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You know what's a crying shame? I had homebrewed a monster called the 'Pandemonium of Bones', basically the Boneyard with a few extra steps, only to find the Boneyard later when I'm looking through personal older D&D books I pulled off Google Drive. I was so disappointed that someone beat me to the punch. And then I also realized that, after reading the stat block, my Pandemonium of Bones was so much worse (for the party) as an encounter. That definitely made me feel better.
@@KevinVideo Found that too. It's on my "evolutionary" path for the Boneyard, going from the relatively small Boneyard all the way up to the Armageddon of Bones, which would completely cover the entirety of Vermont.
No burrowing, was surprised it didn't go in and out of the ground like a bone worm. Especially for gathering buried bones and easy food for it. intelligent ambusher would up the lethality too.
I’ve got a player who, through Red Wizard rituals and the blessing of the undead dragon god Null, has become a living death knight skeleton. Gonna throw this thing at him and actually beat him with his own skull.
What a great monster that could be used to convince the party that the necromancer that made it is still alive, when the necromancer has more than likely become part of it
@@ragemodeonline7778 I was just thinking some clever Necromancer or Boneyard would see a Hydra and go "More Heads=More Bite Attacks Per Turn= More Bones Yanked out!", and we get the Bone Hydra.
Idea: A Boneyard has taken up residence in a small town's cemetery generations ago, and over time became something of an 'old wiseman' to the settlement. Presenting itself as the amalgamized spirit of the town's ancestors, it gives general advice on a myriad of mundane topics.
@@brettwood1351 Heh, and of course it is fine with this arrangement as it likes having a steady supply of new bones, and will protect the town.... (And woe to anyone that attacks the town.... Who needs walls when you have a Boneyard protecting your town because it's smart enough to know that the townsfolk are fine with it eating their dead in exchange for it's protection.... Especially when it can eat the towns enemies too...)
@@minnion2871 And not only do you have to deal with it and it's skeletal minions, but the town's militia will be plinking away at you with arrows from inside their houses.
Dungeon idea: The dungeon *is* the Boneyard, in the form of a large, undead castle of bones, where a powerful necromancer currently resides. Traps set up throughout the dungeon are just places where the Boneyard can get a hold on you to try and steal your bones, and in the necromancer's boss room, he can command the Boneyard to attack the party directly.
Question: how would you run that, mechanically? Because I can totally picture a squad of adventurers fighting the section that tried until it stops moving, so you’d need to section off chunks or something? Would you give each room its own set of HP, or just the parts that attack, or maybe you just have a number of “normal” boneyards that you let phase in and out of the walls and floors and stuff, and it isn’t until they all die that the magic changes? Literally fighting the necromancers flying undead skeleton castle until it crashes into the ground and collapses sounds like a great penultimate session for an arc about a necromancer. I’ve been approached recently about DMing a group, and I’ll tuck that away for later. Or maybe first. Solid chase arc when they’re low level and can’t keep up with it yet, fixing problems and leveling up until they can catch it. Trying to fight their way inside, realizing the castles an enemy itself, fighting that, big ol’ Wizard dual on the wreckage. That’s not a bad module.
@@demonzabrak I was actually thinking something along the lines of specific walls and traps being statted out as skeletal Living Walls, perhaps even with the front entrance being blocked by a Living Wall that the party has to defeat before they can get in. As for the Boneyard itself, I was thinking of it as a second phase or true final boss after defeating the Necromancer. Picture this: After the party has explored the castle, fighting their way through walls and skeletons as they went, they finally take out the big bad Necromancer. However, now the Boneyard is without a master. The party must now escape back through the castle as the rooms are shifting and being closed off around them. Once the party is safely outside, the Boneyard transforms into its serpentine form, and the group must take down this giant skeletal terror to stop it from wreaking havoc across the land.
@@tacoman6697 nice. It’s tough to convince a party to escape, so really sell the walls closing in part. I imagine you could RP a boneyard acting like a mech suit for a necromancer. Necromechromancer if you will. From the 3.5e description: “However, unlike a skeleton or similar monster, a boneyard’s form is fluid in the sense that it can appear merely as a pile of bones, or as a serpent composed of bones, or some other form of its choice.” I’d give it a slam attack it could use in addition to the bite, let the mancer sling spells. Size huge, so there should be bones enough to make a 15 foot tall human shaped mass, guy embedded in the chest, possibly visible. Could work.
This is basically the first homebrew monster we ever threw at our players. Players: That's it? A hoard of skeletons? Why are we still fighting skeletons at our level? DM: The shattered bones begin to move again, this time joining together into a single monster: a massive spider cobbled together from dozens of human skeletons. Players: Oh.
@@lordbalthosadinferni4384 1st edition had a skeleton spider...it drained a whole level on a failed con save EVERY BITE. But then undead were far far scarier in 1st.
This is 100% the scene I'd set in my mind: the party tracks down some put upon noble or necromancer they've been pursuing. They arrive to find out they are too late, the ancient scroll crumbles as it is cast and the villain makes their triumphant speech only to be interrupted by the Boneyard biting them, shaking their corpse like a ragdoll, and then demonstrating its horrific absorption ability firsthand. Then combat begins. Fantastic Evil Dead humor to start off a combat encounter.
That also has a 60ft fly speed. Now that’s terrifying. Imagine the bone chapel rising into the air and flying after you and then dropping on you? Hmmm although if it’s that big would you rule it as not being able to fly? Or maybe because of its size instead of flying it sort of hovers/crawls on the ground? Or rule it as having to detach a part of itself to fly around but that part is restricted from flying to far away from the chapel? Or even have it detach multiple parts of itself for multiple Bone Yards? Damn any of those listed above would be horrifying. Put any of them together or all of them and I don’t even think an absolute nightmare can begin to describe the horror.
@@wildstorm3486to build off your idea, wouldn't a boneyard of that size be a guagantun undead? If so, can't you use kaiju video that Dungeon Dad released to make something totally terrifying. I mean a chapel made of bones with a laser attack and other abilities would be horrific. I think a boneyard of that size would actually have it's summon skeleton ability replaced with summon boneyard. Edit. Would any extra abilities granted by it's kiaju nature technically add to it's options in terms of natural traps? Plus, I have to thank you for the one-shot idea of the players being part of a society that has crumbled to ash by a plague, only surviving because of many of it's citizen's became necromancers. Now they are under assault by so called force of good, who wish to destroy them. The boneyard chapel acting like a calse in this sense, and the players needing to act as military commanders, with threat scaling as decided by the DM.
@@encryptkitsune341 oh I totally forgot about the Kiaju video. And your welcome for the idea. This right here is my favorite part of Dungon Dad’s videos. The comment section where everyone just vibs out and give ideas and build upon each others ideas. Making them bigger and better then before. Fun for everyone.
I am now imagining a clever druid messing with the necromancer by spreading seeds during the ritual so that when the boneyard is created the seeds sprout and fills the monster, manipulating and using it as an actual skeleton. As the grasping plants are of the opposite energy of what was used in the ritual the two entities end up stabilizing each other and now they function as one new being that the necromancer has no control over.
The main quest-giver is actually a necromancer outsourcing their bone-drive and just sending some minions/henchmen to collect the trail of bodies the players leave behind.
All I can think about is the Gatherers from Amnesia: The Dark Descent following behind an adventuring party and cleaning up the mess they make to get components XD
As a possible plot hook, you could optimise on the 18 intelligence. Lets say the necromancer that made it failed to properly bind it. The boneyard killed it. Then the boneyard realized it could extort the local villages into giving it bones. This would provide a decent plot hook and a spin on the tradition "dumb" undead trope.
So I have actually used this ina 3.5 campaign of my own. The church everyone starts in is "protected" by an angel of decay and the local grocery store, which only has rotted food, has a boneyard in the back protecting the real goods. I plan to use this in my upcoming 5e halloween special. Just dont tell my players.
I wonder if a Boneyard could absorb bones from Wolverine, since they're natural but coated in metal. Imagine an encounter with a Boneyard that has gone after people like that and now has metal teeth to add extra damage, or maybe a tail attack that hits like a giant metal hammer.
That Ghost Knight idea is killer! My idea would a Boneyard that is in fact the entire Catacombs complex underneath a major city. At first the party might of caught of glimpse of Skeletons walking at night, or have been hired by a seemingly innocent patron to find a friend of theirs they expect went missing, or thought to try looting the tombs below as graverobbers. Should they survive and try to convince the Baron and his Tradesmaster of the existence of the horror beneath the city streets, though, they might uncover the city's dark secret; The founder of the city was a Necromancer and the Boneyard has acted as the city's secret defender for centuries. The Boneyard keeps eyes on suspected spies and saboteurs, who end up disappearing in the night, and invading armies get swallowed into its mass. The Skeletons are dispatched to guard the precious warehouses in secret, as well as drag off the feared spies. Maybe it would be a good thing, but the players might not be able to shake the feeling that maybe not everyone who get taken away to join the Boneyard is really a spy; The players might also be filled with dread at the thought that maybe, just maybe, the Baron and his Tradesmaster wouldn't really care if some innocents are sometimes taken away, and they certainly don't want to find out if someone who finds out their secret like them might end up like the "spies" do.
This is a great creature to use in my campaign. I can already imagine the fear one of my party member will feel since he is literally just a skeleton named "J"
"they take the form of a serpent with some kind of beast skull" me a person who is currently running Curse of Strahd and remembers Strahd(a powerful Necromancer) has in his possession the skull of a Silver Dragon: interesting...
Fun way to run this monster. You have your party hunt a necromancer whose a mid level necromancer (level10) that tries to preform the lich ritual. Unbeknownst to the party the necromancer's soul instead gets trapped in their skeleton army turning them into a Boneyard. One the party enters the necromancer's dungeon the party is working with an NPC when they hear the clicking of bones coming from the walls. For some reason they can't see where it's coming from. They fight some skeletons & solve some puzzles when the necromancer starts toying with them. They here their voice echoing throughout halls laughing & taunt them with every encounter or puzzle. After getting to a certain point they enter a high sealing room which they can't see the top of even with dark vision & all of a sudden skeletons drop from the above & the npc gets grab by a formless shape that makes a horrendous cacophony of clicking noises that are only heightened by the wales of the npc which disappears back into the darkness. Two rounds later the party hears a sicken wet plop as they look over to find the skin suit of the npc. To their horror they look up to see a shifting formless mass of bones that laughs exactly like the necromancer but soon becomes more then just the necromancer laughing. Thousands of skull cackle at the party all well describing the join the boneyard derives from it's new form & how they failed in killing the quarry. It here they describe what the Boneyard wants. The party's skeletons! Roll initiative
My players built a chunk of land involving a defunct/abandoned carnival. I was already planning on something creepy... But I think I just found my "roller coaster."
I think the best use you overlooked was as a creature to gather treats for the good dogfolk you covered in a previous video. Maybe it fights off the evil Tabaxi 😜
The variant I made for one of my 3.5 adventures was made of cinders - an amalgam of tortured souls arisen from a huge sacrificial pyre of the BBEG fire giant.
This video couldn't have come out at a better time for me. My players are currently sneaking in the secret base of a cult of Atropus, an undead godlike entity found in the Elder Evils book for 3.5. I'm planning on adapting one of the encounters found in Atropu's section of the book and in it, this creature is the main event. Thank you Dungeon Dad for this unexpected Halloween gift
The thumbnail and that first illustration of the monster with the dragon skull and human bones behind it both remind me of the Japanese gashadokuro - an undead monster consisting of the skeletons of 100 people who died of dehydration forming into a gigantic skeleton.
I can imagine a campaign scenario based on the Adventures hearing about an accursed land that was once the site of an ancient battle and the adventures are sent on a quest for one reason or another there. Finding a massive Bone Yard that blankets the very ground waiting on unsuspecting victims, still fighting a battle it was convinced never ended.
I LOVE Libris Mortis. It contains my favorite prestige class of 3.5e, the Dirgesinger. I'm still sad I've never gotten the chance to play one in a campaign, but I have made Dirgesinger NPCs for campaigns I've DM'd.
I have a Chaotic Neutral Mountain Dwarf Runecarver background Wizard who is planning on School of Necromancy specialization. He primarily plans on reclaiming his family's Ancestral Home that was taken over by an Arch-Lich wearing a strange Crown leading an Army of Undead. So realizes that becoming a Master of Undeath himself is the best way to counter the Arch-Lich. Anyway this Boneyard thing sounds like could be an interesting way to counter the Army as well. Additionally, after he reclaims his Ancestral Home he plans on trying to achieve Apotheosis/Immortality (similar to Myrkul from old D&D Lore or the Tribunal from Elder Scrolls lore).
how about a boneyard being summoned by a lich. party only knows of the lich and finds the phylactery taking it out easily. now the boneyard has nothing to control it and goes on devouring any and all it runs across. the party learns of boneless husks being discovered and has to take out before its collection of skeletons becomes too much to stop.
If anyone wants to up the anty with the Boneyard's moveset, I think a bone dust breath attack that blinds/chokes targets would be a good starting point.
For some reason,when you asked "what's in the tomb", I immediately had an idea that it's a person. This person is either immortal or preserved in some kind of stasis...
An Elephant graveyard being controlled by a necromatic poacher that looks like an elephant hydra, flavor the summoned 1d6 minotaur skeletons as elephant skeletons. Your welcome
Hopefully you'll see this, I think you'll like the idea. I'm running Curse of Strahd with some long time friends and I've done some homebrewing to what Strahd has been doing over the last 300 years. Namely being necromancy and creating abominations. The campaign is Fresh fresh, they just left the death house and are now in proper Barovia. When the group makes it to the Church in town (no spoilers in this) and explores it a bit, I have Strahd showing up In the graveyard and summoning a Boneyard. Well above their level but they also hit above their weight class. So they have a chance to kill it, but if things go poorly for them I have intentions for the creature to flee with someone from Barovia. A side quest initiated. The party isn't all Good aligned so them stopping this creature and or rescuing the Barovian is a way for them to get in good graces with them.
This monster could make a good guard dog. Not only can you give world building exposition on why it is guarding an area, but it also explains why no one has stolen the loot... yet.
You know what would pair very well with the Boneyard? The Boneless-undead bodies that had their bones ripped out of them and seek to have skeletons of their own again. These could be victims of its own bone-collecting, or entities it's allowed to stay with it in exchange for skeletal forms they can cling to-likely skeletons that are too damaged otherwise for it to want to keep within its form, like a houndmaster giving their pets scraps to keep them loyal. Afterall, a Boneless only wants what it lost, and will go to incredible lengths to obtain it-even wrapping itself around other undead so that you get two enemies in one. It's a curious compliment to them-and one could suppose that if a large enough creature became a boneless, you could see an alien sort of symbiosis where the massive boneless has covered the Boneyard, pretending to be a living creature. Not only does this protect the Boneyard's precious bones, it gains protection...and a means to slightly avoid someone detecting what it really is.
I think it would honestly be interesting to have it be built up throughout a campaign by slowly amassing more bones and the party gets glimpses of it. It would just look like a floating clump of bones that occasionally floats by innocently ignoring the party’s existence. Then after killing a hard boss the Boneyard flies in and grabs its skull to use for itself and forces the party to fight it.
I've always wanted to do a mini campaign against the Hecatoncheires because I think he's a cool monster (someday you should make a video of him) but he's got CR 60 so there's no chance. And you just gave me the perfect monster that fits in as a replacement instead of using Tiamat or the Tarrasque like I was thinking of doing. Keep the good job please.
Could see a feral Boneyard being created by accident while trying to make a Draco-Lich. Like halfway through the ritual the dragon changes its mind and moves on to What Comes Next, leaving the body-to-be behind and the ritual-people awful confused when they finish the ritual and the bone arrangement starts to rise up, but then collapses into a pile of bones....and then starts attacking them. With nothing beyond undead instinct controlling it, it starts out as a tough but manageable fight, but the longer the players take to pursue it, the more places it travels to and bones it assimilates, and eventually you might have it attack a town or even a city. Ignore it for too long and it might become a world-level threat. Instead of dropping mere skeletal minions it might drop "baby" Boneyards to spread out in other directions from the main "body" to speed up the gathering process only to come back a few weeks or months later and re-merge with the rest. Perhaps at some point a Lich willingly merges with it and takes control of the roaming boneyard, now increasing the general threat level due to it going from being feral and behaving like an animal or colony of ants to being able to use powerful magics.
Allright this is great, I used this is a Dark Sun style campaign I'm running, where the party has traveled for about 7 sessions across the desert to track down their abducted tribe, only to find the tribe eventually within a mass grave, in the form of this beautiful boneyard. Oh the things a DM does to set up a revenge arc for his players.
Perfect! My players are lvl 13 so the cr is around what I could use + that is one cute boney thing. The weird illithalich might ask them to return to him an experiment that went loos, being smarter then he expexted. The Boneyard already destroying a whole town by the time they get there only to find all the people who lived there to be sacks of violated meat on the geound, without any bones
I got an idea for a oneshot from this at least. Inept necromancer breaks the first rule of necromancy(dont raise what you cant put down) and performs the ritual to create a boneyard... which promptly incorporates the necromancer and their minions into itself and begins a search for more and more bones to add to itself. The boneyard interrogates victims it comes across about the whereabouts of battlefields, graveyards, or whatever would have corpses laying around... and one poor fool tells it about some lost necropolis or catacomb(think paris catacombs) built out of thousands upon thousands of skeletons. The party has to beat the boneyard there and destroy the bones, or face the mountain sized bone colossus it would become if it reaches it first.
Tell me if this is a thing but is there an undead that wants fresh skin. Also just thought of this but what if there was a Dragon that horded the skins of various animals monsters and people like hunter would his kill. Think of the kreepy encounters you can have if the dragon only collected peoples skins.
I like the idea of having a boneyard and a living wall in a cave; The boneyard killed the necromancer that created both it and the living wall, and is hiding to body from the wall. The boneyard captures people who travel the road near the cave, steals their bones, and gives the meat to the wall.
It can only be done through DM's Guild. You can't do it legally because they're all WotC owned. Even D-Dad can't publish them legally outside of DM's Guild.
I am sorry to tell you but the Brain in a Jar already made it to 5E. It was first published in "The Lost Laboratory of Kwalish" and was physically printed in "Rime of the Frostmaiden".
This could be the form of a mythical necromancer who uses one last necromantic ritual as the party defeats him to become the Keeper of Bones. Same action ability, but with necromancy spells as well and the ability to be indistinguishable from a pile of bones. Put this in a laif filled with hundreds of skeletons and allow it to 'burrow' through the bone ground.
It’s funny because Esper the Bard did a video on the most disturbing undead monsters from previous editions, and the boneyard was on his list. I was gonna actually ask for this so I could send this to my dm to murder my party
Be sure to let Esper the Bard know about this video. He's requested a few monsters to be converted as well, and even gave this as one of the suggestions for D-Dad to do up.
Always hated that book title; it's translated wrong "Libris Mortis" = Library of the Dead "Liber Mortis" = Book of the Dead "Necornomicon Ex Mortis" = The Book of Dead Names that Came From the Dead
ok now i NEED to have the leader of a bunch of skeletons yell in the voice of skeletor "all right boys, i think its time to form HYPERSKELETRON!" before transforming into one of these
I recently realized that this would make for a great analog to a Borderlands 2 boss. Those that have gotten to Handsome Jack's Bunker know what I'm talking about. The line in my head that inspired this is the following: "My Boneyard isn't a place. It's a creature."
Im actually really happy for this conversion. I've been trying to convert the bone yard into my campaign, but I was gonna reflavore it into a Scrap Yard. Instead of stealing skeleton it steals anything metal. Even the armor off your back. And it drops a bunch of broken and twisted up constructs.
Idea: Scrapyard Pretty much the same thing, but instead of bones, it's broken machinery parts. Imagine what would happen if it was created in the remains of an abandoned clockwork city...
Intelligence score of 18??? No these designers absolutely need to rethink things. It may be sentient but there's NO WAY that the monster has a intelligence score of 18! And it can fly 60ft a round?? Look I get you want it to be challenging but make it make sense!
Now im imagining one of these that is so ancient and massive, that it takes on the form of a living dungeon, or should I say undead dungeon. Imagine, a Noble family says their kid was exploring a cave nearby, and hasn't returned in days. There's a ghost story about some ancient Lich in the cave, but everybody agrees its just a ghost story ment to scare children. Regardless, the party enters the cave and decends deeper. The cave system is almost like a labyrinth, and will change behind the players without them noticing, and if the players do retrace their steps, their conclusion would be they got turned around. There are several skeleton encounters in the cave system, leading to the idea that the Lich story wasn't as fictional as everyone believes. If the party has detect undead, using it would force a reflex save at the risk of being blinded by the sheer amount of undead energy (They are in a Boneyard, but they dont know it yet). At the bottom, they find the kid's body, but its basically been turned into a skin suit. As the party turns to leave, the cavern closes, and the Boneyard finally reveals itself, saying that there is infact no Lich, the Necromancer who made it was trying to become a Lich, but the Boneyard killed it before it had a chance. Underground, no fleeing as parts of the Boneyard are swirling around the battlefield trapping you, Skeletons constantly being summoned, and this Boneyard attacking the party, It would be one heck of an encounter.
Ok, what if instead of a major encounter, it is used as a "minor" encounter? Since it has a INT score of 18, the DM could use a Rogue Boneyard, who has been freed from his original master, as some kind of a special "black market", hidden deep in the swamps, and that sells special itens in exchange for new sets of bones from foes the adventurers encounter In an horror setting, this could be used as a recurrent shop, where the players are shown the price they have to pay to get what they want/need
Kinda entertaining the idea of a truly ancient boneyard that has lived for many millenia, combing through battlefields across the realm and making deals with mortals to incite as much war as possible, even going so far as doing the demon thing of pretending to be a god and founding an old norse-esque religion with the boneyard's name being some variation of ''Valhalla''. Imagine dying a warrior's death according to your people's beliefs only to become just another meal for an ancient abomination..
Long ago a knight slayed a mighty dragon, and lived a prosperous life after. Though nearing the end of his life he grew to truly fear death. He becomes a necromancer and raises a mass of bones from a cemetery to bring his old body back to the remains of the dragon he slew long ago, believing them to have the power to keep him alive forever. For a long year he rode atop this mass of bones, feeding it the remains of any battlefield or graveyard it passed over. However, the man would die before his quest was over, leaving behind one command for the Boneyard. “Bring my remains there, and let it be done” But that was long ago. Citizens of the land report a large mass of bones floating aimlessly across the countryside, many sets of skeletal arms hanging beneath it clasped in supposed prayer. It has been seeking a guide to Shepard it to its final destination, but what are its true intentions now?
Wait this reminds me of the one post on tumblr where something/someone incorrectly stated how many bones a horse had (it was WAY over). Someone joked that it never said all the bones were from the horse itself and from that the Bone Horse was born. It steals ya bones right out of your body for its collection. So you could have a Boneyard thats a giant horse....
I have no idea how DND necromancy works, but do powdered bones work? (Also how close does a bone need to be to the main mass?) If so then maybe a undead abomination could be in the form of a sandstorm of bone dust. Perhaps occasionally the dust condenses into disembodied limbs to attack the PCs. Then the PCs need to find the central mass of the monster to slay it.
Libris Morris is my favorite 3e book ever written and I still have a copy granted it's my 3rd copy but still love it. My necromancer thats name is my gamer tag created a boneyard it was a loyal companion because of my undead leadership and ki would let it guard the keep I had
i think an interesting idea for a boneyard is since its form isent set it could potentially masquerade as other kinds of undead, one might appear as a dracolich, sure thats a bunch of skulls shoved in the ribcage but undead wearing bones for fashions not anything new, its only the parties more educated members that might realize somethings up in that its head more resmebles a giant serpents then any of the common dragon types, yet it clearly has 4 legs and wings which no serpent has.... sublte hints that might tell the players that there preperations to fight an undead dragon might be a bit off
Thus monster makes me think of skeleton computer. The idea that you could cobble enough dumb undead together to make a computer or even make an artificial intelligence through the dark ones and zeros
Totally using this in my modern game. The party hears about a break in at the museum. All the skeletons are gone and in a room there are strange graffiti all over. Then while they are looking around they hear a scream. By a little used exit they find the remains of a human that has had its skeleton tore out. (The one who did the spell, just poorly). Then drop little things throughout the games. Starting out with more skeletons being stolen from various places. Remains of homeless people and other disadvantaged peoples. All leading up to the mystery. Maybe even have it take over a local crime organization. It lives in a meat packing facility that the organization owned and collects bones there but still wants to hunt at night.
Do you think you could convert some monsters from your "Monsters That Should Be In Spelljammer" vid since the majority of the rad ones you mentioned didn't make it in?
Thanks for watching gang!
It would mean the world to me if you wanted to check out my kickstarter, which is going live next week!: www.kickstarter.com/projects/mrtarrasque/the-quintessential-guide-to-monster-encounters
I hope you do some Dark Sun monsters soon love your content keep up the great work
You know what's a crying shame? I had homebrewed a monster called the 'Pandemonium of Bones', basically the Boneyard with a few extra steps, only to find the Boneyard later when I'm looking through personal older D&D books I pulled off Google Drive. I was so disappointed that someone beat me to the punch.
And then I also realized that, after reading the stat block, my Pandemonium of Bones was so much worse (for the party) as an encounter. That definitely made me feel better.
@@demiurgusgodofform8589 The Pathfinder 3.5 bonestorm is also something to look at. It's much worse than the boneyard.
@@KevinVideo
Found that too. It's on my "evolutionary" path for the Boneyard, going from the relatively small Boneyard all the way up to the Armageddon of Bones, which would completely cover the entirety of Vermont.
No burrowing, was surprised it didn't go in and out of the ground like a bone worm. Especially for gathering buried bones and easy food for it. intelligent ambusher would up the lethality too.
"Then she beat Jimmy to death with his own skull."
"What? That doesn't seem physically possible."
"That's exactly what Jimmy kept screaming!"
A fellow man of culture, I see
I’ve got a player who, through Red Wizard rituals and the blessing of the undead dragon god Null, has become a living death knight skeleton.
Gonna throw this thing at him and actually beat him with his own skull.
Now this is the commentary I expected!
Wahhahahahahah HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE "SpongeBob voice"
@@maxspecsXD hahahaha that mans not gonna have enough fouces to resist.
What a great monster that could be used to convince the party that the necromancer that made it is still alive, when the necromancer has more than likely become part of it
That is a very spooky idea
A bone yard with spell casting because of how it's consumed a necromancer.
@@ragemodeonline7778 I was just thinking some clever Necromancer or Boneyard would see a Hydra and go "More Heads=More Bite Attacks Per Turn= More Bones Yanked out!", and we get the Bone Hydra.
@@brettwood1351 I love the Idea of a Boneyard harvesting the regrowing heads of a hydra for bones
@@mrmagmacube6332 Any monsters that can regenerate bones would be a prime target, honestly. Hydra heads, rip the arms off Trolls, etc.
Idea: A Boneyard has taken up residence in a small town's cemetery generations ago, and over time became something of an 'old wiseman' to the settlement. Presenting itself as the amalgamized spirit of the town's ancestors, it gives general advice on a myriad of mundane topics.
It's just calmly talking about crop rotation, while they throw in some chicken bones.
@@brettwood1351 Heh, and of course it is fine with this arrangement as it likes having a steady supply of new bones, and will protect the town.... (And woe to anyone that attacks the town.... Who needs walls when you have a Boneyard protecting your town because it's smart enough to know that the townsfolk are fine with it eating their dead in exchange for it's protection.... Especially when it can eat the towns enemies too...)
Lives in the town's mausoleum, summons skeletons to handle mundane chore
@@minnion2871 And not only do you have to deal with it and it's skeletal minions, but the town's militia will be plinking away at you with arrows from inside their houses.
I may just use this, if you don't mind...👀
welcome to the b o n e z o n e
Certifiably spooked
This is a no bone zone.
@@BeanoTheElderit’s always a zone of the bone
I want to get off Mr. Bones's Wild Ride.
@@thebastard890you can’t Mr Bones Wild Ride never stops
Giving the boneyard any form is asking for an innuendo loving necromancer to create "BoneTown".
"The Boner"
Somehow I feel this would affect a lot of Necromancers motivations considerably.
Welcome to the Bone Zone
A DM once misspoke, and ran with it.
We had to fight a giant amalgamation of boners.
@@Kydrou As I learned from that one memetic Batman comic, that can also mean a dumb mistake. Which would also be an interesting monster.
A Boneyard mount could be nicknamed "Mr. Bones wild ride" thus my love for skeletons has grown immensely
I want to get off Mr. Bones' wild ride, said no one as Mr. Bones was fucking wicked to have around
Settle down ok?
my little boney
It either goes by the name Wild Ride or _insists_ on Being refered to as Mr.Bone's Wild Ride.
Dungeon idea: The dungeon *is* the Boneyard, in the form of a large, undead castle of bones, where a powerful necromancer currently resides. Traps set up throughout the dungeon are just places where the Boneyard can get a hold on you to try and steal your bones, and in the necromancer's boss room, he can command the Boneyard to attack the party directly.
I was just thinking of a similar idea, with like a Paris catacombs vibe of people that were killed by disease and the catacombs being their mass grave
Not to mention it's a FLYING bone castle! That somehow always lands over graveyards, hmm...
Question: how would you run that, mechanically? Because I can totally picture a squad of adventurers fighting the section that tried until it stops moving, so you’d need to section off chunks or something?
Would you give each room its own set of HP, or just the parts that attack, or maybe you just have a number of “normal” boneyards that you let phase in and out of the walls and floors and stuff, and it isn’t until they all die that the magic changes?
Literally fighting the necromancers flying undead skeleton castle until it crashes into the ground and collapses sounds like a great penultimate session for an arc about a necromancer. I’ve been approached recently about DMing a group, and I’ll tuck that away for later.
Or maybe first. Solid chase arc when they’re low level and can’t keep up with it yet, fixing problems and leveling up until they can catch it. Trying to fight their way inside, realizing the castles an enemy itself, fighting that, big ol’ Wizard dual on the wreckage. That’s not a bad module.
@@demonzabrak I was actually thinking something along the lines of specific walls and traps being statted out as skeletal Living Walls, perhaps even with the front entrance being blocked by a Living Wall that the party has to defeat before they can get in.
As for the Boneyard itself, I was thinking of it as a second phase or true final boss after defeating the Necromancer. Picture this: After the party has explored the castle, fighting their way through walls and skeletons as they went, they finally take out the big bad Necromancer. However, now the Boneyard is without a master. The party must now escape back through the castle as the rooms are shifting and being closed off around them. Once the party is safely outside, the Boneyard transforms into its serpentine form, and the group must take down this giant skeletal terror to stop it from wreaking havoc across the land.
@@tacoman6697 nice. It’s tough to convince a party to escape, so really sell the walls closing in part.
I imagine you could RP a boneyard acting like a mech suit for a necromancer. Necromechromancer if you will.
From the 3.5e description: “However, unlike a skeleton or similar monster, a boneyard’s form is fluid in the sense that it can appear merely as a pile of bones, or as a serpent composed of bones, or some other form of its choice.”
I’d give it a slam attack it could use in addition to the bite, let the mancer sling spells. Size huge, so there should be bones enough to make a 15 foot tall human shaped mass, guy embedded in the chest, possibly visible. Could work.
This is basically the first homebrew monster we ever threw at our players.
Players: That's it? A hoard of skeletons? Why are we still fighting skeletons at our level?
DM: The shattered bones begin to move again, this time joining together into a single monster: a massive spider cobbled together from dozens of human skeletons.
Players: Oh.
Players: Oh.
Veteran player: Oh no.
DM: Oh no is right. Roll for initiative.
@@lordbalthosadinferni4384 1st edition had a skeleton spider...it drained a whole level on a failed con save EVERY BITE.
But then undead were far far scarier in 1st.
, it’s a, wait what!?
@@Nempo13so basiclu true vets would have absute PTSD levels of OH GOD NO in their vaina
This is 100% the scene I'd set in my mind: the party tracks down some put upon noble or necromancer they've been pursuing. They arrive to find out they are too late, the ancient scroll crumbles as it is cast and the villain makes their triumphant speech only to be interrupted by the Boneyard biting them, shaking their corpse like a ragdoll, and then demonstrating its horrific absorption ability firsthand. Then combat begins. Fantastic Evil Dead humor to start off a combat encounter.
I'm just saying you could have a chapel made of bones that is also a Bone Yard.
This guy bones
That also has a 60ft fly speed. Now that’s terrifying. Imagine the bone chapel rising into the air and flying after you and then dropping on you?
Hmmm although if it’s that big would you rule it as not being able to fly? Or maybe because of its size instead of flying it sort of hovers/crawls on the ground?
Or rule it as having to detach a part of itself to fly around but that part is restricted from flying to far away from the chapel?
Or even have it detach multiple parts of itself for multiple Bone Yards?
Damn any of those listed above would be horrifying. Put any of them together or all of them and I don’t even think an absolute nightmare can begin to describe the horror.
@@wildstorm3486to build off your idea, wouldn't a boneyard of that size be a guagantun undead? If so, can't you use kaiju video that Dungeon Dad released to make something totally terrifying. I mean a chapel made of bones with a laser attack and other abilities would be horrific.
I think a boneyard of that size would actually have it's summon skeleton ability replaced with summon boneyard.
Edit. Would any extra abilities granted by it's kiaju nature technically add to it's options in terms of natural traps?
Plus, I have to thank you for the one-shot idea of the players being part of a society that has crumbled to ash by a plague, only surviving because of many of it's citizen's became necromancers. Now they are under assault by so called force of good, who wish to destroy them. The boneyard chapel acting like a calse in this sense, and the players needing to act as military commanders, with threat scaling as decided by the DM.
@@encryptkitsune341 oh I totally forgot about the Kiaju video. And your welcome for the idea.
This right here is my favorite part of Dungon Dad’s videos. The comment section where everyone just vibs out and give ideas and build upon each others ideas. Making them bigger and better then before. Fun for everyone.
@@wildstorm3486 tentacles... bone tentacles... that each function as Boneyards. 😆
The Catacombs of Paris contain over six million remains. IMO that provides an awesome inspiration for a setting.
i was just thinking that
a boneyard the size of a kaiju?
i dont think that would be a boneyard anymore, thats a bone mile
Created by Lich King Napoleon, possibly to fight Nazis.
Because "As Above, So Below" didn't already make the Parisian Catacombs terrifying enough...
@@atomicbuttocks Eh, I'd say it's a Bone Acre
I am now imagining a clever druid messing with the necromancer by spreading seeds during the ritual so that when the boneyard is created the seeds sprout and fills the monster, manipulating and using it as an actual skeleton. As the grasping plants are of the opposite energy of what was used in the ritual the two entities end up stabilizing each other and now they function as one new being that the necromancer has no control over.
🕹️
You now have a unholy abomination of bone and plant, flying around, stealing dragon skeletons
Reminds me of what usop did against bullet in a one piece movie tbh
Slight point I wanted to make you aware of. The brain in a jar, mentioned at 1:35, is already in 5e. It's in Van Richten's guide to Ravenloth.
Reprinted from Icewind Dale Rime of the Frostmaiden
@@KevinVideo Well I never
Why do I feel like a Brain in a Jar, and an Mind Flayer encountering each other would be hilarious?
And before that it was in sandy Petersons 5e mythos
KILL THE DEMON!!!!!
The main quest-giver is actually a necromancer outsourcing their bone-drive and just sending some minions/henchmen to collect the trail of bodies the players leave behind.
All I can think about is the Gatherers from Amnesia: The Dark Descent following behind an adventuring party and cleaning up the mess they make to get components XD
@@stingerjohnny9951that is a setting RIPE for and if ya ask me.
As a possible plot hook, you could optimise on the 18 intelligence. Lets say the necromancer that made it failed to properly bind it. The boneyard killed it. Then the boneyard realized it could extort the local villages into giving it bones. This would provide a decent plot hook and a spin on the tradition "dumb" undead trope.
"They can f*cking fly" absolutely killed me. This creature is cool as hell. Great work dude!
So I have actually used this ina 3.5 campaign of my own. The church everyone starts in is "protected" by an angel of decay and the local grocery store, which only has rotted food, has a boneyard in the back protecting the real goods. I plan to use this in my upcoming 5e halloween special. Just dont tell my players.
Is the Boneyard created from the bones from the butcher's shop?
@@brianroberts783 Its up to the dm but mine is
@@JebusKristSuperstar Is it actually interested in protecting the town or is it just exploiting the town?
@@stingerjohnny9951 it was summoned to help with the whole plan in the adventure so its more of an obstacle
A necromancer sets up shop outside the equivalent of a KFC and scuttles away with all the bones in the trash. The Chicken Boneyard.
Breaking the system
I wonder if a Boneyard could absorb bones from Wolverine, since they're natural but coated in metal. Imagine an encounter with a Boneyard that has gone after people like that and now has metal teeth to add extra damage, or maybe a tail attack that hits like a giant metal hammer.
Yeah. Like a boneyard so old and powerful it started hunting young dragon's. And has almost completed it's new form
Libris Mortis is such a GOATed book. The Corpsecrafter/Destructive Retribution feat chain was pure cheesy goodness
That Ghost Knight idea is killer! My idea would a Boneyard that is in fact the entire Catacombs complex underneath a major city. At first the party might of caught of glimpse of Skeletons walking at night, or have been hired by a seemingly innocent patron to find a friend of theirs they expect went missing, or thought to try looting the tombs below as graverobbers. Should they survive and try to convince the Baron and his Tradesmaster of the existence of the horror beneath the city streets, though, they might uncover the city's dark secret; The founder of the city was a Necromancer and the Boneyard has acted as the city's secret defender for centuries. The Boneyard keeps eyes on suspected spies and saboteurs, who end up disappearing in the night, and invading armies get swallowed into its mass. The Skeletons are dispatched to guard the precious warehouses in secret, as well as drag off the feared spies. Maybe it would be a good thing, but the players might not be able to shake the feeling that maybe not everyone who get taken away to join the Boneyard is really a spy; The players might also be filled with dread at the thought that maybe, just maybe, the Baron and his Tradesmaster wouldn't really care if some innocents are sometimes taken away, and they certainly don't want to find out if someone who finds out their secret like them might end up like the "spies" do.
So the Paris catacombs
This is a great creature to use in my campaign.
I can already imagine the fear one of my party member will feel since he is literally just a skeleton named "J"
He might be immune, being a sentient skeleton
AT LONG LAST!
I'm always psyched to see Libris Mortis content. Such a cool book.
Remember, you just have to add on F, and Undead becomes Fundead!
"they take the form of a serpent with some kind of beast skull"
me a person who is currently running Curse of Strahd and remembers Strahd(a powerful Necromancer) has in his possession the skull of a Silver Dragon: interesting...
I hope your little spice trick gave your players a heart attack but just cool pet for strahd.
“But did you know that they’re eager to be ripped out of your body?” No, and I wish I didn’t now.
Awesome video. Keep up the great work man!
Thanks!!
Fun way to run this monster.
You have your party hunt a necromancer whose a mid level necromancer (level10) that tries to preform the lich ritual. Unbeknownst to the party the necromancer's soul instead gets trapped in their skeleton army turning them into a Boneyard.
One the party enters the necromancer's dungeon the party is working with an NPC when they hear the clicking of bones coming from the walls. For some reason they can't see where it's coming from. They fight some skeletons & solve some puzzles when the necromancer starts toying with them. They here their voice echoing throughout halls laughing & taunt them with every encounter or puzzle.
After getting to a certain point they enter a high sealing room which they can't see the top of even with dark vision & all of a sudden skeletons drop from the above & the npc gets grab by a formless shape that makes a horrendous cacophony of clicking noises that are only heightened by the wales of the npc which disappears back into the darkness. Two rounds later the party hears a sicken wet plop as they look over to find the skin suit of the npc. To their horror they look up to see a shifting formless mass of bones that laughs exactly like the necromancer but soon becomes more then just the necromancer laughing. Thousands of skull cackle at the party all well describing the join the boneyard derives from it's new form & how they failed in killing the quarry.
It here they describe what the Boneyard wants. The party's skeletons! Roll initiative
Man, you are just too kind. And though it is a day short, no big deal. The Monster is worth it.
The fact that they want to consume more bones gave me the idea that the Boneyard is basically a zombie apocalypse only with skeletons
My players built a chunk of land involving a defunct/abandoned carnival. I was already planning on something creepy... But I think I just found my "roller coaster."
Skeleton oooo
Monster skeleton made of skeletons OOOOO
3spooky5me
The Boneyard is my all time favorite 3.5 monster, despite me having more experience with 5e. Glad to see it finally converted!
I think the best use you overlooked was as a creature to gather treats for the good dogfolk you covered in a previous video. Maybe it fights off the evil Tabaxi 😜
Gotta love that ds3 art
Wolnir is just the greatest. The artist who did this one is also the greatest: www.artstation.com/artwork/lxeDak
I was wondering when I would find a comment talking about it
The variant I made for one of my 3.5 adventures was made of cinders - an amalgam of tortured souls arisen from a huge sacrificial pyre of the BBEG fire giant.
This video couldn't have come out at a better time for me. My players are currently sneaking in the secret base of a cult of Atropus, an undead godlike entity found in the Elder Evils book for 3.5. I'm planning on adapting one of the encounters found in Atropu's section of the book and in it, this creature is the main event. Thank you Dungeon Dad for this unexpected Halloween gift
Boneyard rolling towards a party like the Indiana Jones boulder. It appears to just be a thematic trap, when it's actually a monster!
If I had a nickel for every D&D monster that was just "a pile of dead stuff", I'd have about $3 total by now.
The thumbnail and that first illustration of the monster with the dragon skull and human bones behind it both remind me of the Japanese gashadokuro - an undead monster consisting of the skeletons of 100 people who died of dehydration forming into a gigantic skeleton.
Because that’s what it’s based off of. It’s a boss from Dark Souls 3
@@SeanHiruki It's a really cool interpretation of the gashadokuro, then. I'm a sucker for skeletal undead, though.
I can imagine a campaign scenario based on the Adventures hearing about an accursed land that was once the site of an ancient battle and the adventures are sent on a quest for one reason or another there. Finding a massive Bone Yard that blankets the very ground waiting on unsuspecting victims, still fighting a battle it was convinced never ended.
I LOVE Libris Mortis. It contains my favorite prestige class of 3.5e, the Dirgesinger. I'm still sad I've never gotten the chance to play one in a campaign, but I have made Dirgesinger NPCs for campaigns I've DM'd.
0:41 i really thought he was going to say “because what this character lacks in meat, it makes up for in potassium.”
I have a Chaotic Neutral Mountain Dwarf Runecarver background Wizard who is planning on School of Necromancy specialization. He primarily plans on reclaiming his family's Ancestral Home that was taken over by an Arch-Lich wearing a strange Crown leading an Army of Undead. So realizes that becoming a Master of Undeath himself is the best way to counter the Arch-Lich.
Anyway this Boneyard thing sounds like could be an interesting way to counter the Army as well.
Additionally, after he reclaims his Ancestral Home he plans on trying to achieve Apotheosis/Immortality (similar to Myrkul from old D&D Lore or the Tribunal from Elder Scrolls lore).
notification gang
finally some spooktober vibes
how about a boneyard being summoned by a lich. party only knows of the lich and finds the phylactery taking it out easily. now the boneyard has nothing to control it and goes on devouring any and all it runs across. the party learns of boneless husks being discovered and has to take out before its collection of skeletons becomes too much to stop.
If anyone wants to up the anty with the Boneyard's moveset, I think a bone dust breath attack that blinds/chokes targets would be a good starting point.
For some reason,when you asked "what's in the tomb", I immediately had an idea that it's a person. This person is either immortal or preserved in some kind of stasis...
An Elephant graveyard being controlled by a necromatic poacher that looks like an elephant hydra, flavor the summoned 1d6 minotaur skeletons as elephant skeletons.
Your welcome
imagine a giant boneyard grown over many years fighting a genius loci
Hopefully you'll see this, I think you'll like the idea. I'm running Curse of Strahd with some long time friends and I've done some homebrewing to what Strahd has been doing over the last 300 years. Namely being necromancy and creating abominations. The campaign is Fresh fresh, they just left the death house and are now in proper Barovia. When the group makes it to the Church in town (no spoilers in this) and explores it a bit, I have Strahd showing up In the graveyard and summoning a Boneyard. Well above their level but they also hit above their weight class. So they have a chance to kill it, but if things go poorly for them I have intentions for the creature to flee with someone from Barovia. A side quest initiated. The party isn't all Good aligned so them stopping this creature and or rescuing the Barovian is a way for them to get in good graces with them.
This monster could make a good guard dog. Not only can you give world building exposition on why it is guarding an area, but it also explains why no one has stolen the loot... yet.
You know what would pair very well with the Boneyard?
The Boneless-undead bodies that had their bones ripped out of them and seek to have skeletons of their own again. These could be victims of its own bone-collecting, or entities it's allowed to stay with it in exchange for skeletal forms they can cling to-likely skeletons that are too damaged otherwise for it to want to keep within its form, like a houndmaster giving their pets scraps to keep them loyal.
Afterall, a Boneless only wants what it lost, and will go to incredible lengths to obtain it-even wrapping itself around other undead so that you get two enemies in one. It's a curious compliment to them-and one could suppose that if a large enough creature became a boneless, you could see an alien sort of symbiosis where the massive boneless has covered the Boneyard, pretending to be a living creature. Not only does this protect the Boneyard's precious bones, it gains protection...and a means to slightly avoid someone detecting what it really is.
I think it would honestly be interesting to have it be built up throughout a campaign by slowly amassing more bones and the party gets glimpses of it. It would just look like a floating clump of bones that occasionally floats by innocently ignoring the party’s existence. Then after killing a hard boss the Boneyard flies in and grabs its skull to use for itself and forces the party to fight it.
I love that idea
Know what makes a great boneyard? A giant hand. Takes the Kids in the Hall "I'm crushing your head" to a whole new level. 👍
I've always wanted to do a mini campaign against the Hecatoncheires because I think he's a cool monster (someday you should make a video of him) but he's got CR 60 so there's no chance. And you just gave me the perfect monster that fits in as a replacement instead of using Tiamat or the Tarrasque like I was thinking of doing.
Keep the good job please.
Could see a feral Boneyard being created by accident while trying to make a Draco-Lich. Like halfway through the ritual the dragon changes its mind and moves on to What Comes Next, leaving the body-to-be behind and the ritual-people awful confused when they finish the ritual and the bone arrangement starts to rise up, but then collapses into a pile of bones....and then starts attacking them. With nothing beyond undead instinct controlling it, it starts out as a tough but manageable fight, but the longer the players take to pursue it, the more places it travels to and bones it assimilates, and eventually you might have it attack a town or even a city. Ignore it for too long and it might become a world-level threat.
Instead of dropping mere skeletal minions it might drop "baby" Boneyards to spread out in other directions from the main "body" to speed up the gathering process only to come back a few weeks or months later and re-merge with the rest. Perhaps at some point a Lich willingly merges with it and takes control of the roaming boneyard, now increasing the general threat level due to it going from being feral and behaving like an animal or colony of ants to being able to use powerful magics.
Great video! Have you done one on the Skull Lord?
Also this thing would make a great mount for a death knight.
Skull Lord already exists in 5e since Tome of Foes and then redone for Monsters of the Multiverse.
Allright this is great, I used this is a Dark Sun style campaign I'm running, where the party has traveled for about 7 sessions across the desert to track down their abducted tribe, only to find the tribe eventually within a mass grave, in the form of this beautiful boneyard.
Oh the things a DM does to set up a revenge arc for his players.
Perfect! My players are lvl 13 so the cr is around what I could use + that is one cute boney thing.
The weird illithalich might ask them to return to him an experiment that went loos, being smarter then he expexted. The Boneyard already destroying a whole town by the time they get there only to find all the people who lived there to be sacks of violated meat on the geound, without any bones
Micro bone yard. Made of small bones, for a party pet 😈
I got an idea for a oneshot from this at least. Inept necromancer breaks the first rule of necromancy(dont raise what you cant put down) and performs the ritual to create a boneyard... which promptly incorporates the necromancer and their minions into itself and begins a search for more and more bones to add to itself. The boneyard interrogates victims it comes across about the whereabouts of battlefields, graveyards, or whatever would have corpses laying around... and one poor fool tells it about some lost necropolis or catacomb(think paris catacombs) built out of thousands upon thousands of skeletons. The party has to beat the boneyard there and destroy the bones, or face the mountain sized bone colossus it would become if it reaches it first.
Tell me if this is a thing but is there an undead that wants fresh skin. Also just thought of this but what if there was a Dragon that horded the skins of various animals monsters and people like hunter would his kill. Think of the kreepy encounters you can have if the dragon only collected peoples skins.
I like the idea of having a boneyard and a living wall in a cave;
The boneyard killed the necromancer that created both it and the living wall, and is hiding to body from the wall.
The boneyard captures people who travel the road near the cave, steals their bones, and gives the meat to the wall.
I was wondering what the legality would be if I wanted to make a published adventure using any of dungeon dads creatures.
It can only be done through DM's Guild. You can't do it legally because they're all WotC owned. Even D-Dad can't publish them legally outside of DM's Guild.
Man, you're editing just ramped up to 100 man, for such a small channel the quality is very high. I love these videos so much!
I am sorry to tell you but the Brain in a Jar already made it to 5E. It was first published in "The Lost Laboratory of Kwalish" and was physically printed in "Rime of the Frostmaiden".
And Van Richten's Guide, as well as a variant of it in Infernal Machine Build.
I can imagine a boneyard being sommoned and the. Immediately killing the sommoner
Loved this episode!!! and I always loved your content! Cannot wait to see the kickstarter opened, keep it up with your amazing work!
This could be the form of a mythical necromancer who uses one last necromantic ritual as the party defeats him to become the Keeper of Bones. Same action ability, but with necromancy spells as well and the ability to be indistinguishable from a pile of bones. Put this in a laif filled with hundreds of skeletons and allow it to 'burrow' through the bone ground.
It’s funny because Esper the Bard did a video on the most disturbing undead monsters from previous editions, and the boneyard was on his list. I was gonna actually ask for this so I could send this to my dm to murder my party
Be sure to let Esper the Bard know about this video. He's requested a few monsters to be converted as well, and even gave this as one of the suggestions for D-Dad to do up.
Always hated that book title; it's translated wrong
"Libris Mortis" = Library of the Dead
"Liber Mortis" = Book of the Dead
"Necornomicon Ex Mortis" = The Book of Dead Names that Came From the Dead
ok now i NEED to have the leader of a bunch of skeletons yell in the voice of skeletor "all right boys, i think its time to form HYPERSKELETRON!" before transforming into one of these
I recently realized that this would make for a great analog to a Borderlands 2 boss.
Those that have gotten to Handsome Jack's Bunker know what I'm talking about.
The line in my head that inspired this is the following:
"My Boneyard isn't a place. It's a creature."
Saw the thumbnail, came for the prospect of a D&D and Dark Souls crossover. Disappointed 😂. Wolnir would make a pretty cool undead creature in D&D.
Im actually really happy for this conversion. I've been trying to convert the bone yard into my campaign, but I was gonna reflavore it into a Scrap Yard.
Instead of stealing skeleton it steals anything metal. Even the armor off your back.
And it drops a bunch of broken and twisted up constructs.
Idea: Scrapyard
Pretty much the same thing, but instead of bones, it's broken machinery parts. Imagine what would happen if it was created in the remains of an abandoned clockwork city...
Intelligence score of 18??? No these designers absolutely need to rethink things. It may be sentient but there's NO WAY that the monster has a intelligence score of 18! And it can fly 60ft a round?? Look I get you want it to be challenging but make it make sense!
Now im imagining one of these that is so ancient and massive, that it takes on the form of a living dungeon, or should I say undead dungeon.
Imagine, a Noble family says their kid was exploring a cave nearby, and hasn't returned in days. There's a ghost story about some ancient Lich in the cave, but everybody agrees its just a ghost story ment to scare children. Regardless, the party enters the cave and decends deeper. The cave system is almost like a labyrinth, and will change behind the players without them noticing, and if the players do retrace their steps, their conclusion would be they got turned around. There are several skeleton encounters in the cave system, leading to the idea that the Lich story wasn't as fictional as everyone believes. If the party has detect undead, using it would force a reflex save at the risk of being blinded by the sheer amount of undead energy (They are in a Boneyard, but they dont know it yet). At the bottom, they find the kid's body, but its basically been turned into a skin suit. As the party turns to leave, the cavern closes, and the Boneyard finally reveals itself, saying that there is infact no Lich, the Necromancer who made it was trying to become a Lich, but the Boneyard killed it before it had a chance.
Underground, no fleeing as parts of the Boneyard are swirling around the battlefield trapping you, Skeletons constantly being summoned, and this Boneyard attacking the party, It would be one heck of an encounter.
Ok, what if instead of a major encounter, it is used as a "minor" encounter?
Since it has a INT score of 18, the DM could use a Rogue Boneyard, who has been freed from his original master, as some kind of a special "black market", hidden deep in the swamps, and that sells special itens in exchange for new sets of bones from foes the adventurers encounter
In an horror setting, this could be used as a recurrent shop, where the players are shown the price they have to pay to get what they want/need
This is my new favorite channel thanks dude.
Kinda entertaining the idea of a truly ancient boneyard that has lived for many millenia, combing through battlefields across the realm and making deals with mortals to incite as much war as possible, even going so far as doing the demon thing of pretending to be a god and founding an old norse-esque religion with the boneyard's name being some variation of ''Valhalla''.
Imagine dying a warrior's death according to your people's beliefs only to become just another meal for an ancient abomination..
Long ago a knight slayed a mighty dragon, and lived a prosperous life after. Though nearing the end of his life he grew to truly fear death. He becomes a necromancer and raises a mass of bones from a cemetery to bring his old body back to the remains of the dragon he slew long ago, believing them to have the power to keep him alive forever. For a long year he rode atop this mass of bones, feeding it the remains of any battlefield or graveyard it passed over. However, the man would die before his quest was over, leaving behind one command for the Boneyard. “Bring my remains there, and let it be done”
But that was long ago. Citizens of the land report a large mass of bones floating aimlessly across the countryside, many sets of skeletal arms hanging beneath it clasped in supposed prayer. It has been seeking a guide to Shepard it to its final destination, but what are its true intentions now?
Wait this reminds me of the one post on tumblr where something/someone incorrectly stated how many bones a horse had (it was WAY over).
Someone joked that it never said all the bones were from the horse itself and from that the Bone Horse was born.
It steals ya bones right out of your body for its collection. So you could have a Boneyard thats a giant horse....
I have no idea how DND necromancy works, but do powdered bones work? (Also how close does a bone need to be to the main mass?)
If so then maybe a undead abomination could be in the form of a sandstorm of bone dust.
Perhaps occasionally the dust condenses into disembodied limbs to attack the PCs.
Then the PCs need to find the central mass of the monster to slay it.
Libris Morris is my favorite 3e book ever written and I still have a copy granted it's my 3rd copy but still love it.
My necromancer thats name is my gamer tag created a boneyard it was a loyal companion because of my undead leadership and ki would let it guard the keep I had
Imagine how helpful a good alignment nerco could make a boneyard.
You could've said "what it lacks in meat, it makes up for it with BONEfide potential
i think an interesting idea for a boneyard is since its form isent set it could potentially masquerade as other kinds of undead, one might appear as a dracolich, sure thats a bunch of skulls shoved in the ribcage but undead wearing bones for fashions not anything new, its only the parties more educated members that might realize somethings up in that its head more resmebles a giant serpents then any of the common dragon types, yet it clearly has 4 legs and wings which no serpent has.... sublte hints that might tell the players that there preperations to fight an undead dragon might be a bit off
Thus monster makes me think of skeleton computer.
The idea that you could cobble enough dumb undead together to make a computer or even make an artificial intelligence through the dark ones and zeros
Bro if I ever become a necromancer I’m gonna spend my life skulking around KFC dumpsters
Totally using this in my modern game. The party hears about a break in at the museum. All the skeletons are gone and in a room there are strange graffiti all over. Then while they are looking around they hear a scream. By a little used exit they find the remains of a human that has had its skeleton tore out. (The one who did the spell, just poorly). Then drop little things throughout the games. Starting out with more skeletons being stolen from various places. Remains of homeless people and other disadvantaged peoples. All leading up to the mystery. Maybe even have it take over a local crime organization. It lives in a meat packing facility that the organization owned and collects bones there but still wants to hunt at night.
Why is it always “foreshadowing for later”? Why not foreshadow for right now, or foreshadow for earlier in case we weren’t paying attention?
Do you think you could convert some monsters from your "Monsters That Should Be In Spelljammer" vid since the majority of the rad ones you mentioned didn't make it in?
"D&D's Spookiest Skeleton." Wjolnir on the thumbnail. Love it.
2:36 "Especially the Paladin" I TAKE OFFENCE TO THIS.
Boneyard? Wasn't that one of the Sixth Doctor's insults in Trial of a Time Lord?
I absolutely love the voice acting for this fellah, feels like I'm back in Glasgow
Friendly boneyard just de-boning all the meat at the local butcher's shop.
IT CAN FLY? OF COURSE IT FUCKING FLIES