Skeletal warrior

Version 0.26: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

skeletal warrior z
HP	42-87
HD	10
XP	761
Speed	10
AC	15
EV	10
Will	100
Attack¹	25 (hit: plain)
Resistances	rC+ rPois+++ rDrown rMiasma rN+++ rTorm
Vulnerabilities	Holy
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Human
Uses	Weapons & armour Starting equipment Open doors
Holiness	Undead
Size	Medium
Type	skeletal warrior, skeletal warrior
Flags	Fighter Evil Unbreathing

A vicious and heavily armed humanoid skeleton, animated by unholy power.

“Speak! speak! thou fearful guest!
Who, with thy hollow breast
Still in rude armor drest,
Comest to daunt me!
Wrapt not in Eastern balms,
But with thy fleshless palms
Stretched, as if asking alms,
Why dost thou haunt me?”
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Skeleton in Armor”. 1841.

Useful Info

Skeletal warriors are surprisingly dangerous undead monsters which travel in packs. Although they resemble small skeletons, they move at average speed, have significant durability, and come armed with powerful branded weapons. They are found in the mid-to-late-Dungeon, the Crypt, and the Abyss.

Tips & Tricks

Avoid letting them attack you more than one at a time. Hallways help, but keep an eye out for skeletons armed with polearms.
Dispel Undead will take them down in two or three castings.
Weapons of holy wrath are also effective, the bigger, the better.
If you don't have any way to reliably take on a pack of skeletal warriors, consider skipping them and coming back once you've leveled up more. Even a single skeletal warrior can kill a lightly armored character in a few hits, especially if they've got a big, nasty weapon.

History

Prior to 0.19, you could find skeletal archers in the Crypt and Tartarus. They were as durable as the warriors, but were armed with bows.
Prior to 0.13, skeletal warriors possessed Animate Dead, a spell which they rarely had a chance to use, mostly being found in corpseless branches. Also prior to 0.13, ancient champions were vault-defined variants of skeletal warriors, as opposed to their own type of monster.