Flameskull: The Most Straightforward Monster in the Book

This is what happens when the person naming these monsters either gave up or ran out of ideas. ‘Flameskull’? Really? That’s all you could come up with? Not ‘Burning Spirit’ or ‘Vengeful Specter’? All you had was ‘Flameskull’?

The flameskull is the kind of monster you can look at and immediately forget exists. It’s about as far from the word ‘impressive’ as you could possibly get. It isn’t offensively bad and it has its uses in a campaign. But on its own, it really isn’t anything to talk about.

So imagine how difficult it was to write an entire article about the thing. Not very, but I want to pretend that it was harder than it was.

Lore: The Wizard, Reborn and Enslaved

A flameskull is a lowly servant of a dark wizard, brought back to life from the corpses of other wizards. They are bound to their creator, serving as the protector of whatever its master demands of it. They’ll follow their orders to their interpretations; as such, their master needs to be careful when writing up their orders.

Only the dimmest memories still remain of the flameskull’s old life. It may have the voice, it is but an echo of the wizard that once was. The only thing that isn’t a hollow shell of what it was is its magic.

Killing a flameskull is more challenging than just smashing it. In order to permanently kill it, one needs to use holy water or a spell that removes its curse. Should its orders become impossible to carry out any further, the skull regains its own free will.

There’s not a whole lot of lore to work with there. But the few options there are could be pretty interesting. Maybe you could have a slightly rebellious flameskull work with the party to betray its master. Or maybe an autonomous flameskull could cause some havoc for the party after regaining its free well. Nothing especially amazing, but it could be fun!

Unlike its design. Which is just… so dull.

Design: Take a Guess

What the fuck am I supposed to say here? What do you want from me? There’s nothing! I have literally nothing to say here! Surprise surprise, the monster called Flameskull is a flaming skull! How shocking!

This is a first for this series. There is literally nothing to talk about. This monster has literally nothing to talk about. There’s nothing good or bad to discuss. There’s just… nothing.

But I managed to fill enough space to make the article look visually appealing, so I win.

Stats: I CAST MAGIC MISSILE FROM MY EYE SOCKETS!!!

I don’t know why, but that image is simultaneously the most intimidating and hilarious thing I’ve ever imagined.

If not for its resistances/immunities, this thing would be easy to kill. Its AC is pretty low and the HP just as mediocre. It’s resistant to lightning, necrotic, and piercing, and completely immune to cold, fire, poison, and a good number of conditions.

It’s much better on the offensive than it is on the defensive. It’s got all the following spells to throw at your players:

• Cantrip: mage hand
• 1st level (3 slots): magic missile, shield
• 2nd level (2 slots): blur, flaming sphere
• 3rd level (1 slot): fireball

On top of that, it has the Fire Ray attack, which it can use twice a turn. This really isn’t anything special. Just a little bit of fire that can deal 10(3d6) damage. Nothing especially impressive or intimidating.

This can make for a decent low-level casting fight. Want to put the wizard against the wall? Wanna screw with your party with some low-level spells? This dude is the right one for the job. But is it good for an actual challenge? Not really.

Placement

This is a pretty dull monster. It has some decent lore and stats, though nothing incredible. If not for that nothing design, it would be a mid-tier monster. But as it stands, it is doomed to be low tier.

With that in mind, let’s put the Flameskull on the Best of the Bestiary!

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Dragon Turtle
4. Green Dragons
5. Red Dragons
6. Blue Dragons
7. Black Dragons
8. White Dragons
9. Silver Dragons
10. Couatl
11. Behir
12. Aboleth
13. Bronze Dragons
14. Brass Dragons
15. Copper Dragons
16. Gold Dragons
17. Chuul
18. Chimera
19. Death Knight
20. Bone Devil
21. Dracolich
22. Faerie Dragon
23. Ankheg
24. Empyrean
25. Drow (all four of ’em)
26. Shadow Demon
27. Marilith
28. Drider
29. Aarackockra
30. Azer
31. Demilich
32. Spectator
33. Cambion
34. Animated Armor
35. Banshee
36. Basilisk
37. Yochlol
38. Bulette
39. Cloaker
40. Darkmantle
41. Doppelganger
42. Ettin
43. Pit Fiend
44. Erinyes
45. Chain Devil
46. Bearded Devil
47. Barbed Devil
48. Spined Devil
49. Ice Devil
50. Nalfeshnee
51. Glabrezu
52. Chasme
53. Barlgura
54. Horned Devil
55. Balor
56. Shadow Dragon
57. Vrock
58. Dretch
59. Goristro
60. Hezrou
61. Manes
62. Duergar
63. Quasit
64. Dryad
65. Planetar
66. Imp
67. Flameskull <—————————
68. Displacer Beast
69. Carrion Crawler
70. Rug of Smothering
71. Bugbear Chief
72. Bugbear
73. Vine Blight
74. Twig Blight
75. Needle Blight
76. Bullywug
77. Ettercap
78. Cockatrice
79. Lemure
80. Solar
81. Deva
82. Cyclops
83. Centaur
84. Fire Elemental
85. Water Elemental
86. Air Elemental
87. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
88. Earth Elemental
89. Flying Sword
90. Crawling Claw