Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement by a spellcaster)

This skull is the remains of a Medium or smaller creature or humanoid of the DM's choice and emits a faint, visible, magical aura. Up to 5 creatures can attune to it, but each must expend a hit die in order for the attunement to be successful, regaining the hit die only when attunement ends.

When the skull has been attuned to, and thus given life force, faint lights appear in its eye sockets.

The skull was created to serve as a familiar, and has done so for many spellcasters throughout the ages, although how or when it was created is lost to time.

Much of the skull's memories have been lost as well, including much of its magical knowledge. Not all though, seeing as it does know how to cast certain spells, but lacks the power to do so by itself. Any attuned creature can use an action to touch the skull and expend a spell slot in order to have the skull cast a spell it knows of the same level as the spell slot expended. The skull uses the spellcasting ability of the attuned creature taking this action.

Sentience. The skull is a sentient lawful neutral item with an Intelligence of 14, a Wisdom of 14, and a Charisma of 14. It has hearing and darkvision out to a range of 120 feet. The skull can speak, read, and understand Common and Draconic, and can speak telepathically to any creature within 15 feet of it. The skull also understands every language creatures attuned to it knows.

Personality. The skull speaks with a rusty voice, happy to be among the living again.

Its sole purpose in life is to serve spellcasters, which it has done whether its master had benign or malignant inclinations. Over time, the skull has found great pleasure in being needed, and so now it hopes to find a master that will both live long and make good use of the skull's vast, yet patchy, knowledge.

Quirks A long life as a skull, especially one in servitude to various spellcasters, not all of them completely sane by normal standards, does things to your mind. At the DM's option, you can pick from or roll on the Quirks table to create a quirk for the skull. d6 Quirk 1 It hates getting wet, what with the fluids running into and through every nook and cranny. 2 It's convinced it's hyperallergic, and demands that everyone cleans their hands before touching it. 3 It harbors an intense rivalry with birds, especially owls and ravens. 4 It's afraid of the dark. 5 It's convinced that its mastery over magic far exceeds any mortal's, and isn't afraid to voice that opinion. 6 Whenever a spell is cast by, or at, someone else near it, it fears it is the target, no matter the spell.

Spells Known The spells the skull knows can be determined by the DM or randomly by rolling on the Former Masters lists twice; once for class and once for archetype, then using the spells on the resulting archetype's sublist of spells (domain spells etc). When an attuned creature reaches a level which grants it access to higher level spells, it can help the skull remember more of the Former Master's spells, progressing on the current choice, or it can attempt to delve deeper in order to dig up memories of another master, repeating the rolls for Former Masters. This only gives the skull access to the spells of the newly achieved spell level.