Wight

Wight (CR 9)

Pure Evil - Medium - Undead

Lore:	Know (Religion)
17		31
Basic DC		Full DC

Initiative

14

Perception:
26	+16
Passive	Active

Ambush:

10+

on a d20

Senses:

• Standard Senses
• Darkvision 60 ft.

Movement Types:

• Walk 30 ft.
• Lesser Swim 30 ft.

Defense

AC

27

Man Def

25

Monster Health
178	89	14
Hit Points	Bloodied	Hit Dice

Saving Throws
Fort:	+4
Refl:	+6
Will:	+11

Strong Against:

• (Undead 1) Immune (no effect): diseases (infected, diseased, blighted), poisons (tainted, poisoned, blighted), ability damage (dilution, damage, drain), and essence damage (suppression, omission, destruction)
• (Undead 2) Immune (no effect): bleeds (bruised, bleed, ruptured), fatigued, exhausted
• (Undead 3) Immune (no effect): magical sleep (drowsy, sluggish, asleep), paralyzed, stunned
• (Undead 4) Immune (no effect): any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless)
• Hardened (½ damage): positive (energy, uncommon)

• Healed by negative (energy, uncommon)

Weak Against:

Offense

Size:	Medium
5 ft.		5 ft.
Space		Reach

To-Hit

+15

Man Off

+13

Action

0

Points

Standard Attack (Melee):

• 1x Wight's Bite +15 (2d10+12/x2)
  as crushing (physical, common)
  plus: Essence Omission

Full Attack (Melee):

• 1x Wight's Bite +15 (2d10+12/x2)
  as crushing (physical, common)
  plus: Essence Omission
• 2x Wight's Smite +15 (2d6+5/x2)
  as bludgeoning (physical, common)

Standard Attack (Ranged):

• 1x Wight's Sight +19 vs. AC (always hits on a 17+ on the die) (2d10+12/x2)
  as negative (energy, uncommon)
  (Increment: 50 ft.; Max Range: 50 ft.)
  plus: Essence Omission

Full Attack (Ranged):

Siege Damage: Not siege capable

Statistics

20

STR

14

DEX

—

CON

14

INT

14

WIS

16

CHA

Skills:

• Knowledge (Local): 14
• Perception: 16
• Stealth: 14
• Survival: 15
• All other skills: 9 (no ranks)

Languages: Common, Necril, One language they knew before death

Feats:

Special Abilities

Essence Omission (Su) Automatic upon successful attack

Wights can inflict Essence Omission, a terrible form of attack indeed. Wight's Bite, as well as their ranged Wight's Sight attack, can each drain the memories and life experiences from a struck victim. The target must make a Fort saving throw versus a DC of 19 or suffer 1 point of Essence Omission every time they are successfully bitten or struck by Wight's Sight. Wight's Smite does not cause Essence Omission, regardless of whether it hits or misses.

Eyes Like Lamps (Sp) Swift Action 1/Enc

Wights have a negative (energy, uncommon) energy damage ranged attack with their eyes, but almost as frightening is their Eyes Like Lamps ability. Once per encounter as a swift action, a Wight may lay a compulsion upon all nearby living creatures it can see. This ability affects a thirty-foot cone, dealing 2d8+8 points of negative (energy, uncommon) damage to the living, healing undead in the area for the same amount, and all enemy creatures caught in the effect are pulled three squares toward the wight. As all forced movement, this does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and victims may voluntarily elect to fall prone to stop their movement at any point. Eyes Like Lamps is a spell-like ability, so it may be resisted with spell resistance, but since it requires no somatic component, merely a look, no Caster Check to concentrate is ever required.

Wight

Wights are another type of undead that resemble zombies, but like Mohrgs, Wights have the burning light of intelligence in their eyesockets.

Indeed, one way of identifying Wights is that dreadful spark of hatred that lights their sockets as they regard the living. However, being intelligent, wights can dim their baleful gaze to conceal their true nature.

In many ways, Wights and Mohrgs are twisted opposites, each one dark and horrible. Where Mohrgs are Corrupting undead, and seek to lie low, build their strength, and issue forth in a terrible wave to convert the living, Wights are Eaters. They have The Hunger, as bad as any Zombie, Ghoul or Vampire. Wights cannot lurk and wait, Wights must hunt, because it is in their nature.

In their hunts, the intelligence of the Wight serves it well. They are skillful monsters, fiends of cunning and ability. They will set lures, they will snatch bait and seek to draw the living into traps. Wights can attack in daylight, or from underwater, and are known to do both, although they seem to prefer the cover of darkness. Their gaze can draw you toward them, your body moving of its own accord, and their bites are truly terrible, eating away at both flesh...and the very essence of life.

Combat Tactics

Wights are smart. But Wights are also hungry. They tend to go out and prowl for victims, and while the stereotype is that they attack at night, they are not harmed by daylight. So they can come at any time. Wights don't breathe, so a favorite tactic is to attack from a lake or river. One of them will use Eyes Like Lamps to see if anybody is killed outright or merely falls in, and if they do, the feast begins.

In all cases, Wights want to use their bite attacks or the ray attacks from their eyes to inflict essence omission to weaken their opponents quickly. But Wights want to get to the end of battles on their own terms, so they will seek flanks if they can get them, and if they can find a place to fortify, they will hide, use Eyes Like Lamps to pull their prey out of cover, and then Wight Sight them to tenderize them. Wights are more than smart enough to recognize the danger a healer or a high-powered range attacker represents, and they will aggressively target such foes with their Wight Sight if they are allowed to.

Wights are also smart enough to realize that their Wight Sight and Eyes Like Lamps can be used to heal each other, but they are so driven by the hunger for life that they rarely do so. In a Wight's mind, it is better to attack and bite than it is to heal, but they will still heal themselves or an ally if there is nothing else for them to do.

Out of Combat

Wights are highly prized minions for more powerful undead, as a properly cowed Wight is essentially the horrible, dead, monster version of a cleric. As such, even quite powerful intelligent Undead such as Vampires, Liches, Mummies, and even greater and more terrible things, may have a few lowly Wights around, just for the utility. Of course, Wights suffer the Hunger, so keeping them cowed can be difficult, but such horrendous fiends usually manage quite well.

Wights are rarely found with weaker undead, seeing them as competitors for all that delicious life-force out there. Wights are, oddly enough, very capable at wrecking Skeletons, and will usually drive any such monsters in their territory away, or leave them as moldering wreckage.

On their own, Wights are always, endlessly, eternally hungry and thus are always on the hunt for more victims. They are intelligent enough to know they should vary their hunting range, and as a result, it is not unusual to find bands of wights 'on the road', as they migrate to new territory, outrunning the mobs the living have raised to burn them out.

Immortality
Many undead creatures, such as this one, cannot be killed by normal means. It will lie shattered and dormant for a few days, possibly a week, before rising again to seek to rid the world of life. The creature will naturally regenerate its injuries during this time, even regrowing lost limbs. The consumption of fresh blood speeds this recovery considerably, assuming the creature has enough motor functions to feed itself (or be fed). Permanently killing the creature is a fairly simple matter, however — just cut off its head. Resurrection spells will also kill it, though they will not restore the original soul back to its corpse. The body is too corrupted to serve as a suitable vessel for a soul, so only spells or abilities that can resurrect a creature whose body has been completely destroyed (e.g. True Resurrection (Cleric Spell)) will restore the original owner back to life (assuming there was ever an 'original owner' to begin with). This creature will never age, nor does it require sleep, food, or even air to breathe (though not doing these things is distinctly uncomfortable).

Rewards

XP: 6,400

Treasure: Sellable Goods worth 5,125 gp.

Weight: 90 lbs.     Volume: 3.6 cu. ft.

Optional Treasure Rules: Roll a d20 on Table 1 below once per encounter (NOT per creature). Any items discovered are in addition to the normal treasure for the encounter.

Table 1: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 10	Nothing Found
11 - 14	1 Languid Remnant (tier 1)
15 - 17	1 Pale Remnant (tier 2)
18 - 19	1 Bright Remnant (tier 3)
20	Roll on Table 2
###	Nothing to see here!
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 2: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	3 Languid Remnants (tier 1)
6 - 10	3 Pale Remnants (tier 2)
11 - 14	1 Intense Remnant (tier 4)
15 - 17	1 Blazing Remnant (tier 5)
18 - 19	1 Vital Remnant (tier 6)
20	Roll on Table 3
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 3: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	3 Bright Remnants (tier 3)
6 - 8	3 Intense Remnants (tier 4)
9 - 11	3 Blazing Remnants (tier 5)
12 - 14	3 Vital Remnants (tier 6)
15 - 17	1 Prime Remnant (tier 7)
18 - 19	1 Mythic Remnant (tier 8)
20	1 Empyrean Remnant (tier 9)