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In the Monster Core entry for Skeleton Guard it states, "Most skeletons have one of these abilities. If you give a skeleton more, you might want to increase its level and adjust its statistics."
My question is regarding the adjust its statistics part of the rule. To me, it seems clear that the intent is to increase the creatures level because a second (or more) ability increases its lethality. Wouldn't increasing its statistics compound this effect? Or is said compounding the intent?
Thank you in advance for any help. All apologies if this has been discussed before.
My advice to you is to look at the various published skeletons and try to make something based off of those.
As to your original question, the text is trying to indicate that giving Bloody/Collpase/Screaming Skull abilities are reason to look at adjusting the skeletons level, but if you adjust the level you should also look at the published skeletons and general rules for making creatures at a level to make sure your creation falls in line with that. It is very much still art and not science when it comes to making these adjustments.
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In the Monster Core entry for Skeleton Guard it states, "Most skeletons have one of these abilities. If you give a skeleton more, you might want to increase its level and adjust its statistics."
My question is regarding the adjust its statistics part of the rule. To me, it seems clear that the intent is to increase the creatures level because a second (or more) ability increases its lethality. Wouldn't increasing its statistics compound this effect? Or is said compounding the intent?
Thank you in advance for any help. All apologies if this has been discussed before.
That section about Skeleton Abilities is the preamble to the Skeleton section, pages 312 and 313 in the Monster Core. It was copied into the skeleton entries in the Archives of Nethys because usually the preamble clarifies the nature of the creatures. However, the nature-of-creature part of the preamble is a single line, "Animated skeletons are among the most common types of undead." The rest of the preamble is about designing specialty skeletons and relates to the paragraph labeled "Creating Skeletons." If you intend to use the Skeleton Guard as written, ignore the skeleton ability instructions. The Skeleton Guard is creature -1, the lowest-level skeleton that has no special abilities beyond abilities that all skeletons have.
For using the special abilties, let me imagine creating a Skeletal Shark, an aquatic undead based on the Bristled Reef Shark, creature 1. I glance at the Skeletal Soldier, creature 1, to see what skeletal features I need to add to the shark: negative healing, immunities to death effects, disease, mental, paralyzed, poison, and unconscious, and resistances to cold 5, electricity 5, fire 5, piercing 5, and slashing 5. The shark loses its Bristle and Compression abilities, because it is a generic shark, so I want to substitute in a skeleton ability to replace them. Screaming Skull makes no sense when the shark has no arms to throw its skull, so let me pick Collapse.
Skeletal Shark Creature 1
Medium Aquatic Mindless Skeleton Undead
Based on Bristled Reef Shark, Pathfinder #216: The Acropolis Pyre pg. 84
Perception +7; blood scent, scent (imprecise) 100 feet
Skills Acrobatics +7, Athletics +5, Stealth +7
Str +1, Dex +4, Con +2, Int -5, Wis +1, Cha +2
Blood Scent The shark can smell blood in the water from up to 1 mile away.
AC 16; Fort +7, Ref +10, Will +4
HP 16 (negative healing); Immunities death effects, disease, mental, paralyzed, poison, unconscious; Resistances cold 5, electricity 5, fire 5, piercing 5, slashing 5
Collapse [reaction] Trigger The skeletal shark is critically hit; Effect The shark collapses into a pile of bones that float in its square and the attack deals only normal damage. The shark can re-form as an action, but until it does, it is immobilized and off-guard.
Speed swim 35 feet
Melee [one-action] jaws +5 [+0/-5], Damage 1d8+1 piercing
Reef Rake [one-action] Requirements The shark's last action was a successful jaws Strike, and the target is adjacent to a solid surface like a wall or reef; Effect The shark attempts an Athletics check to Reposition the target into the adjacent surface. If successful, the target is thrown into the surface and takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage. If the surface is jagged (such as a reef), target instead takes 2d6 slashing damage and 1 persistent bleed damage.
I also have to consider the effects of Aquatic Combat on the conversion from living shark to skeleton. Bludgeoning damage is the best way to deal with skeletons, but aquatic combat gives a a –2 circumstance penalty to your attack roll for bludgeoning atacks, making the Skeletal Shark harder to hit than a skeleton on land. On the other hand, aquatic combat also grants resistance 5 to acid and fire, but the skeleton already has resistance fire 5, and the redundant resistance does not stack. One advantage and one disadvantage from aquatic combat means I ought not worry.
Now suppose on a whim I also give the Skeletal Shark the Bloody ability, "Bloody A coating of blood gives the skeleton fast healing equal to its level." I could balance this by removing the Reef Rake ability, but that whim wants to keep the Reef Rake, too. I had dropped the shark's hit points from the Bristled Reff Shark's HP 21 to the Skeletal Soldier's HP 16 because it gained skeletal immunities and resistances (the negative healing does not matter much because no-one will try to heal it.) If I add fast healing 1 to the Skeletal Shark, then it would become a lot harder to kill. It could swim away from the PCs, since it has a Swim Speed and they don't, and come back at full hit points. The Bloody Skeletal Shark could be be too tough to count as a mere 1st-level creature.
But it could also be too weak to count as a 2nd-level creature. A 2nd-level creature is supposed to be 41% more powerful than a 1st-level creature. Fast healing 1 would heal the shark for only 2 hit points in a 2-round combat, if the party stops it from slowing combat to heal more. Rather than deal with the ambiguity of a creature too strong to be 1st level and too weak to be 2nd level, the Skeleton Abilities rules suggest giving it better numbers according to the Building Creatures rules in the GM Core so that if fits the power curve properly as a 2nd-level creature.
Table 2–2: Perception says the Bloody Skeletal Shark's perception would increase from +7 (moderate 1st level) to +8 (moderate 2nd level). Likewise, its skills and saving throwas go up by +1. Table 2–5: Armor Class says its high AC 16 goes up to AC 18. Table 2–7: Hit Points says HP 16 at 1st-level is the top value in the low column, so the equivalent at 2nd level is HP 25. Its resistances stay at 5. Bloody ability says its fast healing equals its level, so it goes up to 2. And so on.
Bloody Skeletal Shark Creature 2
Medium Aquatic Mindless Skeleton Undead
Based on Bristled Reef Shark, Pathfinder #216: The Acropolis Pyre pg. 84
Perception +8; blood scent, scent (imprecise) 100 feet
Skills Acrobatics +8, Athletics +6, Stealth +8
Str +1, Dex +4, Con +2, Int -5, Wis +1, Cha +2
Blood Scent The shark can smell blood in the water from up to 1 mile away.
AC 18; Fort +8, Ref +11, Will +5
HP 25 (negative healing); Immunities death effects, disease, mental, paralyzed, poison, unconscious; Resistances cold 5, electricity 5, fire 5, piercing 5, slashing 5
Bloody Bloody Skeletal Shark has fast healing 2.
Collapse [reaction] Trigger The bloody skeletal shark is critically hit; Effect The shark collapses into a pile of bones that float in its square and the attack deals only normal damage. The shark can re-form as an action, but until it does, it is immobilized and off-guard.
Speed swim 35 feet
Melee [one-action] jaws +7 [+2/-3], Damage 1d8+4 piercing
Reef Rake [one-action] Requirements The shark's last action was a successful jaws Strike, and the target is adjacent to a solid surface like a wall or reef; Effect The shark attempts an Athletics check to Reposition the target into the adjacent surface. If successful, the target is thrown into the surface and takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage. If the surface is jagged (such as a reef), target instead takes 2d6 slashing damage and 1 persistent bleed damage.
Suppose I had planned for a 2nd-level party to wade across the Dead River and be attacked by three 1st-level Skeletal Sharks. That would be a Moderate-Threat (90 xp) challenge. But 2nd-level Bloody Skeletal Sharks are stronger, so only two of them would be a Moderate Threat (80 xp) challenge.
Great analysis MathMuse of the kind of thought that one has to put into designer a new/custom creature.
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In the Monster Core entry for Skeleton Guard it states, "Most skeletons have one of these abilities. If you give a skeleton more, you might want to increase its level and adjust its statistics."
My question is regarding the adjust its statistics part of the rule. To me, it seems clear that the intent is to increase the creatures level because a second (or more) ability increases its lethality. Wouldn't increasing its statistics compound this effect? Or is said compounding the intent?
Yes. The intent is that higher level adventurer parties can handle creatures with more abilities.
A level -1 Skeleton Guard with one of those abilities is suitable for a level 1 party to encounter. Because it is a level -1 creature.
Putting a second skeleton ability on the level -1 Skeleton Guard is not necessarily a good idea. It would make it more challenging than expected for a level -1 creature that a level 1 party is facing.
You could create a level 4 Skeleton Guard and give it two skeleton abilities. It would be suitable for a level 4 to level 6 party at that point. Like other level 4 creatures are.