Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Skeleton 

I blame Jason and the argonauts movie for skeletons appearing in basically every fantasy game there is

A skeleton, a boneless, and a ghost all made from the same corpse, with the ghost giving commands to the two mindless undead.

Inside all of us there's a skeleton just *dying* to get out!

Me: "HOw the hell do you make a twenty five minute video on skeletons? They're reanimated corpses!" Video: E X I S T E N T I A L D I S C U S S I O N Me: "Whoa..."

Trick your players w/ non-undead skeltons that created as stone elementals. Animated rocks.

Boneless terminator!!! Combine a skeleton mage with a boneless to make an an infiltrator undead

Maybe the real skeletons were inside us all along?

Skeletons also believe themselves to be the best dancers among the undead. It is contested by a few others.

“Boneless are among the most versatile undead species known” *I’ll have uuuuuh boneless pizza.*

On 4chan there was a discussion on how a lich might make a computer using mindless undead as logic gates as they're tireless and can be made to do simple repetitive tasks. I don't understand computers well enough to run an adventure into the lair of a lich whose entire dungeon base is a massive necromantic computer calculating the mysteries of the universe, but the idea intrigues me.

Narration: "The article says that an intact dragon skeleton is not necessary for creation of this undead type. The skull, spine and claws of the dragon are the only things required."

After watching this I talk to my sister about a human skeleton that had no legs but extra sets of arms allowing it to crawl around like a spider. She nope the F*** out the room. So I definitely using that in a campaign. Thank you for the video and the inspiration.

That idea about the floor tiles being held up by skeletons is absolutely brilliant

That boneless thing is absolutely horrifying.

Here’s an idea for a Necromancer/Enchanter. Several low level mages that constant make scrolls of things such as animate dead or magic missile. Another undead nearby is assigned to re-cast command undead a set amount of time between castings (a little over the approximate time it takes to scribe the scroll in question. Lesser bound creatures such as Imps or Homunculi restock supplies and gather the finished scrolls once they are done. With a suitable number of these undead in place you could very easily get several dozen scrolls a day. Or to be more lucrative just use them as a printing press to mass-produce books while still charging the same as a book made by a monk.

It's quite humerus how much people rib on skeletons. And people wonder why they have a bone to pick with the party.

Fun way to mess with your players is have the skeletons attacking them actually be animated through the use of animate objects, so now there's 'undead' shambling towards them that pay no attention to the clerics attempts to turn them or the holy water thrown on them

The variety of Skeleton and Zombie possibilities is limited only by whether the source creature had flesh and bones. Brilliant. Under appreciated and thoroughly entertaining.

I once heard someone on the Internet say that skeletons communicate with one another using skelepathy. This is also how they find beings in their lairs.

So a necromancer can combine bones and made it's own skeleton? Cool! Now I can form my own army of centaur skeletons!!

These are the most cliche enemies in most campaigns I've been through lol. Well, these guys and Orcs.

I had a dream once where a colossal skeleton made of lava climbed out of a volcano. Being me when I woke up I came up with the backstory that a necromancer decided to test whether or not create undead could work on a pile of 1,000 skeletons in a pool of magma.

Their ate skeletons all around you, cleverly disguised in a suit of flesh.

I Role Played a skeleton once I managed to survive long enough to become ever more powerful undead by the end I was so strong the necromancer who raised me couldn't control me and when the Paladin tried to kill me well let's just say he joined the army I was making by the end I had the abilities of a skeleton,Wright,wraith,and Death Knight and was called the Wraith King and became the next BBEG it was fun

Clerics: "oh, no! you can't see Skeletons as free labour!" Necromancer: "automaton-like bone boi goes doot doot"

I played a necromancer once that kept 6 full skeletons with weapons to match in a bag of holding (i think i had 2 of them actually). When a fight broke out, id just dump out my bag and summon some minions to fight for me. I paralyzed a vampire once and ordered my minions to casually carry the bloodsucker into the daylight (it was in an abandoned mine.)

On a stage: 5 skeletons in a line with Otto's irresistible dance, fumble and permanency cast on them... The DM said, "You do realize those spells won't work that way on undead..." to which I replied, "Yes, but I don't care. it isn't hurting anyone and it's funny as hell!" The DM agreed and let it happen. :D

Emperor of Man: *Skeleton shriek*

I feel like a skeleton’s experience on the prime material plane is overall reflective of my analogy for my view of morality. Too much darkness can indeed leave the world a frozen, empty husk, but too much light can incinerate anything in it’s path.

I'm sure this will lost in the deluge of comments from this wonderful community, but: I just want to say thank you, AJ. Deeply and truly, thank you. Your videos have given me so much more insight into the worlds of D&D and different monsters and revolutionized my campaigns with new and exciting creatures and applications of them over the years. Your consistent uploads are always of fantastic quality, and your pleasant narration a soothing balm to my mind on my most stressful days. Though we are likely never to meet, I consider you a friend and you would always be welcome to my hearth and gaming table. Keep doing what you're doing, because in this time of chaos and strife in our world, your channel has been a calming grounding point for me and a doorway into incredible new worlds for me and my players. Not if you excuse me, this video has given me dozens of new ideas for the nation ruled by a benevolent necromancer in my setting. Thanks again, AJ, and have a wonderful day. May your cups and coffers fill to the brim, and may you always have quality cheese.

Ever since the Amonkhet series for Magic the Gathering, I love the idea of Skeleton farmers running large plantations with skeleton cats keeps the fields clear of birds and mice.

I like the skeletons in Planescape: Torment. They'd been around for so long, they just became normal npcs, and just wanted to be left alone.

I think it would be interesting if skeletons are so sensitive to anything that isn't negative energy, that they can sense the differentiation of energy of the world around them, and thus see.

That picture of a skeleton pirate with the wheel on it's back is a character skin from a now(sadly) defunct game called Paragon. I miss it :(

Raising an undead is basically the same as summoning an elemental; you cast a spell that grabs an elemental from their home against their will to do your bidding...except you're abducting an entropic un-life force from the ass-end of multiversal spacetime, locking it inside of a dead body, and then telling it not to follow its urge to wander wherever it pleases and indiscriminately extinguish any and all life it encounters. Such fun! 😃

Da back bone connects to the shoulder bone, Da shoulder bone connects to da neck bone, And da neck bone connects to da head bone, And dats the way it goes! Dem Bones, Dem Bones Dem Dry Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Bones Dem Dry Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Bones Dem Dry Bones, And dats da way it goes!

Human skeletons are actually extremely resilient, comparable to concrete. Which is something I love to include when I run skeletons, the bladed weapons my party uses not doing more than slightly chipping them.

Have you ever heard the story of the Great Skeleton Supercomputer?

That one picture of the skeleton at the bar made me laugh and create a character known as Jeff who was essentially a cowboy skeleton who was constantly depressed that he was a skeleton and we try to drink but it went through him he was essentially the mascot to the party and everybody loved it

The library of severed, undead heads is GENIUS.

One of my NPC necromancers deals almost exclusively in skeletons and mummified wights, he has a very sensitive nose and can’t stand strong smells, dry skeletons mostly just smell like dust

haha I love to imagine this Necromancer who is just trying to use his farmhand skellies to help him with the crops but them dang neighbors and the clergy wont get off his propertay and leave him alone.

Skeletons are perhaps one fo the most useful of undead minions, they do not stink nor eat random people or animals like zombies and can learn to do things in a certain way, buuut do think you can teach them to fix a broken chandelier any time soon, But the main benefit, undead labor forces,

We're boned sorry to every DM that had to hear this.

I cut out dark vision on skeletons (as well as several other undead). Instead they have blindsight out to 30 ft and life-sense out to 120ft. I love the idea that it is impossible to hide from the dead by noon-magical means. They might not know how to get to you but they KNOW you are there always.

Anyone else see the skeleton dancing in the background? Right in the beginning haha

I love using skeletons as menial labor, or enmass as a horrid tide under the control of an evil taskmaster. However, here the standard spells for accomplishing this really hinder the endeavor. It requires a 5th level caster to create any of the generic skeletons, and in a world where most people are not even 1st level, that poses a problem; doubly so since there are hard limits on how many skeletons can be created, and how autonomous they aren't. You would be hard pressed to have enough high level (5th is high to me) necromancers willing to sacrifice all their top spells slots for farming or maintaining a city militia long term. It seems like each edition has struggled with this too. As I recall in 3e wondering just how the Karrnathi managed to field vast armies of undead, especially as each cost 50gp worth of obsidian to make, way more than the long term cost of hiring, training, and paying a living soldier.

Dust Skeletons seem to be something a Myconid necromancer would make great use of

I like the idea of a village where, upon the death of a person, can have their body taken to the town necromancer to be reanimated so that their skeleton can help the village long after the person's soul has moved on to the afterlife, I mean imagine a party encountering skeletons in farming clothes tilling the fields like nothings wrong?

"I don't even remember why they went there" .. yeah. By the time they got out of there, they were probably asking themselves that same question.

This video really rattles my bones

I personally enjoy skeletons as my surprisingly intelligent, slap-stick jobbers. Where it's common place to launch a skeleton's skull across the room only for it to spend it's next turn, disengaging to go hunt it down via holding up a finger and then wandering off. Often times, skeletons left to their own devices tend to pick up the message cantrip so they can speak with each other, or simply use bark tablets for writing should they be posted/forgotten somewhere with access to trees. Skeleton unions are not unheard of should a necromancer grow slack in their efforts to maintain control. Amusingly, bands of free-bones tend to get on well with elves and dwarves, as they share a commonly long-lived perspective and appreciation for long-lived works of artisanry such as the subtle cultivation of a forest over centuries or stonemasonry.

FINALLY AN UPDATED UNDEAD LIST!! I have waited for some time for darker knowledge and the living in my realm shall tremble before the ruin.

You forgot the organs, which I would definitely use in a cutscene encounter. I can imagine a crafty necromancer, torturing an NPC in front of the players, making a skeleton, a boneless, and a Living Inards. A necromancer's three for one deal.

Only a semi-related comment. A skeleton walks into a bar. It says to the bartender "I'd like an ale... and a mop."

Ever had a wet towel thrown at you and it seems to stick to you? that is what it is like to get grappled by a boneless.

7:19 Time for a tactical withdraw. This was fantastic. There was a Heavy Metal Magazine I read many years ago about only skeletons. Everyone becomes a skeleton after death wandering an endless desert. Ever since, I've wondered what it would be like to be a sentient skeleton.

Id like to hear about about bone creatures and other high ranking skeletons creatures like can a skeleton become a lich or a high ranking skeleton

Rattle me bones, rattle me bones. Take what ye will but don't rattle me bones!

The letters are bones. Nice touch

Love the metal skeleton in the lower left at 9:37

One of my favorites was a mad necromancer with to much free time that made skeleton spiders out of spare bones

Name: Skeleton Archer Creature type : Skeleton Archer Profession : Skeleton Archer

Here is an idea. Skeletons do not have senses. They have the memory of senses. Just as you said the spirit that is inhabiting those bones tastes the memories within. Part of that is the memory of how they percieved the world around them. So those with eyes in life can see. Those with ears can hear. So on and so forth. But it is more like an illusion they construct for themselves to make sense of the information they are receiving through some spiritual sensory ability they have.

There was an old Dragon Magazine from the mid 90s that had an assassin skeleton in it.... I loved them. ☠ Called Bloody Bones....

14 hours ago I startet writing on a small undead arc for my campaign and now you drop an undead series. Flawless. Perfect timing

If you peel a skeleton, you will find... another skeleton!

A skeleton was the first encounter in my first game session just about 40 years ago. I blame Ray Harryhausen for making my mind able to see them so vividly that it still stays fresh in my memory so many years later.

I like the idea of a necromancer getting to chose what to do with a fresh corpse skeleton or zombie if zombie it just gets up and does its thing if Skeleton it the skeleton rips it self free from the meat bag and reports for duty

Played a skeletal champion once. It was hilarious since he never took off his armor so no one ever figured out he was undead. The entire campaign.

Let's say you die a hero and your bones become skeletons but after a few centuries later you get resurrected and meet with your boney former self what happens?

I'm not sure if you wrote the bit about how skeletons feel & perceive living beings or if that was one of the direct readings you do but goddamn that changed how I see undead forever.

Played a PC game where a mage would experiment on Skeletons, trying to get them to be stronger....so he coated the bones in metal. Blew my mind back then.

Yesssss!!!! It's been a long time coming, here's to more undead to come. Personally I want a LIVESTREAM where we make weird custom undead. Like those entrails that act like snakes, or undead soaked in oil with gunpowder pots in their chest. Or horrific bone abominations or mutated flesh constructs

It used to be fun to play a necromancer every now and again (damn you 5e) it very hard to do that anymore unless you’re home brewing something. Try building a necro/cleric multi-class these days and see how many you can get on the board at the same time.😿

never knew i would feel sad for skeletons

[chatters excitedly]

I like the art credits .

So.... Sir Daniel Fortesque from the Medievil series... is not a skeleton by dnd standards. He's a bone creature. I guess he would be the only lawful good bone creature within media. The moment he was brought back to life by the necromqncer, he then fights off zombies and other undead, protect innocent people and stop necromancer from taking over the kingdom.

Undead, elementals, pure constructs. Among my favorites. Why? Well some of the best extermination tools against illithids, mind flayers

Skeletons exist in any form of media as long as something living is in it. You just may not recognize them due to the meat suit they wear.

Your description of the negative energy plane, the beings therein, and how they suffer whether they stay or leave, is some of the best D&D fluff I have ever seen. Amazing work!

i died when saw my man AJ with a skeleton head

"spooky scary skeletons and shivers down your spine"

Burnbones! I used the heck out of them in Ruins of Zhentil Keep! Awesome!

For maximum efficiency. Skeleton Boneless Forsaken shell Raiment Ghost Wraith (if you use the lore from 4e's open grave) Blood amniote The animated organ monster who's name I can't remember. Crawling claw Sculleton (animated scull, 3d party, pathfinder I think) I actually made a character, currently an NPC, a necromancer called the butcher for what he would do to corpses. Also loves to cook.

Thanks for covering skelly bois My favorite bois

That severed head library thing is cool and I might steal that idea. My BBEG is a Lich, so that might work as a location for one of his phylacteries, or something

Last night in our D&D session, we're currently a week away from fighting Strahd. We're in the crypts and were facing the army of the dead...lots of skeletons. Very poignant video!

>Necromancer makes additional commands of skeletons just to assuage the local townsfolk-- humanizing them with "normal" behaviors like drinking after a shift in the field. They can reply, if prompt, with charming retorts. Send a few off for "walks by themselves to admire nature." All the while, dead inside and orchestrated by a Necromancer that's not being run out of another sleepy borough by some bumpkins with crude pitchforks.

I have always wondered how the negative energy entities came to be.

The boneless is definitely the best lol, what a rad idea.

ive never heard someone describe undead this way, i love it

Hey AJ! Have you considered doing a video on Samaster's journey to discover the method of creating the dracolich? I remember a series of novels that detailed how the dracorage mythal was destroyed (the year of rogue dragons series), which has in it a vampiric smoke dragon who's name escapes me. He was the first attempt Samaster made to creating the undead dragon master race. It's cool stuff!

Interesting 🧐 one might be able to teach these creatures if they are contained in a void container and slowly adjusted to the prime.

Is this premature Halloween special?

I want to learn more about those Bone Creatures now. Is the knowledge they had in life the only difference, or are there others?

Love the Libris Mortis and everything in it. 💕 Content request: once you're done with this project, since Forgotten Realms is made by the people who made Numenera, and since Numenera has a good conversion book now (Arcana of the Ancients, I believe), you may find some good content from their monster ecologies too.

I talked about this over on one of Questing Beast's videos, but I love the image of skeletons pulling - under their own power or with bicycle pedals - land vehicles, like a rickshaw, cart, chariot, or coach. While the skeletons could be that of normal pack animals (or a reasonable substitute, if horses or dogs aren't available), they could just be humanoid skeletons. It scarcely matters, if you have enough of them pulling or pedaling. Put a more powerful unit in the driver seat - a necromancer, vampire, revenant, lich, skeletal knight, or just a skeleton with a whip - to complete the effect. You could take the base premise in weirder directions, by having many skeletons or bones cobbled together and animated into a greater undead creature. Dozens of arms and legs, clusters of skulls, spines connected end to end like a grotesque, bony centipede. Or have a load of skeletons not pulling or pushing a vehicle, but carrying it from below. Consider a band of skeletal pirates manning rowboats, with a cluster of skeletons (or even a roiling mass of loose, animate bones) underneath, helping it glide over the ground. Any of these ideas could make for an interesting and terrifying road encounter. Like an undead version of Mad Max. Works great for _Ultra Violet Grasslands._

Half hour of talking about spook bois, count me in!