D&D 5E Adamantine Skeleton?

[Elon Tusk]

Let's say I have a dwarf barbarian NPC that has an adamantine skeleton (and adamantine spikes embedded into his hands).

How would you handle an adamantine skeleton?
Adamantine armor is supposed to make any critical hits into normal hits (that works), but that doesn't sound like enough of a benefit on its own.

Adamantine armor would normally give an AC bonus, but as a skeleton it doesn't seem like it would increase AC because it wouldn't prevent tissue damage.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

First I'd make sure Marvel isn't going to file an injunction.

 

[jasper]

Being nice. +1 to ac. Vorpal/Sharpness work but when their special effect is activated, both the weapon and limb/head are destroyed.

 

[jaelis]

Negating critical hits sounds pretty good to me.

But if you want more impact, perhaps resistance to bludgeoning damage?

 

[Blue]

Negate crits, definitely.

Plus maybe one of:

• Resistance to Bludgeoning
• Advantage on CON checks and saves (note: synergizes really well with barbarian Relentless Rage at 11th)
• Advantage on Hit Dice rolls

EDIT: Ninja'd by [MENTION=60210]jaelis[/MENTION]

 

[Elon Tusk]

Being nice. +1 to ac. Vorpal/Sharpness work but when their special effect is activated, both the weapon and limb/head are destroyed.

Maybe no critical hits is good enough, but it sure seems like this benefit should do more than that.
I thought about resistances, but in this instance barbarian is already giving those.

Would either of these worK:
- gives a -5 to bl, pr, & sl damage (similar to Heavy Armor Mastery)
- caps bl, pr, & sl damage from a single attack at a certain number (not sure what number that might be though)

 

[jasper]

I am okay with the heavy armour mastery.

 

[Caliban]

Death within a month unless they also have matching regeneration powers.

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[Coroc]

Hm eventually some homebrew variant of a rust Monster? That would be for a gory death, his Skeleton dissolving and leaving a heap of flesh.

 

[Iry]

Resistance to Bashing.
+1 to AC.

The main benefit of a metal skeleton is having a much harder time breaking bones, and to a much lesser extent having a harder time getting to the soft squishy bits inside your rib cage / shoulder blades because those bones won't shatter. But the skeleton doesn't do anything to stop tissue damage, blood loss, or tender organs getting punctured and leaking vital fluids all over the place. In fact, there's no good reason to give them immunity to critical hits in general, unless the only critical hits you can imagine are broken bones.

So Resistance to Bashing because bones cannot break, and +1 to AC because the bones do provide some minimal protection against weapons penetrating the rib cage / shoulder blades. But even that is stretching things. A bludgeoning hit to the head should still do horrible damage as the brain is smushed by the transfer of force.

Also, you know, the whole horrible death because his skeleton is metal. But I'm guessing you're handwaving that part because "A Wizard Did It."