Sorry I'm late to the party, here are some timestamps. 0:19 Intro, Become a Member/ Patreon Patron 0:52 Appearance in D&D editions 2:06 Origins/ Discussion on Thay 3:35 Szass Tam (The first S is silent) 5:05 The Soul Trade and the Ritual 6:38 Variations on the Ritual and the Binding 8:08 Assassins and Sadists 9:07 Description and Limited Immortality 10:59 Combat, Tactics, and Getting their prey. 15:27 If at first they don't succeed... 16:17 Bone Claws in Ebberon and Faerun Like, Share, Comment, Subscribe, Check out the Merch on Teerspring I know exactly where these guys are in my home-brew world, but have not gotten to use them as my players have yet to draw the ire of the Arch-Lich of Prima (The world). I think they might in the next arc of our story so hopefully these guys will make a fun appearance. If you have not already checked out the video AJ did on the Soul Trade definitely go check that out, it is a huge bit of information that I am supprised that 5th ed has left out so far. Any fun stories about these guys? leave a comment below. Soul Trade Video: ua-cam.com/video/sxysJmif5XM/v-deo.html
I really didn’t even know about that but see how they perfectly fit in with an Arch-Lich in any world. I really like the idea of something like a bigger fish game arc in a campaign with slightly less “heroic” players. Maybe an Arch-Wizard that wants to preform the ritual to become a lich hires them out to seek the knowledge of the ritual or to travel and recover components from the lands Arch Lich or Red Wizard. They return with the required info/item and help him with the ritual. At the last min it goes awry and the Wizard’s soul becomes bound to the Arch Lich as a boneclaw. Now either they submit to working for the Arch-Lich or they must constantly fight off their former employer.
@@dogle9258 oh that sounds like such a good surprise turn of events, they think they are backing one horse and end up working for another. Any ya, not a problem, always happy to do this.
Last session, my kenku rogue was targeted by a boneclaw. It was the dead of night. We hear a faint cackling in the distance. Then disaster struck. From the darkness came the claws of the boneclaw, plunging deep into the shoulder of my character. From the boneclaw's attack, my character went from 68 hit points down to around six hit points and became grappled. The boneclaw then teleported away before my allies were able to free me from it's icy grasp. If not for the bloodcurdling screams of terror, my character would have died that session. Needless to say, my character had acquired a major fear of the dark as a flaw and it's all thanks to that boneclaw.
Oh this is the Thing that completes the Quartet. The Lich is the Powerful Undead for Wizards, The Death Knight is the Fighter, The Mummy is the Cleric, and the Boneclaw is the Rogue. Nice.
Now that this thought resonated a bit more. It would be cool to have a party play as these archetypes in a campaign where they beseech Vecna to hide them as they plot against Orcus to try and disrupt his reign on their immortality. Sounds like a good enough goal to allign some mega evil characters. The Boneclaw could have been an arcane trickster who worked under the wizard who became a lich. He sneakily tried to replicate his master's ritual but wasn't quite magically powerful enough. And the lich spitefully returned him into his service.
I love these things. I can imagine a powerful lich that purposely did this to a few of his most trusted servants as a reward for thier service. Doing so to a willing creature, i would rule they keep thier previous abilities aka giving the boneclaw class levels. Classes i would use for this is gloomstalker ranger, shadow monk, oath of vengence pally, and shadow sorcerer. Equipping each with magic items the lich would use items. Maybe reign in the cruelty in a bit for one of them to walk up to the party and rp it demanding stolen property that they had stolen.
This is my 2nd comment, but I do want to say THANKS to AJ (for the research, editing, production) & Kyler (for this request). AJ has made a huge catalog of vids that definitely makes me proud to spread the news (mostly to my son & his friends...and their parents) of his channel. Attention to details and sheer volume of the topics keep them all imagining.
It just struck me; a lich, or other evil person with knowledge of the process of becoming a lich, could amass as many boneclaw servants as they want. Just invite some naïve young wizard or sorcerer, guide the prospective lich through the preparations, and then see to it that they fail at the last moment, their soul binding itself to the teacher, being the nearest evil person, rinse and repeat.
Boneclaws are prime material for a survival horror type campaign where the PCs run afoul of a lich and end up being relentlessly pestered by boneclaws... Shadows are the enemy. Really great setting to make players absolutely paranoid.
Ah yes. My party is currently in the midst of being absolutely terrified of this thing. They've killed it once but not without almost losing 2 of there members nearly dying. Now they live in fear as iv hinted of the presence of its red nails
You didn't mention his dread rings and his deal with bane. His millennia is running out and he has to complete the unmaking ritual soon before he becomes banes vassal and thrall.
Yea, that sick bastard summoned bane up didn't he??? It was a damn nationwide summoning circle that sacrificed many of his servants. I had forgotten reading about that it was so long ago. EDIT: The way he did it was so crazy, basically he said yea you can kill me. But I'd bloody your nose in the process, and you would lose respect with your peers wouldn't you??? So just go ahead and give me ridiculous power and I'll be yours after a millennia.
@@earthobserver1007 Sazm tam never lacked for gall that's sure. To have the power to challenge a God that's some hubris that you can't help but respect. The ritual of unmaking has to be the coolest piece of transmutation ever conceived. I give all the props to Richard Lee Byers for writing the masterpiece of a trilogy. I've read most of his books and he writes epic pieces like the dead God trilogy and the rage of Dragons trilogy.
@@humbertocobian4740 I'd forgotten his name also. Damn good reading that whole trilogy. Those books even contained many special undead you wouldn't even know about, unless you had read libris mortis, and several other special books of undead. Like the damn necromantic brain in a jar of negative energy fluids that piloted a giant machine in the basic form of a scorpion. It spoke telepathically and never needed to sleep, eat, or intake nutrients. Not to mention the damn atrophal that Tam had dug up from some forgotten tomb of horrors. That thing is what created many of the special undead used in the thayan armies. Let's not forget skin kites, although I believe they were already in use before the atrophal was unearthed. Didn't he use the power he got from the summoning to summon and control the colossal psychic undead cloud of thousands of souls that grows off things it kills by incorporating all slain spirits into itself??? Kind of like a charnel hound except way way worse, and nearly unstoppable.
@@earthobserver1007 yes exactly the exotic undead in that series was and is epic. The underappreciated epicness of that series like he was trying to unmake the universe and seems like no one cared about it.
I think my favorite Szass Tam power move when he summoned the vestige of Bane, dispelled the God's attempt to give him a "true death" and had the undead balls to convince Bane and his church to side with him during the Thay Civil War. Read "Undead" book 2 of trilogy by Richard Lee Byers
I love these guys! I plan to use it as a super horrible guardian for a small child. I plan to introduce it to the party as they hear a child screaming in terror as some bandit types are torn apart in front of the kid because they tried to abduct the child. The plan is to have a mad lich in town who looks out for the orphans and creates undead from any who dare cause them trouble.
I love these things! I can just imagine a wicked lich taking on pupils, convincing them to attempt to achieve lichdom, all the while knowing that they will fail, simply to procure a small army of boneclaws for themselves. Oooo! What if their latest "pupil" became a boneclaw like the rest, but attached himself to a different evil entity? Perhaps the lich hires the party (either while disguised or by proxy) to kill the boneclaw's new master, hoping it will attach to the lich instead as intended.
Szass Tam: those fingas! He would give Lady Deathstrike envy with those boneclaws. Since you mentioned Szass Tam... The subject made me curious as to what I read about another historic wizard/arcanist: Ioulaum, he became an elder brain lich? That process and lore would be a great addition to your (probably vast, at this point) list of D&D historian subject/topic list...simply out of uniqueness.
I can imagine a Boneclaw being bonded to an unaware master who is in a position of power who is responsible for keeping order in a given city, like the chief of the City Guard or something. He ends up hiring the adventures to find who is making these mysterious killings that are terrifying the populace, even if they are people who he was glad to see go. He's corrupted but in denial about his now evil nature, filling his mind with excuses like "he deserved it," & "everybody does it." Ultimately it becomes a mystery & perhaps therapy session where the party must focus on getting him to see & change their ways. You may need to change the level of HOW evil a master the Boneclaw is willing to serve & perhaps have it willing to fuel further corruption.
I love using L/e paladins of the “ for the grater good” varieties. I can definitely see using this as an extensive background quest and constant repeating mission to hunt the “person” killing the L/e nobles rivals as well as families and pets. Constantly embarrassing and casting suspicion on an “ innocent” upstanding citizen.
Although I personally feel like the alignment restriction as to who the boneclaw bonds to is somewhat limiting as a plot device. I mean imagine if the boneclaw bonded its soul to a child that wasn’t malicious but just in pain and not mature enough to understand how to deal with their emotions in a healthy manner. The little girl is shunned by the town accused of being hag spawn, she doesn’t know why or even what that means, it makes her sad. She didn’t do anything to the dog, it just always scared her the way it barked at her shadow when she walked by she just wanted it to stop and then it did. But she didn’t cut it up like that she stayed far away from the scary dog. She wishes the kids would stop teasing her or that the adults would go away and leave her alone. She misses momma and papa she wishes that they didn’t leave her alone. She knows they would make it stop if they came back. If she knew they we’re going to disappear she wouldn’t have made such a fit about wanting a new doll. But at least Mr. Smiles is always there to play with her she knows he won’t ever leave. 💀 Feel free to use this plot hook in your campaigns as seen fit I know it’s kinda cliche in some circles but it’s one of those cliches that never ceases to be unsettling. At least for me that is, I consider the child and monster trope a classic.
Well, evil is just selfish. Many a child can be unthinkingly selfish. And imagine the events that lead a child to their relatively petty, but still quite unrepentant, evil. Say one with a sorcerous talent.
That... was pretty damn close to a plot I was devising. I've been working on a plot device where a cult was trying to create a lich, but they're not so great at it and accidentally create a Boneclaw that bonds to a child orphan of 7 or 8 years old, that has been bullied most of their life. The kid just wants the bullying to stop, and suddenly this thing comes in and makes it life better. The child isn't really old enough to understand death, or that it's ideas and wishes are becoming true because of this thing. They just like the fact the bullies are going away. The closer the party comes to finding out what is going on, the more this thing attacks the party and defends the bonded kid, and becomes a constant enemy they have to fight several times in order to to end the plot, which ends in a severally ethical situation for the party.
@@freakyskull516 how bad of a nerf are we talking about here? Because I'm pretty confident that the group I DM for wouldn't be able to handle even 1 of these until they hit level 10 or so (not the brightest when it comes to gameplay)
@@dirtyblonde1011 it basically lost all of its crazy shadow and teleport abilities and is now just a somewhat tanky undead with a 20ftrange 2d6 damage 2 attacks and resistance to turning id say a party of at least 3 lv5s could take it easily. lower level if they play it smart
What is evil exactly? It's freedom of choice, knowing what you're doing is wrong and willingfully choose to do so because you can, not because it can save others or do it for the greater good but because you can do so. Evil is pleasure in the macrabe, the torment and pain of those who cant defend itself, the joys in others suffering, the smile that comes from the tears of those who have fallen. A schoolshooter is evil no doubt, they made their choice and are fully capable for reason. A feral beast infected with rabies isnt evil for it lost it's freewill to the disease it carries, nor is a parasite that kills it's host for it only wants to survive and the host dying is an unfurtionate side-effect. Evil is, and always will be being able to choose to do wrong without your survival depending on it and choosing to do so.
I like the definition that evil is selfishness. Simple and easy to understand. Evil is to put your goals above the goals of the collective. Individuality over community. Also makes the question when an action is really done with the true greater good in mind or done with ego of the perpetrator as there motivator. Also points out how true good and justice is something completely alien and abhorrent to humanity. There needs to be at least a little selfishness in mortal concerns or we turn self-destructive. Which is an evil in itself as well.
So my party was in session 0 we were 3 level 5 babies and had already had to fight a bone naga and some other smaller badies as we ventured into a ziggurat. We see this thin thing that looks like a mix between the rake creepypasta and SCP 096 shy guy, happily cutting up a mound of bodies to sacrifice, our rogue snuck the only living person left in that place and we noped the hell out of there. Now tonight we came back to the small shanty desert town we call home to find it covered in long claw marks and the guards bodies gone and the gate ripped open. This was after clearing a hard cave filled with a dinosaur that fought with sound waves. This thing followed us an entire days travel worth of distance to hunt us down. Will update next week
Nope. I was having a conversation today about my making those "Introduction to setting" videos, and I know some people are keen for me to delve further into Eberron or Dark Sun, or Dragonlance or Mystara or Golarion, etc... however, I make videos because I want to learn about D&D, I am curious about settings that I have not played, but I am not really interested in playing Eberron or Dark Sun (I don't know anyone, over my decades of play, who has run a Dark Sun campaign, it is very niche, one that, if I wanted to run that sort of game, I would just play Numenera.. Monte Cook and friends who were behind the era where D&D brought us Dark Sun and Eberron, has since gone on to make the game setting he always wanted.. and it does a better job of it because it has a system built for it). Those who request that I make videos about settings, already KNOW all the stuff I might add to a video, so, I am really better off sticking to what I do best, what I am most interested in, and what the majority of viewers are here for... monsters and story elements, exotic locations and the broader connected D&D multiverse. With the very rare foray into the more obscure planets :)
I just got off work and what do I see. A spicy lore video from my boy AJ. Good for the hour drive home. 💚 thanks again for all that you do! Would you consider doing a video on the Dawn War, or perhaps the relationships between two races that are of note? I love how you explain the creatures and their thoughts, I can really slip into their shoes.
I love these "Frankenstein" style undead. Sure there is a 'recipe' for a Boneclaw, but who is to say that they are all the same? A little more blood here, a little more spice there and POOF, some new abomination to pester the party.
This would be cool as an out of the way trap or unlikely lair action that releases one of these to hunt the party through the dungeon and beyond. You're exploring a medium level dungeon when enough bad rolls and circumstances line up to attract the notice of a bone claw. A sensitive member of the party is handed a note that says, "flee for it may be too late" and instructions that their character should freak out and beg to leave this horrible place. The DM puts away his notes and pull out a small black notebook to drive home the fact that things just got very serious
I write horror stories and my main characters rival is a bone fiend like entity. I think I'll have them team up on this thing in the streets of Philly.
So long story short: A Boneclaw is the result when a Wizard fails to become a Lich, and is now bound in servitude to the closest being with the wickedest soul.
Mental image of boneclaw guarding Evil Rabbit burrow from intruders is amusing. Area is littered with the mangled bodies of hunting dogs, ferrets, badgers, maybe the odd hawk or falcon. But really, a boneclaw is minor threat compared to what Bun-Bun himself will do to you.
@@richmcgee434 Neutral evil Druid cast " Awaken Animal " of a pack of rabbits and has a wizard use the spell Lesser Planar Binding, to summon a group of Fiendish flesh eating bunnies from Baator swamp lands. So there is a new breed of rabbits out lose on the land. It beats the run of the mill being eaten by a pack of fiendish rats in a wizard's dungeon.
The Deaderer Have a Boneclaw be a relentless reacurring boss like nemisses from resident evil 3, (original or remake) Having him to be more powerful each time your groupe incounters him.
I think I quite prefer the idea that these could latch on to a host with a Good alignment. Perhaps not NG, but certainly LG or CG. Even good people can have dark thoughts or desires. Normally these are just little seeds that are not allowed to sprout- a wolf that isn't fed. Nonetheless, they are there. The constant tug of selfishness, arrogance, ambition, wrath, or greed may well be overpowered or ignored by one who chooses his better nature, but they never disappear. Even angels can fall, after all. Imagine then, having one of these creatures latch on to that. Fulfilling those neglected desires and feeding that starving wolf quietly from the shadows. That boss you hate? Gone. That lovely sword you were admiring? In your room. That girl you had a thing for? Well her man suddenly skipped town, and some creepy mugger apparently chased her all the way to your door. What would happen to that person? If they learned the truth, what would they choose? Which wolf would win, now that they have had a taste of both? And, perhaps more importantly, what does the party choose? Because if the Boneclaw can nest itself in a good man's soul after all, then that only leaves one known way to be rid of it. _PS. On a semi-related note, when an angel falls, must it be all the way to evil? That is the archetype, of course, but is it the only outcome? Are such things naturally beings of extremes, or can the be "corrupted" to land somewhere in the middle? I'm curious to hear others thoughts on the question._
Drake Ford at first I was like “Nah”. Then I thought about how many players would gladly switch to evil to be able to wield that power of the evil wolf as they choose. About how if someone was playing an evil archetype they of course would love to have such an amazing tool, but what about if they was say a LG bard. Would they bite at the chance to bite with such power. Even if it meant switching everything they wanted to originally do with their character. On how fall must an angel fall. I think there is some dedication to law. I think law vs chaos is the struggle that makes angels and deviled who they are. A chaotic one would undo what it is. Good is after all only good to those that share the same interest. A goblin could be seen as good to an orc cause any benefit to one would benefit the other. I think Angels ideal of law could be seen as evil to some mortals anyway. Devils to my understanding are angels, just their time around chaos morphed their bodies and when it came to punishing sinners they just took it more to the extreme then others of their kinds. When they turned evil is when Asmodeos (sry) tried to shift power away from them to fuel his own needs. And from then on all of his followers no longer had the same shared interest as the other good Angels. But you changed my mind on Boneclaws being bound to LG players already. I’m open to the idea of a chaotic angel.
@@dogle9258 It's a fantastic premise for a central NPC for an adventure as well. For example, say a good-natured Guard is latched onto by one. He is promoted to Guard Captain after his corrupt predecessor (whom he hated) goes missing. Criminals from around the city start dying off one by one- even those that the law itself couldn't touch due to political/economic power or simple lack of evidence. On top of this, things begin working out wonderfully in his personal life- problems get handled in their own, and people he couldn't stand begin skipping town. Someone leaves kind little gifts for him from time to time. He's even been in the right place to save a lovely bar maid or two from some shady criminal. What happens when he finds out that all this was his doing? Does he embrace the monster in order to "make things how they should be"? Or does he recognize the danger of such power, and the evil in its use? If he's determined to wield it despite the harm it brings to others, the answer is pretty straightforward- you bring him down. If he does want to be rid of it though- if his goodness does remain- then that makes things much more difficult. There's only two known ways to kill a Boneclaw. The first is to redeem the host's to a Good alignment. If he's already good though, then that only leaves one option: his death. So, what does the party do? Execute him? Allow him to execute himself? How would the jost react to the realization that death was the only known option? Would he change his mind in light of this? Might the party trap the beast? Try to find another option that centuries of Wizards have missed? And if course, the Boneclaw will take none of this lying down. This is the point where it stops being a simple monster, and becomes a dilemma, and that really makes it something a bit more.
I actually really like this idea, nothing says a bone claw wouldn’t try to manipulate its master in order to further its and especially its own immortality, both the bone claw and master are forever tethered, I could certainly see it rubbing off on its master. 💀
Love the vid if I may suggest a idea, warlock patron ideas like a few demons, great Fay, old ones ect that you think would be fun for a rp or just interesting also any ideas on outside the box patrons
In the 5e Ravenloft book the Dark Lord of the Indian inspired domain was a female Death Knight, and in Eberron there’s a Female Death Knight called the Silent Knight who is cursed to never speak another word or else all of her descendants are cursed to die.
A boneclaw and a mohrg would totally be BBFs. They love stalking prey, murder, and torture. And they're not stuck up like vampires or feign nobility like wights. XD
I imagine a bone claw is created when a would be lich practices their lich making magic on a good aligned creature. If it makes a bone claw in service to the wizard the ritual would create a lich. So every lich has or previous had at least one bone claw unless they’re insane and reckless, every bone claw has a sad story where they were kidnapped by a wizard and a wizard with a bone claw is on their way to becoming a lich. Making them a symbolic creature that a wizard can use an intelligence check to get some useful information out of
You don't need to be evil to become a lich. It is just you can't stay as a lich very long without becoming such. You can even become a lich against your will. A phylactery is just a soul prison. So no permission neccessary to make one. Just happens that those who don't have a pressing reason to stay undead will likely choose to destroy said soul prison, or those constrained against doing so. I imagine the latter would make quite insane servants of a more powerful master.
@@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar That is more like a mummy. Boneclaws are failures. They mess up the insanely difficult rites needed to become one and it blows up in their face in a very spectacular fashion. Just plain dying isn't the worst that can happen if you mess it up. Messing up your chance to be more so completely your soul can only be useful as an unstable but power minion is what a boneclaw is all about. This is someone who could have been a mover and shaker but is now just a torture junkie in the employ of what could be their own subordinates. The only reason they are not pitied is because of how twisted and terrifying they are.
So what I just learned is that if a lich fucks up his lichdom he'll become a low level peasants playtoy for vengeance. Is that what happened in Pumpkinhead
Again with the amazing videos I need. Szast Tham and his doings seem like a great model I can look at for what I wanna do with my campaign. I want to have a bunch of countries with thin veils over the monsters that run them. Circled around a righteous place so my players don't get too paranoid.
I love it aj, I love the boneclaw, I like to call the boneclaw the lichen who became a lich too early. Too physically or spiritually weak to become alich
Love the video, AJ. These nightmares did not exist when I regularly gamed. I wish the Monstrous Compendium had these when I did. I can think of many horror games I would have run differently. These guys are like "What if Deadpool and Wolverine had a giant undead homicidal fearless AD&D baby with Deathstrike's reach?"
I imagine when a Boneclaw melds with the shadows there would be a cackling sounds like when Grimskull from Skeleton Warriors would meld and teleport through shadows
While listening to this video my brain thought about how when they take over another bad soul, in my mind's eye looked very similar to Venom only it could be more smokey than slimy. Schizo, undead, serial-killing machine! RUN AWAY! lol
@@Aceofomens right!? Lol Just thought of this one too: just in case you need to ramp up the power level for a higher level party. Have the thing come back to life after a round or two instead of hours. So just when they think they've got it's master one on one, someone hears a click and turns around to see this beast cracking its jawbone back into place and cracking it's knuckles to go again! 😱
I'm making an archdevil whose whole thing is undead, and I'm thinking of giving him some boneclaw assassins, and maybe some badyguards. Would this makes sense/be a good idea for him?
@@thehollow6493 Kinda. He is very different from Orcus. "Orcus but as a devil" just sounds boring and not very creative, so I made sure to give him his own style.
@@TheHornedKing Probably coming in here super late but I would organize it very militarily, or perhaps even like a spy / intelligence / terrorist network, but with a lich or other high level magic user working under the archdevil as sort of their sergeant or quartermaster. Cool idea, if you've already dug into I'd like hear how it turned out.
@@marcusfuckingwebb I think he turned out pretty good, though I still occationally come back to him and make changes. Built him around the idea of a pit fiend who made heavy use of necromancy and undead, both in the Blood War and in deals with mortals (and intelligent undead), and eventually was promoted into an archdevil for his success. Now as an archdevil, when not actively participaiting in the war, he is running this factory that produces undead and necromantic magic items, and is also quite active in growing his cults, eager to have them rival those of Orcus, whom he sees as his nemesis. His factory is withing his personal fortress, named Tombstone Fortress, after the fact that each stone it is made from appears to be someone's tombstone, each bearing the name of a mortal souls he has claimed. Stat wise, he is like Bel or Hutijin in that he is basically an enhanced pit fiend, except he of course has necromantic spells and abilities, and he wields a necrotic longsword that can also reduce your hit point maximum. I also gave him those abilites that most archdevils typically have, like regeneration, teleportation, casting Alter Self and Invisibility at will, speaking all languages etc.
Omg AJ you are awesome and amazing! Thank you for making this video! Just woke up and saw this! Now I have something awesome to listen too on the way to work!👌🙏😭
AJ Pickett hey no problem, it’s awesome you did that, I was surprised to see there wasn’t actually any detailed videos on this creature so I’m happy I had something super interesting to listen too on the way to work, planning on having this monster come up in a campaign to terrorize my players. Thanks again this was awesome 👏😎👌
Krimson Wolf yeah I did too! It’s a great monster, especially for the horror aspect of how unstoppable it can be, planning on having one capture a certain party member and having the party save their friend before he or she is tortured to death 💀😱
Kyler Black is you get time look into Drake Ford’s comment and reply! Binding it to a LG or CG player character instead is awesome way to bring it into a game also.
AJ Pickett Wow I wasn't even considering user comfort, more of an unwilling minion/test subject type of body horror deal. But in terms of a player character a Goliath should work. Or whatever they did to firbolgs, poor red nosed bastards...
This is my favorite undead. I have homebrewed them too be more like a hyper intelligent martial lich. It's when a none magic user makes deal with a lich creating the bone claw to provide immortality to one with no real way to do out themselves.
Does this remind anyone else of pumpkinhead from the first movie? Imagine someone going to see a witch in the woods that's really a hag in order to get revenge on someone, and then that person gets bound to a boneclaw that will get revenge for him and probably kill a lot of others along the way.
Perfect video as always, I was wondering, would a priest of kelemvor use undead as companions, it just got me confused because what lore I could find about it, was contradicting each other. thanks Again AJ for doing these videos.
It depends on what setting you're pulling from. You can also spin it into whatever kind of homebrew lore you need to adapt it to personal stories or campaigns.
@@nikolaj192 Eberon origins are different for it. Some sites mix the lore. I dm 3.5 and have just homebrewed my own lore to get monsters to fit better in the locations I throw them in.
Can a boneclaw have the innate spellcasting trait. Sence they were able to casts spells in life; or are they just unable because of the gruesome transformation to their being.
The process of being turned into a Maggot is.. traumatic.. they don't recall who they were before they died, so yes, they have to re-learn spell casting.
@@fawfulbenivictor5556 they smell less than most undead too. Being bones with no flesh. But if you want to remedy that...make your necromancer strip the flesh from the bones shortly after death as well as shortly before raising. Thr bones will still have rotting tissue inside and out to make it smell.
You know in the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage there's a being known as a *Thing* A *Thing* is like a zombie, but manifested and bound to it's master. A *Thing* can only be destroyed by something that can break down and dispell *Magyk* and *Darke* objects. A *Thing* is absolutely bound to it's master's will, but essentially has the temperment of a spiteful devil, like an Imp. Very similar to a Boneclaw in that way too. A *Thing* can corrode *Magyk,* go *Unseen* and *Unknown,* and can act as a *Focus* for *Darke.* Summoning a *Thing* is a *Darke* act that stains the soul of the caster, though it's not particularly difficult, and is comparable to summoning a Familiar
I just remembered. The caviot of summoning a thing, even if you're a novice who got a *Darke* artifact and read the *Reverse* incantation, is that you owe the forces of *Darke* for a competent servant.
I know we're talking about high fantasy, but the idea that a physical part of its body extends that far sort of strains credulity. The art (4e?) used in the preview image mitigates this a bit with the anatomical adjustments to the upper arm and shoulder. I kind of wish they re-fluffed its claws as tentacles that it can make rigid and claw-like at will.
Fluff is free. How you explain their extendable claws is up to you. So maybe that is how the claws work, given how they enjoy being extremely creepy to those they are not allowed to attack. Imagine being caressed across the room by a razor sharp claw.
Yes but no. The temperament is correct but neckelavee are kinda abominations. They are a thing with no known origin, is not natural by any known law of being, and have no allegiances. They are almost demons except bear no connection to the abyss as far as we know.
Charnel Hound, Boneyard. Seems I recall it being living boneyard in 3.5 edition. I could be wrong. That and the Charnel Hound are two very horrific monsters that both heal and grow in strength by consuming victims. You could add a few other undead with similar traits.
Can a good aligned spell caster control minions, including the boneclaw creatures, of evil NPCs through spells with mind control effects? Since its impossable to prevent that status of soul from being uses in any other method. Like sealing demons into items or kill them on the abyssal plain to neutralize the excistance
I'm doing 3.5 oriental adventures. I'm trying to solve the northern open borders of tainted shadowlands into the scorpion clan. I'm more into mm2 for my campaign in the DM for, but I figured grave crawler and boneclaw for border security to destroy oni, while limiting actual evil acts to any no evil stuff
Bruh why did you use the Crackhead analogy. Lich: ok so whatever you do, do not harm my living followers BoneClaw: Im jonesing for a hit my dude PWEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEEEE
" Alien ?" 10th-level wizard can cast 5th-level spells. Sorry I only have 3.5e rule books and AD&D2e 4th-level spell," Charm monster," research " Charm Undead." 4th " Baneful Polymorph Other," turn a troll into a over size pit bull with red dragon scale natural armor. Your players may just think they are fighting a demon. I wizard grants someone with unending eternal "life." 4th-level spell, " Lesser Planar Binding/ Call Planar Ally." summons a fiendish vampire or a wight and " grants " the other person with undeath. Then Polymorphs the Wight into a Drider. What ever you can "draw" a polymorph spell can turn a person into. AD&D2e " Complete Necromancer Hand Book," had a spell called " Flesh Graph," You can polymorph a dozen wights into large monsters and combine them into a huge monster with full 360 degree full circle defense and attack ability. If they get hit by a Dispel Magic effect, they return back into normal wights with class levels.
@@krispalermo8133 "aline" in a sense that at least i have a hart time to get in the mind of one of them and that the Concept of not living and being "alive" is so strange... shure ther is a tone of wierd stuff in dnd but for me the things that are most bizarr are undead and the far realm. I have a hart time to get them. For exempel ther is a fungus in the real wold that can mindcontrol ants... that is crasy shit aswell but not as out of this world "alien" like undead at leest in my book
Sorry I'm late to the party, here are some timestamps.
0:19 Intro, Become a Member/ Patreon Patron
0:52 Appearance in D&D editions
2:06 Origins/ Discussion on Thay
3:35 Szass Tam (The first S is silent)
5:05 The Soul Trade and the Ritual
6:38 Variations on the Ritual and the Binding
8:08 Assassins and Sadists
9:07 Description and Limited Immortality
10:59 Combat, Tactics, and Getting their prey.
15:27 If at first they don't succeed...
16:17 Bone Claws in Ebberon and Faerun
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I know exactly where these guys are in my home-brew world, but have not gotten to use them as my players have yet to draw the ire of the Arch-Lich of Prima (The world). I think they might in the next arc of our story so hopefully these guys will make a fun appearance. If you have not already checked out the video AJ did on the Soul Trade definitely go check that out, it is a huge bit of information that I am supprised that 5th ed has left out so far. Any fun stories about these guys? leave a comment below.
Soul Trade Video: ua-cam.com/video/sxysJmif5XM/v-deo.html
I really didn’t even know about that but see how they perfectly fit in with an Arch-Lich in any world.
I really like the idea of something like a bigger fish game arc in a campaign with slightly less “heroic” players.
Maybe an Arch-Wizard that wants to preform the ritual to become a lich hires them out to seek the knowledge of the ritual or to travel and recover components from the lands Arch Lich or Red Wizard. They return with the required info/item and help him with the ritual. At the last min it goes awry and the Wizard’s soul becomes bound to the Arch Lich as a boneclaw. Now either they submit to working for the Arch-Lich or they must constantly fight off their former employer.
Also. Thank you for your work and references to other videos. The soul trade video has such amazing info.
Thank you very much for taking the time to post timestamps
@@dogle9258 oh that sounds like such a good surprise turn of events, they think they are backing one horse and end up working for another. Any ya, not a problem, always happy to do this.
Ll
Last session, my kenku rogue was targeted by a boneclaw. It was the dead of night. We hear a faint cackling in the distance. Then disaster struck. From the darkness came the claws of the boneclaw, plunging deep into the shoulder of my character. From the boneclaw's attack, my character went from 68 hit points down to around six hit points and became grappled. The boneclaw then teleported away before my allies were able to free me from it's icy grasp. If not for the bloodcurdling screams of terror, my character would have died that session. Needless to say, my character had acquired a major fear of the dark as a flaw and it's all thanks to that boneclaw.
Boneclaw can ALWAYS reach that itchy spot in between it's shoulderblades.
Oh this is the Thing that completes the Quartet. The Lich is the Powerful Undead for Wizards, The Death Knight is the Fighter, The Mummy is the Cleric, and the Boneclaw is the Rogue. Nice.
Banshee for Bard?
I would argue death knights are pally, but otherwise I definately agree.
Now that this thought resonated a bit more. It would be cool to have a party play as these archetypes in a campaign where they beseech Vecna to hide them as they plot against Orcus to try and disrupt his reign on their immortality. Sounds like a good enough goal to allign some mega evil characters. The Boneclaw could have been an arcane trickster who worked under the wizard who became a lich. He sneakily tried to replicate his master's ritual but wasn't quite magically powerful enough. And the lich spitefully returned him into his service.
AJ Pickett 0:42 "It's been a while since i've talked about undead."
Dispater---"ahem"
I love these things. I can imagine a powerful lich that purposely did this to a few of his most trusted servants as a reward for thier service. Doing so to a willing creature, i would rule they keep thier previous abilities aka giving the boneclaw class levels. Classes i would use for this is gloomstalker ranger, shadow monk, oath of vengence pally, and shadow sorcerer.
Equipping each with magic items the lich would use items. Maybe reign in the cruelty in a bit for one of them to walk up to the party and rp it demanding stolen property that they had stolen.
It is the constant policy of Te Mighty Gluestick Ltd. that "Your Table, Your Rules."
"BONECLAW IS REEAADY!"
Really liking the Throat Singing into
Bone Claw is ready!
Bone Claw: I got you for three minutes, Three minutes of stab time!
This is my 2nd comment, but I do want to say THANKS to AJ (for the research, editing, production) & Kyler (for this request).
AJ has made a huge catalog of vids that definitely makes me proud to spread the news (mostly to my son & his friends...and their parents) of his channel. Attention to details and sheer volume of the topics keep them all imagining.
It just struck me; a lich, or other evil person with knowledge of the process of becoming a lich, could amass as many boneclaw servants as they want.
Just invite some naïve young wizard or sorcerer, guide the prospective lich through the preparations, and then see to it that they fail at the last moment, their soul binding itself to the teacher, being the nearest evil person, rinse and repeat.
Well, harvesting souls is already a lich's thing. So why not? This way he gets rid of potential rivals and gains allies.
That 15 foot reach is terrifying.
Imagine a alhoon failing its undead transformation and ending up as a squid faced version of this.
Ewwwwwwww
Boneclaws are prime material for a survival horror type campaign where the PCs run afoul of a lich and end up being relentlessly pestered by boneclaws... Shadows are the enemy. Really great setting to make players absolutely paranoid.
That is some pretty intense 'pestering' :D
Pretty on-point as far as survival horror games go imo
Thank you!! Finally, one of my favorite monsters!
Ah yes. My party is currently in the midst of being absolutely terrified of this thing. They've killed it once but not without almost losing 2 of there members nearly dying. Now they live in fear as iv hinted of the presence of its red nails
You didn't mention his dread rings and his deal with bane. His millennia is running out and he has to complete the unmaking ritual soon before he becomes banes vassal and thrall.
They should play knucklebones. Bane likes knucklebones.
Yea, that sick bastard summoned bane up didn't he??? It was a damn nationwide summoning circle that sacrificed many of his servants. I had forgotten reading about that it was so long ago. EDIT: The way he did it was so crazy, basically he said yea you can kill me. But I'd bloody your nose in the process, and you would lose respect with your peers wouldn't you??? So just go ahead and give me ridiculous power and I'll be yours after a millennia.
@@earthobserver1007 Sazm tam never lacked for gall that's sure. To have the power to challenge a God that's some hubris that you can't help but respect. The ritual of unmaking has to be the coolest piece of transmutation ever conceived. I give all the props to Richard Lee Byers for writing the masterpiece of a trilogy. I've read most of his books and he writes epic pieces like the dead God trilogy and the rage of Dragons trilogy.
@@humbertocobian4740 I'd forgotten his name also. Damn good reading that whole trilogy. Those books even contained many special undead you wouldn't even know about, unless you had read libris mortis, and several other special books of undead. Like the damn necromantic brain in a jar of negative energy fluids that piloted a giant machine in the basic form of a scorpion. It spoke telepathically and never needed to sleep, eat, or intake nutrients. Not to mention the damn atrophal that Tam had dug up from some forgotten tomb of horrors. That thing is what created many of the special undead used in the thayan armies. Let's not forget skin kites, although I believe they were already in use before the atrophal was unearthed. Didn't he use the power he got from the summoning to summon and control the colossal psychic undead cloud of thousands of souls that grows off things it kills by incorporating all slain spirits into itself??? Kind of like a charnel hound except way way worse, and nearly unstoppable.
@@earthobserver1007 yes exactly the exotic undead in that series was and is epic. The underappreciated epicness of that series like he was trying to unmake the universe and seems like no one cared about it.
Welcome to the [B O N E Z O N E]
I think my favorite Szass Tam power move when he summoned the vestige of Bane, dispelled the God's attempt to give him a "true death" and had the undead balls to convince Bane and his church to side with him during the Thay Civil War.
Read "Undead" book 2 of trilogy by Richard Lee Byers
I used this to chase a low-level party once. It was pretty good. So good in fact they immediately sought it's complete destruction. Fun times
What is a bone claw? " a bone claw is totally not a ghoul version of wolverine. Nope. Deffinatly not zombified weapon x with thoughts
Wolverine always has been a berserker. A bone claw is just wicked and sadistic. Delighting in the havoc and dismay it causes.
I think Lady Deathstrike is more appropriate than Wolverine
I love these guys! I plan to use it as a super horrible guardian for a small child. I plan to introduce it to the party as they hear a child screaming in terror as some bandit types are torn apart in front of the kid because they tried to abduct the child. The plan is to have a mad lich in town who looks out for the orphans and creates undead from any who dare cause them trouble.
As a twist have the kid be a necromancer.
@@zacharygadzinski3147 I have considered that, but I didnt want to make the group go through the moral decision of killing a child or not
I love these things! I can just imagine a wicked lich taking on pupils, convincing them to attempt to achieve lichdom, all the while knowing that they will fail, simply to procure a small army of boneclaws for themselves.
Oooo! What if their latest "pupil" became a boneclaw like the rest, but attached himself to a different evil entity? Perhaps the lich hires the party (either while disguised or by proxy) to kill the boneclaw's new master, hoping it will attach to the lich instead as intended.
Szass Tam: those fingas! He would give Lady Deathstrike envy with those boneclaws.
Since you mentioned Szass Tam...
The subject made me curious as to what I read about another historic wizard/arcanist: Ioulaum, he became an elder brain lich? That process and lore would be a great addition to your (probably vast, at this point) list of D&D historian subject/topic list...simply out of uniqueness.
Ioulaum is still alive.
@@AJPickett
Mind boggling.
I can imagine a Boneclaw being bonded to an unaware master who is in a position of power who is responsible for keeping order in a given city, like the chief of the City Guard or something. He ends up hiring the adventures to find who is making these mysterious killings that are terrifying the populace, even if they are people who he was glad to see go. He's corrupted but in denial about his now evil nature, filling his mind with excuses like "he deserved it," & "everybody does it." Ultimately it becomes a mystery & perhaps therapy session where the party must focus on getting him to see & change their ways. You may need to change the level of HOW evil a master the Boneclaw is willing to serve & perhaps have it willing to fuel further corruption.
I love using L/e paladins of the “ for the grater good” varieties. I can definitely see using this as an extensive background quest and constant repeating mission to hunt the “person” killing the L/e nobles rivals as well as families and pets. Constantly embarrassing and casting suspicion on an “ innocent” upstanding citizen.
Although I personally feel like the alignment restriction as to who the boneclaw bonds to is somewhat limiting as a plot device. I mean imagine if the boneclaw bonded its soul to a child that wasn’t malicious but just in pain and not mature enough to understand how to deal with their emotions in a healthy manner.
The little girl is shunned by the town accused of being hag spawn, she doesn’t know why or even what that means, it makes her sad. She didn’t do anything to the dog, it just always scared her the way it barked at her shadow when she walked by she just wanted it to stop and then it did. But she didn’t cut it up like that she stayed far away from the scary dog. She wishes the kids would stop teasing her or that the adults would go away and leave her alone. She misses momma and papa she wishes that they didn’t leave her alone. She knows they would make it stop if they came back. If she knew they we’re going to disappear she wouldn’t have made such a fit about wanting a new doll. But at least Mr. Smiles is always there to play with her she knows he won’t ever leave. 💀
Feel free to use this plot hook in your campaigns as seen fit I know it’s kinda cliche in some circles but it’s one of those cliches that never ceases to be unsettling. At least for me that is, I consider the child and monster trope a classic.
Tropes tend to become tropes because they easily resonate with an audience. Tropes are fine so long as one adds a personal touch to them.
Well, evil is just selfish. Many a child can be unthinkingly selfish. And imagine the events that lead a child to their relatively petty, but still quite unrepentant, evil. Say one with a sorcerous talent.
This sounds like a movie whose name escapes me.
Though the monster was also working to nudge the child to increasingly extreme and violent responses.
That... was pretty damn close to a plot I was devising. I've been working on a plot device where a cult was trying to create a lich, but they're not so great at it and accidentally create a Boneclaw that bonds to a child orphan of 7 or 8 years old, that has been bullied most of their life. The kid just wants the bullying to stop, and suddenly this thing comes in and makes it life better. The child isn't really old enough to understand death, or that it's ideas and wishes are becoming true because of this thing. They just like the fact the bullies are going away. The closer the party comes to finding out what is going on, the more this thing attacks the party and defends the bonded kid, and becomes a constant enemy they have to fight several times in order to to end the plot, which ends in a severally ethical situation for the party.
Boneclaw. A being that very aptly defines hateful evil as opposed to selfish evil.
So what I'm hearing is...have my current BBEG use these instead of mummy lords
they were nerfed HARD in 5E
@@freakyskull516 how bad of a nerf are we talking about here? Because I'm pretty confident that the group I DM for wouldn't be able to handle even 1 of these until they hit level 10 or so (not the brightest when it comes to gameplay)
@@dirtyblonde1011 it basically lost all of its crazy shadow and teleport abilities and is now just a somewhat tanky undead with a 20ftrange 2d6 damage 2 attacks and resistance to turning
id say a party of at least 3 lv5s could take it easily. lower level if they play it smart
@@freakyskull516 it still has its shadow powers, what are you on about.
A 5d12+ 2
I imagine a Bone claw moving it's fingers like Eddie Quist from The Howling spidered his fingers during his transformation in front of Karen White
This baddy is wicked. I can't wait to use one against my players.
I chose this for a mini bbeg before the final confrontation, constantly hunting the party but never full on conflict.
What is evil exactly? It's freedom of choice, knowing what you're doing is wrong and willingfully choose to do so because you can, not because it can save others or do it for the greater good but because you can do so.
Evil is pleasure in the macrabe, the torment and pain of those who cant defend itself, the joys in others suffering, the smile that comes from the tears of those who have fallen.
A schoolshooter is evil no doubt, they made their choice and are fully capable for reason.
A feral beast infected with rabies isnt evil for it lost it's freewill to the disease it carries, nor is a parasite that kills it's host for it only wants to survive and the host dying is an unfurtionate side-effect.
Evil is, and always will be being able to choose to do wrong without your survival depending on it and choosing to do so.
Actions taken for a greater purpose than yourself are not inherently evil.
I like the definition that evil is selfishness. Simple and easy to understand. Evil is to put your goals above the goals of the collective. Individuality over community. Also makes the question when an action is really done with the true greater good in mind or done with ego of the perpetrator as there motivator. Also points out how true good and justice is something completely alien and abhorrent to humanity. There needs to be at least a little selfishness in mortal concerns or we turn self-destructive. Which is an evil in itself as well.
So my party was in session 0 we were 3 level 5 babies and had already had to fight a bone naga and some other smaller badies as we ventured into a ziggurat. We see this thin thing that looks like a mix between the rake creepypasta and SCP 096 shy guy, happily cutting up a mound of bodies to sacrifice, our rogue snuck the only living person left in that place and we noped the hell out of there. Now tonight we came back to the small shanty desert town we call home to find it covered in long claw marks and the guards bodies gone and the gate ripped open. This was after clearing a hard cave filled with a dinosaur that fought with sound waves. This thing followed us an entire days travel worth of distance to hunt us down. Will update next week
"Dinosaur that fought with sound waves" Destrachan? That's obscure.
Have you done a video on Eberrons Dreaming Dark and its denizens, the Quoiri?
Nope. I was having a conversation today about my making those "Introduction to setting" videos, and I know some people are keen for me to delve further into Eberron or Dark Sun, or Dragonlance or Mystara or Golarion, etc... however, I make videos because I want to learn about D&D, I am curious about settings that I have not played, but I am not really interested in playing Eberron or Dark Sun (I don't know anyone, over my decades of play, who has run a Dark Sun campaign, it is very niche, one that, if I wanted to run that sort of game, I would just play Numenera.. Monte Cook and friends who were behind the era where D&D brought us Dark Sun and Eberron, has since gone on to make the game setting he always wanted.. and it does a better job of it because it has a system built for it).
Those who request that I make videos about settings, already KNOW all the stuff I might add to a video, so, I am really better off sticking to what I do best, what I am most interested in, and what the majority of viewers are here for... monsters and story elements, exotic locations and the broader connected D&D multiverse. With the very rare foray into the more obscure planets :)
BONECLAW IS READY
I just got off work and what do I see. A spicy lore video from my boy AJ. Good for the hour drive home. 💚 thanks again for all that you do!
Would you consider doing a video on the Dawn War, or perhaps the relationships between two races that are of note?
I love how you explain the creatures and their thoughts, I can really slip into their shoes.
I love these "Frankenstein" style undead. Sure there is a 'recipe' for a Boneclaw, but who is to say that they are all the same? A little more blood here, a little more spice there and POOF, some new abomination to pester the party.
Yoooo that intro panel is LEGIIIIT.
This was by far my favorite creature so far
BONECLAW IS READY, SCRATCH MY FACE OFF BROTHER
This would be cool as an out of the way trap or unlikely lair action that releases one of these to hunt the party through the dungeon and beyond. You're exploring a medium level dungeon when enough bad rolls and circumstances line up to attract the notice of a bone claw. A sensitive member of the party is handed a note that says, "flee for it may be too late" and instructions that their character should freak out and beg to leave this horrible place. The DM puts away his notes and pull out a small black notebook to drive home the fact that things just got very serious
I write horror stories and my main characters rival is a bone fiend like entity. I think I'll have them team up on this thing in the streets of Philly.
So long story short: A Boneclaw is the result when a Wizard fails to become a Lich, and is now bound in servitude to the closest being with the wickedest soul.
What about evil rabbits? Can it bind to a rabid badger or a wasp or something? How about a chihuahua?
Mental image of boneclaw guarding Evil Rabbit burrow from intruders is amusing. Area is littered with the mangled bodies of hunting dogs, ferrets, badgers, maybe the odd hawk or falcon. But really, a boneclaw is minor threat compared to what Bun-Bun himself will do to you.
@@richmcgee434 Neutral evil Druid cast " Awaken Animal " of a pack of rabbits and has a wizard use the spell Lesser Planar Binding, to summon a group of Fiendish flesh eating bunnies from Baator swamp lands. So there is a new breed of rabbits out lose on the land.
It beats the run of the mill being eaten by a pack of fiendish rats in a wizard's dungeon.
Gosh, Szass Tam is basically untouchable. With a squad of boneclaws equipped with magic gear no quick and easy assassination seems to be an option.
I wanna do a horror campaign with fletchs, false hydras, and boneclaws
Tell your players I said Hi :)
I read that as "a horror campaign with fetishes"
(truly the most horrifying campaign possible)
@@UNSCMarine117
"A horror campaign with fetishes" hmm... Sounds like hentai to me...
The Deaderer
Have a Boneclaw be a relentless reacurring boss like nemisses from resident evil 3, (original or remake)
Having him to be more powerful each time your groupe incounters him.
@@Dualbladedscorpion7737
God damnit!
I think I quite prefer the idea that these could latch on to a host with a Good alignment. Perhaps not NG, but certainly LG or CG.
Even good people can have dark thoughts or desires. Normally these are just little seeds that are not allowed to sprout- a wolf that isn't fed. Nonetheless, they are there. The constant tug of selfishness, arrogance, ambition, wrath, or greed may well be overpowered or ignored by one who chooses his better nature, but they never disappear. Even angels can fall, after all.
Imagine then, having one of these creatures latch on to that. Fulfilling those neglected desires and feeding that starving wolf quietly from the shadows. That boss you hate? Gone. That lovely sword you were admiring? In your room. That girl you had a thing for? Well her man suddenly skipped town, and some creepy mugger apparently chased her all the way to your door.
What would happen to that person? If they learned the truth, what would they choose? Which wolf would win, now that they have had a taste of both?
And, perhaps more importantly, what does the party choose? Because if the Boneclaw can nest itself in a good man's soul after all, then that only leaves one known way to be rid of it.
_PS. On a semi-related note, when an angel falls, must it be all the way to evil? That is the archetype, of course, but is it the only outcome? Are such things naturally beings of extremes, or can the be "corrupted" to land somewhere in the middle? I'm curious to hear others thoughts on the question._
Drake Ford at first I was like “Nah”. Then I thought about how many players would gladly switch to evil to be able to wield that power of the evil wolf as they choose. About how if someone was playing an evil archetype they of course would love to have such an amazing tool, but what about if they was say a LG bard. Would they bite at the chance to bite with such power. Even if it meant switching everything they wanted to originally do with their character.
On how fall must an angel fall. I think there is some dedication to law. I think law vs chaos is the struggle that makes angels and deviled who they are. A chaotic one would undo what it is.
Good is after all only good to those that share the same interest. A goblin could be seen as good to an orc cause any benefit to one would benefit the other. I think Angels ideal of law could be seen as evil to some mortals anyway.
Devils to my understanding are angels, just their time around chaos morphed their bodies and when it came to punishing sinners they just took it more to the extreme then others of their kinds.
When they turned evil is when Asmodeos (sry) tried to shift power away from them to fuel his own needs. And from then on all of his followers no longer had the same shared interest as the other good Angels.
But you changed my mind on Boneclaws being bound to LG players already. I’m open to the idea of a chaotic angel.
@@dogle9258
It's a fantastic premise for a central NPC for an adventure as well.
For example, say a good-natured Guard is latched onto by one. He is promoted to Guard Captain after his corrupt predecessor (whom he hated) goes missing. Criminals from around the city start dying off one by one- even those that the law itself couldn't touch due to political/economic power or simple lack of evidence. On top of this, things begin working out wonderfully in his personal life- problems get handled in their own, and people he couldn't stand begin skipping town. Someone leaves kind little gifts for him from time to time. He's even been in the right place to save a lovely bar maid or two from some shady criminal.
What happens when he finds out that all this was his doing? Does he embrace the monster in order to "make things how they should be"? Or does he recognize the danger of such power, and the evil in its use?
If he's determined to wield it despite the harm it brings to others, the answer is pretty straightforward- you bring him down. If he does want to be rid of it though- if his goodness does remain- then that makes things much more difficult.
There's only two known ways to kill a Boneclaw. The first is to redeem the host's to a Good alignment. If he's already good though, then that only leaves one option: his death. So, what does the party do? Execute him? Allow him to execute himself? How would the jost react to the realization that death was the only known option? Would he change his mind in light of this? Might the party trap the beast? Try to find another option that centuries of Wizards have missed? And if course, the Boneclaw will take none of this lying down.
This is the point where it stops being a simple monster, and becomes a dilemma, and that really makes it something a bit more.
Drake Ford *sits back eating popcorn* “And then?” 😳 🍿
I love it!
I actually really like this idea, nothing says a bone claw wouldn’t try to manipulate its master in order to further its and especially its own immortality, both the bone claw and master are forever tethered, I could certainly see it rubbing off on its master. 💀
Love the vid if I may suggest a idea, warlock patron ideas like a few demons, great Fay, old ones ect that you think would be fun for a rp or just interesting also any ideas on outside the box patrons
That could be interesting, thanks Kody
Ooooooh, always love more undead videos. I'd like to see one on flesh golems when possible
By far one of my favorite creatures to ever exist in D&D. These guys are just the perfect challenge, even to a very high level party.
Imma get you with my grabby hands
what if ... weaken and restrain the bone boi. then cant kamikaze regenerate itself. chain it up and keep in extra strong light or something
Aj ate there any female deathknights or dark knights type in d&d and the bone claw is scary asf
No reason why not and yes, scary AF
In the 5e Ravenloft book the Dark Lord of the Indian inspired domain was a female Death Knight, and in Eberron there’s a Female Death Knight called the Silent Knight who is cursed to never speak another word or else all of her descendants are cursed to die.
A boneclaw and a mohrg would totally be BBFs. They love stalking prey, murder, and torture. And they're not stuck up like vampires or feign nobility like wights. XD
Riding an Undead T-Rex and yelling "Road Trip!"
@@AJPickett Hell Yeah! :3
I imagine a bone claw is created when a would be lich practices their lich making magic on a good aligned creature. If it makes a bone claw in service to the wizard the ritual would create a lich.
So every lich has or previous had at least one bone claw unless they’re insane and reckless, every bone claw has a sad story where they were kidnapped by a wizard and a wizard with a bone claw is on their way to becoming a lich. Making them a symbolic creature that a wizard can use an intelligence check to get some useful information out of
You don't need to be evil to become a lich. It is just you can't stay as a lich very long without becoming such. You can even become a lich against your will. A phylactery is just a soul prison. So no permission neccessary to make one. Just happens that those who don't have a pressing reason to stay undead will likely choose to destroy said soul prison, or those constrained against doing so. I imagine the latter would make quite insane servants of a more powerful master.
@@jacobfreeman5444 In that case a bone claw is what happens when the ritual of lichdom is done on someone other than the spell caster themselves
@@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar That is more like a mummy. Boneclaws are failures. They mess up the insanely difficult rites needed to become one and it blows up in their face in a very spectacular fashion. Just plain dying isn't the worst that can happen if you mess it up. Messing up your chance to be more so completely your soul can only be useful as an unstable but power minion is what a boneclaw is all about. This is someone who could have been a mover and shaker but is now just a torture junkie in the employ of what could be their own subordinates. The only reason they are not pitied is because of how twisted and terrifying they are.
So what I just learned is that if a lich fucks up his lichdom he'll become a low level peasants playtoy for vengeance.
Is that what happened in Pumpkinhead
Yes, but the Vegan was too weak to become a lich.
DevinNation I guess you could say he got boned
Clawed
Again with the amazing videos I need. Szast Tham and his doings seem like a great model I can look at for what I wanna do with my campaign.
I want to have a bunch of countries with thin veils over the monsters that run them. Circled around a righteous place so my players don't get too paranoid.
I love it aj, I love the boneclaw, I like to call the boneclaw the lichen who became a lich too early.
Too physically or spiritually weak to become alich
I love that you are catching up on all the vids you missed :)
@@AJPickett ya when I got arrested for felony harassment, I told the sheriff that I talk that way all the time, just go look up aj pickett on youtube
Where do you keep finding all those pictures of supermodels?
Where'd he get a fingerlonger
I like that given the lore and abilities, if you wanted to run a Pumpkindhead themed game, the Boneclaw would fit the bill perfectly. ;)
One of my top 10 undead nice
Love the video, AJ. These nightmares did not exist when I regularly gamed. I wish the Monstrous Compendium had these when I did. I can think of many horror games I would have run differently. These guys are like "What if Deadpool and Wolverine had a giant undead homicidal fearless AD&D baby with Deathstrike's reach?"
I imagine when a Boneclaw melds with the shadows there would be a cackling sounds like when Grimskull from Skeleton Warriors would meld and teleport through shadows
These are my favorite undead, I'm home brewing a version of them called a Bonesaw as kind of like a commander of legions of these boys
While listening to this video my brain thought about how when they take over another bad soul, in my mind's eye looked very similar to Venom only it could be more smokey than slimy. Schizo, undead, serial-killing machine! RUN AWAY! lol
@@AKNeal81 I really like that imagery it evokes a kind of feeling that I think would scare the shit out my players! 💀
@@Aceofomens right!? Lol Just thought of this one too: just in case you need to ramp up the power level for a higher level party. Have the thing come back to life after a round or two instead of hours. So just when they think they've got it's master one on one, someone hears a click and turns around to see this beast cracking its jawbone back into place and cracking it's knuckles to go again! 😱
Gods bless (forgive the phrasing) Boneclaws, and shadow walkers. They scare the crap out of me.
*vigorous holy symboling*
"Like a crackhead jonesing"
I shouldn't laugh, but pretty much nailed it.
These things.... And I thought mummies were spooky.
Thanks for the great video AJ! I would like to request a video on how to become a god in D&D.
(Man, I need to become a patron)
I'm making an archdevil whose whole thing is undead, and I'm thinking of giving him some boneclaw assassins, and maybe some badyguards. Would this makes sense/be a good idea for him?
Sure.
@@AJPickett Sweet. I quite like the idea of my archdevil having these assassins and bodyguards that even creep out other devils.
@@thehollow6493 Kinda. He is very different from Orcus. "Orcus but as a devil" just sounds boring and not very creative, so I made sure to give him his own style.
@@TheHornedKing Probably coming in here super late but I would organize it very militarily, or perhaps even like a spy / intelligence / terrorist network, but with a lich or other high level magic user working under the archdevil as sort of their sergeant or quartermaster. Cool idea, if you've already dug into I'd like hear how it turned out.
@@marcusfuckingwebb I think he turned out pretty good, though I still occationally come back to him and make changes. Built him around the idea of a pit fiend who made heavy use of necromancy and undead, both in the Blood War and in deals with mortals (and intelligent undead), and eventually was promoted into an archdevil for his success.
Now as an archdevil, when not actively participaiting in the war, he is running this factory that produces undead and necromantic magic items, and is also quite active in growing his cults, eager to have them rival those of Orcus, whom he sees as his nemesis.
His factory is withing his personal fortress, named Tombstone Fortress, after the fact that each stone it is made from appears to be someone's tombstone, each bearing the name of a mortal souls he has claimed.
Stat wise, he is like Bel or Hutijin in that he is basically an enhanced pit fiend, except he of course has necromantic spells and abilities, and he wields a necrotic longsword that can also reduce your hit point maximum. I also gave him those abilites that most archdevils typically have, like regeneration, teleportation, casting Alter Self and Invisibility at will, speaking all languages etc.
Omg AJ you are awesome and amazing! Thank you for making this video! Just woke up and saw this! Now I have something awesome to listen too on the way to work!👌🙏😭
Most welcome, thanks for the request 😊
AJ Pickett hey no problem, it’s awesome you did that, I was surprised to see there wasn’t actually any detailed videos on this creature so I’m happy I had something super interesting to listen too on the way to work, planning on having this monster come up in a campaign to terrorize my players. Thanks again this was awesome 👏😎👌
Thank you Kyler! Super enjoyed this recommendation
Krimson Wolf yeah I did too! It’s a great monster, especially for the horror aspect of how unstoppable it can be, planning on having one capture a certain party member and having the party save their friend before he or she is tortured to death 💀😱
Kyler Black is you get time look into Drake Ford’s comment and reply! Binding it to a LG or CG player character instead is awesome way to bring it into a game also.
Neat. There was a boss named Redrum in Xenogears that was a clear reference to this. One of the more memorable bosses from that game.
Yeah, that fight was what set the tone for the horror for that game. I can still remember it.
Can you do a video on the Wendigo??
*Relevant and Supportive Comment*
So with undead grafts in mind, would it be possible for a Boneclaw's arm to be used? Or would the recipient have to be evil for it to work?
Hmmm, well the arm is really big and ungainly for a creature under Large size.
AJ Pickett Wow I wasn't even considering user comfort, more of an unwilling minion/test subject type of body horror deal. But in terms of a player character a Goliath should work. Or whatever they did to firbolgs, poor red nosed bastards...
Another amazing video! Could you do Primordials please please, you have referred to them but never in depth.
Love your work as always. Wanted to show my support!
This is my favorite undead. I have homebrewed them too be more like a hyper intelligent martial lich. It's when a none magic user makes deal with a lich creating the bone claw to provide immortality to one with no real way to do out themselves.
Does this remind anyone else of pumpkinhead from the first movie? Imagine someone going to see a witch in the woods that's really a hag in order to get revenge on someone, and then that person gets bound to a boneclaw that will get revenge for him and probably kill a lot of others along the way.
BONECLAW IS REEEEEEAAAAAAADY!
I got you for 3 minutes! 3 minutes of playtime!
Its bonesaw... but who cares, I loved that character.
Erinyes devil?
If the Soul of Mummy is bound by the wrappings, can you (theoretically) slay one by unwrapping it?
Yes
Perfect video as always, I was wondering, would a priest of kelemvor use undead as companions, it just got me confused because what lore I could find about it, was contradicting each other. thanks Again AJ for doing these videos.
It depends on what setting you're pulling from. You can also spin it into whatever kind of homebrew lore you need to adapt it to personal stories or campaigns.
@@the_wanderer8898 the lore it is supposed to fit to, is 3rd edition DND rules the original world of toril.
@@nikolaj192 Eberon origins are different for it. Some sites mix the lore. I dm 3.5 and have just homebrewed my own lore to get monsters to fit better in the locations I throw them in.
Can a boneclaw have the innate spellcasting trait. Sence they were able to casts spells in life; or are they just unable because of the gruesome transformation to their being.
The process of being turned into a Maggot is.. traumatic.. they don't recall who they were before they died, so yes, they have to re-learn spell casting.
so if a necromancer where to try to make a good impression what undead are the most hospitable?
A skeleton is an expensive suit and dapper hat... with a monocle.
@@AJPickett thank you
@@fawfulbenivictor5556 they smell less than most undead too. Being bones with no flesh. But if you want to remedy that...make your necromancer strip the flesh from the bones shortly after death as well as shortly before raising. Thr bones will still have rotting tissue inside and out to make it smell.
@@jacobfreeman5444 Mummies also don't smell bad, due to all the herbs and spices and such that is used in the mummification.
Ooh a perfect creepy creature to stalk and harass victims over time. Nice choices of artwork too.
And then it gets beaten to death by a monk.
You know in the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage there's a being known as a *Thing*
A *Thing* is like a zombie, but manifested and bound to it's master. A *Thing* can only be destroyed by something that can break down and dispell *Magyk* and *Darke* objects. A *Thing* is absolutely bound to it's master's will, but essentially has the temperment of a spiteful devil, like an Imp. Very similar to a Boneclaw in that way too. A *Thing* can corrode *Magyk,* go *Unseen* and *Unknown,* and can act as a *Focus* for *Darke.* Summoning a *Thing* is a *Darke* act that stains the soul of the caster, though it's not particularly difficult, and is comparable to summoning a Familiar
I just remembered. The caviot of summoning a thing, even if you're a novice who got a *Darke* artifact and read the *Reverse* incantation, is that you owe the forces of *Darke* for a competent servant.
The boneclaw is awesome. Since I first saw it I've found three excuses to use it and it always goes great.
I know we're talking about high fantasy, but the idea that a physical part of its body extends that far sort of strains credulity. The art (4e?) used in the preview image mitigates this a bit with the anatomical adjustments to the upper arm and shoulder. I kind of wish they re-fluffed its claws as tentacles that it can make rigid and claw-like at will.
Fluff is free. How you explain their extendable claws is up to you. So maybe that is how the claws work, given how they enjoy being extremely creepy to those they are not allowed to attack. Imagine being caressed across the room by a razor sharp claw.
I had forgotten about these things.
Boneclaw + centure = nuckelavee.
Yes but no. The temperament is correct but neckelavee are kinda abominations. They are a thing with no known origin, is not natural by any known law of being, and have no allegiances. They are almost demons except bear no connection to the abyss as far as we know.
Charnel Hound, Boneyard. Seems I recall it being living boneyard in 3.5 edition. I could be wrong. That and the Charnel Hound are two very horrific monsters that both heal and grow in strength by consuming victims. You could add a few other undead with similar traits.
Can a good aligned spell caster control minions, including the boneclaw creatures, of evil NPCs through spells with mind control effects? Since its impossable to prevent that status of soul from being uses in any other method. Like sealing demons into items or kill them on the abyssal plain to neutralize the excistance
Sure.
I'm doing 3.5 oriental adventures. I'm trying to solve the northern open borders of tainted shadowlands into the scorpion clan. I'm more into mm2 for my campaign in the DM for, but I figured grave crawler and boneclaw for border security to destroy oni, while limiting actual evil acts to any no evil stuff
Could you possibly do Thunderbirds soon please.
Deathlocks next please?!
Bruh why did you use the Crackhead analogy.
Lich: ok so whatever you do, do not harm my living followers
BoneClaw: Im jonesing for a hit my dude PWEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEEEE
Could this be the work of an enemy Stand?
So that’s what happened to salad fingers.
I love undeads thay are so alien and can be Everything
" Alien ?" 10th-level wizard can cast 5th-level spells. Sorry I only have 3.5e rule books and AD&D2e
4th-level spell," Charm monster," research " Charm Undead."
4th " Baneful Polymorph Other," turn a troll into a over size pit bull with red dragon scale natural armor.
Your players may just think they are fighting a demon.
I wizard grants someone with unending eternal "life."
4th-level spell, " Lesser Planar Binding/ Call Planar Ally." summons a fiendish vampire or a wight and
" grants " the other person with undeath. Then Polymorphs the Wight into a Drider.
What ever you can "draw" a polymorph spell can turn a person into.
AD&D2e " Complete Necromancer Hand Book," had a spell called " Flesh Graph,"
You can polymorph a dozen wights into large monsters and combine them into a huge monster with full
360 degree full circle defense and attack ability. If they get hit by a Dispel Magic effect, they return back into normal wights with class levels.
@@krispalermo8133 "aline" in a sense that at least i have a hart time to get in the mind of one of them and that the Concept of not living and being "alive" is so strange...
shure ther is a tone of wierd stuff in dnd but for me the things that are most bizarr are undead and the far realm. I have a hart time to get them.
For exempel ther is a fungus in the real wold that can mindcontrol ants... that is crasy shit aswell but not as out of this world "alien" like undead at leest in my book
Great video AJ always looking forward to your content!
BOOOOONECLAW IS REEEADY!!
Is that throat singing audio in the opening on UA-cam anywhere?