Ghouls, ghasts, ghosts, wights, wraiths,
revenants, spectres, spectral dead, zombies, juju zombies, ravenous zombies,
waterlogged zombies, skeletons, skeletal warriors, oh my lord … the list of
undead in RPGs goes on and on.
The important thing, to
me in any case, is if you are going to have some variants of undead monsters,
they need to actually be different and memorable for the players. There’s no point in having three different
floaty insubstantial haunts that suck your lifeforce.
I needed a Wight for my
Barrowmaze dungeon, so I went to dumpstatadventures.com, which has some
excellent articles on the evolution of iconic monsters through various editions
of RPGs over the years – their information on wights is concise, but the gaming history
of the creature itself was unimpressive. It was
originally a variant of the wraith (which doesn’t make sense because wraiths
are incorporeal)... and bland, to boot … no
dice there.
I then went to the etymology
of the word, and ‘wight’ means ‘man’, but where it does come from as a monster is
from our good old Appendix N alumni friend, JRR Tolkien – in the Fellowship of
the Ring, the plucky halflings wander into a barrow they should be exploring,
and encounter a Barrow Wight, which Tolkien based on Norse tales of grave-spirits
with physical forms that guarded their tombs.
Tolkien in an interview talked about writing up the wight and their inspirational origin, superhuman
strength and malice, their ability to rend mortals, and in the Fellowship book
the ability to cast a spell of darkness, as well when its’ hand is cut
off, it still retains some life. So
rather than go back to OD&D/AD&D, let’s rebuild the Barrow Wight from
scratch…
One thing I did want to
tackle from OD&D was the idea of level drain – in the old days, that was a scary
prospect. But taking away a character level is way too harsh … but then, DCC is filled with harsh things, such as falling down a 10’ pit, rolling a 6 on 1d6
and losing a point of Strength or Agility permanently. So, with that level of consequences, let’s give wights (and maybe later wraiths) a form of XP drain, so
letting one touch you is terrifying, but not ridiculous or vindictive.
Comments, questions, or
improvements are always welcome, feel free to drop me a line at archadethered@gmail.com.
These are animated dead, set by evil powers or a curse to guard their tombs containing treasures from their mortal life. They have pale skin, an unnatural vitality, and their hands are cruel claws that can rend flesh with unholy strength, and some know some rudimentary magic to protect their grave goods.
Barrow Wight: Init +1; Atk claws +3 melee (1d4+3 plus feed
on life essence); AC 13; HD 3d8 (14 hp); MV 30’; Act 2d20; SP rend, un-dead, resistant
to non-magical or non-silver attacks; SV Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +4; AL C.
If a barrow wight strikes with both claw attacks on the same target, the
victim suffers an additional 1d4+3 damage and must make a DC 5 Will save or lose
1 XP permanently as the wight feeds on their life essence and gains 1d8 hp (this
cannot change the character’s level).
A barrow wight is un-dead, and thus can be turned by clerics. They do not eat, drink, or breathe, and are
immune to critical hits, disease, and poison. As un-dead, they are immune to sleep, charm, and hold spells, as well as other mental effects and
cold damage.
Barrow Wight Lord: Init
+2; Atk claws +4 melee (1d4+3 plus feed on life essence); AC 14; HD 5d8 (23
hp); MV 30’; Act 2d20; SP rend, spells (darkness, word of command, +5 check), un-dead,
resistant to non-magical or non-silver attacks; SV Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +4; AL
C.
If a barrow wight strikes with both claw
attacks on the same target, the victim suffers an additional 1d4+3 damage and
must make a DC 5 Will save or lose 1 XP permanently as the wight feeds on their
life essence and gains 1d8 hp (this cannot change the character’s level).
A barrow wight lord can command some rudimentary
idol magic to protect their tomb, with a +5 caster check. If a 1 is rolled, the un-dead suffers disfavour
by losing 1d4 hp.
A barrow wight is un-dead, and thus can be
turned by clerics. They do not eat,
drink, or breathe, and are immune to critical hits, disease, and poison. As
un-dead, they are immune to sleep, charm, and
hold spells,
as well as other mental effects and cold damage.
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