I would go with a more tank-y build, since you used a 100kg man as an example I will too, as you said a 15kg skeleton with the strength of a 100kg man would be very mobile but add 85kg of armour and you have merely reduced his mobility back to what it would've been if he had flesh... except his flesh is armour. now since skeletons don't get tired he can tire out his opponents (or starve them if it really comes down to it) and with all the armour he will be fairly protected from damage. now for the weapon, a war hammer is going to be used because it can do lots of damage in a short amount of time
Now what about Dark Souls style skeletons? The ones where the magic can keep them alive for a very large amount of damage, but can't keep them together through too much physical stress? In such, if you hit a skeleton enough times in quick succession or with a heavy enough weapon they'll just break apart all over the ground and then magically reassemble. Dark Souls is the latest game I remember seeing skeletons like these, but surely it isn't the only game nor is it the first. So if that were how the magic worked, skeletons would get only a temporary benefit from armor since pieces would fall off after they were scattered and not come back to their reassembly once separated from the bone inside. Those are the ones I'm particularly interested on, since they'd need to be smarter and more creative.
George Takei Daggers have one major drawback when you compare them to other medieval weapons, that is reach. I do not care how fast you are, if I am holding a 3 foot sword and you are holding pair of daggers you will lose limbs before you get to me. And if I hold a shield paired with that sword, daggers would be utterly useless. Dagger is a sidearm, there is a reason that only daggers ever used as battlefield weapons were backup weapons intended to be used when range becomes so short that your primary weapon, usually spear or some other type of pole-arm becomes impractical to use.
wouldn't they especially benefit from being encased in armour? like wouldn't the armour help keep the bones in place to prevent them from going all over the place when hit too hard?
Go for a combination. Tanky armor skeleton on the front lines Fast rapier skeleton thrusting over, around, and _through_ the tank at the enemy. Tireless archer skeleton holding the arrow at full draw waiting for that split second opening.
The scariest thing about skeletons is their ability to hide inside ordinary human beings, think about it, you mom, your dad, even your best friend, might have a skeleton inside them.
Hold on a second, my brother landed really hard on his leg one time and it kinda snapped. When they took an x-ray of him, he had a broken *skeleton leg* inside his! From a few injuries, I think he might have a skeleton inside him! Oh man, what if a skeleton is just disguising itself as my brother!? I need a weapon to fight him in case he comes out (lol) as a skeleton! SHAD, WHAT DO I USE!?
Fuck, that sounds like a horrifying mortal combat move. Soak someone completely in magic then use the magic to separate their skeleton from their body , then possess said skeleton and puppet it.
A skeleton warrior rushes to its skeleton commander. "There's a group of adventurers entering the crypt!" The commander replies "Do they have any paladins?" "No" "Then we're fine" "No its worse!" The warrior insists frantically, "they've got dogs!" "Well...were boned" laments the commander
A lot of comments are talking about how a skeleton could wear a shitton of armour since they don't have to lug around all the fleshy bits humans have, but why not take the concept further? The way skeletons are being imagined here sound essentially like a magically powered animatronic chassis. There are no moving parts, complex structures or power sources required to move the bones, and the only logical way to damage them would be to break the bones themselves. So forget wearing armor- you could cast steel directly around the skeletons' bones to make invincible humanoid war machines, or a particularly evil necromancer might even build skeletons directly into the mechanics of a siege engine to act as an immortal, tireless equivalents to a hamsters on a treadmill. The possibilities are honestly endless, yet these guys always end up as derpy canon fodder in fantasy media.
oh yeah necropolisi powered by an undead horde is old hat. One trick I’ve seen in D&D is have a undead trigger a toggleable magic item repeatedly to charge up a arcane conversion field to fire off a spell to another conversion field instantly... wireless transmissions via spells. It’s not that big a step have the undead as a parser for simple language to transmit a message in magic to another location where it is then descrambled from spell form by the recipients.
I always assumed that if you had the resources to start casting your skeleton warriors in steel, you'd just make golems or something instead. Skeletons are the budget minion.
I had never considered the speed element. It's just one of those assumptions that never gets looked at. Another thing this this leads to... fast movement + good jumping + lack of muscle fatigue + low weight would make climbing along walls, or possibly even ceilings really, really viable. Give them a set of ninja style climbing claws and suddenly you have to be vary wary of verticality when fighting them as they may not be simply rushing you along the ground.
No, much cheaper actually since you don't have to go through the entire process of mummification which also requires a multi-person ritualistic curse to be done properly :)
@@helium-379 undead are weak to fire. Soak the cotton with watter. Now the have weight, fire resistance, crush resistance and scatter resistance. Genius
generally how it works, but if you start thinking about it, the approach from maybe the anime Overlord, where he equips high level undead with legendary class gear, is the smarter way to do it. would be counter productive to one of the main benefits of using skeletons in the first place (assuming a mage of some kind reanimates them) which is that they are cheap and disposable, but it could drastically increase their power to give them suitable gear. I suppose it depends on lore and how much the magic that animates them can change their attributes like durability and strength
Assuming there's enough of them, I'd say pikes. A fearless pike formation that is impervious to arrows and other pike formations, that would be a near impossible thing to defeat.
@@eyeballpapercut4400 What? We wouldn't be able to speak unless we learned a language meaning we are intelligent. That's what intelligence is, the ability to learn.
You raise some great and valid points but I think you're missing the obvious, true skeletal choice of weaponry: The Russian RPG-7. A dinky old warhammer or mace would stand no chance against a glorious pale-boned skeletal warrior with an RPG-7. You can't deny it: It's cheap and effective, one of the best anti-armor and even anti-tank kits you could use. And with Skeletons not having muscle fatigue, what's stopping them from carrying several RPG-7s, loaded and ready to blast into the general direction of a would-be hero or even British Army observation post, if your campaign happens to be set in Northern Ireland.
Or to all combine together and form one giant, unstoppable skeleton ball rolling down the stairs at it's enemies. And then roll back up again because why the hell not. Or even merge to become a dead guy made up of a thousand dead guys, that'd be neato. Or Nito, whatever.
I just realized something during the discussion, Skeletons wouldn't be able to wear plate armor. Plate armor is resting on your flash and muscles, not your bones, and even at places where it is interacting with your skeletal structure it's either straps, like over your collar bone, or heavily padded, like over the hips. Skeleton would be just rattling inside of it, it wouldn't be able to move properly. It would be able to wear mail Armour, but even that would be probably sagging to it's knees, impairing it's movement. Greaves, pauldrons and gauntlets are simply out of the question as is knee and elbow protection, all those things are made to fit your muscles.
Then the plates' formats would just have to be ajusted to this new shape. Because they're actually smaller then the plates can also be smaller, fitting around the bones and be much thicker.
true, but couldn't the skeleton just wear layers of thick cloth padding (multiple gambisons etc) to fill out the space needed for armor? to my knowledge this was done historically to people so why not double the padding to simulate muscle?
he would need some ethereal skin and muscles that can only interact with the skeleton and the enchanted armor, just saying if magic in its world would be able to accomplish that.
My Maximum Skeleton Survival Build™ (assuming you need to rip apart their joints or break their bones in two): >Use cords to bind the joints together for support >Wrap all the bones in cloth, treated to survive the elements. Basically mummy-style. >Use full plate armour, including a thick gambeson and chain. Preferably treated against the elements, and possibly made fire resistant too. Go extra thick on the armour. >Kite shield for 100% shieldy goodness. >Spear as primary weapon, rapier as backup. Maybe even carry a bow and arrows. >Top off the build with a doot doot. All skeletons need a doot doot.
@@lachlanmckinnie1406 thank you for the clarification. If its a skeleton that has the power of speach then i agree it deserves to toot its own horn. However if its of a type that can't speak a drum might be a better fit. And once again thank you for clearing up the doot doot thing.
On the flip side, the bulge for their last thumb joint would function like a built-in thumb ring without the tendons and flesh getting in the way, so would be perfect for that kind of draw.
You know how in Dark Souls the skeletons fall apart when you hit them and then come back together moments later? I wonder if this could be used to absorb blows. So whenever a skeleton actually does get hit it loses all rigidity and behaves like a bunch of hanging stones. I mean, without anything to connect or stabilize them, their bones are just floating in the air through magic anyway right? Maybe fighting a skeleton could be a little like fighting a puppet where each limb is independent of the rest of the body. You could "shatter" an arm into all of its skeletal components only to have it reform from the broken pieces while the other runs you through. Just a thought.
@Split Haven in that case it will be either to break the skull which contains the soul fire, or if they are controlled by necromancers, kill the master.
From my experience with roleplaying games, the most effective weapon you can give a skeleton in a medieval fantasy setting is the gun. No one expects the skeletal wizard to pull out a 1911.
Only a year behind. Its not if the skeletons are smart enough to pick out weapons and armor. Its what the discerning necromancer chooses to protect his bony automatons.
Sounds fun. I think you best bet, magic permitting, would be to just augment their their teeth and claws. Just replace one hand with a puncturing spike for getting through armor and the other with a hammer. Its not like they are smart enough to use much else and reach isn't much of a concern since the game plan is just to overwhelm. What would be really fun would be coating the skeleton bones in metal to protect them from shattering and adding spikes and sword breakers.
Then, he can stick them in a bag of holding, and shoot or teleport the bag of holding to the enemies he wants rattled, before the skeletons come out of the bag. Bad boys get the skeleton bag!
They could wear a very thick gambison. They wouldn't be affected by heat and it would protect them from blunt damage. Their low weight is a disadvantage for close range combat, so they would need a weapon that is light and give them some range why they exhaust their opponent. A rapier is a good idea, but I think that a spear and shield might be better.
Actually the gambeson would hold their joints together too. If they're held together by magic if you break say their shoulder then as long as the arm is still in the sleeve it could reconnect.
It's not proportional strength so they actually could wear armor weighing 80 kilos as that would be roughly the weight of the flesh that has been removed and so they would move almost as if they were a normal human with no armor
You forgot the most overpowered combination for a skeleton. A violin, an afro and a sad backstory. This will crush everyones heart. And good thing Brook does have a rapierlike weapon. The guard isn't neccisarry anyway.
I was going to mention Brook myself, but then I saw your comment. Not only does Brook have a rapier like weapon with his cane sword, but Oda even took the time to address the whole weight thing and made him super light and fast. You can tell that Oda really puts a lot of thought into every detail of his story, and it shows.
It's funny as soon as you said they'd be faster and lighter, I thought "well than they should use a rapier" and then you named axes and stuff and I was like "nahhh rapier man" but then you brought it up and I was happy.
considering that skeletons are held together with magic (either from a castor or their own soul, which may affect their intelligence), it could be assumed that skeletons would make for very effective mages. typically the most powerful magics are shown to have devastating side effects on the persons health, but a skeleton doesn't have to worry about that. in fact it is usually the skeletal Lich who is depicted as the most intelligent and powerful spellcaster, because they shed their limitations of the flesh and have full control over their actions because their own soul is what powers them.
Lichs have a specific weakness, in that they typically cannot regenerate magic power like a living mage. This is important, or they would be almost unstoppable.
Always great! Now I kind of want to use a disguised skeleton for a formal duel. His opponent stabs him "Aha!" The skeleton is unphased and stabs him back.
He could be the _legendary swordsman known to have never lost a duel_ (then you could have a squire aspiring to become the strongest swordsman aiming to one day meet the -skeleton- swordsman of legends and defeat him in a formal duel, the squire goes through his hero's journey and in the final battle against the skeleton, he loses -and maybe becomes an undead himself- )
That was in an episode of Merlin: this dead knight was reanimated to keep challenging Uther's Knights (the knight had a personal vendetta against Uther in life, and now cannot rest again until that vendetta is fulfilled).
Rew Rose Aha! Then this squire comes back as a skeleton with a mace, knowing -skeleton- master swordsman's greatest weakness and runs up to him and just cracks his skull and becomes the next greatest duelist
If skeletons are moving with the help of magic, wouldn't it be more advantageous for the dark wizard who's created the skeletons to just make weapons fly instead? I mean, a typical skeleton has hundreds of bones. Imagine that instead of cooperating the movement of a hundred bones, you would cooperate the movement of a hundred daggers!
Magic and the supernatural in general operates on soundness, you can imagine a magic user commanding a skeleton because it once was a human, it is "plausible". But a bunch of daggers? The wizard might be able to levitate a few, but not really "give it commands", much less making them independent "beings" that could protect a dungeon for decades. That's also why magical constructs such as golems and the like are given a human shape, or at the very least a beast shape, because if it's just an everyday object, the magician can't truly "believe" those to be able to act on their own.
Your videos are always so interesting, touching on subjects that most people wouldn't even realize about. You bring a whole new set of perspectives at looking at phantasy related stuffs, and I thank you greatly for your works, Mr. Shad. :]
I just found the perfect weapon against skeletons! WATER BOTTLES!!!!!! Because water bottles are for sophisticatedghagdadfifa people, and skeletons aren't sophisticated at all, they fight naked!
When it comes to applications with skeletons, one of my more favorite examples would be used in one of the novels I read which was to send skeleton armies underwater to suddenly overwhelm cities near oceans and other bodies of water
The only problem with that is because of their weight and lack of surface area to paddle, they would move extremely slowly in water, end up floating awkwardly, and be completely at the mercy of currents.
And then of course, because The Laws Of Comedy are strong in my campaign, the skeleton hops after the dog carrying it's leg, completely forgetting it's orders to kill the PCs.
His colleges Skallagrim and Lindybeige might beg to disagree. Skallagrim has started similar series already and Lindy talks about variety of stuff (mostly tanks lol) but his video about Cyclops 3d vision is really close to what Shadi is doing right here: adding logic to fantasy
Because skeletons are so light and nimble the could be really stealthy. A short sword, small sword or dagger would enable them to sneak up on a foe more easily than with a pole arm. They'd be able to hide in small spaces and wait in ambush. No peeing or eating required!
Jonathan Gibson skeletons are usually depicted as kinda noisy because of the lack of flesh and cartilage to make them quiet. They would be really great for ambushes though, especially if they're the kind that can disassemble and reassemble themselves. They're so great at it, that it's almost normal to be wary of piles of bones if you're in/playing a fantasy rpg where they can do that.
DynamicWorlds Oh god, I can just imagine that...That would make formation fighting against them really hard...especially if skellatons can reset after combat...
I think a discussion like this requires a much more in-depth analysis. Since animated skeletons are the result of a necromantic spell, the magical strength to animate the skeleton and provide it its own strength would vary greatly depending on the skill and innate magical power of the necromancer who raised it. So in terms of their weight, we COULD treat the magical animation as a replacement for tendons, muscles, etc all depending on the power of the spellcaster. A novice necromancer would not be able to raise a skeleton with as much physical strength as a master necromancer. Therefore the weight of the weapon being a percentage of their own bone-weight seems to me at least to be highly variable. But... just going off the "comparable strength of a ____" In that regard, I think that the best kind of weapon used would depend on what kind of skeleton it is. (Human, Dwarf, Snakeman, etc)
+Shadiversity 1. Coat bones in metal, wolverine stile, or metal plates; e.g. bronze, brass, copper, maybe even steel, etc. 2. Use something to stabilise joints and spine with something: several leather strips, cordage, wire, etc. 3. Wear tight-fit gambeson (lots of flexible fabric, bound like tatami, to simulate flesh and bolster bones from heavy hits) covering the whole body. 4. equally tight fitted metal armour over that, e.g. chainmail or plate. 5. Fill the skeletons rib-cage with with straw or cloth-scraps to further lessen heavy blows, or find another way to do that.
Skeletons are held together by and can move through magic. If you alter the magic so that they can keep together under high speeds you just give them two axes/swords and make them spin really fast. Skeleblenders! Or turn them upside down, have their arms and les spin in opposite directions. Certain helicopters have both rotors on top of one another instead of one in the front and one in the back, or have the back one be sideways. Apply this to your skeleton and you now have a SKELECOPTER. Another issue is armor: armor that fits a human is too big for a skeleton on account of no muscles. So they'd need custom-made skinny armor to wear, which adventurers can only pilfer to sell for scrap metal instead of use it themselves.
They wouldn't need custom armor, just more padding. In fact, that would be particularly advantageous to a skeleton, because all that padding would help protect them from blunt force trauma.
Have you ever seen Dark Souls? In the third game there is a type of enemy that ALWAYS closes the distance by rapidly somersaulting towards you until they use the momentum to slash at you with curved swords. And there is another type in all the games that has itself stuck inside of a spiked wheel, and they just roll towards you at super high speeds. Neither are the hardest enemies in the games, but they are well known because if one starts rolling, you better have some damn fast dodge reflexes.
I would give them gamesons rather than plate armor I think. Very thick pillow-y gamesons might soften the blow from blunt weapons, where plate would fold in and, if struck in the same place again, would hit the bones as well. A fast skeleton with a quick poking rapier would be a terrifying threat, assuming they have the intelligence to use proper stances and possibly parry and dodgw blows from maces and such.
Armor is already worn with gambeson, and if a blow is strong enough to fold the plate inwards, then gambeson isn’t going to protect anything as it yields far more easily than metal does.
@@trabladorr Maybe not, actually. A thick gambeson that would normally lock up a human may allow full maneuverability for a skeleton because of the fact they have less mass in basically their whole body, allowing for a greater range of movement. If it was fitted to a skeleton's proportions though, then maybe it'd need to be thinner.
I like the way they portrayed the skeleton Brook in the anime one piece. They took into account the fact that he would have been faster and lighter by giving him much higher movement and attack speed and jump height. And for his weapon he has a very light cane sword and very fast fencing/dueling attack style.
Not being limited to mechanical locomotion, they could achieve great rotational speeds. If their blades were wide enough and angled properly, they could potentially achieve lift. Skelecopters.
Very interesting stuff here! Makes me think about how I would answer a lot of those questions as a writer. Skeletons would be simplistic but inefficient undead, animated for a brief period (as the magic is essentially the only thing keeping them alive), for a clearly defined, immediate task. They would be the last resort of a necromancer hiding in a crypt; leave an axe or rapier by every ancient corpse and raise them as soon as the heroes step down the final stair for a quick horde of essentially suicidal berserkers with natural armor (being resistant to blades).
I was thinking along the lines that skeletons would or could have a very large amount of mp, using it passively as hp and to keep them intact/moving, with them only able to use a small portion to cast magic if not at all. Liches on the hand would have the same amount of magic, but just inverted. Able to use the majority of thier mp for magic, but leaving little to hold the together, thus explaining why they're physical weak.
Actually magic in case of skeletons does much more. Because sceleton has to move around based on magic (no muscles). And basicly if it holds together it's based on magic too. So it's like telekinesis doll with some artificial soul stucked into. Also - lich is basically the same but with soul of a powerful necromancer.
I'm thinking a form of "ethereal muscles," created by magic, is how a skeletal being moves. And wether a skeleton can use magic or not usually depends on if they could in life or not. And in the lich's case, to be an execptionally powerfull necromancer, is sort of a requirment to become one in the first place.
This sort of "balancing" races and monsters for D&D sessions were causing me headaches for a very long time. How to make skeletons work and not destroy world integrity, rules of magic use etc? I decided to say final NO to classic skeletons. In my universe, even a skeleton needs to add a mass, usually some kind of cemetery soil / ash, so skeleton is basically decomposed zombie.
As soon as I saw the title of this video my thoughts were " they're re-animated corpses of warriors so wouldn't they just use the weapon they used in life?" Also due to the fact ( or fantasy ) they're being held together by magic it would take an amazingly powerful necromancer to make them able to run, especially if you want an army of them!
I really liked the 'physics' of skeletons in Dark Souls, where they were some of the most lightweight and athletic enemies (especially in Dark Souls 3), leaping all over the place and doing very acrobatic maneuvers with their lightweight frames, but the impact of a heavy weapon would cause their bones to scatter and leave them vulnerable while the magic keeping them animated took a moment to put them back together, and they fought with fittingly lightweight, dexterous weapons - shamshirs, falchions, sabers, and shotels (and bows). So not exactly a rapier, but the same general train of thought as to their agile fighting style.
The katana did not snap because the bone was so hard! The noble spirit of the katana just felt the cow had already suffered enough and broke itself instead of mutilating the leg.
They'd be lighter so they'd fly easier, except their wing membranes are gone. They'd need their membrane replaced by leather or something and then they'd fly like nobody's business. Aerodynamics might become an issue, considering their lower mass and inertia, but most air could probably just go through them.
ninjacatcook If the skeleton dragon was.... just as strong as normal dragons.... and could breathe fire some how... and they where even faster and more maneuverable then normal dragons.. and they never get tired... and have powerful and strong dragon bones that are hard to break... They would give even the all powerful orc army’s and giant army’s Hell
"They always are portrayed as fast and mobile as humans" I have scars of the Catacombs and Nito's lounge, and a friend with a violin and an afro who would like to disagree! Joking aside, skeletons are some of my favourite monsters in fantasy. There is something about these phyiscal incarnations of both death and defying nature being kind of silly looking while still being intimidating and relentless killing machines. A particular setting I was working on had some heavy focus on the undead, and its core concept was that skeletons that were reanimated had their memories during life kept in their bones, and as they grew older and the bones got damaged, they would become more feral and insane. Add to it some necromancers feeling it would be funny to mix and match bones between corpses to create interesting looking abominations of calcium, mixing their minds with one another and forcing them into this constant existential crisis, if not outright madness. That way the usually boring first line redshirts of an undead army suddenly become a pretty fascinating fantasy "species"
I can confirm the living bone being much easier to cut thought than dry bone, I have cut both with a cleaver (worked for a butcher) and holy crap wet bone is much easier to cut. Edit( thought it depends because some dry bone is easier to cut it just depends on bleaching method used and how old/worn are we talking)
Shad, wouldn't the skeletons' lack of fatigue give them an added advantage when wearing heavier armor than the average human could? If I understand it, it wasnt so much mobility that was hindered by heavier armor, but rather the ability to persist in battle without tiring. So a skeleton would be able to wear heavier armor than an equivalently sized human, since they don't have to worry about fatigue.
Dan Haas Although at that point, you are better off just animating the armor instead of the skeleton. Although, if you already have an animated skeleton... or an autonomous skeleton, it could help. Also, wouldn't need excessive padding, one thick layer should be enough.
Ninja Hombrepalito perhaps you could raise both? Have the skeleton wear the cursed armor but the armor has the warrior skills while the skeleton has a more mage like skill set perhaps even a mage skilled in necromancy itself... this combo screams boss fight.
I did a D&D monster like this. Flesh golems in animated plate armor wielding a dancing greatsword, all linked up mentally by the wizard who made them to protect his tower.
One other the existential threats an intelligent skeleton would worry about (depending on the magic) is that they might not heal. Every nick of damage from weapons of weather would eventually wear them down to dust. If they wanted to last longer they might try to cover themselves in clothing or glazes. Imagine how tough a skeleton would be if they coated their bones in steel, that would be pretty awesome if they could survive the process.
Well Brook in One Piece just drink milk to power up from all the calcium! X,D Seriously though Skeletons are the most expendable undead, they are not for long term use anyway.
In this one fantasy story/series I'm working on, one of the characters I have is an animated skeleton called Skelly, who works as a city guard. His background is that he was a barbarian warrior who fought a necromancer, who, with their dying breath, cursed the barbarian into becoming an animated skeleton. Of course, after this, no one wanted him in their village - the other undead get more respect - and after a hundred years of wandering, he'd forgotten his own name, which is very sad. One day, he smuggles himself into a city, in a wagon filled with other skeletons destined for the wizards/apothecaries, and wanders the streets, where he ends up assisting in the capture of an Unlicensed Thief (basically, if you are part of the Guild and have a license, you're free to steal within reason, but if not, don't get caught by an Official Thief as they will break your bones), and thus comes to the attention of the Commander, who has the habit of looking past one's race, and basically gave him a job, and a name. Granted, the job isn't glamorous, because he's among the first ones sent to see just how upset a crowd is, depending upon if he comes back with arrows stuck in his armor in normally fatal areas, and is the training dummy the new recruits end up finding out from that real people fight back in a fight. It tends to poke fun at the usual stereotypes.
One very important advantage a skeleton has over a human opponent is their complete immunity against poisonous and irritating substances, as the lack any sensitive organs like lungs or eyes. This means that a skeleton could simply throw globes filled with chlorine, tear gas or any other type of chemical weapon at its opponents, which then either would kill them outright, blind them or otherwise impair them, allowing the skeleton to end their misery with any weapons of its choosing. Alternatively, the skeleton could fix censers filled with burning toxic plants, chemicals or alchemical substances, to its armor thereby surrounding itself with a toxic fog or virulent miasma. Combine this idea with some of the heavy armor mentions in some of the other comments and you get an undeath knight wearing nearly impenetrable armor surrounded by a literal mist of death that chokes the life out of everything and everyone that dares to come to close to them. Just imagine a full formation of these "things" slowly marching towards you in eerie silence while the very grass at their feets withers and dies. In addition to their poison immunity skeletons are also very resistance against fire and heat (as long as the fire doesn't interfere with the magic holding them together), which would allow them to coat their armor or clothing with some sort of flammable material like oil, pitch or simply wood and then set themselves on fire becoming some sort of undead human torch. Depending on what sort of flammable material they used, the wouldn't even need to use a weapon, instead, they just could simply hug their opponent and cover them with some of the burning stuff. Combine this idea with their greater movement speed and you get a burning skeleton covered in some sort of medieval napalm charging at you with superhuman speed, literally hellbent on hugging you to death or tearing you apart with a giant war axe that is also on fire. Both of my ideas, therefore, help skeletons to not only become more effective in combat but also further improve the amount of fear and terror there are able to instill in their opponents, thereby crumbling the moral and fighting will of their enemies before they are able to crumble the bones of the skeletons. On a strategic level an army of skeletons would actually even more frightening than on the battlefield, because skeleton like other undead creatures require neither food nor shelter to keep them protected from the elements, which would allow them to use a scorched earth tactic on the offense as the burning of food supplies, the poisoning of wells and the destruction of houses would be meaningless to them but severely harm their opposition. TL;DR "Skeletons are spooky."
Honestly that's so OP that it would necessarily have to interfere with the magic holding the skeleton together, or else you'd have a fundamentally broken fantasy world that if followed to its logical conclusions would just be filled with warring states fighting proxy battles with standing skeleton armies, and any human fighting would be using some kind of insane magical supersoldiers or very small groups of permanent underdogs using guerrilla tactics
World War 1 would have had a completely different approach to chemical weapons if either side had Skeletons 0.0 Which could be an awesome fantasy setting of its own....
Lazypackmule You could make skeletons work as long as they require absolutely ridiculous amounts of effort, wealth or perhaps blood sacrifice to create. For example, emperors might only have a skeleton or two guarding their tomb. The skeleton's equipment would be a small fraction of the price paid for a skeletal soldier.
Yes and no. The answer depends on the efficacy of fire tactics and on the reactivity of aerosolized acidic poisons and blistering agents. High concentrations of mustard gas are still effective on Skeletons. As the main component of"dead bone" is hydroxylapatite ( Ca5(PO4)3(OH) ), which is a base; while mustard gas (sulfur mustard compounds) are all acids, as are their decomposition byproducts. Several studies have shown that acids (esp. strong acids) are more effective at destroying bone tissue than bases as the acids target the ossified extracellular matrix, while the bases target the structural proteins. (It would take days or weeks, but in a war where the primary tactic was trench warfare, time isn't your big issue.) Since "dead bone" is proportionally more ossified extracellular matrix than anything else, acids would be the most effective chemical attacker. The damage would also be cumulative, and acid damage of bone usually does not change the physical appearance of bone before it its mechanical properties are similar to shortbread. (www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/can-acid-dissolve-a-body/3007496.article) I would like to point out that mustard gas is not a strong acid, but it does form a film of sulfur mustard on things exposed to the gas (as it is an aerosol, not a true gas). "Dead bone" is also significantly more porous than "live bone" with respect to chemical absorption, and the lacuna and canaliculi of the bone are small enough that one would have to worry about capillary action causing deep bone penetration of sulfur mustard compounds, essentially dissolving the bone from the inside out. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/350579/DstlTR25697_V1.pdf) By Coincidence, most common classical non-alkaloid poisons are quite acidic, and damage inflicted by weapons coated would slowly fester as well. World War I, would have seen some differences, but probably not in its general usage of chemical weapons (since all were acids). I would assume that both sides would attempt to position themselves upwind and blanket the battlefield in chemical agents (without the need to supply rations, much more chemical agents could be manufactured for such a purpose.) The impurities found in chemical agents of the time caused the chemical clouds to be opaque, greatly limiting visibility. However, The gases saw development because of their heavier-than-air properties, which made them sink into the trenches. Thus, while mining the battle field would make it hazardous to cross (even for Skeletons), the gases would force charges across no-man's-land. So it is unlikely that major changes would be made to the use of chemical weapons in World War I, but their use would probably have been more ubiquitous (which would cause all sorts of problems after the war). Also, France, (specifically Paris) would be fine, thanks to the Catacombs of Paris. Ironically, snipers would still be useful during windy conditions, as the gases blanketing the battlefield would dissipate more quickly, increasing visibility. German snipers could, with the help of optical scopes, regularly make successful head shots across the trenches. Provided with frangible or fragmenting bullets, these would still be quite lethal to Skeletons. I would also point out that skeletons, while plentiful, are a finite resource. Replenishment of your army would be difficult because most chemical methods of speeding up skeletonization (oddly, a legitimate term) cause some sort of damage to the bone structure. Mechanical and thermal methods are more labour intensive, and would increase the cost of the war more than chemical methods. And even mechanical and thermal methods would require significant resource expenses after flesh removal before one could produce a skeleton. Thermal methods could also be used to enhance skeleton troops. One could strengthen skeletons by slowly exposing bone to dry heat under a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere to temperatures greater than 1360 C. This decomposes the hydroxylapatite and allows for bone densification. (It also speeds protein decomposition.) It must be noted that hydroxylapatite reforms as the temperature is brought below 1100 C. (This method could also be used to repair mechanical damages to bone structures.) (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10509191) Slow heating and cooling is a must, as the rapid recrystallization of the bone inorganic matrix would create a glass, making the skeleton brittle. Larger crystals improve chemical resistance, usually at the cost of the creation of cleavage planes. Thus accurately controlling the cooling to create optimal crystal size is very important. This would make rapid production of useful skeletons difficult. Skeletons would still have to worry about heat damage as well. Any method of heating (fire?) them above 1360 C would be absolutely devastating. The rapid cooling due to the presence of mud, rain, and snow on World War I battlefields would make glass transition more likely in skeletons. This would embrittle them. Consequently, bullets (esp. buckshot) would be more effective against them. As a result, we might expect more fire based defenses. Although, when chemical gases are deployed, it would be inadvisable to use fire, as the resulting conflagration would be extremely dangerous to everyone caught in it. (Great for clearing the air though.) Also, flaming Skeletons would be susceptible to attacks with rectified vinegar (or similar aqueous acid) in a manner similar to Hannibal's use of fire and sour wine crossing the Alps, or the ancient Chinese method of fire and frost. The rapid cooling introduces mechanical stresses and the heated acids react with greater efficacy. This type of attack substantially weakens a skeleton's bones. In fact, if this type of chemical attack proved very effective, the chemical gases used in world War I would be more of a hinderance, and used to cover troop movements (much like smokescreens were used.)
8:00 Woah there Shad, if he's 15 kilograms and has a 100 kg man's strength, that means if he wears 85 kg of armour, his strength is exactly the same as if that 85 kg were coming from flesh. So, for example, if a 100 kg man can lift 50 kg, a similar skeleton would be able to lift 50 kg plus all the fleshy mass attached to the human. So if a skeleton's armour was distributed exactly like flesh, he'd be exactly the same as an unarmoured human strength-wise. Basically, a skeleton can handle a normal human's maximum armour plus 85 kilograms. Also, interesting armour idea, a skeleton could take advantage of the space where his organs would be by putting metal braces across his ribs, inside his skull, etc. to reinforce his natural structure in addition to any external armour.
That thought process is totally incorrect in my opinion.... Same strength means they have same difficulty with lifting same weight, thus skeleton would have same difficulty wearing 85 kilos of armor as regular human... humans get their strength from their muscles, thus muscles are not a dead weight on their body... At least this is my point of view on how their strength is compared to human strength
@@connecting1409 well its all in the eyes of the beholder, it depends on how strong the skeleton is, or more specifically, how much force it can provide from its bones. As it doesnt have any physical mechanisms (organic or otherwise) that provides the force, its only the "mystical magic" that provides it. So whether it has the strength to lift 85 + 50, or just 50, neither are wrong, mainly because it depends on the magic behind it.
Any sort of ranged weapon would be good because they would have increased speed to maintain distance and, the lack of flesh make them resistant the small piercing projectiles of most ranged weapons used against them. They would also not lose the power from there attacks due to their lack of mass.
These are the tales of the Skeleton Warriors... Skeleton Warriors Skeleton Warriors Skeleton Warriors Lightstar, like the beam of the power Talyn the fighter beyond the sky Grimskull, who's the man of the shadows Guardian shouts the battlecry For the Legion of Light! Skeleton Warriors Skeleton Warriors. They're bad to the bone!
My skeleton dnd character actually uses this logic behind how he’s so agile as an assassin, and why he can take so much damage (apart from the titanium armor of the Bearer of The Curse) from swords, and why he uses a katana (half katana) and he’s a ranger because his dried bones can not be pierced
one of the main things to consider would probably be who's arming them. They're receiving magic from somewhere and are probably being deliberately maintained for some purpose. Also in most of the media i've seen they actually seem to be a bit feebler than usual humans, but i guess that would be a bit relative to how much power they're being fed, maybe you can adjust their strength depending on how much magic you wanna expend? Maybe as some are killed the remaining ones get stronger as magic is freed up? Also he mentioned skellys underwater at one point, which raises the interesting idea of unconventional tactics and ambushes only they could pull off.
Couple thoughts here Skeleton hands are just bone but they are no stronger than a normal human, this could make holding onto weapons difficult. In a person, even wearing gloves we have the benefit of our skin, our flesh to mold around the handle when we grip it making our grip much more efficient than a skeletons. A skeleton that attempts to parry or whose weapon is hit by an opponents weapon my have a hard time not having that weapon knocked out of its hand and across the floor. Feet are a similar issue. Skeletal feet have a very small surface area so even for their light weight they find their feet sinking into soft or very soft ground. As well very hard ground like a stone floor will serve them no better as their bone feet will not offer much friction with the ground. A skeleton whacked with a heavy weapon, or just running down the road may find that stopping or turning is like a person running on ice, and fall over easily. Of course all of this is solved by saying "it's magic" but if we use that excuse then one of this discussion really matter. I agree that skeletal archers may be very effective, but wielding a rapier may be rough as a skeleton has a hard time keep a hold of the weapon. Also how effective is armor? If we assume that skeletons still "see" out of their eye sockets then what happens when the first blow from the enemy or their own motion causes that helmet many of them wear twists on their head, it is metal against bone and that is a rather friction light combination. Suddenly you have skeletons that are easily blinded by their own headgear. Oh and as for "talking skeleton" never forget the greatest movie of all time to include skeletons "Army of Darkness". ;-)
Well, you can always give them leather boots, arm their weapons with straps that lash onto the skeletons hand or give them thin leather and cotton padded gloves. It's not a stretch to add straps to a helm much like a bike helmet, and they're magically enhanced so yes it does work for everything lol. All that's left now is to SALLY FORTH! :) Either way though I must recommend reading the Ash vs. The army of darkness comics, they're epic!
Friction is actually determined by number of contact points, not by contact area. It’s why shoes and tires aren’t just flat rubber, and have a bunch of weird patterns (those also help with channeling water and such).
@@demonzabrak I disagree. Ever seen racing car tires? They're slick. No tread. The tread is for shedding water. Slick tires offer better traction on dry pavement. The tread on shoes is only advantageous on wet or soft surfaces, I think.
@@davidmeehan4486 Yeah I was misremembering some of my old college classes. There's also a structural and heat endurance aspect to slicks, but apparently they do have better friction coefficients.
I could see the lack of friction with bones being an issue, and you may need to cinsider it when choosing grip or glove materials. This actually does present some potential issues, but one might be able to get around them by, for example, building the skeleton's weapon into their gauntlet, but even then, you lose out on some maneuverability, I imagine, so it may not be optimal. I definitely don't expect their feet to sink in soft terrain, at least nowhere where a human would, because while their eight is spread over a smaller surface area, they also weigh a lot less, which actually presents it's own problems, namely with making your next point a larger one. Skeletons might slip on tile, and such, because their feet are lower friction, but most of that can be fixed with shoes, but frictional force is proportional to both coefficient of friction and normal force, which in this case, will be the weight of the skeleton, which is lower than a human's. Let's do some Math. So, a skeleton should weigh between 12-15% of that person's body weight, but we'll assume we're at the high end, for 15%. So, force of friction is directly proportional to normal force, which is the skeleton's weight, in this case. that means that assuming the skeleton and the human are both wearing perfectly fitting shoes, which will not slip internally, even under the significantly lower friction of the skeleton's foot, then the skeleton will still have only 15% of the force fo friction that the human has, which functionally means, he can excert a maximum sideways force on himself of 15% of what the human can before slipping, meaning he should actually be able to accelerate at the same speed as the human, but this still presents a problem if he gets hit. Even a shield bash can effectively neutralize him until he can (slowly, because of the low friction) get himself up, and then run over from wherever it sent him, because the skeleton doesn't weigh much. This also presents an issue with the weapon you discussed. Bows have recoil, which is meaningful to our skeletal friend, and he can't really put as much momentum into shoving the rapier into someone, because he doesn't weigh enough; if anything, he'll just push himself away from them, unless he strikes exposed flesh. I expect the armor to have less of a friction issue, as it would have cloth padding beneath it, but even cloth and bone might not have the right coeeficient of friction for this, and I've not the foggiest idea how that's calculated, so it might be nescessary to use something else. On the other hand, armor may be the only reliable solution to the friction issue for skeletons, as it can increase their weight, which may be just wheat they need.
Never change, Shad. On Skeletons, I'd say that the most prominent armor would be gambesons. Flexible, and with padding to dampen blunt force a simple quilted cushion would negate most of a skeleton's weaknesses. I'm not sure about the super heavy armor, though. Either a skeleton has the same torque as a equal sized human and therefore adding 85 kg is rectifying an inequality or they have the same strength to weight ratio as a human and therefore aren't faster than a human. On the other hand, 85 kg of armor is worth a small fortune. Tactically, a Skeleton would prefer skirmish tactics, shield, sword, and javelins. They'd stay at range harassing human formations, tiring them out until the humans either charge or break. Either way, the skeletons would then maneuver to isolate and destroy their prey piecemeal. A sentient skeleton would probably avoid a rapier instintually because it wouldn't see it as a threat.
I know how to do it - Party is about to take the Long Rest. Skeleton Dude takes the First Watch. Sits by a tree, with a sign by him saying "Warning - Don't mess with these guys!" Bandits walk past Skeleton Dude. Skeleton gets up, flips sign around, taps the shoulder of the rearmost bandit, who finds himself reading "I Warned You!" Skeleton then uses the sign to bash him in the head.
Skeletons could use gambesons thick to protect the joints where weights like sand or water to simulate their insides and absorb impact of weapons. It wouldn't exactly slow them down as much as one would think because they don't get tired.
What if they made a custom gambeson where some spots(like the ribcage) are open? I mean, cover the ribcage, EXCEPT leave a hole in the gambeson where the hole of the skeleton's ribcage or other areas of the skeleton's body is. This could trap blades without damaging the skeleton.
My default interpretation for how skeleton strength works is that each part of a skeleton provides the effective functionality of the associated flesh. So a skeleton's femur is responsible for all the muscles in that part of the leg, and if the bone is damaged or weathered then it effects the effective muscles and tendons accordingly. Skeletons don't mind a knife between their ribs, but they *would* mind having their ribs crushed, as that would deprive them of the effective functions of their heart and lungs.
Well it depends on the setting and type. Some might not care like the Vampire Counts from Warhammer. Still I would love to know what that ideal weapon would be. Even if your trying to look human might have to deal with a Witch Hunter. And then you going to want to use that ideal weapon.
Well not exactly. They don't need a blade if they want your blood they got their fangs. Hard to say what they would use as they are vastly more fast and strong.
Great, now I am just imagining skeletons jumping around like crazy, and that sounds like a very spooky time. Definitely going to use this for my campaign setting.
Aim for the joints! They're a severe weak point! Especially since there's no cartilage to hold the bones together. Edit: I meant if you had a sword. If you have a hammer or mace, do as Shad says.
Can't forget the undead dragons as well as forces of destruction such as undead titans and other epic beasts and monstrosities and in some settings you even have the massive combination undead horrors i.e. bonewheels extra limed skeletons, etc. Or how magic lets undead winged creatures actually fly while not letting normal skeletons of non flying creatures do the same..
I would go with a more tank-y build, since you used a 100kg man as an example I will too, as you said a 15kg skeleton with the strength of a 100kg man would be very mobile but add 85kg of armour and you have merely reduced his mobility back to what it would've been if he had flesh... except his flesh is armour. now since skeletons don't get tired he can tire out his opponents (or starve them if it really comes down to it) and with all the armour he will be fairly protected from damage. now for the weapon, a war hammer is going to be used because it can do lots of damage in a short amount of time
Now what about Dark Souls style skeletons? The ones where the magic can keep them alive for a very large amount of damage, but can't keep them together through too much physical stress? In such, if you hit a skeleton enough times in quick succession or with a heavy enough weapon they'll just break apart all over the ground and then magically reassemble. Dark Souls is the latest game I remember seeing skeletons like these, but surely it isn't the only game nor is it the first. So if that were how the magic worked, skeletons would get only a temporary benefit from armor since pieces would fall off after they were scattered and not come back to their reassembly once separated from the bone inside. Those are the ones I'm particularly interested on, since they'd need to be smarter and more creative.
George Takei Daggers have one major drawback when you compare them to other medieval weapons, that is reach. I do not care how fast you are, if I am holding a 3 foot sword and you are holding pair of daggers you will lose limbs before you get to me. And if I hold a shield paired with that sword, daggers would be utterly useless. Dagger is a sidearm, there is a reason that only daggers ever used as battlefield weapons were backup weapons intended to be used when range becomes so short that your primary weapon, usually spear or some other type of pole-arm becomes impractical to use.
ok...
wouldn't they especially benefit from being encased in armour? like wouldn't the armour help keep the bones in place to prevent them from going all over the place when hit too hard?
Go for a combination.
Tanky armor skeleton on the front lines
Fast rapier skeleton thrusting over, around, and _through_ the tank at the enemy.
Tireless archer skeleton holding the arrow at full draw waiting for that split second opening.
The scariest thing about skeletons is their ability to hide inside ordinary human beings, think about it, you mom, your dad, even your best friend, might have a skeleton inside them.
MyNameIsMud why would you say that?! What if there is a skeleton inside of me.... biding its time until I am least expecting....
Hold on a second, my brother landed really hard on his leg one time and it kinda snapped. When they took an x-ray of him, he had a broken *skeleton leg* inside his! From a few injuries, I think he might have a skeleton inside him! Oh man, what if a skeleton is just disguising itself as my brother!? I need a weapon to fight him in case he comes out (lol) as a skeleton! SHAD, WHAT DO I USE!?
Fuck, that sounds like a horrifying mortal combat move. Soak someone completely in magic then use the magic to separate their skeleton from their body , then possess said skeleton and puppet it.
Sounds like the song Skeleton Man.
I got an x-ray recently, everyone... I have a... skeleton inside me. I don't know if it's biding it's time or what.
I just realised something. Inside Shad is a skeleton, talking about skeleton fighting
Random Whiterun Guard coincidence? I think not!
-mygod-
I used to be a skeleton like you. Until some human crushed me into bonemeal for a recipe.
He's educating his skeleton for when its time comes!
everywhere I go I see your face
I just love the idea of having wandered into a dungeon and being met with a dozen of skeletons screeching "En'garde" with their rapiers up
And, in a Comedy scenario, the Adventurer goes "Are you guys French by any chance?"
Y E S
@@stavinaircaeruleum2275 "Don't you mean 'Oui'?"
@@lockwoan01 But what about dragons?
@@hambasri1053 They probably would have belched and thus blown away the skeletons.
"The skeleton could feel really confident"
I love this series
Don't give up, skeleton!
To be honest, though, It would be kinda hard to have confidence, without any guts
@@D1SCORDANT3 and balls 😏😏😏
@@D1SCORDANT3 I love yoy
A skeleton warrior rushes to its skeleton commander.
"There's a group of adventurers entering the crypt!"
The commander replies "Do they have any paladins?"
"No"
"Then we're fine"
"No its worse!" The warrior insists frantically, "they've got dogs!"
"Well...were boned" laments the commander
I read that in skeletors voice and it was hilarious
A lot of comments are talking about how a skeleton could wear a shitton of armour since they don't have to lug around all the fleshy bits humans have, but why not take the concept further? The way skeletons are being imagined here sound essentially like a magically powered animatronic chassis. There are no moving parts, complex structures or power sources required to move the bones, and the only logical way to damage them would be to break the bones themselves. So forget wearing armor- you could cast steel directly around the skeletons' bones to make invincible humanoid war machines, or a particularly evil necromancer might even build skeletons directly into the mechanics of a siege engine to act as an immortal, tireless equivalents to a hamsters on a treadmill. The possibilities are honestly endless, yet these guys always end up as derpy canon fodder in fantasy media.
oh yeah necropolisi powered by
an undead horde is old hat. One trick I’ve seen in D&D is have a undead trigger a toggleable magic item repeatedly to charge up a arcane conversion field to fire off a spell to another conversion field instantly... wireless transmissions via spells. It’s not that big a step have the undead as a parser for simple language to transmit a message in magic to another location where it is then descrambled from
spell form by the recipients.
This inevitably leads to the magic internet
see, that's just it. a bow, a warhammer, or a sword wouldn't stop them, but a direct hit from a cannon would.
@@taekinuru2 skellphone...
I always assumed that if you had the resources to start casting your skeleton warriors in steel, you'd just make golems or something instead. Skeletons are the budget minion.
Says bows are good for skeletons,
Minecraft players: “don’t let go of your shield!”
Imagine if shields worked the same in real life where projectiles just bounce back
@@steveminecraft4364 I have a feeling that 1000 years into the future will introduce shields that ricochet bullets. Who knows?...
lol
also wither sceletons are deadly.
@@BroodingEdgelord true dat.
But Shad, what about DRAGON SKELETONS???
FirstRisingSouI ,Makes good swords
Dracoliches?
Gg, fam--
Bone Dragons? Mostly the bite.
I see you too have traumatic memories of laberinthian, a d getting stuck in an enclosed space with a skeleton dragon.
Supercell has entered the chat
If a skeletons run out of weapons it can always re-arm itself with the other arm. *rips off own arm and clubs with it*
Re-arm... itself...
I like that.
Too much Medievil for you
Just like zelda botw
Would it be rearming itself or disarming itself?
Rhettorical The used my arm to arm my arm.
I had never considered the speed element. It's just one of those assumptions that never gets looked at. Another thing this this leads to... fast movement + good jumping + lack of muscle fatigue + low weight would make climbing along walls, or possibly even ceilings really, really viable. Give them a set of ninja style climbing claws and suddenly you have to be vary wary of verticality when fighting them as they may not be simply rushing you along the ground.
"Skeletons with leather straps"... wouldn't that just be a slightly more expensive mummy?
No, much cheaper actually since you don't have to go through the entire process of mummification which also requires a multi-person ritualistic curse to be done properly :)
On the contrary that’s just a person because leather is skin
Yes well...but actually no
Cut out a suit from a potato sack for the skeleton put it on him and stuff it with cotton.
@@helium-379 undead are weak to fire. Soak the cotton with watter. Now the have weight, fire resistance, crush resistance and scatter resistance. Genius
I generally assumed it was "whatever they died and/or were buried with" as that's usually how it's done in some works.
generally how it works, but if you start thinking about it, the approach from maybe the anime Overlord, where he equips high level undead with legendary class gear, is the smarter way to do it. would be counter productive to one of the main benefits of using skeletons in the first place (assuming a mage of some kind reanimates them) which is that they are cheap and disposable, but it could drastically increase their power to give them suitable gear.
I suppose it depends on lore and how much the magic that animates them can change their attributes like durability and strength
Shad doesn’t want to make skeleton jokes :(
And here I thought he was a humerous person
He said no jokes. We're all boned.
mikelms20 SKULL JOKKEE!
That joke was pretty bare bones.
Shad just wants to avoid the low hanging fruit. Those just don't work with skelletons.
Although it's bollocks.
Cian McCabe Ive got a whole clost full of them.
Malitia: "Dear God, how am I to defeat this monster!?!?"
Skeleton soldier: "Ihopehedoesn'thaveahammer..."
Or a boot
Or you know... you can just pick him up and throw him, since they weigh a maximum of 15kg lol
Why don't they just push them
THIS is why I sub to this channel. Not afraid to ask the really important questions!
how nice to see you here gopher
To my knowledge the best weapon for a skeleton to use is a large spiked wagon wheel.
Thank you dark souls 😑
Ikr
Also the trumpet for fearsome dooting
Those frickers lost me so many souls in Ariamis...
THIS LAND IS PEACEFUL. ITS INHABITANTS KIND
2:46 Don't worry Shad, I won't make any puns like some bonehead. I don't have the guts for it.
You are very _humerus_
BOOOOOOooooo -ne-
Well, his puns make *sans*
@@AlexYorim Sans undertale approves
*angry papyrus noises*
"Skeletons' lack of muscle fatigue would make them pretty good archers..."
Is there _any_ fantasy race that wouldn't do well with a bow?
Timothy McLean gnomes
Timothy McLean kobolds
Timothy McLean dwarves
Timothy McLean short people
There is no one as Skyrim tell us (superior stealth archer "build").
Assuming there's enough of them, I'd say pikes.
A fearless pike formation that is impervious to arrows and other pike formations, that would be a near impossible thing to defeat.
Turns out they can't form a proper Phlanx/Pike Wall due to their shaking.
@@callmefox630 vibrating pike formation, unbeatable!
I agree
Halberds? can do everything and have range
FIRE!!!!!
You know what would help a skeleton protect itself from blunt weapons?
A glorious gambeson.
I imagine most of them are already pretty good at bare-knuckle fighting.
Welcome to the
*_B O N E Z O N E_*
hahahaha
I bring calcium
*M I L K*
I want to get off Mr Bones' Wild Ride :(
But Nathan the ride never ends
Shad: They're intelligent. They're able to speak.
"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent."
Have you ever heard of any other species capable of speech?
Parrots
@@cheesestyx945 r/ fucking whoooosh
@@eyeballpapercut4400 What? We wouldn't be able to speak unless we learned a language meaning we are intelligent. That's what intelligence is, the ability to learn.
@@cheesestyx945 double whoooosh
You raise some great and valid points but I think you're missing the obvious, true skeletal choice of weaponry: The Russian RPG-7. A dinky old warhammer or mace would stand no chance against a glorious pale-boned skeletal warrior with an RPG-7. You can't deny it: It's cheap and effective, one of the best anti-armor and even anti-tank kits you could use. And with Skeletons not having muscle fatigue, what's stopping them from carrying several RPG-7s, loaded and ready to blast into the general direction of a would-be hero or even British Army observation post, if your campaign happens to be set in Northern Ireland.
I love you.
I second this love
with their weight they'd be able to pull of some impressive rocket jumps
And here I was thinking skeletons used bows and arrows as a preferred weapon
He said medieval weapons, but he could pull an iron man.
Best weapon for skeleton would be a giant spikey wheel
Sepulchre13 praise the sun bro
I would totally grr react this comment
Or to all combine together and form one giant, unstoppable skeleton ball rolling down the stairs at it's enemies. And then roll back up again because why the hell not. Or even merge to become a dead guy made up of a thousand dead guys, that'd be neato. Or Nito, whatever.
Funny enough for me this was among the easiest bosses ; )
fighting nito was a disappointment
I just realized something during the discussion, Skeletons wouldn't be able to wear plate armor. Plate armor is resting on your flash and muscles, not your bones, and even at places where it is interacting with your skeletal structure it's either straps, like over your collar bone, or heavily padded, like over the hips. Skeleton would be just rattling inside of it, it wouldn't be able to move properly. It would be able to wear mail Armour, but even that would be probably sagging to it's knees, impairing it's movement. Greaves, pauldrons and gauntlets are simply out of the question as is knee and elbow protection, all those things are made to fit your muscles.
Then the plates' formats would just have to be ajusted to this new shape. Because they're actually smaller then the plates can also be smaller, fitting around the bones and be much thicker.
true, but couldn't the skeleton just wear layers of thick cloth padding (multiple gambisons etc) to fill out the space needed for armor? to my knowledge this was done historically to people so why not double the padding to simulate muscle?
he would need some ethereal skin and muscles that can only interact with the skeleton and the enchanted armor, just saying if magic in its world would be able to accomplish that.
Then, what good is a skeleton if not an ominous animated suit of armor?
Skeleton plate
My Maximum Skeleton Survival Build™ (assuming you need to rip apart their joints or break their bones in two):
>Use cords to bind the joints together for support
>Wrap all the bones in cloth, treated to survive the elements. Basically mummy-style.
>Use full plate armour, including a thick gambeson and chain. Preferably treated against the elements, and possibly made fire resistant too. Go extra thick on the armour.
>Kite shield for 100% shieldy goodness.
>Spear as primary weapon, rapier as backup. Maybe even carry a bow and arrows.
>Top off the build with a doot doot. All skeletons need a doot doot.
What in the blue blazes is a doot doot?
@@curtisirons7491 A trumpet, bugle or other brass instrument.
@@lachlanmckinnie1406 thank you for the clarification. If its a skeleton that has the power of speach then i agree it deserves to toot its own horn. However if its of a type that can't speak a drum might be a better fit. And once again thank you for clearing up the doot doot thing.
@@curtisirons7491 No worries. It's a meme to call it a "doot doot".
Well the skeleton doesn’t have lips so how would it articulate into the mouthpiece???
*skelly draws bow*
*bow string slips between joints in their fingers*
*arrow shoots inacuretly*
*skelly bro is sad*
" *oo* "
On the flip side, the bulge for their last thumb joint would function like a built-in thumb ring without the tendons and flesh getting in the way, so would be perfect for that kind of draw.
Glue some sandpaper to the metacarpals and they'd be great with javelins.
@DynamicWorlds BUT WHAT ABOUT DRAGONS hah got em (love ur name bruv)
If you use the eastern thumb draw for bows then there would be no problems... you wouldn't even need a thumb ring.
You know how in Dark Souls the skeletons fall apart when you hit them and then come back together moments later? I wonder if this could be used to absorb blows. So whenever a skeleton actually does get hit it loses all rigidity and behaves like a bunch of hanging stones. I mean, without anything to connect or stabilize them, their bones are just floating in the air through magic anyway right? Maybe fighting a skeleton could be a little like fighting a puppet where each limb is independent of the rest of the body. You could "shatter" an arm into all of its skeletal components only to have it reform from the broken pieces while the other runs you through. Just a thought.
You've raised a scary point
So.. play dead?
@@vrchhu4066 No.
@Split Haven in that case it will be either to break the skull which contains the soul fire, or if they are controlled by necromancers, kill the master.
What if you just picked up the spine after knocking then apart?
From my experience with roleplaying games, the most effective weapon you can give a skeleton in a medieval fantasy setting is the gun. No one expects the skeletal wizard to pull out a 1911.
Random uuuuuuh...yyeeeeaah...hmm... Yep
Only a year behind.
Its not if the skeletons are smart enough to pick out weapons and armor.
Its what the discerning necromancer chooses to protect his bony automatons.
Yup, thought the same
Ninja Guy NEW DND IDEA. Forge cleric necromancer: Raise an army and equip it with the best weapons
Sounds fun. I think you best bet, magic permitting, would be to just augment their their teeth and claws.
Just replace one hand with a puncturing spike for getting through armor and the other with a hammer.
Its not like they are smart enough to use much else and reach isn't much of a concern since the game plan is just to overwhelm.
What would be really fun would be coating the skeleton bones in metal to protect them from shattering and adding spikes and sword breakers.
Then, he can stick them in a bag of holding, and shoot or teleport the bag of holding to the enemies he wants rattled, before the skeletons come out of the bag. Bad boys get the skeleton bag!
Usually they rise with the same weapons they were using when they were humans.
They could wear a very thick gambison. They wouldn't be affected by heat and it would protect them from blunt damage. Their low weight is a disadvantage for close range combat, so they would need a weapon that is light and give them some range why they exhaust their opponent. A rapier is a good idea, but I think that a spear and shield might be better.
Actually the gambeson would hold their joints together too. If they're held together by magic if you break say their shoulder then as long as the arm is still in the sleeve it could reconnect.
the downside being that they'd look like a frikin' carebear.
@Ben Thomason I agree, they'd definitely look less scary haha
If they attacked in formation the skeletons behind could stab through the line in front of them
Wadwizard ZOL pike formations like Alexander used... Sarissa
It's not proportional strength so they actually could wear armor weighing 80 kilos as that would be roughly the weight of the flesh that has been removed and so they would move almost as if they were a normal human with no armor
You forgot the most overpowered combination for a skeleton. A violin, an afro and a sad backstory. This will crush everyones heart.
And good thing Brook does have a rapierlike weapon. The guard isn't neccisarry anyway.
and always an open eye for panties...
but skeletons don't have eyes! YOHOHOHOHO!!!
The most broken skeleton build is an espada, a capote, and obscene agility.
Ole.
I was going to mention Brook myself, but then I saw your comment. Not only does Brook have a rapier like weapon with his cane sword, but Oda even took the time to address the whole weight thing and made him super light and fast. You can tell that Oda really puts a lot of thought into every detail of his story, and it shows.
K
It's funny as soon as you said they'd be faster and lighter, I thought "well than they should use a rapier" and then you named axes and stuff and I was like "nahhh rapier man" but then you brought it up and I was happy.
considering that skeletons are held together with magic (either from a castor or their own soul, which may affect their intelligence), it could be assumed that skeletons would make for very effective mages. typically the most powerful magics are shown to have devastating side effects on the persons health, but a skeleton doesn't have to worry about that. in fact it is usually the skeletal Lich who is depicted as the most intelligent and powerful spellcaster, because they shed their limitations of the flesh and have full control over their actions because their own soul is what powers them.
AINZ OOAL GOWN
@@zahylon5993 SAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Though, in such cases, perhaps if they used to much magic, the stuff that is animating them, they would begin to literally fall apart
It really depend's on the setting's magic system and the properties of the skeleton in question.
Lichs have a specific weakness, in that they typically cannot regenerate magic power like a living mage. This is important, or they would be almost unstoppable.
Always great! Now I kind of want to use a disguised skeleton for a formal duel. His opponent stabs him "Aha!" The skeleton is unphased and stabs him back.
In Overlord there was such a scene.
He could be the _legendary swordsman known to have never lost a duel_
(then you could have a squire aspiring to become the strongest swordsman aiming to one day meet the -skeleton- swordsman of legends and defeat him in a formal duel, the squire goes through his hero's journey and in the final battle against the skeleton, he loses -and maybe becomes an undead himself- )
That was in an episode of Merlin: this dead knight was reanimated to keep challenging Uther's Knights (the knight had a personal vendetta against Uther in life, and now cannot rest again until that vendetta is fulfilled).
*Curse of the black pearl intensifies*
Rew Rose Aha! Then this squire comes back as a skeleton with a mace, knowing -skeleton- master swordsman's greatest weakness and runs up to him and just cracks his skull and becomes the next greatest duelist
You've trained me well. I turned the volume on the intro down this time.
and i always turn it up because i watch without headphones.
I do both.
If skeletons are moving with the help of magic, wouldn't it be more advantageous for the dark wizard who's created the skeletons to just make weapons fly instead?
I mean, a typical skeleton has hundreds of bones. Imagine that instead of cooperating the movement of a hundred bones, you would cooperate the movement of a hundred daggers!
That's... that's not how necromancy works...
Because daggers dont have souls
Nor they cant consent
Magic and the supernatural in general operates on soundness, you can imagine a magic user commanding a skeleton because it once was a human, it is "plausible". But a bunch of daggers? The wizard might be able to levitate a few, but not really "give it commands", much less making them independent "beings" that could protect a dungeon for decades.
That's also why magical constructs such as golems and the like are given a human shape, or at the very least a beast shape, because if it's just an everyday object, the magician can't truly "believe" those to be able to act on their own.
Your videos are always so interesting, touching on subjects that most people wouldn't even realize about. You bring a whole new set of perspectives at looking at phantasy related stuffs, and I thank you greatly for your works, Mr. Shad. :]
I enjoyed this video. You “humored” my imagination, but I’ve got a bone to pick with the lack of puns.
Cant you get it through your "skull"? we're not meant to be making puns...
I just found the perfect weapon against skeletons!
WATER BOTTLES!!!!!!
Because water bottles are for sophisticatedghagdadfifa people, and skeletons aren't sophisticated at all, they fight naked!
When it comes to applications with skeletons, one of my more favorite examples would be used in one of the novels I read which was to send skeleton armies underwater to suddenly overwhelm cities near oceans and other bodies of water
The only problem with that is because of their weight and lack of surface area to paddle, they would move extremely slowly in water, end up floating awkwardly, and be completely at the mercy of currents.
@@theminerboy5694 give them all a pair of heavy boots
And suddenly, we're at Pirates of the Caribbean territory.
I'm gonna go out on a "limb" here but I'm thinking the best weapon against them might be a dog.
Grayson Elam joke a parte, makes sense. A dog biting its leg would have no problem triping and dragging it due mass
And then of course, because The Laws Of Comedy are strong in my campaign, the skeleton hops after the dog carrying it's leg, completely forgetting it's orders to kill the PCs.
*paul coy* - The Rules of Comedy and Awesome are two things that every good DM/GM needs to obey for a truly enjoyable campaign.
Skeleton: *Exists*
The Doggo: *Is a free real state*
Only THIS channel can upload a 17 minute video about what sort of weapons Skeleton's should use and it be completely normal.
His colleges Skallagrim and Lindybeige might beg to disagree. Skallagrim has started similar series already and Lindy talks about variety of stuff (mostly tanks lol) but his video about Cyclops 3d vision is really close to what Shadi is doing right here: adding logic to fantasy
Because skeletons are so light and nimble the could be really stealthy. A short sword, small sword or dagger would enable them to sneak up on a foe more easily than with a pole arm. They'd be able to hide in small spaces and wait in ambush. No peeing or eating required!
Jonathan Gibson skeletons are usually depicted as kinda noisy because of the lack of flesh and cartilage to make them quiet.
They would be really great for ambushes though, especially if they're the kind that can disassemble and reassemble themselves. They're so great at it, that it's almost normal to be wary of piles of bones if you're in/playing a fantasy rpg where they can do that.
DynamicWorlds
Oh god, I can just imagine that...That would make formation fighting against them really hard...especially if skellatons can reset after combat...
Heck, if a necromancer is constantly reviving them...while they are throwing themselves into battle...yeesh...
THAT MOMENT WHEN YOU ARE WATCHING THIS VIDEO IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, EVERYONE IN THE HOUSE BUT YOU IS SLEEPING, AND SHAD SHOUTS D R A G O N S
Skeletons always have a bone to pick with someone.
@@pineappleproductions1696 nah, they seem to get hate boners all the time. Anyone they see is just boned.
Now that's a bome tickler!
I think a discussion like this requires a much more in-depth analysis. Since animated skeletons are the result of a necromantic spell, the magical strength to animate the skeleton and provide it its own strength would vary greatly depending on the skill and innate magical power of the necromancer who raised it.
So in terms of their weight, we COULD treat the magical animation as a replacement for tendons, muscles, etc all depending on the power of the spellcaster. A novice necromancer would not be able to raise a skeleton with as much physical strength as a master necromancer. Therefore the weight of the weapon being a percentage of their own bone-weight seems to me at least to be highly variable.
But... just going off the "comparable strength of a ____"
In that regard, I think that the best kind of weapon used would depend on what kind of skeleton it is. (Human, Dwarf, Snakeman, etc)
A skeletons worst enemy is a hungry dog.
MGX93dot Papyrus learns that the hard way.
or skeleton dog's or wolf's which are their own worst enemies...
Maybe we don't see a lot of inteligent skeleton because the smarter ones just become mummies to better hold their body together.
I think there mostly summoned and necromancy
+Shadiversity
1. Coat bones in metal, wolverine stile, or metal plates; e.g. bronze, brass, copper, maybe even steel, etc.
2. Use something to stabilise joints and spine with something: several leather strips, cordage, wire, etc.
3. Wear tight-fit gambeson (lots of flexible fabric, bound like tatami, to simulate flesh and bolster bones from heavy hits) covering the whole body.
4. equally tight fitted metal armour over that, e.g. chainmail or plate.
5. Fill the skeletons rib-cage with with straw or cloth-scraps to further lessen heavy blows, or find another way to do that.
Also known as "how to make a medieval supersoldier".
But what about dragons?
+Leon Valenzuela
same thing for undead dragons
Skeletons are held together by and can move through magic. If you alter the magic so that they can keep together under high speeds you just give them two axes/swords and make them spin really fast. Skeleblenders! Or turn them upside down, have their arms and les spin in opposite directions. Certain helicopters have both rotors on top of one another instead of one in the front and one in the back, or have the back one be sideways. Apply this to your skeleton and you now have a SKELECOPTER.
Another issue is armor: armor that fits a human is too big for a skeleton on account of no muscles. So they'd need custom-made skinny armor to wear, which adventurers can only pilfer to sell for scrap metal instead of use it themselves.
Forget skeleblenders, give them angled blades. Skelecopters!
Why not skip the bones and just magically attach two blades. Call it a juicer.
They wouldn't need custom armor, just more padding. In fact, that would be particularly advantageous to a skeleton, because all that padding would help protect them from blunt force trauma.
Have you ever seen Dark Souls? In the third game there is a type of enemy that ALWAYS closes the distance by rapidly somersaulting towards you until they use the momentum to slash at you with curved swords. And there is another type in all the games that has itself stuck inside of a spiked wheel, and they just roll towards you at super high speeds. Neither are the hardest enemies in the games, but they are well known because if one starts rolling, you better have some damn fast dodge reflexes.
Make them spin on a wheel? BONEWHEEL SKELETONS
I would give them gamesons rather than plate armor I think. Very thick pillow-y gamesons might soften the blow from blunt weapons, where plate would fold in and, if struck in the same place again, would hit the bones as well. A fast skeleton with a quick poking rapier would be a terrifying threat, assuming they have the intelligence to use proper stances and possibly parry and dodgw blows from maces and such.
That actually genius! The pillows so clubs will only push them back, from where they can easily jump on their opponent
Armor is already worn with gambeson, and if a blow is strong enough to fold the plate inwards, then gambeson isn’t going to protect anything as it yields far more easily than metal does.
A very thick gambeson would restrict the skeleton's movement range significantly
@@trabladorr Maybe not, actually. A thick gambeson that would normally lock up a human may allow full maneuverability for a skeleton because of the fact they have less mass in basically their whole body, allowing for a greater range of movement. If it was fitted to a skeleton's proportions though, then maybe it'd need to be thinner.
It wouldn't fit them because they don't have the volume to fill it up. With metal armor it's shape is rigid so that's not as much of an issue.
I like the way they portrayed the skeleton Brook in the anime one piece. They took into account the fact that he would have been faster and lighter by giving him much higher movement and attack speed and jump height. And for his weapon he has a very light cane sword and very fast fencing/dueling attack style.
Attach blades to their arms and have them spin
Not being limited to mechanical locomotion, they could achieve great rotational speeds. If their blades were wide enough and angled properly, they could potentially achieve lift.
Skelecopters.
Beybone
Let it RIP
ZanderArch That idea is too good not to write into my story about a skeleton called Boner. I love it.
Spin2win.
@@appleyanimator6541 are you actually writing a story about a skeleton? That's fucking fantastic
Very interesting stuff here! Makes me think about how I would answer a lot of those questions as a writer. Skeletons would be simplistic but inefficient undead, animated for a brief period (as the magic is essentially the only thing keeping them alive), for a clearly defined, immediate task. They would be the last resort of a necromancer hiding in a crypt; leave an axe or rapier by every ancient corpse and raise them as soon as the heroes step down the final stair for a quick horde of essentially suicidal berserkers with natural armor (being resistant to blades).
I was thinking along the lines that skeletons would or could have a very large amount of mp, using it passively as hp and to keep them intact/moving, with them only able to use a small portion to cast magic if not at all. Liches on the hand would have the same amount of magic, but just inverted. Able to use the majority of thier mp for magic, but leaving little to hold the together, thus explaining why they're physical weak.
Actually magic in case of skeletons does much more. Because sceleton has to move around based on magic (no muscles). And basicly if it holds together it's based on magic too.
So it's like telekinesis doll with some artificial soul stucked into. Also - lich is basically the same but with soul of a powerful necromancer.
I'm thinking a form of "ethereal muscles," created by magic, is how a skeletal being moves.
And wether a skeleton can use magic or not usually depends on if they could in life or not. And in the lich's case, to be an execptionally powerfull necromancer, is sort of a requirment to become one in the first place.
This sort of "balancing" races and monsters for D&D sessions were causing me headaches for a very long time. How to make skeletons work and not destroy world integrity, rules of magic use etc? I decided to say final NO to classic skeletons. In my universe, even a skeleton needs to add a mass, usually some kind of cemetery soil / ash, so skeleton is basically decomposed zombie.
As soon as I saw the title of this video my thoughts were " they're re-animated corpses of warriors so wouldn't they just use the weapon they used in life?" Also due to the fact ( or fantasy ) they're being held together by magic it would take an amazingly powerful necromancer to make them able to run, especially if you want an army of them!
To anyone making any skeleton jokes, I'm warning you. A single joke and I'll have a bone to pick with you, and I don't care how humerous it was.
I shall join you in your anti-skeleton joke campaign. We shall make a very effective joint effort, I believe.
well I WOULD say that you're really getting on my nerves, but in these circumstances
I really liked the 'physics' of skeletons in Dark Souls, where they were some of the most lightweight and athletic enemies (especially in Dark Souls 3), leaping all over the place and doing very acrobatic maneuvers with their lightweight frames, but the impact of a heavy weapon would cause their bones to scatter and leave them vulnerable while the magic keeping them animated took a moment to put them back together, and they fought with fittingly lightweight, dexterous weapons - shamshirs, falchions, sabers, and shotels (and bows). So not exactly a rapier, but the same general train of thought as to their agile fighting style.
The katana did not snap because the bone was so hard! The noble spirit of the katana just felt the cow had already suffered enough and broke itself instead of mutilating the leg.
The table was not properly stabilized, either. A bit slap-dash, if you ask me.
BUT WHAT ABOUT SKELETON DRAGONS?
Aw you beat me too it.
They'd be lighter so they'd fly easier, except their wing membranes are gone. They'd need their membrane replaced by leather or something and then they'd fly like nobody's business. Aerodynamics might become an issue, considering their lower mass and inertia, but most air could probably just go through them.
Dracolich.
@Maarlen Noordanus : Magic?
ninjacatcook If the skeleton dragon was....
just as strong as normal dragons....
and could breathe fire some how...
and they where even faster and more maneuverable then normal dragons..
and they never get tired...
and have powerful and strong dragon bones that are hard to break...
They would give even the all powerful orc army’s and giant army’s Hell
"They always are portrayed as fast and mobile as humans"
I have scars of the Catacombs and Nito's lounge, and a friend with a violin and an afro who would like to disagree!
Joking aside, skeletons are some of my favourite monsters in fantasy. There is something about these phyiscal incarnations of both death and defying nature being kind of silly looking while still being intimidating and relentless killing machines.
A particular setting I was working on had some heavy focus on the undead, and its core concept was that skeletons that were reanimated had their memories during life kept in their bones, and as they grew older and the bones got damaged, they would become more feral and insane. Add to it some necromancers feeling it would be funny to mix and match bones between corpses to create interesting looking abominations of calcium, mixing their minds with one another and forcing them into this constant existential crisis, if not outright madness. That way the usually boring first line redshirts of an undead army suddenly become a pretty fascinating fantasy "species"
*looks down at himself*
"There's a lot missing."
I can confirm the living bone being much easier to cut thought than dry bone, I have cut both with a cleaver (worked for a butcher) and holy crap wet bone is much easier to cut.
Edit( thought it depends because some dry bone is easier to cut it just depends on bleaching method used and how old/worn are we talking)
It's amazing just how important the phrase "worked for a butcher" can become. :)
Shad, wouldn't the skeletons' lack of fatigue give them an added advantage when wearing heavier armor than the average human could? If I understand it, it wasnt so much mobility that was hindered by heavier armor, but rather the ability to persist in battle without tiring. So a skeleton would be able to wear heavier armor than an equivalently sized human, since they don't have to worry about fatigue.
Dan Haas Although at that point, you are better off just animating the armor instead of the skeleton. Although, if you already have an animated skeleton... or an autonomous skeleton, it could help. Also, wouldn't need excessive padding, one thick layer should be enough.
Ninja Hombrepalito perhaps you could raise both? Have the skeleton wear the cursed armor but the armor has the warrior skills while the skeleton has a more mage like skill set perhaps even a mage skilled in necromancy itself... this combo screams boss fight.
I did a D&D monster like this. Flesh golems in animated plate armor wielding a dancing greatsword, all linked up mentally by the wizard who made them to protect his tower.
مبروك
Dan Haas they still wouldn't be able to lift it
One other the existential threats an intelligent skeleton would worry about (depending on the magic) is that they might not heal. Every nick of damage from weapons of weather would eventually wear them down to dust. If they wanted to last longer they might try to cover themselves in clothing or glazes. Imagine how tough a skeleton would be if they coated their bones in steel, that would be pretty awesome if they could survive the process.
Well Brook in One Piece just drink milk to power up from all the calcium! X,D
Seriously though Skeletons are the most expendable undead, they are not for long term use anyway.
I'm sure they find that comforting
In this one fantasy story/series I'm working on, one of the characters I have is an animated skeleton called Skelly, who works as a city guard. His background is that he was a barbarian warrior who fought a necromancer, who, with their dying breath, cursed the barbarian into becoming an animated skeleton. Of course, after this, no one wanted him in their village - the other undead get more respect - and after a hundred years of wandering, he'd forgotten his own name, which is very sad. One day, he smuggles himself into a city, in a wagon filled with other skeletons destined for the wizards/apothecaries, and wanders the streets, where he ends up assisting in the capture of an Unlicensed Thief (basically, if you are part of the Guild and have a license, you're free to steal within reason, but if not, don't get caught by an Official Thief as they will break your bones), and thus comes to the attention of the Commander, who has the habit of looking past one's race, and basically gave him a job, and a name. Granted, the job isn't glamorous, because he's among the first ones sent to see just how upset a crowd is, depending upon if he comes back with arrows stuck in his armor in normally fatal areas, and is the training dummy the new recruits end up finding out from that real people fight back in a fight. It tends to poke fun at the usual stereotypes.
One very important advantage a skeleton has over a human opponent is their complete immunity against poisonous and irritating substances, as the lack any sensitive organs like lungs or eyes. This means that a skeleton could simply throw globes filled with chlorine, tear gas or any other type of chemical weapon at its opponents, which then either would kill them outright, blind them or otherwise impair them, allowing the skeleton to end their misery with any weapons of its choosing. Alternatively, the skeleton could fix censers filled with burning toxic plants, chemicals or alchemical substances, to its armor thereby surrounding itself with a toxic fog or virulent miasma.
Combine this idea with some of the heavy armor mentions in some of the other comments and you get an undeath knight wearing nearly impenetrable armor surrounded by a literal mist of death that chokes the life out of everything and everyone that dares to come to close to them. Just imagine a full formation of these "things" slowly marching towards you in eerie silence while the very grass at their feets withers and dies.
In addition to their poison immunity skeletons are also very resistance against fire and heat (as long as the fire doesn't interfere with the magic holding them together), which would allow them to coat their armor or clothing with some sort of flammable material like oil, pitch or simply wood and then set themselves on fire becoming some sort of undead human torch. Depending on what sort of flammable material they used, the wouldn't even need to use a weapon, instead, they just could simply hug their opponent and cover them with some of the burning stuff.
Combine this idea with their greater movement speed and you get a burning skeleton covered in some sort of medieval napalm charging at you with superhuman speed, literally hellbent on hugging you to death or tearing you apart with a giant war axe that is also on fire.
Both of my ideas, therefore, help skeletons to not only become more effective in combat but also further improve the amount of fear and terror there are able to instill in their opponents, thereby crumbling the moral and fighting will of their enemies before they are able to crumble the bones of the skeletons. On a strategic level an army of skeletons would actually even more frightening than on the battlefield, because skeleton like other undead creatures require neither food nor shelter to keep them protected from the elements, which would allow them to use a scorched earth tactic on the offense as the burning of food supplies, the poisoning of wells and the destruction of houses would be meaningless to them but severely harm their opposition.
TL;DR "Skeletons are spooky."
I love both of these strategies! Your descriptions put great, unique pictures in my head, which is a good part of why I love this series.
Honestly that's so OP that it would necessarily have to interfere with the magic holding the skeleton together, or else you'd have a fundamentally broken fantasy world that if followed to its logical conclusions would just be filled with warring states fighting proxy battles with standing skeleton armies, and any human fighting would be using some kind of insane magical supersoldiers or very small groups of permanent underdogs using guerrilla tactics
World War 1 would have had a completely different approach to chemical weapons if either side had Skeletons 0.0
Which could be an awesome fantasy setting of its own....
Lazypackmule You could make skeletons work as long as they require absolutely ridiculous amounts of effort, wealth or perhaps blood sacrifice to create. For example, emperors might only have a skeleton or two guarding their tomb. The skeleton's equipment would be a small fraction of the price paid for a skeletal soldier.
Yes and no. The answer depends on the efficacy of fire tactics and on the reactivity of aerosolized acidic poisons and blistering agents.
High concentrations of mustard gas are still effective on Skeletons. As the main component of"dead bone" is hydroxylapatite ( Ca5(PO4)3(OH) ), which is a base; while mustard gas (sulfur mustard compounds) are all acids, as are their decomposition byproducts. Several studies have shown that acids (esp. strong acids) are more effective at destroying bone tissue than bases as the acids target the ossified extracellular matrix, while the bases target the structural proteins. (It would take days or weeks, but in a war where the primary tactic was trench warfare, time isn't your big issue.)
Since "dead bone" is proportionally more ossified extracellular matrix than anything else, acids would be the most effective chemical attacker. The damage would also be cumulative, and acid damage of bone usually does not change the physical appearance of bone before it its mechanical properties are similar to shortbread.
(www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/can-acid-dissolve-a-body/3007496.article)
I would like to point out that mustard gas is not a strong acid, but it does form a film of sulfur mustard on things exposed to the gas (as it is an aerosol, not a true gas). "Dead bone" is also significantly more porous than "live bone" with respect to chemical absorption, and the lacuna and canaliculi of the bone are small enough that one would have to worry about capillary action causing deep bone penetration of sulfur mustard compounds, essentially dissolving the bone from the inside out.
(assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/350579/DstlTR25697_V1.pdf)
By Coincidence, most common classical non-alkaloid poisons are quite acidic, and damage inflicted by weapons coated would slowly fester as well.
World War I, would have seen some differences, but probably not in its general usage of chemical weapons (since all were acids). I would assume that both sides would attempt to position themselves upwind and blanket the battlefield in chemical agents (without the need to supply rations, much more chemical agents could be manufactured for such a purpose.) The impurities found in chemical agents of the time caused the chemical clouds to be opaque, greatly limiting visibility. However, The gases saw development because of their heavier-than-air properties, which made them sink into the trenches. Thus, while mining the battle field would make it hazardous to cross (even for Skeletons), the gases would force charges across no-man's-land.
So it is unlikely that major changes would be made to the use of chemical weapons in World War I, but their use would probably have been more ubiquitous (which would cause all sorts of problems after the war). Also, France, (specifically Paris) would be fine, thanks to the Catacombs of Paris.
Ironically, snipers would still be useful during windy conditions, as the gases blanketing the battlefield would dissipate more quickly, increasing visibility. German snipers could, with the help of optical scopes, regularly make successful head shots across the trenches. Provided with frangible or fragmenting bullets, these would still be quite lethal to Skeletons.
I would also point out that skeletons, while plentiful, are a finite resource. Replenishment of your army would be difficult because most chemical methods of speeding up skeletonization (oddly, a legitimate term) cause some sort of damage to the bone structure. Mechanical and thermal methods are more labour intensive, and would increase the cost of the war more than chemical methods. And even mechanical and thermal methods would require significant resource expenses after flesh removal before one could produce a skeleton.
Thermal methods could also be used to enhance skeleton troops. One could strengthen skeletons by slowly exposing bone to dry heat under a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere to temperatures greater than 1360 C. This decomposes the hydroxylapatite and allows for bone densification. (It also speeds protein decomposition.) It must be noted that hydroxylapatite reforms as the temperature is brought below 1100 C. (This method could also be used to repair mechanical damages to bone structures.)
(www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10509191)
Slow heating and cooling is a must, as the rapid recrystallization of the bone inorganic matrix would create a glass, making the skeleton brittle. Larger crystals improve chemical resistance, usually at the cost of the creation of cleavage planes. Thus accurately controlling the cooling to create optimal crystal size is very important. This would make rapid production of useful skeletons difficult.
Skeletons would still have to worry about heat damage as well. Any method of heating (fire?) them above 1360 C would be absolutely devastating. The rapid cooling due to the presence of mud, rain, and snow on World War I battlefields would make glass transition more likely in skeletons. This would embrittle them. Consequently, bullets (esp. buckshot) would be more effective against them. As a result, we might expect more fire based defenses.
Although, when chemical gases are deployed, it would be inadvisable to use fire, as the resulting conflagration would be extremely dangerous to everyone caught in it. (Great for clearing the air though.)
Also, flaming Skeletons would be susceptible to attacks with rectified vinegar (or similar aqueous acid) in a manner similar to Hannibal's use of fire and sour wine crossing the Alps, or the ancient Chinese method of fire and frost. The rapid cooling introduces mechanical stresses and the heated acids react with greater efficacy. This type of attack substantially weakens a skeleton's bones. In fact, if this type of chemical attack proved very effective, the chemical gases used in world War I would be more of a hinderance, and used to cover troop movements (much like smokescreens were used.)
Any time Shad gets quiet the first thing I do is minimize my volume levels.
Me too buddy. Me too
nikolai60 i thought my phone was muted
nikolai60 usually the same here.
8:00
Woah there Shad, if he's 15 kilograms and has a 100 kg man's strength, that means if he wears 85 kg of armour, his strength is exactly the same as if that 85 kg were coming from flesh. So, for example, if a 100 kg man can lift 50 kg, a similar skeleton would be able to lift 50 kg plus all the fleshy mass attached to the human. So if a skeleton's armour was distributed exactly like flesh, he'd be exactly the same as an unarmoured human strength-wise. Basically, a skeleton can handle a normal human's maximum armour plus 85 kilograms.
Also, interesting armour idea, a skeleton could take advantage of the space where his organs would be by putting metal braces across his ribs, inside his skull, etc. to reinforce his natural structure in addition to any external armour.
I love all this. it tickles my autism
Very, very good point.
Super skeleton
That thought process is totally incorrect in my opinion.... Same strength means they have same difficulty with lifting same weight, thus skeleton would have same difficulty wearing 85 kilos of armor as regular human... humans get their strength from their muscles, thus muscles are not a dead weight on their body... At least this is my point of view on how their strength is compared to human strength
@@connecting1409 well its all in the eyes of the beholder, it depends on how strong the skeleton is, or more specifically, how much force it can provide from its bones.
As it doesnt have any physical mechanisms (organic or otherwise) that provides the force, its only the "mystical magic" that provides it.
So whether it has the strength to lift 85 + 50, or just 50, neither are wrong, mainly because it depends on the magic behind it.
Fast skeletons?
*Dark Souls Carthus Catacombs flashbacks*
*what's this red stuff*
*One Piece flashback*
The re-asembling skeletons and the skeleton wheels... Oh god the horror
Any sort of ranged weapon would be good because they would have increased speed to maintain distance and, the lack of flesh make them resistant the small piercing projectiles of most ranged weapons used against them. They would also not lose the power from there attacks due to their lack of mass.
Thank fucking god someone said this... for fucks sake I was worried that people forgot that bows existed at all...
You would have to use like Mongolian bird arrow so you have a better chance of hitting them
Minecraft was right all along
@@eliad6543 so true
And daggers too since the skelly's can use their mobility to close in and shank.
Skeleton WAAAARRIOOOOORS!!
William Bussey SKELETON BALLS
Someone must watch Jimquisition
With SWOOOOOORDS!!!!!
These are the tales of the Skeleton Warriors...
Skeleton Warriors
Skeleton Warriors
Skeleton Warriors
Lightstar, like the beam of the power
Talyn the fighter beyond the sky
Grimskull, who's the man of the shadows
Guardian shouts the battlecry
For the Legion of Light!
Skeleton Warriors
Skeleton Warriors.
They're bad to the bone!
Dadadadadadaaaa dadadaaada
All bones? Just a flesh wound.
Mikosch2 WHAT FLESH
My skeleton dnd character actually uses this logic behind how he’s so agile as an assassin, and why he can take so much damage (apart from the titanium armor of the Bearer of The Curse) from swords, and why he uses a katana (half katana) and he’s a ranger because his dried bones can not be pierced
one of the main things to consider would probably be who's arming them. They're receiving magic from somewhere and are probably being deliberately maintained for some purpose. Also in most of the media i've seen they actually seem to be a bit feebler than usual humans, but i guess that would be a bit relative to how much power they're being fed, maybe you can adjust their strength depending on how much magic you wanna expend? Maybe as some are killed the remaining ones get stronger as magic is freed up? Also he mentioned skellys underwater at one point, which raises the interesting idea of unconventional tactics and ambushes only they could pull off.
Shadiversity, the best kind of diversity.
Timothy Dornan Diversity of Sha. Doubt, Fear, Despair, Hatred, Violence, Anger and Pride.
If only historical movies had shadiversity quotas.
MrDUneven
... on all levels, yes.
Seeing how this is fantasy, I'd just enchant my sword with the magical power of osteoporosis.
Paladin: "Oh yes, the sword blessed by the gods Ostoblastos and Ostoplastos, deadly against those pesky undead skeletons!"
My skeletons were created by the dread necromancer Cal Seeum, and are twice as tough as normal skeletons.
I remember during one D&D session - Dwarf Druid grabbed one skeleton, and swung it against another, shattering them.
"Ahh my bones! Better hold em together"
Maybe its just 2 am but that was hilarious
Couple thoughts here
Skeleton hands are just bone but they are no stronger than a normal human, this could make holding onto weapons difficult. In a person, even wearing gloves we have the benefit of our skin, our flesh to mold around the handle when we grip it making our grip much more efficient than a skeletons. A skeleton that attempts to parry or whose weapon is hit by an opponents weapon my have a hard time not having that weapon knocked out of its hand and across the floor.
Feet are a similar issue. Skeletal feet have a very small surface area so even for their light weight they find their feet sinking into soft or very soft ground. As well very hard ground like a stone floor will serve them no better as their bone feet will not offer much friction with the ground. A skeleton whacked with a heavy weapon, or just running down the road may find that stopping or turning is like a person running on ice, and fall over easily.
Of course all of this is solved by saying "it's magic" but if we use that excuse then one of this discussion really matter.
I agree that skeletal archers may be very effective, but wielding a rapier may be rough as a skeleton has a hard time keep a hold of the weapon.
Also how effective is armor? If we assume that skeletons still "see" out of their eye sockets then what happens when the first blow from the enemy or their own motion causes that helmet many of them wear twists on their head, it is metal against bone and that is a rather friction light combination. Suddenly you have skeletons that are easily blinded by their own headgear.
Oh and as for "talking skeleton" never forget the greatest movie of all time to include skeletons "Army of Darkness". ;-)
Well, you can always give them leather boots, arm their weapons with straps that lash onto the skeletons hand or give them thin leather and cotton padded gloves. It's not a stretch to add straps to a helm much like a bike helmet, and they're magically enhanced so yes it does work for everything lol. All that's left now is to SALLY FORTH! :)
Either way though I must recommend reading the Ash vs. The army of darkness comics, they're epic!
Friction is actually determined by number of contact points, not by contact area. It’s why shoes and tires aren’t just flat rubber, and have a bunch of weird patterns (those also help with channeling water and such).
@@demonzabrak
I disagree.
Ever seen racing car tires?
They're slick. No tread. The tread is for shedding water. Slick tires offer better traction on dry pavement.
The tread on shoes is only advantageous on wet or soft surfaces, I think.
@@davidmeehan4486 Yeah I was misremembering some of my old college classes. There's also a structural and heat endurance aspect to slicks, but apparently they do have better friction coefficients.
I could see the lack of friction with bones being an issue, and you may need to cinsider it when choosing grip or glove materials. This actually does present some potential issues, but one might be able to get around them by, for example, building the skeleton's weapon into their gauntlet, but even then, you lose out on some maneuverability, I imagine, so it may not be optimal.
I definitely don't expect their feet to sink in soft terrain, at least nowhere where a human would, because while their eight is spread over a smaller surface area, they also weigh a lot less, which actually presents it's own problems, namely with making your next point a larger one. Skeletons might slip on tile, and such, because their feet are lower friction, but most of that can be fixed with shoes, but frictional force is proportional to both coefficient of friction and normal force, which in this case, will be the weight of the skeleton, which is lower than a human's. Let's do some Math.
So, a skeleton should weigh between 12-15% of that person's body weight, but we'll assume we're at the high end, for 15%. So, force of friction is directly proportional to normal force, which is the skeleton's weight, in this case. that means that assuming the skeleton and the human are both wearing perfectly fitting shoes, which will not slip internally, even under the significantly lower friction of the skeleton's foot, then the skeleton will still have only 15% of the force fo friction that the human has, which functionally means, he can excert a maximum sideways force on himself of 15% of what the human can before slipping, meaning he should actually be able to accelerate at the same speed as the human, but this still presents a problem if he gets hit. Even a shield bash can effectively neutralize him until he can (slowly, because of the low friction) get himself up, and then run over from wherever it sent him, because the skeleton doesn't weigh much.
This also presents an issue with the weapon you discussed. Bows have recoil, which is meaningful to our skeletal friend, and he can't really put as much momentum into shoving the rapier into someone, because he doesn't weigh enough; if anything, he'll just push himself away from them, unless he strikes exposed flesh.
I expect the armor to have less of a friction issue, as it would have cloth padding beneath it, but even cloth and bone might not have the right coeeficient of friction for this, and I've not the foggiest idea how that's calculated, so it might be nescessary to use something else. On the other hand, armor may be the only reliable solution to the friction issue for skeletons, as it can increase their weight, which may be just wheat they need.
If I was a skeleton and a blacksmith, I'd reinforce myself with thin steel joints and supports on the major areas, then cover myself in padding.
That's what I was thinking
Mr. Burns has the perfect solution for defeating skeletons. “Release the hounds.”
I found this episode...
humerus
I see where you went there, ha ha ha.
The most annoying thing about them is that no matter who or what you are and have done, they always have a bone to pick with you..
This video just happened to come out the day I decided to re-watch Overlord. A fun little coincidence. Great video btw.
Never change, Shad.
On Skeletons, I'd say that the most prominent armor would be gambesons. Flexible, and with padding to dampen blunt force a simple quilted cushion would negate most of a skeleton's weaknesses.
I'm not sure about the super heavy armor, though. Either a skeleton has the same torque as a equal sized human and therefore adding 85 kg is rectifying an inequality or they have the same strength to weight ratio as a human and therefore aren't faster than a human. On the other hand, 85 kg of armor is worth a small fortune.
Tactically, a Skeleton would prefer skirmish tactics, shield, sword, and javelins. They'd stay at range harassing human formations, tiring them out until the humans either charge or break. Either way, the skeletons would then maneuver to isolate and destroy their prey piecemeal.
A sentient skeleton would probably avoid a rapier instintually because it wouldn't see it as a threat.
Skeletons best for rouge or other stealth character
Writer/game designer: yeah lets give him an axe and a shield
I know how to do it -
Party is about to take the Long Rest. Skeleton Dude takes the First Watch. Sits by a tree, with a sign by him saying "Warning - Don't mess with these guys!"
Bandits walk past Skeleton Dude.
Skeleton gets up, flips sign around, taps the shoulder of the rearmost bandit, who finds himself reading "I Warned You!" Skeleton then uses the sign to bash him in the head.
@@lockwoan01 Looney Tunes shit. Love it.
@@stevenbobbybills Yep. Crazy.
Skeletons could use gambesons thick to protect the joints where weights like sand or water to simulate their insides and absorb impact of weapons. It wouldn't exactly slow them down as much as one would think because they don't get tired.
What if they made a custom gambeson where some spots(like the ribcage) are open? I mean, cover the ribcage, EXCEPT leave a hole in the gambeson where the hole of the skeleton's ribcage or other areas of the skeleton's body is. This could trap blades without damaging the skeleton.
That was my thought too. Make it "skin tight" and you'd have quite a job splitting one apart. Pad it well, and good luck shattering the bones.
What about directly plating the bones?
My default interpretation for how skeleton strength works is that each part of a skeleton provides the effective functionality of the associated flesh. So a skeleton's femur is responsible for all the muscles in that part of the leg, and if the bone is damaged or weathered then it effects the effective muscles and tendons accordingly.
Skeletons don't mind a knife between their ribs, but they *would* mind having their ribs crushed, as that would deprive them of the effective functions of their heart and lungs.
LP SP what heart and lungs? They're skelletons...
Impressive misreading
(also I noticed a pretty critical typo lol, corrected: they WOULD mind having their ribs crushed)
Really nice idea!
So you’re saying the skeletons are in the Matrix and people are piloting them with real bodies?
One of my favorite series on RUclips! Please add spider-people as next one to be RE-ARMED!
Yeasssss
Should they be called like "Arachnids" or something?
There is different names in different settings for them.
Ettercaps?
Driders?
Were-spiders?
"HA HA! YOU CAN'T KNOCK ME APART BECAUSE I'M A SKELETON WITH ROPE AROUND MY BONES!!!"
-Shad, 2018
Now I know how to equip my armies as a necromancer. Thanks!
Speaking of which: Necromancers would counter many of the intelligence issues skeletons might face.
Another awesome vid :D! You should do what weapons Vampires would use.
YES!
Most vampires seem to want to look as human as possible. If there is an ideal weapon for them, they might not use it because that would identify them.
Well it depends on the setting and type. Some might not care like the Vampire Counts from Warhammer. Still I would love to know what that ideal weapon would be. Even if your trying to look human might have to deal with a Witch Hunter. And then you going to want to use that ideal weapon.
Well not exactly. They don't need a blade if they want your blood they got their fangs. Hard to say what they would use as they are vastly more fast and strong.
Since vampires are generally " human but better" wouldn't the same things good for humans be good for vamps?
Great, now I am just imagining skeletons jumping around like crazy, and that sounds like a very spooky time. Definitely going to use this for my campaign setting.
Aim for the joints! They're a severe weak point! Especially since there's no cartilage to hold the bones together.
Edit: I meant if you had a sword. If you have a hammer or mace, do as Shad says.
BuT wHaT AbOuT drAGoNs - nah, but seriously. I adore this series.
Hello Future Me
But what about skeletons dragons???
Can't forget the undead dragons as well as forces of destruction such as undead titans and other epic beasts and monstrosities and in some settings you even have the massive combination undead horrors i.e. bonewheels extra limed skeletons, etc. Or how magic lets undead winged creatures actually fly while not letting normal skeletons of non flying creatures do the same..
I love the humor in these videos.
What about a skeleton wearing a gambeson? It's like it has flesh but that flesh is armor!
1:32 "The ability to speak does not make you intelligent." Qui-Gonn Jinn