Janissary Skeleton

Skeleton Janissary (CR 11)

Pure Evil - Medium - Undead

Lore:	Know (Religion)
22		37
Basic DC		Full DC

Initiative

22

Perception:
32	+22
Passive	Active

Ambush:

10+

on a d20

Senses:

• Standard Senses
• Darkvision 90 ft.

Movement Types:

• Walk 40 ft.
• Greater Climb 40 ft.
• Brachiating 40 ft.

Defense

AC

31

Man Def

31

Monster Health
242	121	19
Hit Points	Bloodied	Hit Dice

Saving Throws
Fort:	+8
Refl:	+8
Will:	+13

Strong Against:

• DR 19/Common (Bludgeoning,  Crushing,  Piercing,  Slashing,  Slime), bypassed by Bludgeoning (physical, common)
• (Undead 1) Immune (no effect): diseases (infected, diseased, blighted), poisons (tainted, poisoned, blighted), ability damage (dilution, damage, drain), and essence damage (suppression, omission, destruction)
• (Undead 2) Immune (no effect): bleeds (bruised, bleed, ruptured), fatigued, exhausted
• (Undead 3) Immune (no effect): magical sleep (drowsy, sluggish, asleep), paralyzed, stunned
• (Undead 4) Immune (no effect): any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless)
• Has an INT score, so it is aware that Negative Energy heals it.

Weak Against:

Offense

Size:	Medium
5 ft.		5 ft.
Space		Reach

To-Hit

+20

Man Off

+19

Action

0

Points

• Maneuver Offense Notes: +2 on Feints

Standard Attack (Melee):

• 1x Tassled Sword +20 (3d8+7/19-20 x2)
  as slashing (physical, common)

Full Attack (Melee):

• 3x Tassled Sword +20 (3d8+7/19-20 x2)
  as slashing (physical, common)

Standard Attack (Ranged):

• 1x Tassled Javelins +18 (3d8+7/19-20 x2)
  as piercing (physical, common)
  (Increment: 50 ft.; Max Range: 250 ft.)

Full Attack (Ranged):

• 3x Tassled Javelins +18 (3d8+7/19-20 x2)
  as piercing (physical, common)
  (Increment: 50 ft.; Max Range: 250 ft.)

Siege Damage: Not siege capable

Statistics

18

STR

18

DEX

—

CON

12

INT

14

WIS

16

CHA

Skills:

• Bailiwick (Warfare): 18
• Bluff: 20
• Perception: 22
• Sense Motive: 18
• All other skills: 13 (no ranks)

Languages: Thanic, Common

Feats:

• Mobility (EFFECT: +4 AC against attacks of opportunity from movement)

Special Abilities

Quick Feint (Su) Swift Action

As a swift action, the skeleton can use Bluff to feint in combat, causing its opponent to be flat-footed against the skeleton's next attack. The DC of this check is the target's Maneuver Defense, or 10 + the target's Sense Motive bonus, whichever is higher.

Step In and Strike (Su) Automatic

Prior to making any attack, whether melee or ranged, a skeleton can take a free 5-foot step. This does not provoke attacks of opportunity, is not limited by having already moved, and does not cost them any actions. If the skeleton has not moved this round, it may still take a 5-foot step, in addition to the 5-foot step provided by this ability.

Damage Resistance (Su) Always On

Skeletons are highly resistant to all physical damage except bludgeoning damage. Slashes and piercing damage glancing off their hard, narrow bones. They receive DR 19/Common (Bludgeoning,  Crushing,  Piercing,  Slashing,  Slime), bypassed by bludgeoning (physical, common).

Skeleton Janissary

Skeleton Janissaries look like better maintained, better equipped, and more skilled Skeleton Soldiers.

Unlike lesser skeletons, Janissaries are not identical units. Instead, each one has some small distinct element to it, such as a decorated weapon or a tassel upon a sword hilt, small touches of personalization. The reason is simple. Unlike all other lesser skeletons, Janissaries are sentient. When you look into the empty black eye sockets of a Janissary, there is unmistakably something terrible looking back. They are individuals, with mannerisms and foibles and personalities, made all the more terrible by their utter hatred of life.

A Skeleton Janissary is driven by a cold, calculating mind, one that is first and foremost a professional killer, implacably the enemy of everything that lives and absolutely murderous in their drive to kill. Like all skeletons, Janissaries are driven by a coldly implacable hatred of the living.

It should be noted that Skeleton Janissaries, unlike Vampires or Morhgs or even Mummies and Liches, do NOT have the same mind in undeath that they had in life. Intelligent skeletons are inhabited by terrible spirits of murderous will. They are alien, inhuman, genderless things that have no memory of the bones they now command. A Skeleton Janissary created from the bones of a saint is just as murderous and vile as one created from the bones of a murderer.

Once a Janissary has sensed the existence of the living, they are completely unwavering in their drive to exterminate them. Nothing will stop them, nothing will dissuade them, they know no fear or failure, they keep coming until they win or are destroyed. But Janissaries are not stupid. If they see the living and are undetected, they will withdraw to prepare an ambush, or wait until the living have to sleep, and attack from advantageous positions whenever possible.

Their desire to kill is backed up by a scary degree of skill. Janissaries are smart, vicious combatants who will do everything they can to fight dirty. They will set up encirclements and defilades, they will provide cover fire for each other, they will coup de grace any wounded, they will ignore strong melee players if they can possibly reach a soft target, they will set up traps and ambushes, they use good, dangerous tactics. They are killers of the highest order, unhesitating, remorseless, and tireless.

Combat Tactics

Skeleton Janissaries fight intelligently and creatively. In hallways and other chokepoints, the lead Janissaries will fight defensively to allow their rear ranks to hurl javelins with deadly effect, using a five foot step to clear melee for ranged attacks, then using Step In and Strike to make their own attacks. In forests, they will take to the trees with inhuman, unnerving speed and grace, leaping, bounding, and swinging easily and quickly to the attack. This same ability serves them well in ship's rigging, scaffolding in cities, castles, and moldering temples, rugged caves full of stalactites, etc.

If unable to close easily, Skeleton Janissaries are content to stay at range and use their Bluff Skill to feint and then hurl javelins. While doing so they will use Step In and Strike to edge slowly closer, so they can eventually charge their hated living foes. Groups of Jannisaries will concentrate their ranged and melee attacks upon a single vulnerable foe whenever possible, or concentrate fire on healers in the back ranks of their enemies.

In melee combat, Jannisaries will use the Step In and Strike ability to set up flanks, and will strive to make full attack actions against the least armored foe they can reach whenever possible. If they are closing against a foe who is wielding a reach weapon, they will stop five feet away and use Step In and Strike to avoid attacks of opportunity. If their attacks all missed in the previous round, they will use a swift action to feint and continue attacking.

Janissaries will use terrain to hamper their foes, such as leaping from the ceiling or trees to gain surprise. Note that Janissary's have a good climb speed and can brachiate, and they are cagey enough to use their mobility frequently. There is little as creepy as looking up to find a whole party of skeletons on the ceiling above you...just before they leap down at you.

If a Jannisary has been given, or has taken, command of a squad of Skeleton Soldiers or Bloody Bones Skeletons, it is not unusual for the Janissary to hang back and attempt to support it's mindless minions with ranged attacks, so it may escape if needed and report. Granted, if there is nothing to report to, janissaries will fight to destruction without hesitation, like all Emptied.

Out of Combat

Skeleton Janissaries are the first and most common of the intelligent, free-willed Emptied undead, and are definitely the most martially inclined of the undead their level. As a result, they are prized as lieutenants, commanders, and henchmen by lots of monsters. Having a few squads of Janissaries makes the old lair much more secure, as they never sleep and can put up a stiff fight against any invaders. Even if a Bad Guy cannot field full squads of Janissaries, it is discouragingly common to find a Janissary commanding squads of Skeleton Soldiers, or even Bloody Bones Skeletons, and they are really good at giving orders to their mindless minions that are instantly obeyed.

As a result, it is not uncommon to find Janissaries...lots of places. They patrol evil temples, serve as reliable fodder for greater mobs, and their eerie intelligence makes them unpredictable and dangerous. Jannisary's and the Undead Knights are often found together, and such militant legions of the Dead are a force to be reckoned with.

Oddly enough, despite their intelligence and sentience, they seem to have little sense of self. They often refer to themselves by strange rank designations rather than names, like 'First Corporal' or 'Ninth Private, First Class'. It is rumored that Janissary Skeletons are able to advance (a romor supported by the fact that extremely powerful and capable Janissaries can be found almost anywhere), and strange legends ascribe their ranks as the source of Deathknights, and even the terrible Hellknights, although it is well documented that many Deathknights and Hellknights are risen directly into their dark travail, so the truth of matters is unclear.

Immortality
Many undead creatures, such as this one, cannot be killed by normal means. However, it will lie shattered and dormant after being defeated for up to a century before rising again to seek to rid the world of life. Casting either Sanctify Corpse (Cleric Spell) or Gentle Repose (Cleric Spell) on the defeated corpse of the creature will add an additional one hundred years to the time it takes for it to re-compose. Laying the defeated corpse on consecrated ground for a full day will prevent it from ever rising again, as will casting Rest Eternal (Cleric Spell) on it. Applying Raise Dead (Cleric Spell), Resurrection (Cleric Spell), or using similar life-giving abilities will restore the original soul back to the corpse, bringing that person back to life and permanently destroying the necromantic animus that had possessed the body previously. This creature's body will never decay (further than it already has) nor age due to time or neglect.

Rewards

XP: 12,800

Treasure: Sellable Goods worth 9,375 gp.

Weight: 110 lbs.     Volume: 4.4 cu. ft.

Optional Treasure Rules: Roll a d20 on Table 1 below once per encounter (NOT per creature). Any items discovered are in addition to the normal treasure for the encounter.

Table 1: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 10	Nothing Found
11 - 14	1 Languid Remnant (tier 1)
15 - 17	1 Pale Remnant (tier 2)
18 - 19	1 Bright Remnant (tier 3)
20	Roll on Table 2
###	Nothing to see here!
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 2: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	3 Languid Remnants (tier 1)
6 - 10	3 Pale Remnants (tier 2)
11 - 14	1 Intense Remnant (tier 4)
15 - 17	1 Blazing Remnant (tier 5)
18 - 19	1 Vital Remnant (tier 6)
20	Roll on Table 3
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 3: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	3 Bright Remnants (tier 3)
6 - 8	3 Intense Remnants (tier 4)
9 - 11	3 Blazing Remnants (tier 5)
12 - 14	3 Vital Remnants (tier 6)
15 - 17	1 Prime Remnant (tier 7)
18 - 19	1 Mythic Remnant (tier 8)
20	1 Empyrean Remnant (tier 9)