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Shell In The Pit

Hey guys and girls, I'm still alive, just back from a long vacation. Recently I've been running a modified version of the excellent Tomb of the Serpent Kings by Skerples with close friends and its been an amazing time. One feature that this dungeon has is concerning amounts of skeletons, and at first I've been having trouble making the skeletons interesting until I came up with this handy tool based off of this post from Chris McDowall.

Skeletal Warrior by TentaclesandTeeth
Skeletons
(TentaclesandTeeth)

Skeleton (Level 1) - Chattering human skeletons wielding rusted weaponry and rags.
STR 10, DEX 14, WIL 5, 3 HP
Claw, Sword, or Ceremonial Dagger (D6)
- Immune to poisons.
- Piercing damage is impaired against this creature.
- Bludgeoning damage is enhanced against this creature.

To make more advanced skeletons, choose (or roll) one option below for every level you add onto them, up to level 5.
- The skeleton has ragged chain-mail (1 armor), if this option is chosen again, it has battered plate mail (2 armor) or it possibly is even wearing a skeleton over itself (still 2 armor, and metal as fuck)
- The skeleton's bony spine is 5 feet longer (can make D6 bite attacks from an additional 5 feet, this can be chosen multiple times to increase creepiness, neck length, and attack reach)
- The skeleton has an extra pair of arms, giving it +2 dexterity and all things that an extra two arms entails.
- Once the skeleton is killed, in an hour it gets back up, only fire or acid can truly kill the skeleton. Choosing this multiple times reduces the cool-down on this ability by half.

Bam, with adding a bit of up-scaling, I can make there be even more terrifying skeletons. You can still surprise your party even after they know how to deal with basic skeletons. As an additional option, you could always just gear up your skeletons with magic items and whatnot. Just be aware, this kind of only works for pretty broad creatures to narrow them down into more specialized creatures. Now, for one extra beast for you:

Pestilence by TentaclesandTeeth
Imps
(TentaclesandTeeth)

Imp (Level 1) - Human sized emaciated demons with barbed tails that ride on rotting wings.
STR 8, DEX 12, WIL 14, 6 HP
Sting (D8), Claw (D6)
- Immune to fire damage.
- Can see perfectly in the dark.
- Can fly up to 40 feet high.

To make more advanced imps, choose (or roll) one option below for every level you add onto them, up to level 5.
- The imp can now use a breath attack of pestillence once per day (D8 damage to 3 people close to it, increases damage by 1 dice for each time chosen)
- Once per day, the imp can change its form, but this form is slightly effected by pestillence (every time this is chosen, the amount of times this ability can be used also increases by 1)
- The imp increases in size (+2 STR) by about 2 feet in bloated flesh, once it is killed it explodes in a visceral explosion of pus and puke (D12), can be chosen multiple times.

Comments

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