In the night's embrace, where shadows dance, stood the Lord’s mansion of forgotten grandeur. So daring entered the heroes, hearts alight with courage, into the realm of the dead. Through gates of wrought iron did they tread, their footsteps echoing off the cobbled stone, a dread cadence marching to doom.
Within the walls, time itself held its breath as they crossed into Lord Lyon’s tomb. Each step they took unraveled the tapestry, each room a chapter of the Lord’s descent into darkness. Amidst the melancholy, a chorus of whispers beckoned them, drawing them into the depths of the labyrinth. Down they dared, into his hell, awaiting them for his vile hunt.
Through corridors cloaked in hate, they traveled to confront that wicked Lord who could not rest. The specter watched, his eternal life passing through these halls. Too hateful to pass on, condemned to roam, to kill until all had passed. With blade and spell, they fought the Lord, and their strength he did sap. Three more souls, forever lost within that wrathful Lord’s trap.
Overview
A hateful spirit that haunts the night and dark places full of fright — the Specter. One of the few undead creatures that are hyper-deadly for their Challenge Rating1, much to the detriment of new players and new Dungeon Masters. Before I get into the overview and the stat breakdown, I want to warn you that you Should Not use this before the players hit level 5, especially if you bring more than one of them against your players. IF you do, then you can very easily accidentally turn the fight into a TPK.2 More on this in the Stats breakdown . For now, we shall go into the overview.
The first thing we should take note of when addressing the Specter is: they are angry spirits unable to pass on to the afterlife. Unlike the ghost, who can pass on after completing their unfinished business, Specters do not get this, and are instead cursed to remain on the material plane. The longer they stay on the material plane3, the more they are overwhelmed by sorrow and wrath as their connections to who they were fade, culminating in this burning hatred for the living. The only way to free them of their bondage to the material plane is to destroy them.
Next thing to take note: they inhabit and haunt dark places. Again, unlike ghosts, they are not tied to a single location and can move from haunt to haunt, and kill in the dark or at night as they desire. Specters shy away from daylight, since it is a source of life; when night falls they can emerge from their hiding spots and torment the living. They will be brave in their nightly hunts since they know most weapons cannot harm them.
Third, they are more-than-likely to be ambush hunters.
Finally, one last note. While they are unable to pass on to the afterlife, they are sometimes formed from spirits being prevented from passing on. This could be an interesting late Tier 1/early Tier 24 campaign. Additionally, they can be formed when a humanoid is killed by a Wraith, which coincidentally, could feed into that campaign.
Stats
Now, with all that said; let’s take a look at what this beastie can do.
Okay, there is quite a bit to unpack here, though it may not seem like it.
The Specter has a low Armor Class and a decent, if not on the lower side, Hit Point total for CR 1. This, however, is supplemented by their myriad of resistances and immunities (more on this at the end of the list).
Speaking of, the only damage types that will inflict full damage to a Specter are Force, Psychic, and Radiant, as well as damage from magical weapons. On top of that, the list of Condition Immunities makes it resistant to a lot of magic.
Having an Incorporeal Movement will allow a Specter to move through walls, floors, ceilings, and doors to escape attacks and surprise their victims. This will be vitally important to keeping the Specter from being hit by Attacks of Opportunity and getting the drop on your players.
While Sunlight Sensitivity can be useful to aid players against higher level creatures, using CRs as intended by the Dungeon Masters Guide, the only way players are going to have access to sunlight is during the daytime. Making this ultimately a non-factor in combat against the Specter.
Finally, the big one: Life Drain. This will kill low level players if the Specter is used too early, not from damage, but from the strength drain (well, the damage too). This is because the Strength reduction only goes away after a Long Rest; if the party is early into the adventuring day, and still fighting the Specter, it will persist and whittle the adventurers down.
Okay, to address the Hit Point comment from point 1. When a creature has more than one magic damage resistance, as well as resistance from nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, you can effectively double the Hit Points of the monster when facing low level characters. This is because, normally, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level characters generally do not get magical weapons and have very limited spellcasting capabilities.
Second point of order: Life Drain will — not might, WILL — kill below 4th level characters who don’t have a buffed Constitution or Strength. Now, I’m not going to do a full breakdown of Dice Math5 here, but I will touch on it briefly.
There are 3 primary factors in play when determining the likelihood of passing a Skill Check, Saving Throw, or Attack: the dice Roll needed to match the DC (R); the total of any applicable Bonuses (B); and the Difficulty Challenge (DC). Or, R+B must be ≥ DC, which can be expressed as a percentage using the formula: ((21-R+B)/20)*100
With a Difficulty Challenge (DC) of 10, this gives a player with no bonuses a 55% chance of succeeding, or a 45% chance of failure. We should really focus on failures, because nothing unusual happens on a successful roll (yes, the player will lose Hit Points, but that is an easy in-game fix). Now, that 45% WILL happen at least once, and with the Strength reduction being equal to the necrotic damage, that means, if the same player fails their Con Save twice, they will more than likely die on the spot. Only three classes (four if you allow Artificers) have proficiency in Constitution Saving Throws (Barbarian, Fighter, and Sorcerer), so you cannot rely on a slightly better than 50/50 odds of success when throwing them at players.
Now, when you combine the Resistances and Immunities with the ability to kill players without reducing their Hit Points, this makes the Specter an extremely deadly monster for low level characters. You may be thinking to yourself that it can’t be that lethal — I will tell you that this has happened to me as a DM twice, and as a player once. This is anecdotal, but it was the only two times I ran Specters versus low level characters, and it happened to a Party I was in that was 3rd Level. Err on the side of caution and hold off until your party is at a higher level.
Combat Example
In our combat example, we are going to exploit the hell out of the Incorporeal Movement ability. In this combat, we will have 1 Specter against 4 fourth level characters.
The party chased the wrathful spirit from midnight to dawn as it retreated into an ancient mansion, all of the windows long boarded up. As they walked through the threshold, chills ran down their spines; they knew this place was going to try to kill them, and may succeed.
The layout of this Mansion has long 5-foot-wide hallways with many multi-sized rooms dotting each side of the walls. Give the players glimpses of the Specter to pull them deeper into the Mansion; this is exactly what it wants. The first turn of combat will be a surprise round by the Specter. I would rule that each player with less than a 15 Passive Perception or Insight is caught off guard and is surprised by the Specter.6
On the first turn of combat, the Specter will emerge from the walls, using 10 feet of its movement, and attack whoever is in the front of the party. It will then use the rest of its movement to travel back through the wall, using another 10 feet of movement, down through the floor into the basement or up into the attic, using 15 feet of movement, and crossing the width of the hall using the last 15 feet of their movement. Rinse and repeat this, jumping from the sides of the halls, or through the floors and ceilings, attacking the players and forcing them to use their readied actions to attack when the Specter shows itself. You can also have the Specter wait a turn and just reposition itself to exhaust the players resources, ratcheting the tension up as the players wait for the next attack that doesn’t come.
According to the Encounter Difficulty formula, this combat as it stands is considered trivial, but the Encounter Difficulty formula does not take into consideration terrain or tactics (or even resistances). But if you feel it is still not enough, you can add two more Specters to the fight to make it a “Medium” difficulty encounter for 4 fourth level characters.
Final Thoughts
If brought into a game too early, the Specter can be a party killer, unless absolutely everything goes right for the party. If you want to throw a floaty, spooky ghost-like monster at your party, remove the Strength Reduction portion of the attack and call it a Ghost or other type of ethereal spirit. Ultimately, the Specter is a great undead monster to play with, and its hyper-powered movement will force players to try new tactics or just run, but it can be overwhelming for new players and low level adventurers.
Often referred to as CR
TPK or Total Party Kill
The material plane is where the vast majority of adventures will take place, whether it be Faerûn, Ansalon, Khorvaire, or your homebrew setting,
Once again the Tiers of play are: Tier 1 levels 1-4, Tier 2 5-10, Tier 3 11-16. Tier 4 17-20
The Dice Math post will break down everything from dice medians to hit chance, for you math nerds out there (I am one too)
Alternatively, you could have the Specter make a stealth check, but since it's a flying/hovering creature behind a wall in an entirely different room, I would rule that it auto succeeds its stealth check.