Good Base Creatures for medium to huge humanoid skeletons?

[Shin Okada]

I have several Skeleton minis. Most of them are in humanoid (or giant) form and without wings.

Now, which ones are best base creatures for medium, large and huge ones?
The creator will be an Ak'Chazar Rakshasa, who can use Animate dead as a spell-like ability with CL 20. So the more HDs, the better. Though, the upper limit for Skeleton is 20 HDs.

For medium ones, my current choice is Ghaele Eladrin. Racial HD 10, Str 25 and martial weapon proficiency are quite nice.

For large ones, I am thinking about using Fire Giant. Racial HD 15, Str 31 and Fire Immunity are wonderful. War Troll can be another option as they have better Dex.

For Colossal One, Titan seems to be the perfect choice because of Racial HD 20.

Please let me know if there are better alternatives.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Runestar]

Do you mean best for their cr, or best in terms of absolute stats? What level will your party be facing them?

Since animated undead are based off their original stats, but their cr is bsed off their HD, I think you could "cheat" by giving them the elite array and tacking on all sorts of templates. Use sparingly and with discretion though, it gets ridiculous after a while.

It does seem that outsiders make fairly good candidates, since they tend to have few HD and generous NA scores. Unfortunately, a planetar has wings, while a marilith won't look humanoid enough...

 

[Shin Okada]

PC's will meet that Rakshasa at L15-16.

Basically, I want creatures with many racial HDs and higher Str for their size.

Also, I don't want use too many creatures, especially to many large or larger creatures. The encounter will be fought in a dungeon and too many large skeletons may cause traffig jam. And I don't have that many bigger skeleton minis.

Number of weak skeletons will not work well, because party clerics and mages will easily vaporize them. And also, their attacks will not be enough to hit AC of PCs (even those of mages).

As a last resort, I can let the Rakshasa animate 48 1HD skeletons and use the mob rule in DMG, though.

Adding templates like Lolth Touched to increase Str may work, but I want to avoid such kind of cheeses. Even a DM should have some degree of self-control, I guess.

 

[Alzrius]

You've pretty well got the basics covered. Giants and various Outsiders will probably serve you best here.

My only word of advice is to be careful if you have too many skeletons that are Outsiders. The skeleton template keeps all subtypes except for alignment subtypes and those that indicate kind; that means that your Outsider skeletons will still be Extraplanar. One good banishment will make them all disappear.

 

[Shin Okada]

Luckily, I don't need to worry much about Banishment in this case. PCs will not be fighting on their home plane.

So Ghaele seems to be the one with highest HDs and str amongst medium-sized creature with human-like skeleton?

 

[Starbuck_II]

For large ones, I am thinking about using Fire Giant. Racial HD 15, Str 31 and Fire Immunity are wonderful. War Troll can be another option as they have better Dex.

Skeletons lose Fire immunity. You don't get to keep it.

 

[Shin Okada]

Skeletons lose Fire immunity. You don't get to keep it.

Actually it does. Because that immunity to fire is coming from (Fire) subtype,

From SRD "Skeleton",

Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to undead. It retains any subtype except for alignment subtypes (such as good) and subtypes that indicate kind. It does not gain the augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

So, a Fire Giant Skeleton is Large Undead (Fire). Thus immune to fire and vulnerable to Cold (but as a skeleton it is also immune to Cold).

Young Adult Red Dragon Skeleton in MM has (Fire) subtype and Immunity to Cold and Fire.

 

[Klatu Barada Necktie]

No matter which skeleton you choose to use, just don't foget to apply the Stone Bones (Spell Compendium, pg. 208) spell to it.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Actually it does. Because that immunity to fire is coming from (Fire) subtype
So, a Fire Giant Skeleton is Large Undead (Fire). Thus immune to fire and vulnerable to Cold (but as a skeleton it is also immune to Cold).

Young Adult Red Dragon Skeleton in MM has (Fire) subtype and Immunity to Cold and Fire.

Wow, that's some strong cheese!

 

[green slime]

Actually, weak skeletons are good for obsorbing the PC's turning attempts, when portioned out in small doses in the beginning. This lures the players into wasting those precious turning attempts. Even better if the player has Divine feats they like to use. Then suddenly they are facing a horde of wrothful undead and are down to 1 or 2 turning attempts, makes even paladins go cold.

I'd never use Outsider skeletons unless the game was on the Outer Planes. Just doesn't sit well with my fantasy, but that's just me.

The was some other spells you may consider using, from the Book of Eldritch Might. Some added Damage Reduction, others added elemental damage, and of course, you want to increase their Turning Resistance.