Skeleton, Diseased
- Armor Class
- 5 [14] (special, see below)
- Hit Dice
- 2
- Attacks
- Weapon (1d6)
- Special
- disease, undead immunities, Turn as zombie, weapon resistances
- Move
- 12
- HDE/XP
- 2/30
Description
There are times when an evil Cleric or Magic-user uses Animate Dead on the skeleton of a creature that originally died of a disease, or had a disease at the time of initial death. This Diseased Skeleton will be stronger than their other bony kin. Like normal skeletons, slashing weapons will do half-damage and piercing weapons will only do 1 point of damage; crushing weapons do normal damage. Since diseased skeletons are undead they are not be affected by Sleep, charm, or hold spells. Diseased skeletons can be Turned as a zombie.
If the diseased skeleton uses an unarmed attack there is a 10% chance that the target will be infected with a disease similar to mummy rot. The disease will apply a - 1 penalty to an ability or in special cases Cause Blindness or deafness in the character attacked. The character will show symptoms of the disease 1d4 hours after the attack.
The disease can be noted by the color of the light coming from the eye-sockets of the diseased skeleton. Any infection spread by a diseased skeleton must be cured by a Cure (Cause) Disease spell.
Diseased Skeleton Table
| 1d8 | Color | Effect & Disease |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Purple | -1 STR; Influenza |
| 2 | Orange | -1 INT; “Old Timer’s” |
| 3 | Green | -1 WIS; “Mad Cow” |
| 4 | Blue | -1 DEX; “Foot in Mouth” or “Water on the Knee” |
| 5 | Red* | -1 CON; “Consumption” |
| 6 | Yellow | -1 CHA; “Yellow Fever” |
| 7 | Pink | Blindness; “Pink Eye” |
| 8 | Aqua Blue | Deafness; “Swimmer’s Ear” or “Water on the Ears” |
- If the GM’s default appearance for skeletons is to have red lights in the eye-sockets, then use black (“Black Death”) for these diseased skeletons.
See Also
Other creatures grouped under Skeleton: Skeleton, Crimson Bones, Skeleton, Gellybone, Skeleton, Haunted Bones, Skeleton, Lake, Skeleton, Lava Lake, Skeleton, Pitch.
Source note: This creature is converted from The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign – Omnibus Edition, 1st Edition Release 4, © 2010–2025 Chris Gonnerman, R. Kevin Smoot, James Lemon, Matt Sluis, and Contributors. The Basic Fantasy Field Guide textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.