By Alan McCoy from Dungeons & Dragons: Fundamentals
How to build challenging encounters against a Wraith
Note: This has been prepared utilizing only the 5E Core Rules. The Wraith can be found in the Monster Manual page 302.
The Wraith is one of the Classic Monsters from the earliest days of Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy writing in general. It is a powerful foe, and can be encountered individually or in greater numbers.
Wraiths are one of, if not the most powerful incorporeal undead. Essentially a living creature that gave up life as part of a dark pact with a powerful entity. The soul of the creature is flooded with negative energy, causing it to collapse upon itself. The resulting inversion creates an entity that both hungers for and hates living life energy.
The dark pact that creates the wraith may be entered into voluntarily, a bargain between the creating entity and the living soul. The bargain can also be entered into because of trickery or treachery. Finally, the transformation can be forced upon an individual, perhaps as a part of a religious ceremony or a mystical ritual.
The process of creation destroys most of the personality of the living being before the change, however the creating entity can allow a wraith to retain some of its former personality and free will. Obviously, the degree of ‘free will’ allowed will be greatly influenced by the willingness of the living creature to undergo the transformation.
As debased anti-life entities, a wraith exist solely to destroy life. Using its powerful Anti-Life emanations, a Wraith will destroy all life with which it comes in contact or that comes within range of the darkness within.
A Wraith has no physical body, can move through solid objects and creatures as easily as a mortal creature moves through fog.
A Wraith can command the soul from the corpse of a creature recently slain by violence to rise and fight as a Specter (MM page 279) under its control.
A Wraith may control up to seven Specters at a time. The Specter also has a Life Drain ability which is cumulative with the Wraith or other Specters.
Step 1) Let’s Review what we know about Wraiths
Physically Wraiths are weak, having a very insubstantial connection to the physical world, they move very well and their personal unlife force is amazingly strong.
Mentally, Wraiths are an enigma, they are intelligent, with strong wills and an imposing presence. The process that created them denies them connection to their former life, and context with which to interpret the actions of the living. They sometimes get flashes from their mortality, but never enough to allow the creature to form personal goals.
Wraiths are resistant to damage from Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Thunder; Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing damage from non-magical or non-silvered weaponry.
Wraiths are immune to damage from Poison or Necrotic sources.
Wraiths are immune to the following conditions: Charmed, Exhaustion, Grappled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone and Restrained.
Wraiths fly at 60 feet per round and can hover if they choose.
Wraiths have Darkvision (Blindsight 120 foot – See Below) and a passive perception of 12.
Wraiths know the languages they knew in life, communication with a Wraith depends on the amount of free will that they have available. Successful communication is most possible with a Wraith that has a large amount of free will, however, these Wraiths are least likely to want to communicate with the living.
Wraiths are sensitive to Sunlight, and when exposed to such have disadvantage on attack rolls and perception checks.
Step 2) How do they fight?
If given the time to prepare, a Wraith will assemble its spectral minions (Specters) to aid it in combat. These creatures share many of the abilities of the Wraith, though they are not as strong.
Wraiths are masters of Cover and Concealment and will utilize these to provide extra protection from physical sources.
Examples:
- When moving through solid objects such as a table, they are entitled to at least 50% cover (+2 to AC).
- When reaching out from a wardrobe, they are entitled to at least 75% cover (+5 to AC) and finally, they can split their movement and withdraw into a solid surface gaining 100% cover and making it impossible to attack them.
Imagine for a moment, a spectral arm reaching out of a solid wall to attack, then withdrawing back inside the wall to avoid retaliation. Essentially, their battle strategy revolves around the tactic of “Reaching Out” to attack, then withdrawing into some solid object to avoid retaliation.
Wraiths are weaker in Sunlight, suffering disadvantage to their attacks and their ability to perceive what is going on around them. If drawn into combat in a situation that involves sunlight, a Wraith will likely flee. Incorporeal movement into nearby objects or failing that, the ground beneath their earth or stone are acceptable, but so is flight. It is important to remember that while a Wraith is weakened by Sunlight, it doesn’t harm them.
Wraiths often utilize their ability to fly to their advantage, utilizing the unique angle of approach to maneuver behind opponents or otherwise surprise a foe. A Wraith will often utilize vegetation, such as that provided by a forest canopy to enhance their concealment and allow them to attack from stealth.
Note: because the vegetation near the Wraith will soon wither and die, the wraith must keep moving or the fall of the blackened leaves will give away its location.
Wraiths make rational choices about their targets, deciding whom they will attack and why before they commit to the assault. Wraiths prefer to attack less armored individuals who are less likely to bear magical weaponry that can harm them. Additionally, they can recognize any obvious spellcaster and will attack to neutralize that individual first.
Because of their affinity against life, life clerics are a hated and preferred target.
The attack of a Wraiths (and their Specter minions) is not a weapon blow, it is usually described as an instant soul-burning chill to the individual. A Constitution Saving throw (DC 16) is attempted, and if failed, then part of the life force of the individual is stolen, consumed by the Wraith.
Step 3) Role – Play Tips
Wraiths are never ‘just there’, they are either tied to a specific place such as a barrow mound or battlefield or, if they are free to move about, then they are acting as servants to the entity that created them. If your players are encountering Wraiths then there is a reason, even if your players never discover what that reason is.
Because the Wraith is a repository of negative energy, plants near them blacken and die, animals flee, and small fires or torches are extinguished due to the mere proximity of the Wraith. This is an excellent means of foreshadowing and allowing your players a taste of what is ahead. The Wraith is aware of this effect and can avoid causing this organic disruption by flying above the ground vegetation. Wraiths with enough free will can decide to utilize this effect to confuse and misdirect their foes.
Extrapolating from the ability of the Wraith to extinguish small fires and torches, granting the Wraith the ability to “Create Dimness 15-foot radius” adds a nice roleplaying touch that does not weaken the players. This is intended to be a cosmetic effect and can be coupled with a temperature drop for a maximum addition to the “creepy factor”. Your players are going to become concerned when you describe their lantern burning normally, but the light emitted to be dim and weak, meanwhile a chill has entered the air.
Step 4) Changes that should be made to the MM entry
Armor Class 13 is somewhat low for a creature of this magnitude. Although care should be taken when considering the increase as the ability to utilize “Incorporeal Cover” already provides a means of increasing the AC that, when coupled to the Damage resistances make this creature well defended as is.
I would increase the base AC of this creature to 15.
The Monster Manual specifies Darkvision 60-foot for the Wraith. Considering that they are incorporeal, I feel that the proper sense to utilize is Blindsight. In addition, to properly utilize DASH, a creature must have a primary sense at twice their movement; thus Blindsight 120-feet is appropriate.
Because much of the battle tactics of a Wraith rely on Stealth, proficiency with that skill should be granted.
The Primary Attack of the Wraith – LIFE DRAIN at +6 is quite low considering the power level of these creatures, I would increase this to +8. Essentially adding a magical element to the attack.
Because of their unique incorporeal movement and incorporeal cover abilities, Wraiths are immune to attacks of opportunity.
The 1d10 force damage suffered if the Wraith ends its turn inside an object should be removed.
The 1d10 force damage suffered if the Wraith ends its turn inside a creature should be applied to the creature the Wraith was inside as well, in addition, the DC 16 Con Save for Life Drain should also be applied. This ‘semi-attack’ should be considered an involuntary action rather than a choice of the Wraith.
Incorporeal Attack: A Wraith can utilize its normal movement (but not a Dash) as an ACTION to MOVE THROUGH one or more opponents. Each opponent passed through will be required to make a Constitution Saving Throw DC 14 or suffer 2d6 Necrotic Damage. Pass = No Damage. Those that fail are subject to LIFE DRAIN.
Light and Dimness: If the Wraith is in Bright Light, then its normal Damage resistances are utilized. If the Wraith is in Dimness or Darkness, then the Wraith is not merely resistant to normal weapon attacks, it is immune to them, it is resistant to silvered weaponry, and it takes full damage from magical weaponry.