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DCC Bestiary - Barrow Wight

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.

T
he 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.

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…

O
ne 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.

C
omments, questions, or improvements are always welcome, feel free to drop me a line at archadethered@gmail.com.


Barrow Wight

     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.
     I
f 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.
     I
f 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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