Burnbones

When a mad god of strife and death first claimed the mantle of the dead, his early days went badly: rival tyrant cults butchered many of his young clergy. In answer he poured so much of his power into chosen priests that their mortal bodies burned away, leaving only bones wreathed in the fiery might of his black sun. These are the burnbones. In looks they recall the blazing bones that haunt an ancient ruined elven city, but the likeness ends there. Most display their god's symbol somewhere on their bodies, often as a holy symbol.

Its supernatural burning touch deals 2d10 damage and affects even creatures and magic items immune to ordinary or magical fire. Anyone within 10 feet also takes 1d3 heat damage, though spells and magic items can prevent it.

A burnbones keeps the priestly spellcasting it had while alive, at 12th level or better, or at its old level if that was higher. It needs no verbal, somatic, or material components; it just points and the spell goes off. Casting time still counts for initiative, and each spell (or another of the same level, its choice) returns to its memory 24 hours later. It can strike with one hand while casting with the other, and its method of casting means it can never be interrupted or lose a spell.

Fire of any kind, mundane or magical, cannot hurt it, and cold deals it only one-quarter damage. Like other undead it ignores sleep, charm and other mind-affecting magic, hold spells, and all poisons. Healing spells such as cure light wounds harm it, while their reverses heal it. Only weapons of +2 or better can hit it, and as a skeleton it takes half damage from slashing and piercing weapons. Only a priest of a lawful good faith can turn it, and it turns as a ghost. Holy water from a lawful good faith burns it like strong acid for 2d10 per vial; other holy water does nothing.

Burnbones were drawn from their god's most fanatical priests, and that zeal quickly curdled into a half-mad paranoia after the change. They exist solely to glorify their master and obey his every whim; disobedience brings them unbearable agony. Since their god is notoriously unstable, burnbones sometimes seem to work against each other while all following his direct orders.

He made almost two dozen at the start of that early holy war, and rival cults and good-aligned heroes of the central lands soon cut the number in half. As his foes learned how to destroy them, he hid some of the survivors away until needed and made others as replacements. He creates new ones only sporadically, being easily distracted, so only a handful appear each year.

Because each burnbones holds a portion of its god's power, he can take total control of it whenever he likes. All of the original burnbones were at least 12th level before the change. When he overcharges a lower-level cleric to raise its level as a burnbones, the excess power consumes its body quickly: the bigger the gap between original and enhanced level, the shorter its existence. A one-level difference generally gives about a year, minus one month for each additional level of difference. Burnbones that were not overcharged last until destroyed.