Cursed Skull

Cursed Skulls are found in the upper floors of Lady Jannath's Estate.

Involvement

The Cursed skulls are found the on the upper floors of Lady Jannath's Estate. They have to be dealt with to get to  Oskar Fevras' atelier on the top floor of the haunted mansion, where the quest ⁠Free the Artist can be progressed and finsished.

Combat

Attacks and abilities

 Grave Repulsion

Damage: 3~24

3d8⁠Necrotic

Release an ectoplasmic pulse that knocks living creatures back 8 m / 27 ft.

 CON Save

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5 ft

Encounter details

The Cursed Skulls are often placed at the top of stairs or on the landings part way up. They face certain directions, and cast  Grave Repulsion against nearby creatures, which knocks these creatures prone or even throws them back onto a lower level, taking damage. The skulls ignore  Invisibility and similar effects, and have the  Medium Toughness condition, which means every attack has to overcome the 22 point damage reduction. They are also vulnerable to ⁠Bludgeoning, ⁠Force, and ⁠Radiant damage.

Tactics

It is advisable to throw bludgeoning weapons at them which have the  Thrown property. Use of the  Tavern Brawler feat may also help here, and a  Light Hammer thrown by a character with decent  Strength is sufficient to destroy a skull in one blow. Dealing force damage through  Eldritch Blast is also a good option.

Alternatively, casting  Remove Curse ends the  cursed status of a skull, and prevents it from casting Grave Repulsion. However, this requires being within range of the skull's attacks. One method of applying remove curse is using  Misty Step to blink to a location outside of the skull's line of sight, then casting from behind or from the side. Casting the ritual spell  Silence on a skull entirely neutralises its Grave Repulsion attack.

 Ne'er Misser used by a character, who has high enough  Dexterity can also kill it in one blow without having to go near it.

Equipping a character with  Reaper's Embrace grants them immunity to the knockback effect and allows them to get close enough to destroy the skull or bypass them entirely with enough healing / max HP.

A rogue sneak attack from range can be effective as they are not at risk of being hit with  Grave Repulsion. Targeting can be an issue when the skull is on a different level, possibly pummeling the character back down the stairs so they might have difficulty getting an attack off.

As the skulls face certain directions, one might get behind or beside them, and employ melee attacks which overcome the 22 point damage reduction.