Burning Skeleton

Burning Skeleton (CR 6)

Pure Evil - Medium - Undead

Lore:	Know (Religion)
10		29
Basic DC		Full DC

Initiative

11

Perception:
20	+10
Passive	Active

Ambush:

10+

on a d20

Senses:

• Standard Senses
• Low-Light Vision

Movement Types:

• Walk 30 ft.

Defense

AC

22

Man Def

22

Monster Health
66	33	9
Hit Points	Bloodied	Hit Dice

Saving Throws
Fort:	+9
Refl:	+4
Will:	+4

Strong Against:

• (Mindless) Immune (no effect): all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, fear, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms)
• (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)

Weak Against:

Offense

Size:	Medium
5 ft.		5 ft.
Space		Reach

To-Hit

+9

Man Off

+10

Action

0

Points

Standard Attack (Melee):

• 1x Burning Scimitar +9 (1d8+6/19-20 x2)
  as slashing (physical, common)
  plus 1d6+4 points of fire (energy, common) damage

Full Attack (Melee):

• 3x Burning Scimitar +9 (1d8+6/19-20 x2)
  as slashing (physical, common)
  plus 1d6+4 points of fire (energy, common) damage

Standard Attack (Ranged):

Full Attack (Ranged):

Siege Damage: Not siege capable

Statistics

13

STR

18

DEX

—

CON

—

INT

10

WIS

12

CHA

Skills:

• Perception: 10
• All other skills: 5 (no ranks)

Languages:

Feats:

Special Abilities

Flaming Orb (Sp)

As a standard action, the Burning Skeleton may pull a ball of burning pitch from its bones and hurl it at its foes. This is a ranged touch attack made at 1d20 + 14 vs. AC (always hits on a 17+ on the die). The orb must have an actual enemy creature as its primary target (they cannot target an empty square), and misses do nothing. The flaming orb has a range increment of 50 feet and a maximum range of five increments (250 feet), and explodes upon impact with its target, dealing 1d8+6 points of fire (energy, common) damage to its primary target. Furthermore, all adjacent targets suffer half this damage as splash damage. As a full attack action, the Burning Skeleton may use Flaming Orb twice in one round. Flaming Orb is a spell-like ability, but burning skeletons are mindless, so they will never use this ability if they are adjacent to, or threatened by, an opponent (they will use melee instead). If they are forced to make a Caster Check to combat-cast, the check always fails.

Burning Aura (Su, Aura)

Any attack with a to-hit roll made against the burning skeleton inflict 6 points of fire (energy, common) damage on the attacker, whether hit or miss. This aura affects all attacks made against it, by anyone in the encounter, up to 100 feet away from the Burning Skeleton.

Corpse Explosion (Sp)

Upon being destroyed, the burning skeleton explodes in a gout of fire. All adjacent creatures take 1d8+6 points of fire (energy, common) damage, but may make a Reflex save (DC 18) for half this damage. This is a spell-like ability, but it is a free action and never provokes attacks of opportunity (though it may be resisted with spell resistance).

Burning Skeleton

Skeletons are the animated bones of the dead, brought to unlife through foul magic. While most skeletons are mindless automatons, they still possess an evil cunning imparted to them by their animating force -- a cunning that allows them to wield weapons and wear armor. Skeletons are motivated by an intense hatred and jealously towards living things. They yearn only to crush that spark of life from everything they can reach.

Burning Skeletons are magically imbued with elemental fire during their creation, a process which involves the ritual sacrifice of a fire elemental. While in combat, they are enshrouded in flames, their charred, black bones cracking under the heat, as marrow boils. Their curse of immortality prevents the fire from debilitating them.

Combat Tactics

Burning skeletons can't hide. They give off light as a torch (30 feet of bright, 30 more feet of dim), and they are easily recognizable for what they are (the name says it all). Furthermore, they are mindless and immortal, and will simply wait in whatever location they happen to be in until something living comes along. Then they will hurl flaming orbs at the creature until it dies.

Burning skeletons will always use flaming orbs if they are not in melee, capitalizing on their full attacks when possible. They will use move actions or five foot steps each round to edge closer to battle, until at least one enemy is within fifty feet of them. They do not have precise shot, but as mindless undead, they will not adjust their aim to easier targets. Burning skeletons will ignore the presence of non-living creatures, such as other undead, which means they won't target them with attacks but neither will they exclude them from their attacks' areas of effect. Their first choice of targets will be any ranged attackers doing damage to them, then they will seek to destroy clumps of living enemy creatures adjacent to one another, and failing that, they target the nearest living enemy creature.

If confronted in melee, they will draw their scimitars and fight in melee. Upon being destroyed, they explode, injuring anything adjacent.

Burning skeletons will never flee from battle, nor will they employ tactics like flanking maneuvers. However, burning skeletons are sometimes used as guards by necromancers and other evil creatures. In such cases, the burning skeletons may have been instructed to stand in an area which grants them a terrain advantage or makes them harder to reach while they rain down flaming orbs on intruders.

Out of Combat

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: 2,400

Treasure: Sellable Goods worth 2,125 gp.

Weight: 60 lbs.     Volume: 2.4 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)