Skeletal intellect devourer

Skeletal intellect devourers were stronger, more resilient, and more intelligent undead form of intellect devourers.

Description
A skeletal intellect devourer appeared to be a horrifying bone creature with a decaying brain hidden behind a bone shell. The bones still had pieces of once-living flesh dangling from them.

Behavior
Skeletal intellect devourers fled in fear from priests, clerics, paladins, and other individuals who possessed the ability to burn undead with a mere touch.

Abilities
These creatures possessed more power than when they were alive. They lost mortal shells' weaknesses and gained greatly straightened mental abilities. In additionally to their psychic powers, skeletal intellect devourers were swift and agile. Like many other undead creatures, they were unaffected by mind-influencing magics, diseases, poisons, sleep, paralysis, and stun. Skeletal intellect devourers could not receive any staggering or subdued physical damage, their life powers could not be drained, and they could not be easily destroyed even if overpowered. Due to their skeletal bodies, devourers were well protected from shawling and piercing weapons.

They used psionic claws of the vampire to dispose of their enemies without damaging their bodies. They also could use such psionic abilities as intellect fortress, thought shield, id insinuation/empty mind, ego whip, esp, compression, domination, invisibility, painful touch, and schism'' at will. Apart from psionics, some devourers could use magic-like abilities summoning darkness once per day; cast greater dispelling, negative energy burst, negative energy ray, and stoneskin thrice per day each. Lastly, they could activate true seeing twice a day. ''

Skeletal intellect devourer's claws caused stunning pain to any creature that came into contact with them. This pain could render the victim stunned and dazed. Some of these creatures possessed an aura of fear that could be triggered once per day.

Combat
When in combat, skeletal intellect devourers targeted those wielding divine magics. Their fear of being turned led them to always focus on the divine casters first. The first and most preferred method of attack, especially if done in surprise, was the domination ability. When dominating divine casters, skeletal devourers commanded them to dispose of all holy symbols.

When entering the melee, devourers targeted one creature at a time, dealing slashing claw damage or their claws of the vampire attacks if trying to keep the body undamaged. The sooner a creature was dead, the sooner a devourer could inhabit the corpse.

Ecology
Skeletal devourers were born in a similar manner to their living kind. They only inhabited dead bodies. Because of that, individual skeletal devourers or skeletal devourer pods of up to four specimens could be found lairing near cemeteries, sewers, or other places where dead bodies were abundant. The bigger the supply of corpses, the more likely a larger pod of skeletal devourers could be found living nearby.

To inhabit a corpse, skeletal devourers consumed the corpse's brain and settled within its skull. A devourer could fit itself within a victim's skull through magic. Then the host body was reanimated as a zombie or a skeleton, depending on the body's state. Devourers could not use the host's body's past abilities of knowledge regardless of how recently the creature was slain. The bodies inhabited by devourers became an extension of the creatures' bodies, allowing them to channel and project their psionic abilities onto the host.