Bone Lord

Huge undead, neutral evil

Armor Class 20 (natural armor)
Hit Points 285 (30d12 + 90)
Speed 40 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
21 (+5) 15 (+2) 16 (+3) 14 (+2) 18 (+4) 18 (+4)

Saving Throws Dex +8, Wis +10, Cha +10
Skills Athletics +11, Perception +10
Damage Resistances cold, lightning
Damage Immunities necrotic, poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned
Senses darkvision 90 ft., passive Perception 20
Languages Common
Challenge 19 (22,000 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +6

SPECIAL TRAITS

  • Death-Infused Weapons. The bone lord’s weapon attacks are magical. When the bone lord hits with any weapon, the weapon deals an extra 2d8 necrotic damage (included in the attack).
  • Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the bone lord fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
  • Master Tactician. The bone lord and any friendly Undead within 60 feet of it have advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the Undead’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
  • Rejuvenation. As long as at least one of its bones remains, a destroyed bone lord gathers a new body in 1d10 days, regaining all its hp and becoming active again. The new body appears within 5 feet of the largest remaining bone from its body.

LAIR

Bone lords lair where they were spawned—a battlefield, oubliette, or similar place where a mass of nameless dead were gathered—or in the first place they cleared of living inhabitants after they formed: an empty castle, ghost town, or similar locale.

Wherever the lair is, it is always scattered with bones and corpses of past victims, and it is eerily quiet, as no living creature willingly remains in the area.

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the bone lord can take a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the bone lord can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:

  • Bone Eruption. Bones erupt from the ground in a 30-foot radius around the bone lord. This area becomes difficult terrain for the 1 minute, until the bone lord uses Bony Reformation, or until the bone lord is destroyed. This difficult terrain doesn’t cost the bone lord extra movement.
  • Bony Reformation. The bone lord draws nearby bones into its body, regaining 27 (6d8) hp. The bone lord can use this lair action only if it is standing in an area of Bone Eruption.
  • Deathly Wails. The horrid cries and screams of the dead resound around up to three creatures the bone lord can see within 120 feet of it. Each target must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or be stunned until initiative count 20 on the next round.
  • Turning Defiance. The bone lord and any Undead within 60 feet of it have advantage on saving throws against effects that turn Undead.
  • Undead Nature. The bone lord doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep.

ACTIONS

  • Multiattack. The bone lord makes four Claw attacks. It can replace one attack with one Tail attack.
  • Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) slashing damage plus 9 (2d8) necrotic damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 19). Until the grapple ends, the target is restrained. The bone lord has for claws, each of which can grapple only one target.
  • Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage plus 9 (2d8) necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 19 Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 15 feet away from the bone lord.
  • Fling. One Medium or smaller object held or creature grappled by the bone lord is thrown up to 60 feet in a random direction and knocked prone. If a thrown target strikes a solid surface, the target takes 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it was thrown. If the target is thrown at another creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw or take the same damage and be knocked prone.
  • Servants of Death. The bone lord magically calls 3d6 skeletons or zombies, 2d4 ghouls, or 2 wights. The called creatures arrive in 1d4 rounds, acting as allies of the bone lord and obeying its spoken commands. The Undead remain for 1 hour, until the bone lord dies, or until the bone lord dismisses them as a bonus action. The bone lord can have any number of Undead under its control at one time, provided the combined total CR of the Undead is no higher than 8.
  • Pattern of Death (Recharge 6). Necrotic energy ripples out from the bone lord. Each creature that isn’t a Construct or Undead within 30 feet of the bone lord must make a DC 19 Constitution saving throw, taking 54 (12d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Each friendly Undead within 30 feet of the bone lord, including the bone lord, regains hp equal to half the single highest amount of necrotic damage dealt.

LEGENDARY ACTIONS

The bone lord can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The bone lord regains spent legendary actions at the start of their turn.

  • Sovereign’s Onslaught. The bone lord commands up to four friendly Undead it can see within 60 feet of it to move. Each target can use its reaction to immediately move up to its speed. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.
  • Sovereign’s Reprisal. The bone lord commands one friendly Undead within 30 feet of it to attack. The target can make one weapon attack as a reaction.
  • Call Servants (Costs 2 Actions). The bone lord uses Servants of Death.
  • Fling (Costs 2 Actions). The bone lord uses Fling.

REGIONAL EFFECTS

The region containing the bone lord’s lair is tainted by its presence, which creates one or more of the following effects:

  • Bone Ache. Creatures with bones suffer random, mysterious aches, especially creatures that are already prone to such aches because of old injuries, a badly set break, or similar circumstances, within 10 miles of the lair.
  • Skeletal Nightmares. Creatures sleeping within 5 miles of the lair occasionally suffer nightmares about skeletons, fields of bones, and similar imagery.
  • Skull Sight. Whenever a creature that isn’t a Construct or Undead spends more than 1 minute near a skull within 1 mile of the lair, the bone lord becomes aware of the creature’s presence and knows the general direction and distance of the creature from the lair. If the bone lord is destroyed, these effects fade in 1d10 days.

ABOUT

The pile of bones reforms into a giant goat-like skeleton with a four-armed humanoid torso. Its empty eye sockets glow menacingly red as it rushes forward.

Bone lords are collective amalgams of various bones, erupting from mass graves and bone middens and coming together for the express purpose of punishing the living for simply being alive.

Born of Darkness and Fury. A bone lord spawns spontaneously from a large pile of bones, generated by the collected psychic trauma—anguish, fear, grief, hate, loss, and other extreme emotions—of the atrocities that created the pile of bones. Sources of necromantic energy are required for a bone lord to form, or else bone lords would arise whenever there was mass slaughter, a great plague, or an interminable war. In spite of this, there is no definitive guiding hand in a bone lord’s creation. It is a thing born of the results of the worst of humanoid nature, and it rises with a desire to destroy those whose actions created it.

Undead Menace. The bone lord exists to destroy the living. As such, it attracts other undead that rally behind its strength and power.

No living necromancer could control a bone lord, nor would its hatred of the living allow such a thing. A lich might enter an alliance with a bone lord, though the creatures have little use for subtlety or intricate machinations.

Sensible living creatures would be wise to set aside their differences to defend against it, as it cares not whether those it crushes are good or evil; all the living are fated to die at the bone lord’s whim.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Tome of Beasts 3 © 2022 Open Design LLC; Authors: Eytan Bernstein, Celeste Conowitch, Benjamin L. Eastman, Robert Fairbanks, Scott Gable, Basheer Ghouse, Richard Green, Jeremy Hochhalter, Jeff Lee, Christopher Lockey, Sarah Madsen, Ben Mcfarland, Jonathan Miley, Kelly Pawlik, Sebastian Rombach, Chelsea Steverson, Brian Suskind, Mike Welham

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