Fiendish Flameskull | New Monster for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition

Wizards who craft flameskulls from the skulls of fiends create fiendish flameskulls. Fiendish flameskulls are better in every way than normal flameskulls: tougher, faster, and deadlier.

Undead Nature. A fiendish flameskull doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep.

Flameskull, Fiendish

Small undead, neutral evil

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Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 97 (13d6 + 52)

Speed 0 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover)

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Abilities Str 3 (-4), Dex 19 (+4), Con 18 (+4), Int 18 (+4), Wis 13 (+1), Cha 20 (+5)

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Skills Arcana +8, Perception +5

Damage Resistances lightning, necrotic, piercing

Damage Immunities cold, fire, poison

Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, prone

Senses truesight 60 ft., passive Perception 15

Languages Abyssal, Common

Challenge 9 (5,000 XP)

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Illumination. The flameskull sheds either dim light in a 20-foot radius, or bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet. It can switch between the options as an action.

Magic Resistance. The flameskull has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Rejuvenation. If the flameskull is destroyed, it regains all its hit points in 1 hour unless holy water is sprinkled on its remains or a dispel magic or remove curse spell is cast on them.

Innate Spellcasting. The flameskull’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 17, +9 to hit with spell attacks). The flameskull can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

• At will: detect magic, fireball
• 3/day each: hold monster, wall of fire

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Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d8 + 4) piercing damage.

Fiendish Shriek (1/Day). The flameskull emits a horrible shriek that drowns out all sound within 60-feet of the flameskull. Each creature in the area that can hear the flameskull takes 7 (1d4 + 4) thunder damage. A creature made of inorganic material such as stone, crystal, or metal takes double damage from this attack. A nonmagical object that isn’t being worn or carried also takes the damage if it’s in the area of effect.

The shriek makes spellcasting very difficult. Any spellcaster that attempts to cast a spell that has verbal components within an area of effect must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or the spell automatically fails.

The scream lasts as long as the fiendish flameskull maintains its concentration (as if concentrating on a spell).

 

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Art by Shutterstock (used with permission).