Alfira braced herself against the door as the ghouls and zombies on the other side slammed into it; keeping it closed was her only salvation. Leaning against the door, she wrapped a torn bandage around her waist, covering the gash left by an errant swipe from a ghoul. The attacks lessened on the door, giving her a chance to hammer a piton into the floor, making a makeshift doorstop. Exhausted, bleeding, and alone, Alfira reached up to her earring to send off a message spell to her companions. She waited... No response. They were either dead, or Dornan the Sorcerer had successfully hidden them in a pocket dimension when the undead cut her off from them. She lit a small fire to keep her warm in the dark dank catacombs.
She exhaled a long breath and watched the hot air form into a temporary cloud. She grabbed her shortsword and dagger. It was back. A thin sheet of ice coalesced on the walls as the temperature dropped. Her newly lit fire sputtered and shrank, struggling to keep itself lit in the freezing room. A dark shadow formed on the wall; a creature of wispy black smoke and dark incorporeal steel reached through the wall into the room. It looked over to her and let out a deep, sickening chortle. She kicked the piton with her heel — it didn’t budge. The Wraith lunged forward, swiping at Alfira. She dodged and rolled past the evil spirit. It snapped around and swung its vile claws, raking her back with more gashes. It floated between her and the door, and beckoned her to attempt to leave. Her back dripped blood onto the floor. Alfira thought back to what she said before they entered the catacombs.
“This better not become my tomb.”
Overview
The meaner older sibling of the Specter, the Wraith does everything better. Now, let’s jump in.
The first thing we should remember is in the first paragraph of the fluff text. The Wraith will siphon the life from nearby plants, cause animals to flee, and snuff small fires all from its mere presence. There we have the calling card of the Wraith that you can place in your story to clue the players in that something supernatural is afoot. Let your player with the highest Passive Investigation notice how the flowers next to the window are withered and dead while ones on the table are full of life, claw marks on the doors and windows showing signs of animals in distress, and the logs in the fireplace are only partially burned.
Next, let’s look at the following paragraph. A Wraith is birthed from the death of someone who led a vile detestable life or made a pact with a fiend.1 The amount of negative energy causes the soul to collapse in on itself and, bing-bang-boom, you got yourself a Wraith. It does note that almost nothing remains from the life the person lived before Wraithdom, and that they exist only to annihilate. However — HOWEVER — it says almost. Meaning, we can tap into the Wraith’s previous life to give them their motivation to haunt and kill their victims, especially if we lead it down a path of growing importance and concern. The first victim being a former thug of the Wraith, then a lieutenant, then a city official, a clergyman, the Baron’s brother, and the party was hired by the Baron to solve this crazy murder spree.
Building on this, the following section begins to talk about their incorporeal nature, and while this is important, the meat of the point is mentioning that the Wraith might pause to stare at something it remembers from its life. For example, halting an attack if the soon-to-be victim was a close friend. These, however, are fleeting moments, and only give a short solace from the Wraith’s wrath as they begin to remember what they have become. This can be used to allow the players to use the environment and items they may have picked up2 to cause a moment of respite in combat, where they wail on the Wraith while it’s “stunned”.
Finally, Wraiths command the undead. What’s that, another piece of fluff that indicates the monster should be used as a boss?! Recently dead humanoids who suffered a violent death near the Wraith might come back as a Specter. This specifically has to be related to a violent death, like, say, adventurers slicing and burning people with weapons and magic. They also can command legions of the undead other than Specters, which makes the Wraith a solid potion as a sub-commander as a stronger undead, like a Death Knight3 or some other undead that will be covered later in my blog. I would recommend pairing Wraiths with less thinking undead, such as your Zombies/Ghouls/Skeletons (oh my), rather than the ones that are more intelligent and are more than likely to be sub-commanders or lieutenants in their own right.
Stats
Now, let’s talk about what our beastie can do.
The low Armor Class and low Hit Points for CR 5. We run into a similar situation as the Specter. The list of resistances does give Wraiths more sustainability, but the level when your players will be fighting them does begin to negate this.
Speaking of, the only damage types that will inflict full damage to a Wraith are Force, Psychic, and Radiant, as well as damage from magical weapons or silvered non-magical weapons. However, players will have more options and a wider array of tools in their arsenal that will allow them to either bypass the resistance, or deal enough damage that the reduction from the resistance is moot.4
The Incorporeal Movement will assist the survivability, as well as allow their very high 60' foot movement speed to shine.
The Life Drain attack, similar to that of the Specter, will kill players. DC 14 Con saves are no joke. While players tend to have Constitution as one of the attributes they will build into, most players won’t have the proficiency in Con Saves to keep them from failing. Tacking onto the lethality of Life Drain, the damage output of 4d8+3 is a wide band of hurt. With 7 - 35 necrotic averaging 21, that will reduce their maximum Hit Points by that much as well. With no way to resolve this debuff in combat, it is imperative that you understand just how lethal it is. I would recommend, during your next session, take a look at your players Hit Points and roll 4d8 to see how this will affect your players.5
Finally, the most deadly feature: Create Specter. There is a trope in some Horror-Fantasy media of turning the corpses of the heroes fallen against them, and this is exactly what the Wraith does. Some DMs might look at this and assume it is a non-combat ability they can use. However, 1 minute in combat is 10 rounds, that is FOREVER in terms of limited time features. It’s not 10 rounds from the start of combat, it is 10 rounds from when the creature died; meaning, you can leave the dead for 9 full rounds allowing the players to burn resources and lose Hit Points, only to add more very lethal enemies with the Wraith’s 60 feet of Incorporeal Movement.
Side Note: I just want to address this real quick from a sportsmanship viewpoint. Just because you can add more enemies to a fight does not mean you should. Read the room. Are your players looking just as ragged as their characters? Maybe don’t use Create Specter. Are your players taking care of business with little resistance? Go for it, especially if that can quickly cut down the new enemies. Adding more enemies doesn’t necessarily mean the tide of battle will turn; you can add more to feed the power fantasy of some players.
Side Note 2: Finally, just a quick addition (yes, I know I said finally on point 5): The Wraith is undead, which means it is susceptible to all the tricks and tools from Paladins and Clerics. Take all the points here with a grain of salt for actual play; this blog is truly a tool to help newer DMs navigate stat blocks and learn what to look for within them, as well as provide ideas for people to
stealuse and expand on for their games.
Combat Example
All that being said, let’s look at some ways we can creatively use Wraiths in combat. Our first example will include 1 Wraith against 4 fourth level adventurers (this combat is labeled as “Hard” using the encounter builder supplied by the Dungeon Masters Guide).6
Our adventurers are wandering through catacombs deep under the city of Maeren’s Port. Their guide, Alfira, a half-elf thief, was separated from them when a surprise swarm of zombies attacked them. Making short work of the undead, the party enters a large chamber, following a trail of blood drops. The air rapidly grows cold, and the adventurers feel a collective shiver run down their spines.
The Wraith will be attacking the party from a wall, but not one close enough to provide an opportunity for a surprise round. On the first turn, the Wraith will fly forwards and, if possible, pass through an adventurer to attack someone behind them. Once the Wraith has made its attack, if they have enough movement left, it will descend through the ground to the layer of the catacombs below them. This will continue until the Wraith perishes.
This next combat will include 4 tenth level adventurers against 1 Wraith, and up to 8 Specters and up to 8 zombies. I say up to 8 because there will be a fair few recently dead corpses at the start of the combat, and the Wraith may not be able to get to all of them.
Bursting into the room, our adventurers cut down swathes of cultists and their cult leader in the middle of his ritual to summon Jolrag the Rakshasa from the Abyss. Determining what to do next, the cult leader’s body twitches, and a spirit rises from the corpse. Unleashing a baleful moan, the party has a new fight on their hands.7
On the first turn of combat, the Wraith will rush to the nearest corpse and use Create Specter. Now, this is where the fun begins. Once the Specter is summoned, the corpse begins to twitch and is raised as a zombie.
Now some of you might cry foul, as this isn’t how the Wraith works, and might seem unfair. To that I say:
You’re boring.
You can have the Wraith not do this; it’s just a suggestion. And
The Wraith will not do this in any other session or game. Make this encounter memorable and fun; the players are 10th level, they’ll be fine.
Now, if you think having the Wraith also making zombies is going too far, just wait! These aren’t normal zombies: their stat block is identical to the zombie in every way, but with this feature added on.8
Explosive Death: When the Zombie is reduced to 0 hit points, it explodes in a burst of putrid flesh, bone shards, and necrotic energy. Each creature within 10 feet of the Zombie must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 1d6 piercing plus 3d6 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
On their first turns, the Specter and zombies will move to and attack the closest adventurer. Following this, the Wraith will continue to use Create Specter on the corpses of the cultists. Trust your DM instincts; if you think the tide is starting to turn too heavily in favor of the monsters, maybe don’t keep making more enemies.
Final Thoughts
The Wraith is a fun early tier or mid tier undead that can be used as a boss, a nuisance, or a strong enemy. Their ability to be elusive and make problems for the players will only make the player’s victory feel sweeter. Their fluff text allows us to be creative in their creation, and even have the opportunity for non-combat interactions as they are reminded of their former life. The Wraith is fun to run and will be a memorable challenge for your players.
This will be important later.
Or, more than likely, have looted
You love to see this kind of synergy.
This can be from spell choice and availability, class or subclass features, equipment, and/or feats.
Here is a little trick: you can roll “random” dice behind your DM screen to see how damage outputs will affect your players.
This information can be found on pages 81-83 of the DMG. However, results may vary wildly using this table.
I told you that footnote 1 will be important later ;-)
Rules as Written players and Rules Lawyers are pissing and shitting themselves right now