Monster Monday: Skeleton Troop - Bones and Bows

Today's Monster Monday is the skeleton troop, a battalion of fleshless undead fighters armed with bows and bones. Now it's no secret that I'm a huge fan of skeletons. When I put those plot hook and encounter ideas down below each Monster Monday, once of them by default should be "The party encounters a skeletal version of this monster".

Scene from Jason and the Argonauts (1963) Colombia Pictures via Gamers and Grognards

The lowly skeleton archer has been the bane of many a beginning adventurer. It can shoot at you, but your retaliatory arrows are just going to pass through its ribs. Skeleton archers have been an enduring menace through every edition of D&D and similar games, but at high levels it can be hard to threaten the party with them. You either need a lot of them, or you need to stat up some skeletal champions that specialize in ranged combat. But, as we saw last week with the zombie horde, the 'troop' subtype is our friend. Now you can bring a whole bunch of skeletal archers to the table, but they all act as one monster, thus simplifying your job as GM without sacrificing the dangerous combat for your players.
The stat block for the skeleton troop below can fire mass volleys of arrows that deal automatic damage to anyone in their path, and with their troop attack they rip at any enemy that comes within melee range with their bony claws.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.

With a rattle of bones, this troop of skeleton archers marches to the attack

Troop, Skeleton Troop         CR 7

XP 3,200

NE Medium undead (troop)

Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +0

DEFENSE

AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +2 natural)

hp 82 (15d8+15)

Fort +5, Ref +9, Will +9

DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, troop traits, undead traits

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee troop (2d6+3)

Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.

Special Attacks volley (3d6+3, Reflex DC 20 halves)

STATISTICS

Str 17, Dex 18, Con --, Int --, Wis 10, Cha 10

Base Atk +11; CMB +14; CMD 28 (can’t be tripped)

Feats Improved Initiative^B

SQ weak melee

ABILITIES

Volley (Ex)

As a standard action, a skeleton troop can fire a volley of arrows. This attack takes the form of up to four lines with a distance of up to 100 feet each. These lines can start from any corner of any square in the troop’s space. Each creature in any of these lines takes 3d6+3 points of piercing damage (Reflex DC 20 half). Multiple lines from the same troop do not stack against a single target. The save is Dexterity-based.

Weak Melee (Ex)

Because of the skeleton archers’ comparatively weak melee attacks, the troop’s melee troop attack deals damage as if it had 5 fewer HD.

ECOLOGY

Environment any

Organization solitary, force (2-4), army (5-10)

Treasure none

A band of two dozen reanimated skeletons armed with bows.

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Plot Hooks and Encounter Ideas

• The catacomb opens up into a large room where the necromancer has amassed his skeletal horde!
• The rebels were poised to crush the dwindling royalist forces, but the battle turns when the wicked king's high priest arrives on the field at the head of several troops of skeleton archers.
• As wave after wave of arrows blackens the sky, troops of skeleton archers keep up the fire while the hordes of zombies surge forward.