Undead and Sunlight

[Mournblade94]

Last night I ran Broken Moon. The party took a rest period in the mill, and then woke up for Daytime exploration.

One of the encounters called for skeletons. it was about 10 am in the morning. (There is nothing in the encounter that specifically states time of day, I imagine it is up to the timing of the group.)

All my years playing this RPG and I have made the assumption that Undead will not go into sunlight. So before running that encounter which I previously thought would not have the skeletons I checked. There is NOTHING I can find anywhere that say skeletons cannot operate in Sunlight (well it was overcast skies so Daylight, I determine weather conditions for a particular day by checking weather archives for last year on weather underground, for the corresponding day in the campaign provided there is not mood or story element of weather involved.)

Was my assumption completely a misconception as far as D&D monsters go?

I ultimately ran the encounter with skeletons in daylight, because I assumed I had a 25 year misconception.

[Bruno Kristensen]

To my knowledge, only certain undead (wraiths, and namely vampires, spring to mind) have a direct restriction about daylight.

Skeletons specifically are mindless, so I don't think they care, though for mode reasons, having them come out on a sunny day can seem a bit strange...of course, you can use that as a great contrast.

But yes, seems you've had a 25 year misconception. Sorry.

[DarthEnder]

There's nothing Skeletons love more than an invigorating battle on a sunny Greek island, as per Clash of the Titans.

[Mournblade94]

DarthEnder wrote:

There's nothing Skeletons love more than an invigorating battle on a sunny Greek island, as per Clash of the Titans.

Good point! All these years and I just let THAT image fly by.

But I think the movie your referring to is another Harryhausen masterpiece: JASON AND THE ARGONAUGHTS. I don't recall skeletons in Clash of the Titans. At least the Ray HArryhausen version.

[DarthEnder]

Mournblade94 wrote:

But I think the movie your referring to is another Harryhausen masterpiece: JASON AND THE ARGONAUGHTS. I don't recall skeletons in Clash of the Titans. At least the Ray HArryhausen version.

You could totally be right. Those two movies blur together in my memory.

[Nightwish]

Similarly, there are a lot of movies that depict zombies in daylight. Lots of 'em in the new AMC series "The Walking Dead," in fact. I believe all of the Romero movies have had some daytime zombies, too.

[Telodzrum]

As the above have commented, there's nothing stopping the skeletons from fighting in broad daylight.

However, if you have a version of undead that cannot suffer the sunlight, my suggestion is to allow them to create a dense fog overhead. One that obscures all but the strongest light -- think dense swamp conditions on a chilly morning. This will allow for no loss in sight range, but lower the light level to one that does not damage the undead.

[Elondor]

When it comes to walking piles of bones or other undead, I usually fix the lighting via creepy fog =D

Also, have you ever played minecraft..?