In all seriousness, this monster came to me in a dream last night. In the dream I was the hero in a dungeon crawl, and we came upon a company of skeletons, which I began to gleefully smash with a mace. I had taken down two of them when suddenly the fragmented bones began to reassemble into another skeleton. I smashed it, and more bones joined the monster, which was increasing in size and becoming harder to hit (I even dreamed the hit points level— honest!).
I then woke up and thought, “That would be a really cool monster, certain to freak players out!”
A little thought about it, and the above is what came out— The Bone King. It’s more of a brutal, killer undead than the creepy type, but it could make for a good Big Boss Skeleton at lower party levels, or a nasty guardian in a higher level campaign.
This has had absolutely no testing at all, so I have no idea if it’s too much to handle. But I had fun dreaming it up (literally)!
Bone King
by ParzivalAC: 7 to 3 (see below)
HD: Varies from 1HD* to 8HD****** (see below), (M-L; see below)
Move: 60’ (20’)
Attacks: Varies from 1-4 (see below)
Damage: by weapon (and possibly +1; see below)
No. Appearing: 1 (but always from 3-30 skeletons; see below)
Save as: C1 or C1/2 Current HD (rounding up).
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: Nil
Intelligence: 1
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: Special (see below)
Monster Type: Undead
While animated skeletons are known and feared, there is one form of undead which is at best the subject of rumor, myth, and legend— the Bone King. Indeed, it is so rare that most people (and many scholars) indeed believe it is only a myth— though it is very real indeed. It is not known how this creature comes to be— if it is an act of necromancy by whatever powerful spellcaster created the skeletons which form it, or if somehow over the ages the unlife of a group of skeletons becomes mystically and horribly linked, so that they cease to be many creatures, but instead one.
The Bone King is thus not so much a true entity as a force that permeates a group of skeletons, inextricably linking them together. Indeed, that any group of skeletons might indeed be a Bone King is impossible to determine until the magic which links them manifests itself in combat.
A Bone King will be initially encountered as a group of apparently normal animated skeletons (of some humanoid race of size M), numbering at least three but potentially as high as thirty. These skeletons are subject to turning as normal and have stats exactly equal to typical skeletons. However, as long as at least three skeletons remain to fight, the effects of the Bone King will begin to occur. When at least two skeletons have been battered apart, the Bone King magic takes over— the parts of the two skeletons will begin reassembling into a single skeleton— a Bone King. This magic reassembly occurs at the rate of 1 round for every two skeletons being recombined, rounding down. The combined skeleton will have an HD equal to 1/2 the total number of skeletons which form the Bone King (rounding up)— so 2 skeletons will retain an HD of 1, 3 will be 2HD, and so on. The number will increase to a maximum of 8HD, at which point the Bone King cannot absorb more skeletons. The Bone King also gains 5 hit points for each skeleton in its body (beginning at 10 hp to a maximum of 80 hp).
The remainder of the Bone King’s skeleton group (if any) will continue to fight as ordinary skeletons, but gain the resistance to turning of the Bone King (see below) and will replace the Bone Kings parts as the Bone King loses its skeletal makeup (see below). After reaching 4HD, the collection of bones increases the Bone King to the size of an Ogre (Large), and the creature gains a +1 damage to all attacks it makes.
The Bone King does not gain the full body of the skeletons which eventually form it— the skeletons are assumed to be battered and broken by the attacks which initially “kill” them. However, occasionally the adding of a skeleton may add an extra limb. For every 3 skeletons added, on a 5+ on a d6 the skeleton acquires a new arm, which may either grasp a shield (1 or 2 on a d6) or a weapon (3 to 6 on a d6). If the arm bears a shield, the Bone King’s Armor Class improves by 1. If the arm wields a weapon, the Bone King gains an additional attack. The most the AC can improve is to AC3; the maximum number of attacks a Bone King can have is 4.
The Bone King gains a magical immunity as it increases in size. At 3HD, it becomes immune to non-magical attacks. At 6 HD magical weapons must be +1 or better to hit the Bone King. At 8HD, such weapons must be +2 or better.
As the HD of the Bone King increases, its ability to resist turning goes up by 1 for every two skeletons which become a part of it- thus a 4HD Bone King (comprising parts of eight skeletons) will turn as a Wight. A full bore 8HD Bone King will turn as a Phantom!
The Bone King can be reduced— if 10hp or more damage is done to a Bone King in a round, the Bone King drops 1HD, and loses any associated abilities and resistances it has gained. If there are unconnected skeletons remaining in the fight, these will be absorbed into the Bone King, at the rate of one skeleton per round (if available), starting with the end of the round following the Bone King’s loss of HD (so the PCs always have one round to take advantage of the loss before the Bone King can renew it). Nothing can prevent this combination except the destruction of the “extra” skeletons during normal combat— the Bone King only absorbs the animated skeletons, not their remains. If a Bone King is reduced to 0 HP and more than one skeleton remains in the combat, the remaining skeletons begin to combine into a new Bone King, same as above!
In all other respects a Bone King has the vulnerabilities and advantages of ordinary skeletons, as well as their relentless behavior.
The XP reward for a Bone King depends on the maximum HD it obtains in the fight, as follows:
1HD = 11 XP
2HD = 26 XP
3HD = 71 XP
4HD = 161 XP
5HD = 261 XP
6HD = 586 XP
7HD = 761 XP
8HD= 1,511 XP
(The changing XP reflects the additional abilities the Bone King acquires as it grows in HD.)
I will say that the challenge level of this creature is hard to figure out. Unless there are a boatload of skeletons in the Bone King’s source group, even a low level cleric has a good chance of knocking down the potential size of the Bone King before it becomes a real threat. After all 2d6 of automatically turned or destroyed skeletons is potentially a lot of skeletons. The standard 3d10 skeleton roll averages at 15– meaning a 4th level cleric is gonna wipe out half the skellies in the first round (average 2d6=7), and as written, I would assume that destroyed skeletons could not reassemble; only ones killed by combat. The remaining 8 might well be destroyed in the second round, which renders the Bone King moot, even if the Bone King manages to form; he’s only 1HD in the first round he reconnects, so he’s probably wiped out by the second roll.
If we max the skeletons to 30, that makes for a potentially more difficult matchup, but even then half the time half the skeletons are gone in two rounds. Two rounds later the rest are gone, and the Bone King is at best just a 3HD monster at that point— turning as a Ghoul— with no further build sources.
Hmmm… so with that, we have a much weaker challenge than I had intended.
A solution might be to speed up the HD advance to 1 per every rebuild. So it jumps rather rapidly with each new skeleton added.
So first round = 30 straight skeletons (1 HD), no “Bone King” apparent
Second round = 2HD Bone King plus 21 skeletons (7 turned, 2 smashed to become Bone King)
Third round = 3HD Bone King plus 13 skeletons (7 more turned, 1 smashed to add to Bone King)
Fourth round = 4HD Bone King plus 5 skeletons (7 turned, 1 smashed…) Turns as a Wight.
Of course, better turning rolls make a difference, and the Cleric’s level is key.
This might better be a low level threat (PC levels 1-3) that caps as a 4HD monster, gaining only the size Large +1 damage and maybe the immunity to non-magical attacks, and start giving the extra attack or extra shield roll every time it adds a skeleton, rather than every other.
(I’m just trying to think all this through, off-the-top-of-my-head. So, OTTOMH, maybe it should increase in its turn resistance much more significantly. So at first it is just a bunch of skellies, and turns as such, but as soon as it forms it “leaps” two turn levels to that of a ghoul, then that of a wraith, then that of a spectre, then a phantom, where it caps.
So the new progression would be:
2 skellies = 2HD = turns as Ghoul = 2 atks or -1 to AC
3 skellies = 3HD = turns as Wraith = 3 atks or 2 atks -1 to AC or 1 atk -2 to AC = immune to non-magical attacks
4 skellies = 4HD = turns as Spectre = 4 atks or 3 atks -1 to AC or 2 atks -2 to AC or 1 atk -3 to AC = Large creature, +1 all damage
5 skellies = 5HD = turns as Phantom = 4 atks -1 to AC or 3 atks -2 to AC or 2 atks -3 to AC or 1 atk -4 to AC
6 skellies = 6HD = 4 atks -2 to AC or 3 atks -3 to AC or 2 atks -4 to AC = immune to magic weapons under +1
7 skellies = 7HD = 4 atks -3 to AC or 3 atks -4 to AC
8 skellies = 8HD = 4 atks, -4 to AC = immune to magic weapons under +2
(All added abilities assumed to be cumulative, except for number of attacks and AC, which are potentials as shown above.)
So it becomes much tougher much more quickly, and harder to turn as well, especially as the turn ability isn’t against the Bone King but the entire pack of skeletons, which match the Bone KIng’s turn resistance, which means that the roll to affect HD is applied to the skeleton pack and not just the big Bone King— in essence, they are ALL part of the Bone King, and the DM would subtract from the pack before determining any affect on the Bone KIng.