Skeletons are considered among the lowest types of undead. They’re typically mindless creatures, lacking many of the abilities that make other undead a serious threat. However, the animated bones of dragons, giants, and other great beasts make for dangerous foes. Powerful living creatures can retain some of their might and intellect upon returning as a skeleton. Some necromancers turn their strongest enemies into skeletal undead servants, assuming they can keep control of them.

Skeleton adventurers were usually skilled and powerful in their former lives. Through unremitting force of will or extraordinary circumstances, their ego and ideals persist even in death. However, the very act of rising as a skeletal undead is traumatic. Memories of one’s former life are usually fractured or hazy, if anything can be remembered at all. For some, these memories return with time; for others, they’re gone forever. For the most part, this comes down to how the skeleton views themself: either as a continuation of the person they once were, or an entirely new being.

Skeleton adventurers often set themselves apart from other skeletons by dressing as flamboyantly as their station allows. Large, feathered caps, ornate armor, embroidered silks, or glittering jewelry are likely staples of their wardrobe. Some carve intricate “tattoos” into their bones or paint their skulls to maintain a sense of self that simple skeletons lack, and to signal to the living they’re not like other undead.

Skeleton adventurers must come to terms with their new identity. They aren’t bound by the limitations of the living and are often underestimated.

You Might...

• Work harder than most to prove you’re a capable and distinct individual.
• Wade into danger with little regard for the safety of your undead body.
• Desperately seek the acceptance of the society you once moved through with ease.

Others Probably...

• Assume you’re the servant of a necromancer, working to advance their agenda.
• Have difficulty empathizing with you.
• Regard your undeath with either pity or envy.

Physical Description

Aside from their complete lack of flesh and organs, skeletons vary widely in appearance, reflecting the broad diversity of all living beings. They can be tall, short, or anywhere in between. Skeletons of creatures with horns, wings, or tails retain them, although they are usually useless in their skeletal state. Skeletons raised from fresh remains tend to have stark white bones, while older ones tend to be gray or yellowed. Skeletons who adventure for a while often possess faint lines crisscrossing their bones like scars, indicating where they were injured in previous battles.

Society

Across Golarion, intelligent skeletons rarely gather in large enough numbers to constitute any kind of settlement. Even in Geb, where their numbers are highest, they typically mingle with other undead rather than band together. Many skeletons would rather keep company with those who remind them of their former life (although such reminders can just as easily lead to revulsion derived by the negative energy infused within them). Gebbite skeletons are usually treated as members of the servant class and rarely have any upward social mobility.

Outside Geb, skeletons are far more solitary. Some might hide on the outskirts of society or move about in disguise, but it’s difficult for them to find acceptance among the living. While they may not be feared in places like Nidal or Sekamina, they’re also not likely to be respected.

Alignment and Religion

While undead are almost always evil, some intelligent skeletons manage to stave off the corruption of the negative energy that powers them. Other than the tendency to become twisted toward evil over time, skeletons typically lean toward the alignments of their creators or their former selves. Skeletons without any particular loyalty or allegiance trend toward neutral evil alignment, or neutral if they can stave off evil.

Skeletons who embrace their undeath often worship gods of death, such as Urgathoa, while those who resent it typically look toward gods of life and redemption. Accepting deities without particularly zealous anti-undead dogma, such as Shelyn, are popular among those who wish to fight against their destructive influences and become something greater than the purpose for which they were created.

Names

No widespread naming convention exists for skeletons. When necromancers bother to name skeletons they’ve raised, they typically choose names that suit their own tastes, the way one would name a pet. Others might be named for their role or job. Skeletons with their memories intact might choose to keep their name from when they were alive, but others might choose new names based on their undead experiences.

Sample Names

Clatterjaw, Creaker, Doorstop, Final Sacrifice, Gochiyo, Lectern, Macefodder, Sixth Lancer, Skulldyr, Xelim

BASIC UNDEAD BENEFITS

The archetypes and skeleton ancestry that follow can give the basic undead benefits detailed here. These are somewhat different from the normal undead creature abilities to better fit player characters.

Necril: You know the Necril language.

Undead Vision: You gain low-light vision, or you gain darkvision if your ancestry already has low-light vision.

Negative Healing: You are damaged by positive damage and aren’t healed by positive healing effects. You don’t take negative damage and are healed by negative effects that heal undead.

Negative Survival: Unlike normal undead, you aren’t destroyed when reduced to 0 Hit Points. Instead, powerful negative energy attempts to keep you from being destroyed even in dire straits. You are knocked out and begin dying when reduced to 0 Hit Points (Core Rulebook 459). Because you’re undead, many methods of bringing someone back from dying, such as stabilize, don’t benefit you. When you would die, you’re destroyed rather than dead, just like other undead.

Immunity to Death Effects: You’re immune to death effects. This keeps you from being automatically killed or from having your dying value automatically increase, but it doesn’t make you immune to other parts of the spell or effect. For example, you can still take mental damage and become frightened by a phantasmal killer, you just don’t instantly die from it.

Disease and Poison Protection: You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to saving throws (or any other defense) against disease and poison.

Undead Hunger: While you don’t eat or drink the same food as humanoids do, you usually have thirsts and hungers related to your undead state, such as a ghoul’s hunger for humanoid flesh, a zombie’s craving for brains, and a vampire’s desire for blood. Additionally, while you don’t sleep, you enter a state of quiescence for at least 4 hours a day to recuperate, which lets your undead flesh reknit and recover naturally. Many undead choose to rest when the sun is at its highest.