Random Skeleton Generator

Whenever your players dare to raid ancient crypts or stumble upon an ancient battlefield, it’s popular to throw some skeletons at them, especially at low levels. Skeletons are a great threat and introduction to undead foes, but it’s also challenging to make the encounter feel new and fresh.

To help you with this, here’s a free skeleton generator for 5e Dungeons & Dragons to make the creation of customizable skeleton hordes easy and fun!

Customize Your Horde of Skeletons

Skeletons generally wear tattered scraps of ancient armor and wield rusted weapons from a bygone era. While they may lack the tactical intelligence of living foes, their immunity to fear and exhaustion makes them relentless adversaries. Here are some ways you can bring skeleton encounters to life:

• Backstory: The Maker’s Forge Foe Generator will create a backstory for your skeletons that you can tweak as needed to fit into the PC’s current situation. Who raised them from the dead? What ancient oath compels them to guard this location? Are they the remains of a defeated army, or the cursed previous adventurers who failed to escape? And more importantly, what commands are driving them to destroy the PCs?
• Distinctive features and origins: While they may not speak, your skeletons should have unique features discoverable during combat or investigation. Every skeleton should be unique when you describe it to the player. Vivid description is the lifeblood of the roleplaying game. Is this one missing an arm? Does that one wear the signet ring of a fallen house? What sets this undead warrior apart from the pile of bones next to it?
• Weapons and hit points: Skeletons often possess brittle bones and rusted gear, though they sometimes wield magical items buried with them long ago. What strategy will this skeleton use? Is it a mindless drone or does it retain martial prowess? How tough is this skeleton compared to the minions around it?
• Skeleton Champion: Undead hordes typically serve under a dark master or a skeletal champion retaining its combat intelligence. Does this leader possess a cursed intelligence? What allows it to control the others? Does it wield dark magic or superior martial skill?
• Necromancers: Skeletons often serve a dark master. What is his plan? Does he need fodder for his undead army? Laborers for some accursed building project too difficult for living workers? Experiments in some unholy search for forbidden knowledge?
• Loot: Should the PCs win the day, what grave goods, ancient coins, or burial jewelry might the skeletons be guarding?

Foe Generator for 5e

So what are you waiting for? Go use the Maker’s Forge Skeleton Generator to get a jump-start on a horde of the undead. It does all the grunt work for you: stats, origins, short descriptions, weapons, and HP for each skeleton, even the loot they’re carrying should your PCs defeat them. All that’s left for you to do is to bring the skeletons’ ancient curse into sharp conflict with the PCs and let the sparks fly!