Burning Skeleton

Burning Skeleton (CR 6)

Neutral 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

Movement Types:

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 undefined damage type
  plus fire damage

Full Attack (Melee):

• 3x Burning Scimitar +9 (1d8+6/19-20 x2)
  as undefined damage type
  plus fire 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 versus Touch AC, but it must have a 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 points of fire damage to its primary target and all adjacent targets (a 3 x 3 square area). Targets in the radius may make a Reflex save against DCb for half damage. The primary target does not receive a saving throw. 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 points of fire 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 points of fire damage, but may make a Reflex save (DC ) 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

Skeletons cannot be killed by normal means. However, low-level skeletons like these may lie shattered and dormant after being defeated for decades or even centuries before rising again to seek to rid the world of life. A sanctify corpse (Spell), consecrate (Spell) or gentle repose (Spell) will add ten years and a day to the time it takes for a skeleton to re-compose. A resurrection (Spell) spell will bring the person associated with the skeleton back to life, destroying the necromantic bond on its corpse.

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)