Medium Undead (Good)
Hit Dice: 21d12+120 (204)
Initiative: +3 (Dex)
Speed: 30ft.
AC: 41 (+5 Natural, +3 Dex, +8 bracers of armour, +5 amulet of natural
armour, +5 heavy steel shield +3, +6 holy armour) touch 13, flat-footed 28
Base Attack / Grapple: +21 / +21
Attack: Holy Avenger +32 (1d8+11)
Full Attack: Holy Avenger +32/+27/+22/+17 (1d8+11)
Face / Reach: 5ft. / 5ft.
Special Attacks: Aura of courage, aura of good, divine grace, lay on
hands, smite evil, special mount, spell-like abilities, turn undead
Special Qualities: Damage Resistance 10/– energy reversal, holy
armour, holy toughness, immunity to mind-affecting effects, resistance to acid 10,
cold 10, electricity 10 fire 10 and sonic 10, spell resistance 26, undead qualities
Saves: Fort +18 Ref +15 Will +21
Abilities: Str 20 Dex 16 Con &nsdash; Int 14 Wis 17 Cha 22
Skills: Concentration +12, Craft (any one) +9, Diplomacy +16, Handle
Animal +12, Heal +11, Knowledge (religion) +9, Profession (any one) +9, Ride +9,
Sense Motive +15
Feats: Extra Turning, Improved Initative, Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack,
Spirited Charge, Trample,
Environment: Any
Organisation: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 21
Treasure: Equipment
Alignment: Lawful good
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: —
You see a richly robed skeleton, its bones polished to reflect the light, but instead of the fear associated with the living dead, the holy strength of the sparks within its eyes radiates a soothing calm. The holy symbol of a lawful good diety is engraved in its sternum. It moves towards you with the fluid grace of a living creature. Its voice is meldious and beautiful.
Bone paladins continue to serve their gods and faith even after death. They are for all purposes paladins of at least 20th level. A bone paladin never failed in service of his or her faith (that is they never lodt their abilities in life, or had to atone). The difference between male and female are only recognisable through their voice. Bone Paladins embody and, well, live everything that a paladin stands for. They have a knack for drawing out the best in any person they work with.
Usually bone paladins travel the lands, doing good and fighting evil, occasianally joining with good-aligned adventurers on epic quest. (Remember that bone paladins are essentially epic level characters.) Due to the fact that they are essentially immortal, bone paladins do engage in very long quests and plots to fight evil and make the world a better place, some of them so long-ranging and subtle, that few realise that there is a concious will at work at all. Bone paladins usualy speak common, celestial and any one language they knew in live.
Combat
Bone Paladins are generally straight-forward in their approach to fighting. They will
either pick the most powerful close combat character or any obvious spellcaster to
attack first, relying on their heavy armour and spell-resistance to see them through
any heavy spell or melee damage.
Aura of Courage: All allies of a bone paladin within 10
feet gain a +4 bonus to saves against fear effect.
Aura of Good: A bone paladin radiates an Aura of Good, as
a living Paladin does.
Divine Grace: A bone paladin may add her charisma bonus to
all saving throws.
Energy Reversal: Unlike other undead, bone paladins
recieve healing from positive energy (including their own lay on hands ability and
cure Spells and suffer damage from negative energy, as a living creature does.
Holy Armour: Bone paladins at their charisma bonus to
their AC.
Holy Toughness: Bone paladins recieve bonus hit points for
their charisma bonus instead of their constitution bonus.
Lay on Hands: A bone paladin as presented here may heal
up to 126 points of damage by using this ability, or do the same amount of damage to
evil undead.
Smite Evil: A bone paladin may smite evil 5 times per day,
gaining a +6 bonus to the attack and +21 to damage if the target is indeed evil.
Special Mount: A bone paladin may have a special mount as
a living paladin (see PHB pg.45). The mount of a bone pladin may also be an animal
skeleton of a riding animal, but then its alignment is neutral good (rather than
neutral evil as described in the MM).
Spell-Like Abilities: At will: Detect Evil; 5/day:
remove disease
Background
Bone Paladins are created in a complex ritual, which usually involves several clerics of the same diety, a good-aligned necromancer and of course the paladin. There is one instance, where the spell was cast by a single necromancer on a dying paladin, who could not be saved by healing magic, but it is believed, that he is of epic level. The conditions to be met to turn someone into a bone paladin are quite restrictive:
- The diety the paladin serves may not be directly opposed to undeath.
- The candidate may never have faltered or failed in faith. (The character never lost paladin status after gaining it.)
- The candidate has to be capable of standing the mental rigors of eternal live (as decided by their god).
- The candidate as at least reached 21 level as paladin.
- The candidate has to find a good-aligned necromancer capable of doing the transformation spell and convince him / her of casting it.
- Both have to meditate and the necromancer realises the specific of the transformation spell (which is epic level), then it can be cast and is usually successful.
Jilindra Deathbane
Like all bone paladins Jilindra Deathbane is a very unusual person. She became a fighter at twelve years of age and a paladin, when she was sixteen, always having the feeling that she was chosen of Johranda, the atlantean goddess of justice. She was one of the best champions on her world, but fate was never gentle, driving her from battle to battle with little time to relax, but she always prevailed, becoming a hero and a symbol of hope for the oppressed. Usually people where surprised, when they realised that the charming and beautiful woman they just had a friendly chat with turned out to be their champion.
Later she met the rogue Rionalar Darkclaw, realising that beneath all his flamboyance and seemingly dark occupation he had a heart of gold. They fell in love. In their adventures she realised that he was an excellent fighter, easily surpassing her in skill and ability, though she did not know that he was capable of casting magic. In one battle she was wounded and knew she was going to die, but her fight was not over. She asked Rionalar to find someone to cast the transformation spell, as Johranda had decided that her champion was more worth on the prime. Rionalar cast the spell himself. He was even at that time a legendary hero – and a necromancer at that.