Original D&D[]
Skeletons first appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons 3-Volume Set, Monsters & Treasure (1974).
Basic Dungeons & Dragons[]
AD&D 1st edition[]
AD&D 2nd edition[]
D&D 3rd edition[]
Skeletons returned in the Monster Manual (3.0) (2000). In this edition, they were presented in a range of sizes, from tiny to colossal.
In the Monster Manual (3.5) (2003), the skeleton was changed into a template which could be applied to any creature, making them a skeleton.
D&D 4th edition[]
D&D 5th edition[]
Skeletons returned in the Monster Manual (5e) (2014), including a standard humanoid skeleton, a minotaur skeleton, and a warhorse skeleton.
D&D miniatures[]
Creative origins[]
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Reception and influence[]
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External links[]
- Skeleton at the Hypertext d20 SRD