This was originally a Carrion Crown thread, but that forum's moving slowly these days, and I need feedback sooner than later. The short version is I decided to replace groups of 8 or 12 low-level skeletons with CR-equivalent troops, both for ease of handling and so that these necromancers aren't quite as much of a joke. This is the first time I've made monsters from scratch, so I'd appreciate any advice you can give.
The departure I made from the normal rules is that I've given these troops feats. Most of these skeletons are encountered as guards for evil cultists, but since you can move freely through a troop at the cost of some damage, I wanted them to have the Stand Still feat. So, I gave the non-intelligent troops INT 3, justifying it by calling it their unit's coordination. My party will be level 8 at this time. I'm leaving gear off the block because looting troops was weird in Reign of Winter, so I'm planning on just letting the party recover what they would have in the AP as written.
12 skeletons is CR 5, turning into a 7HD troop. The only sample troop I have is here, scroll down and look for Rifle Troop.
Skeleton Troop CR 5
XP 1,600
NE Medium undead
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +7
DEFENSE
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +4 natural)
hp 52 (7d8+21)
Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +7
DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits, troop traits
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee troop (2d6+4)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
TACTICS
During Combat Free-roaming skeleton troops typically rush forward and spread out as much as possible to engage as many enemies as they can reach, regardless of if this causes them to provoke attacks of opportunity. Troops accompanied by a cultist will usually be ordered to form a wall to prevent enemies from reaching the cultist.
Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer.
STATISTICS
Str 18, Dex 14, Con —, Int 3, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 21
Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved InitiativeB, Iron Will, Stand Still, Toughness
Skills Perception +7
Next I need 12 burning skeletons (CR 6), so I just added the burning template to my previous troop. I thought this turned out well, so left it alone. Then I had to replace a group of 8 (CR 5), which means taking off 2HD.
Burning skeleton Troop CR 6
XP 2,400
NE Medium undead
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +7
Aura fiery aura (1d6)
DEFENSE
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +4 natural)
hp 59 (7d8+28)
Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +7
DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune fire, undead traits, troop traits;
Weaknessess vulnerability to cold
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee troop (2d6+4 plus 1d6 fire)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
TACTICS
During Combat Free-roaming skeleton troops typically rush forward and spread out as much as possible to engage as many enemies as they can reach, regardless of if this causes them to provoke attacks of opportunity. Troops accompanied by a cultist will usually be ordered to form a wall to prevent enemies from reaching the cultist.
Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer.
STATISTICS
Str 18, Dex 14, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 16
Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 21
Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved InitiativeB, Iron Will, Stand Still, Toughness
Skills Perception +7
SQ fiery death (3d6, DC 16)
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Fiery Aura (Ex): Creatures adjacent to a burning skeleton troop take 1d6 points of fire damage at the start of their turn. Anyone striking a burning skeleton troop with an unarmed strike or natural attack takes 1d6 points of fire damage.
Fiery Death (Su): A burning skeleton troop explodes into a burst of flame when it dies. Anyone adjacent to the troop when it is destroyed takes 1d6 points of fire damage per 2 Hit Dice the troop possessed (minimum 1d6). A Reflex save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the troop’s Hit Dice + the troop’s Cha bonus) halves this damage.
Burning skeleton Troop CR 5
XP 1,600
NE Medium undead
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5
Aura fiery aura (1d6)
DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +3 natural)
hp 42 (5d8+20)
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +4
DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune fire, undead traits, troop traits;
Weaknessess vulnerability to cold
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee troop (1d6+4 plus 1d6 fire)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
TACTICS
During Combat Free-roaming skeleton troops typically rush forward and spread out as much as possible to engage as many enemies as they can reach, regardless of if this causes them to provoke attacks of opportunity. Troops accompanied by a cultist will usually be ordered to form a wall to prevent enemies from reaching the cultist.
Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer.
STATISTICS
Str 18, Dex 14, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 16
Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 19
Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved InitiativeB, Stand Still, Toughness
Skills Perception +5
SQ fiery death (2d6, DC 15)
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Fiery Aura (Ex): Creatures adjacent to a burning skeleton troop take 1d6 points of fire damage at the start of their turn. Anyone striking a burning skeleton troop with an unarmed strike or natural attack takes 1d6 points of fire damage.
Fiery Death (Su): A burning skeleton troop explodes into a burst of flame when it dies. Anyone adjacent to the troop when it is destroyed takes 1d6 points of fire damage per 2 Hit Dice the troop possessed (minimum 1d6). A Reflex save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the troop’s Hit Dice + the troop’s Cha bonus) halves this damage.
Now I need 8 bloody skeletons (CR 5). I just did a feature swap with the CR 5 burning troop.
Bloody skeleton Troop CR 5
XP 1,600
NE Medium undead
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5
Aura fiery aura (1d6)
DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +3 natural)
hp 47 (5d8+25); fast healing 2
Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +4
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, deathless; DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits, troop traits;
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee troop (1d6+4)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
TACTICS
During Combat Free-roaming skeleton troops typically rush forward and spread out as much as possible to engage as many enemies as they can reach, regardless of if this causes them to provoke attacks of opportunity. Troops accompanied by a cultist will usually be ordered to form a wall to prevent enemies from reaching the cultist.
Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer.
STATISTICS
Str 18, Dex 14, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 18
Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 19
Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved InitiativeB, Stand Still, Toughness
Skills Perception +5
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Deathless (Su): A bloody skeleton troop is destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points, but it returns to unlife 1 hour later at 1 hit point, allowing its fast healing thereafter to resume healing it. A bloody skeleton can be permanently destroyed if it is destroyed by positive energy, if it is reduced to 0 hit points in the area of a bless or hallow spell, or if its remains are sprinkled with a vial of holy water.
Last is skeletal champions. 8 of these is CR 8. These guys have Intimidate, so I thought it would be fun to give the troop Dazzling Display, even though Weapon Focus (troop) makes no sense. One group of them has bows and silver arrows on a tower, so I gave them a special ability I'll add after the main stat block.
Skeletal Champion Troop CR 8
XP 4,800
NE Medium undead
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +15
DEFENSE
AC 21, touch 12, flat-footed 19 (+6 armor, +2 Dex, +1 natural, +2 shield)
hp 102 (12d8+48)
Fort +7 Ref +6 Will +10; channel resistance +4
DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits, troop traits
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee troop (3d6+6)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
TACTICS
During Combat Skeletal champion troops are highly organized and seldom break out of a regular formation. They start combat by intimidating their enemies with a display of their coordination, then march forward using an appropriate formation (typically a pincer to surround small groups). They prefer to avoid provoking attacks of opportunity unless they need to reach an enemy who is using area attacks on them.
Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer.
STATISTICS
Str 22, Dex 14, Con —, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 16
Base Atk +9; CMB +15; CMD 27
Feats Combat Reflexes, Dazzling Display, Improved InitiativeB, Iron Will, Stand Still, Toughness, Weapon Focus (troop)
Skills Intimidate +18, Perception +15, Stealth +11
For the archers, add the special ability:
Silver arrow volley (Ex): As a standard action, an archer troop can target a single square up to 200 feet away with a volley of silver arrows. This attack deals 3d6 piercing and silver damage to all creatures within a 20-foot-radius burst (Reflex DC 18 for half). The save DC is Dexterity-based.
Neat. It looks like you kept things within the bounds of recommended stats for like hit points, AC, damage done, etc. You could probably give the other, non-champion versions of the skeleton troops a volley attack as well without unbalancing them, too. Maybe give the champions another ability as well to denote them as 'champions', like a combat maneuver ride on their troop attack or a fear aura of something. Half the fun of troops is using custom abilities in addition to their auto-damaging troop attacks, after all. Also, you don't really HAVE to give a monster any prereq feats to give them a specific bonus feat. Monks and rangers are allowed around that kind of thing, why not monsters? All in all, though, well done.
Side note: skeletons are typically mindless undead and therefore typically don't have feats or skill ranks. If your intent is that a group of them is semi-intelligent as a result of their combined necromantic magic unifying their awareness and such, that's cool. Just something I thought I'd bring up.
you don't really HAVE to give a monster any prereq feats to give them a specific bonus feat. Monks and rangers are allowed around that kind of thing, why not monsters?
Wow, and I had an example right there with the skeleton's Improved Initiative, too. Good to know. I'm going to leave it alone since I have no ideas for the other feat, and I don't really want to make this any tougher.
I didn't think extra special attacks were necessary since, unlike the rifle troop, these troops will be encountered at close range. I also don't want them to be too much of a threat, since they're replacing encounters that were deliberately easy.