| Mod | Save | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| STR | 20 | +5 | +5 |
| DEX | 14 | +2 | +2 |
| CON | 16 | +3 | +14 |
| Mod | Save | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| INT | 6 | −2 | −2 |
| WIS | 12 | +1 | +10 |
| CHA | 10 | +0 | +0 |
Army of One. The army can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and it can move through any opening Large or wider. It has advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks to shove or grapple.
Adamantine Bulwark. Critical hits against the army become normal hits. When the army takes damage from a non-adamantine, nonmagical weapon, reduce that damage by 5.
Holy Anathema. The army is vulnerable to radiant damage. In addition, a creature hitting the army with a weapon that is consecrated/blessed or coated in holy water deals an extra 7 (2d6) radiant damage.
Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Small humanoid. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.
Multiattack. The army makes three attacks in any combination: Bone-Cleaver, Black Arrow Volley, or Gravefire.
Bone-Cleaver. (Melee Weapon Attack) +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 2d8 + 5 slashing damage plus 2d6 necrotic damage (these attacks count as magical). If the target is Large or smaller, it must succeed on a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone as ranks of soldiers hack and trip it.
Gravefire (Magic; Recharge 5–6). The army detonates corpse-flame in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point it can see within 90 feet. Creatures in the area make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw, taking 27 (6d8) necrotic damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails can’t regain hit points until the start of the army’s next turn.
Shield Wall Shift (Bonus Action; Recharge 5–6). The army surges shields and pavises to the fore. Until the start of its next turn, the army gains +2 AC, and attack rolls made against it by creatures more than 10 feet away are made with disadvantage. As part of this bonus action, the army may move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.
Interlocking Ranks (Reaction). When a creature the army can see enters or leaves the army’s space or moves out of the army’s reach, the army makes one Bone-Cleaver attack against that creature. On a hit, the creature’s speed becomes 0 until the end of the current turn.
The Adamantine Skeletal Army can take 1 legendary action, choosing from the option below. It regains the spent legendary action at the start of its turn.
Surge of Ranks. The army moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks and makes one Bone-Cleaver or Black Arrow Volley attack at any point during the movement.
Description
Adamantine Skeletal Army — Monster Characteristics
Appearance. A tide of fused bone and riveted plate—ranks of skeleton soldiers, archers, and grim battlemages bound together by chain-spines and adamantine braces. Shields lock edge-to-edge into moving bastions; helm slits glow with corpse-candle blue.
Nature. A single entity made from many bodies: a martial swarm of Medium undead that acts with hive discipline. It thinks in formations—wedge, wall, phalanx—and shifts seamlessly between them.
Creation & History.
Forged during the Siege of Nine Gates, a desperate high king bargained with a cabal of artificers and necromancers. Fallen knights were exhumed, their oaths twisted into binding runes, and their bones sleeved in salvaged adamantine from shattered siege engines. The ritual “Chorus of Knuckles” braided a thousand wills into one commander’s intent. The Army broke the siege—then refused to stand down. Since then, it answers only to the sigil-phrase hammered into its breastplates: a lost command key sought by scholars and tyrants alike.
Instincts & Goals.
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Hold ground. Prioritizes chokepoints, stairs, and gates; refuses pursuit beyond designated lines unless enraged.
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Crush the standard. Focuses fire on leaders, banner-bearers, and casters.
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Preserve itself. Retreats into shield walls at half strength, calling up archers and mages to cover.
Tactics.
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Leads with a shield wall advance, archers volleying overhead; mages pepper with corpse-flame (Gravefire).
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Uses Surge of Ranks to envelop stragglers and cut off retreat.
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Against radiant/holy threats, it scatters then reforms to minimize area damage.
Lair & Signs.
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Where found: war-ruins, sealed armories, tomb-roads, vaults guarding relic doors.
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Omens: rhythmic shield knocks, flecks of soot-cold foxfire drifting from arrow slits, boot-sole scrapes that move in lockstep with no living marchers.
Communication. Understands orders in the tongues of its interred soldiers but “speaks” with drumbeats, shield-taps, and the scrape of ranks turning.
Weaknesses.
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Holy Anathema: radiant harm and consecrated weapons bite deep; prayers that break oaths (oath-of-peace, burial rites) can stagger it for a round at your table’s discretion.
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Command Sigil: Displaying or speaking the lost command phrase (if recovered) can impose disadvantage on its attacks for 1 round—or even force a formation change.
Treasure & Remnants.
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Adamantine plates (usable as ingots), rank-horns (bugles that cast command 1/day if repaired), black-feathered arrows that shed cinders, ledger-tags engraved with campaign maps.
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Rare: a Marshal’s Keystone—one of the command runes that can issue a single, costly order (“Stand Down,” “Hold,” “Redeploy”).
Variants.
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Vanguard Cohort (CR 9): fewer mages, faster push, weaker AoE.
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Sanctified Wreck (CR 14): corrupted with void-iron; gains necrotic auras but loses some DR.
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Liberated Chorus (ally): if the command phrase is used with genuine burial rites, the Army may escort the party for one battle before returning to rest.
Damage/accuracy and the control riders put it squarely in the CR 12 band for an 8th–10th-level party: three attacks at ~24 avg each, plus a recharge AoE and a mobility legendary.
If you want it tankier, bump HP to ~240 and reduce the damage-reduction to 3. If you want deadlier, keep HP 210 and raise Bone-Cleaver to 3d8 + 5.
Lair and Lair Actions
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