Wight

Wight
Basic Statistics
Origin	Groundling, wildspace
Sphere	The Known Spheres
Size	Medium
Type	Undead
Alignment	Lawful evil
General Information
Vision	Darkvision
Activity cycle	Night
Diet	Special
Homeland(s)	The Known Worlds
Intelligence	Average
Favored climate	Any
Favored terrain	Any land
Appearance
Average height	4 to 7-feet tall

A Wight is a hateful undead creature that can be encountered in the Spelljammer campaign setting.

"The darkness is not empty. Something shuffles in the gloom. Spawn of Dukagsh, spurned from life. It is I in the dark, and you shall know no greater fear."
- Rendflesh, undead high wizard of the scro

Overview

Wights are corporeal undead who typically inhabit barrow mounds and catacombs.

Description

Wights resemble nightmarish reflections of their former selves, with cruel, burning eyes set in mummified flesh over a twisted skeleton with hands that end in sharp claws. Though they can easily be mistaken for any number of humanoid races from a distance, upon closer inspection their true nature quickly becomes apparent.

Behavior

As a rule, wights are hateful and evil, and seek to sate their hatred of all life by killing all those they encounter.

Combat

Wights are fierce and deadly foes in combat, delivering powerful blows with their jagged claws, in addition to draining the life energy of their opponents with every blow. A victim who is slain by a wight's energy drain is doomed to rise again as a wight under the direct control of their slayer. If a master wight is slain, all their lesser minions will instantly be freed of its control and will gain a portion of its power. Once a victim has been transformed into a wight, it is very difficult to restore them to life and may require a special quest.

Wights can only be harmed by silver or magical weapons with a +1 or greater enhancement bonus. They are unaffected by sleep, charm, hold or cold-based spells, and cannot be harmed by poisons or paralysis effects. However, holy water can prove deadly if a wight is splashed with it. In addition, a raise dead spell is a powerful weapon and can utterly annihilate a wight if used effectively.

Wights cannot tolerate bright light, including sunlight, and avoid it at all costs. It is important to note, however, that wights are not harmed by exposure to sunlight as vampires are.

Society

As with other undead, wights are perfectly adapted to wildspace as they require little in the way of food or air. Wights are usually solitary creatures, and because they despise light and the vibrancy of living things, they can usually be found haunting the depths of ancient asteroid civilizations, or other dark, unknown places.

Occasionally a wight will take command of a spelljamming vessel, which will be crewed by its spawn or other lesser undead. In all cases, the ship's captain will be more than willing to sacrifice some or all of its minions to assure its own survival or victory.

Like all undead, wights exist simultaneously on both the Material, as well as the Negative energy planes. It is this powerful link to the plane of negative energy that is the source of their fearsome ability to drain a creature's life energy, allowing the wight to feed on the life essence that it drains from its foes.

Since they are not living creatures and have no rightful place in the natural world, many animals can sense a wight's presence. Dogs will growl or howl with alarm, horses will refuse to enter an area inhabited by wights, and birds and insects will grow silent when the creature passes near them. In addition, their presence will gradually cause the plant life around their lairs to wither and die, marking the region as unclean.

Notable Wights

• Rendflesh was the highest ranking scro war-priest onboard Gamaro Base in Moragspace when he was slain by a rival in the midst of a necromantic ritual. He was subsequently transformed into a powerful wight and has haunted the halls of the base ever since.
• An elderly Sage was kidnapped by the lich Manara, who sought his help in breaking her curse. When he was unable, or unwilling, to help her, she locked him in the brig of the Nex where he subsequently died and was transformed into a powerful wight out of shear aggravation and hate.

Signature Spelljammers

Because their hatred of sunlight is as great as that of the mind flayers, wights have a distinct preference for enclosed ships, such as the illithid nautiloid, and especially the pyramidship.

Restoring a wight to life

Restoring a person who has fallen to the touch of a wight is extremely difficult, and there are few effective methods other than using a wish spell. However, in the likely event that a wish spell is unavailable, there is a lengthy and extremely difficult process available to those who are desperate enough.

When a living creature is slain by a wight, their body must immediately be taken to an extremely powerful priest of good alignment who is willing to act as a liaison between them and the priest’s deity. First, the priest must commune with their deity to determine if the victim can be recovered from their unholy state. If it is decided that the victim may be recovered, the priest must then cast atonement on the body to remove the taint of undeath from it. Finally, the priest must cast resurrection on the body. If everything is done properly, and if their spirit is strong enough, the victim will return to their body - completing the ritual.

Sometimes the person who was resurrected may be required to perform a small favor (i.e. a major quest) for the deity who granted their resurrection. Refusal may very well result in their death once more.

Appendix

External Links

• Wight article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
• Wight article at the Eberron Wiki, a wiki for the Eberron campaign setting.
• Wight article at the Dungeons and Dragons Lore Wiki, a wiki for official Dungeons & Dragons content from every edition.
• Wight article at the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Wiki, a wiki for official Dungeons & Dragons content from 2nd edition AD&D.