Skeleton 5e: Stats, Weaknesses and Running Skeleton Archers

A skeleton is a CR 1/4 undead with AC 13, 13 hit points, a shortsword and a shortbow that each hit for 5 piercing damage. It is vulnerable to bludgeoning damage (double damage from maces, hammers, quarterstaffs and fists) and immune to poison, and it understands the languages it knew in life but can't speak. The 2024 skeleton is a sharper shooter: AC 14, +5 to hit and 6 damage per hit, with the same 13 hit points, CR and vulnerability.

Table of Contents

• •Skeleton Stat Block (2014)
• •The Skeleton in the 2024 Rules
• •How Skeletons Fight
• •How Many Skeletons for a Level 1 Party?
• •How Players Beat Skeletons
• •Skeletons and Animate Dead
• •Skeleton Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Skeleton Stat Block (2014)

This is the skeleton from SRD 5.1, the same stat block as the 2014 Monster Manual.

The line that decides most skeleton fights is Damage Vulnerabilities: bludgeoning. Vulnerability doubles the damage, so a cleric's mace that would deal 6 to anything else deals 12 to a skeleton, and 13 hit points rarely survive that.

Everything else is plain. It has no special traits, no multiattack and no resistances. It's immune to poison, the Poisoned condition and Exhaustion. It is not immune to being charmed, frightened, paralyzed or knocked prone, and it has no vulnerability to radiant damage in either edition.

The Skeleton in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 sharpens the skeleton's offense and defense without changing its role.

The vulnerability and immunities are identical across editions, so any "how do I kill skeletons" advice works under both rules. The difference is accuracy. Against AC 16, a 2014 skeleton hits 45% of the time for 5 damage (2.25 per attack). A 2024 skeleton hits 50% of the time for 6 (3.0 per attack). Six 2024 skeleton archers shooting at the same AC 16 character deal about 18 damage a round, most of a level 2 fighter's hit points in one volley.

How Skeletons Fight

Skeletons have no tricks, so their danger comes from numbers, range and the orders they were given.

Shoot from where the party can't reach. The shortbow reaches 80 feet normally and 320 feet with Disadvantage. Skeletons on a wall, a ledge or the far side of a chasm can shoot for several rounds before anyone closes in. Put them where melee characters have to climb, cross rubble or open a gate under fire.

Mix range and melee. A front line of three skeletons with shortswords blocks a corridor while three more shoot over them. Half cover from the front rank (+2 AC for the archers) makes the back rank harder to hit. The party has to break through bones to get at the bows.

Play their obedience straight. A skeleton raised by Animate Dead follows its last command until the task is done. "Guard this door" means it stands at the door while the party walks past to loot the next room. "Kill anyone who enters" means it chases them out of the tomb and down the road. Literal orders produce better encounters than skeletons that think like soldiers.

They understand what the party says. A skeleton understands the languages it knew in life (2014) or Common and one other (2024), even though it can't answer. Players plotting out loud in front of a skeleton's master have given away their plan. A creature that hears and can't speak also makes a good puzzle: it can nod, point and draw in the dust.

No retreat, no morale. A necromancer's skeletons fight to destruction unless ordered otherwise, which makes them good for holding a choke point while their master escapes.

How Many Skeletons for a Level 1 Party?

A skeleton is worth 50 XP. Using the 2024 XP budget (SRD 5.2.1):

Twelve or more skeletons on a grid slows the game down. At level 2 and above, swap groups of basic skeletons for one bigger undead and keep four to six skeletons as support.

Under the 2014 guidelines (from the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide, used by our encounter calculator), four skeletons are 200 XP, doubled to 400 by the group multiplier for 3 to 6 creatures. That's the Deadly threshold for four level 1 characters. If the party has a cleric with a mace, it's less deadly than the math says. If the party is a wizard, a rogue and two rapier fighters, it's every bit as deadly.

How Players Beat Skeletons

Bring a blunt weapon. Bludgeoning damage is doubled, so the right weapon turns a skeleton into a one-hit kill:

Unarmed strikes deal bludgeoning damage too, so a monk's fists get doubled. Piercing and slashing weapons do normal damage. A rapier is fine, just not special.

Hitting them is easy. A character with +5 to hit lands on AC 13 65% of the time and on AC 14 60% of the time.

Turn and destroy them. A cleric's Turn Undead targets Wisdom, and a skeleton's is −1. Under 2014 rules, from cleric level 5 Destroy Undead destroys any CR 1/2 or lower creature that fails, so a whole room of skeletons can fall at once. Under 2024 rules, level 5 Sear Undead adds radiant damage to each Undead that fails.

Area spells clean up. Thunderwave (2d8 thunder, average 9) and Burning Hands (3d6 fire, average 10.5) don't get the vulnerability bonus, but they often take down two or three damaged skeletons at once. Shatter deals thunder damage, not bludgeoning, despite the name.

What doesn't work. Poison does nothing. Hold Person and Charm Person only target Humanoids. Sleep fails in both editions: the 2014 spell ignores undead, and in the 2024 version creatures immune to Exhaustion succeed on the save automatically. Command is edition-dependent: the 2014 spell has no effect on undead, while the 2024 spell has no such exception, so a skeleton (Wisdom −1) can be told to Grovel or Drop its weapon.

Skeletons and Animate Dead

Most skeletons in a campaign were made by someone, usually with the 3rd-level Animate Dead spell, which turns a pile of bones from a Medium or Small humanoid into a skeleton (a corpse becomes a zombie instead). The rules that matter for a DM building a necromancer:

• •Casting time is 1 minute. A necromancer can't raise skeletons mid-fight. Whatever skeletons it has were made before the party arrived.
• •Control lasts 24 hours. To keep a skeleton, the caster must recast the spell on it before the 24 hours end. One casting reasserts control over up to four creatures. Each slot level above 3rd adds two more.
• •Commands are a Bonus Action within 60 feet, and one command can go to all of them at once.
• •Unordered skeletons behave differently by edition. In 2014, a skeleton with no orders only defends itself. In 2024, it takes the Dodge action and moves only to avoid harm.

A level 5 wizard spending two 3rd-level slots every day keeps eight skeletons, which is a good size for a low-level necromancer's guard. A necromancer whose control lapses has a crypt full of undead that no longer listen to anyone, which is a plot hook in itself.

Skeleton Encounter Ideas

The garrison that never stood down. A border fort fell a century ago, and its dead garrison still holds the walls with shortbows at 320 feet. Crossing the open killing ground is a nightmare for a level 1 party. But the skeletons understand Common, and their last order was "let no one through the gate without the watchword." The commander's journal, buried in a ruined chapel outside the walls, has the word.

The necromancer's farm. A reclusive necromancer has worked a farm with skeleton laborers for years, and the village tolerates it because the harvests are good. The necromancer died three days ago. Twenty-four hours later the skeletons stopped obeying anyone. They've left the fields, and a column of forty bone laborers with scythes and pitchforks is walking toward the village. The party has to stop them before they reach the market square. Animate Dead can't help a party necromancer here: recasting it only reasserts control over undead the caster made.

The ossuary wall. A catacomb's walls are built from stacked skulls and long bones. Six of the "piles" are skeletons, propped in the wall and ordered to stay still until someone touches the reliquary. Players who search the wall carefully can spot them. Players who don't will be surrounded in the round they grab the treasure.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a skeleton in 5e?

A skeleton is CR 1/4 (50 XP) in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. The 2014 skeleton has AC 13 and the 2024 skeleton has AC 14, both with 13 hit points.

What are skeletons vulnerable to in 5e?

Bludgeoning damage, in both editions. Maces, warhammers, mauls, quarterstaffs, slings and unarmed strikes deal double damage to them.

Are skeletons vulnerable to radiant damage?

No. Neither the 2014 nor the 2024 skeleton has a radiant vulnerability. Their only vulnerability is bludgeoning, and their only immunities are poison damage and the Poisoned and Exhaustion conditions.

Can skeletons understand speech?

Yes, but they can't speak. The 2014 skeleton understands every language it knew in life, and the 2024 skeleton understands Common plus one other language.

How many skeletons can a wizard control with Animate Dead?

Each casting with a 3rd-level slot raises one new skeleton or reasserts control over up to four existing ones for 24 hours. Higher slots add two more creatures per slot level above 3rd. There's no hard cap, only the number of slots the caster spends each day. If you're tracking a necromancer's growing army across sessions, Loreify can record the sessions and keep the count for you.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.