Skullrider

A skullrider is a spiderlike creature whose eight segmented legs grow out of a body the size and shape of a human skull. Its shiny exoskeleton is the approximate color and texture of human bone, supporting the illusion. Vicious mandibles are hidden inside the "jawbone" of the skull; these mandibles are retractable, as are the creature's eight short legs. The bony exoskeleton prevents body heat from emanating, thus making the skullrider "invisible" to infravision. A skullrider with mandibles and legs retracted is thus 90% indistinguishable from a regular human skull.

Due to its spidery nature, a skullrider can climb sheer surfaces and move at normal speed through webs (magical and otherwise), although it cannot create webs of its own. It is immune to all sticky substances, magical or mundane, such as web spells or glue. When encountered in this form, the normal statistics above are used.

However, 75% of all skullrider encounters are with "mounted" skullriders. In this case, the statistics in parentheses are used. A skullrider has the ability to control a newly dead human, demihuman, or humanoid body ("host") with which it has bonded. The bonding process is as follows: A skullrider uses its mandibles and sharp, hollow tongue to pierce into a corpse's skull and devour selected parts of the brain. This permits the skullrider to mentally link with the corpse's nervous system, and this in turn allows the skullrider to animate the corpse at will, even when not in contact with the body. Only one host can be animated by a single skullrider at any one time. The bonding process takes two full rounds and must be started within one hour of the death of the host body.

Although a skullrider can move its animated host from any distance up to 60' (provided it maintains a line of sight), it is most common for the creature to consume the head of its host body and sit atop the severed neck with legs retracted underneath them. This gives the mounted skullrider the appearance of a skull-headed zombie. A skullriders can control only a newly dead humanoid body; in no case can it animate a skeleton (which has no brains to ingest or central nervous system to link with) or true undead of any kind. A skullrider host is truly dead, animated by the skullriders' magical mental link instead of a link to the Negative Material plane common to undead creatures; therefore the host cannot be turned by priests or paladins.

A host body separated from its controlling skullrider remains animated only so long as the skullrider is paying full attention to that control, taking no actions other than moving at MV 6. Combat, full movement, unconsciousness, and so forth breaks the link, causing the corpse to fall. A dispel magic spell cast on the skullrider or host (against sixth-level spell-use) or any form of anti-magic field or spell will also break the link. Once a link has been magically broken between host and skullrider, it cannot be reestablished.

As a side note, any corpse whose head has been consumed by a skullrider cannot be restored to life by any means short of a wish spell. The corpse can, however, be animated into a zombie or (later) a skeleton.

Combat: Mounted skullriders usually attack with a weapon, if their host body has one. Any magical bonuses inherent in the weapons apply, but skullrider host bodies do not get any bonuses to hit or to damage based on their Strength or Dexterity scores, whatever they might have been. Skullriders are considered proficient in all melee weapons that can be wielded with one hand. Those weapons requiring two hands may be used at a nonproficiency penalty of -2 to hit. Missile weapons can not be used, as skullriders lack the coordination and finesse to properly employ them (but a mounted skullrider armed with a crossbow could swing it like a club). Skullriders can have their host bodies attack with weapons while they are not riding them, but suffer a penalty of -2 on attacks and damage due to problems of perspective and vantage points.

A mounted skullrider in combat takes no damage until its host has been destroyed (use the armor-class, movement, and hit-dice statistics above). At this point, the host body collapses (assumedly so badly damaged it cannot stand or fight) and the skullrider either scuttles away (if opposition is strong) or moves in close to bite.

Skullriders can bite in combat for 1-4 hp damage, and anyone bitten must save vs. poison or lose an additional 2d4 hp. Mounted skullriders can leap off their mounts onto opponents in order to bite with a surprise bonus of +2 to hit (the host body promptly collapses in a heap). This bonus applies only when the opponent is unaware of the skullrider's ability to do so.

Habitat/Society: Skullriders are primarily scavengers, preferring to attain their mounts from fresh battlefields rather than attack a healthy individual, but do not hesitate to do the latter if it appears that there's a good chance of success.

Skullrider host bodies continue to decay, but due to an enzyme secreted into the body at the time of bonding, the process is slowed down. Generally, a skullrider can use a corpse for about a month before its central nervous system deteriorates to the point where the body can no longer be animated. At this point, the body is used as a food source by the skullriders. Finally, the corpse is injected with 10-60 eggs and abandoned. In two to three weeks, the eggs will hatch into new skullriders, which spend most of their first six months feeding and growing. At the end of the six-month period of growth, the skullriders will have attained full size and acquired the ability to animate mounts.

Ecology: Skullriders have no concept of treasure, but understand the advantages of hand-held weapons They enjoy gemstones for their color and brilliance. The lair of a group of skullriders will often include the human skulls of their previous mounts. These are used primarily for camouflage purposes, so that the skullriders blend in with their surroundings if someone or something enters their lair. In this case, the skullrider can jump out and attack, with a +2 bonus for surprise.

Skullriders, as mentioned earlier, are generally scavengers that sometimes take live prey. Their rarity makes them of little consequence except to those who fall victim to them.