Skeleton, 2nd Variant (5e Race)

Skeleton

“	...We were walking out of the cave when it happened... a monstrous humanoid made of nothing but bones came right at us, and that's why I'm late to our anniversary	”
—John The Miner

Physical Description

By Markus Neidel

Skeletons are usually assembled from humanoid ossified remains. Sometimes, a "set" of remains may not wholly be intact, in which case, bones from other bodies will be used to complete it. This results sometimes in a bit of a jigsaw figure that has bones of multiple creatures. Skeletons usually have joints which are magically enchanted to move. Even if dislocated, they can reassemble, as they are not alive. Usually, it is necromancy which awakens and animates them. There are the rare skeletons of the east called gashadokuro, which are a variant of skeleton. Their bodies are composed of other skeletons, giving them impressive size and berth, as well as power. All skeletons usually emanate some kind of eerie light which denotes their unnatural state of undead. This is most prominent in their eyes, which tend to glow.

History

Skeletons are usually unnaturally formed. Since olden times, people pined for their loved ones to return, and thus perfected the craft of necromancy. However, this was severely incomplete to restore corpses to their original selves, and thus only animated their skeleton, most of the time, or even made them into zombies. People were horrified at this, but Pandora's box had been opened, and the flow of dark energies was too much to staunch. Practitioners of necromancy and other dark arts used this magic, which was made out of the sense of longing, to raise servants of skeletons and manipulate them to do their bidding. This garnered skeletons a notorious reputation alongside that of other undead, and everyone knew them to be evil creatures who worked for sinister forces. When a necromancer dies, usually the skeletons raised would fall with them, as the magic faded from their bones. Some, however, endure and outlive their masters, even gaining a sense of self. Others can be driven mad and turn into indiscriminate killers.

Aside from being risen through artificial magic, necromancy is thought to exist naturally as well within the magical air in the world. Soldiers who died in masses, as well as farmers and civilians killed by famine, rarely get the necessary burial rites needed to often pass on. Unable to depart for the Fugue Plane, their spirits remained and roiled, festering in anger and despair. This can raise several skeletons at a time to form what is the feared gashadokuro, or "rattling skull." These rare, large skeletons are fueled by rage and ravage cities, eating any living, moving thing they can get their hands on. Only when the malice and anger they hold towards the living has abated can they finally lie in rest. As these skeletons form out of large burial grounds, they are harder to come by where food is plentiful and strife is minimal.

Society

Skeletons usually live in servitude to necromancers. They serve as soldiers in armies full of others like them. It is thus hard to gain a sense of self, especially when most are risen with virtually no memory of their past life. When a skeleton is freed via death of their necromancer, they may gain a shred of sentience which grows. They will seek out the like sort of skeletons for companionship, eventually developing a tongue through the magic which allows their movement. Normally, a mass of traveling skeletons is a cause for alarm, so their groups never get too big without getting destroyed by fearful adventurers. They often have to conceal themselves to prevent their true natures from being discovered if they wish to take part in other communities.

Personality

They are usually lonely creatures. While they are typically solitary wanderers, they seek the company of others of their kind. The forces of the world usually deny them this comfort. However, it has been heard of where those of the living extend their hand towards these bony creatures. Skeletons have a fierce sense of fealty, particularly those who were risen by necromancers, and this does not fade even after their masters ends. They are protective of those who they see as their superiors, as well as their comrades after they gain sentience. There is even a tale of a skeleton who rose back from the dead several times just to protect its master who had saved it from slavery.

Skeleton Names

Skeletons usually rise with no memory, nor a need for an immediate address. They are usually not even named unless their necromancer has a fancy towards them. Some name themselves exotic names after gaining sentience. They only have a lingering sense of gender from their past life.

Male: Aarith, Enorach, Jeriff, Helophram

Female: Stelchy, Aeliena, Hunai, Delchoss

Skeleton Traits

The rattling of their bones makes you shiver.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution, Dexterity, and Wisdom scores each increase by 1.
Age. Skeletons can live for a while, until either the magic animating them or their bones give away to age. Depending on the climate, they may break faster. The oldest skeleton known was about 2 millions years old before all its bones snapped due to decomposition.
Alignment. Skeletons usually have the alignment of neutrality. They may do evil deeds, but it is usually at the behest of their master. They themselves have little say nor thought in the matter.
Size. Skeletons vary widely in height and build, from barely 5 feet to well over 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Undead. You are a skeleton risen by dark magic. Your creature type is undead instead of humanoid. As such, spells like cure wounds don't affect you, and you are immune to spells like crown of madness or dominate person because they specifically target humanoids. You are immune to poison damage, being poisoned, and diseases. You are resistant to necrotic damage and vulnerable to radiant. You do not need to eat or breathe, and any food you do attempt to eat falls through the space where your mandible hinges upon, into your rib cage. Rather than sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 4 hours each day. You do not dream in this state; you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.
False Appearance. You may, as an action, collapse your form into a pile of bones. While you remain motionless, you are indistinguishable from a normal pile of bones. In this state, you are prone and your speed is 0.
No Muscle. Your lack of muscle makes you a bit weaker than others. You have disadvantage in Strength (Athletics) checks to lift and push objects.
Undeath Tolling. When the toll the dead spell is cast on you, it has the following alterations: If you have 0 hit points you become stable. As part of the casting of toll the dead the caster may expend any level of spell slot to cause you to regain a number of hit points equal to 1d8, plus their spellcasting ability modifier. For each level of the spell slot expended you regain an additional 1d8 hit points.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one language from your master's tongue.

Gashadokuro

The gashadokuro are large, fearsome amalgams of many skeletons, whose spirits need to release their anger on the living.

Design Note: This is a skeleton variant that uses a Large player size instead. If you choose to use this variant, you may want to look at the large races guideline. This variant replaces the Ability Scores, Size, and No Muscle traits.

Ability Score Increase. Replace your Dexterity score increase and instead increase your Strength score by 1.
Size. Your size is Large.

Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
5′ 0''	+3d6	30 lb.	× (3d8) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
10′ 0''	+3d12	230 lb.	× (1d8) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

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