Deep Dive - The Wraith
We are looking at another one of Dungeons & Dragons most iconic monsters, the Wraith. It’s been around since the beginning of the game, feared by players and characters alike for its devastating life drain ability. In a world filled with ghosts, specters, and wights, the Wraith stands alone as the shadowy creature that can create its legion of incorporeal creatures to fight alongside it. Oh, how jealous the wight must be with its pathetic pack of zombies shuffling slowly along.
So let’s first jump into the Original Dungeons & Dragons and explore the history of the Wraith and how it has changed, and remained the same, throughout the editions.
OD&D - Wraith
No. Appearing: 2-16
Armor Class: 3
Move: 12", Fly: 24”
Hit Dice: 4
% in Lair: 20%
Treasure Type: E
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: Special (See Below)
Alignment: Chaos
White Box, 1974 TSR Inc.
The Wraith was introduced in the Dungeons & Dragons White Box (1974) and they are immediately disrespected, listed as only high-class Wights with more mobility. So let’s start this shindig by talking about the Wight. Wights are life-draining undead who look like spectral black ghosts. One hit automatically drains one level, meaning the character loses the hit die and any features they gained at that level, which is brutal.
You need to have silver or magic weapons to hurt a wight. It gets a little convoluted where silver arrows do normal damage, magic arrow do double damage, magic weapons do full damage, including any bonus. If you are a man-like creature and are killed by a wight, you turn into a wight. If you are any creature and drained of all your levels, you become a wight.
The Wraith is a supercharged wight, they have an additional hit die, better movement, and even more treasure for you to pilfer. To make the whole damage issue even more difficult to follow, they also only take half damage from a silver arrow and magic arrows only do 1 die of damage, which makes them very tough to bring down. Once you get through all that, there is no additional information on the Wraith. Which is pretty normal for any creature in this edition, no one gets any paragraphs of lore… unless you are a dragon, in which case you get over three pages of information.
Basic D&D - Wraith
Move: 120 feet, fly 240 feet/turn
Hit Dice: 4
Armor Class: 3
Treasure Type: E
Alignment: lawful evil
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1 -6 hit points
The Wraith is brought into the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (1977) and then again in the Expert Set for 1981 and 1983. Very little changes mechanically for these creatures but we are given a small, teeny amount of lore for them in the Expert Sets.
Wraiths are undead and thus are immune to sleep, charm, and hold spells. They can only be hit by silver or magical weapons, though silver weapons will only do half because Wraiths are just badass wights. Wraiths still drain the life energy of anyone they hit and if you die to a Wraith, you become a Wraith under that original Wraith’s control. Wraiths can be found in deserted lands or in dwellings when they have killed off the occupants.
What this all means for an adventuring party is to sacrifice the magic-user so that everyone else can escape.
AD&D - Wraith
Frequency: Uncommon
No. Appearing: 2-12
Armor Class: 4
Move: 12" /24’
Hit Dice: 5 +3
% in Lair: Nil
Treasure Type: E
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 1-6
Special Attacks: Energy Drain
Special Defenses: Silver or Magic Weapons to hit
Magic Resistance: See Below
Intelligence: Very
Alignment: Lawful evil
Size: M
Psionic Ability: Nil
Monster Manual, 1977 TSR Inc.
The Wraith continued to slowly develop when introduced in the Monster Manual (1977). Now when we say slowly, we mean very slowly, since not much changes between the White Box and this incarnation. There are some changes though, and they are important to detail, even if they aren’t very apparent when reading the text.
The creatures are listed as very intelligent and are lawful evil. This may not seem like an important fact, but for the DM, it allows them to play the creature with more depth than other lower level undead creatures. Their intelligence level requires the DM to play smart and cunning, as they are not just another hack and slash creature. They can react to what the players do and make the ‘right’ move when fighting versus blindly attacking. They aren’t just the mindless dead and there can even be a bit of roleplaying with these monsters… especially if a player character dies to the Wraith via energy drain, because they then come back as a Wraith under the control of the one who changed them.
We get clarification on what doesn’t work on Wraiths and the list is quite extensive. Much like in Basic D&D, effects like sleep, charm, and hold have no effect and they gain immunity to cold. Poison and paralysis also have no effect, and while you might be wondering how you are supposed to hurt these undead, there is always fire. The handy and always useful fireball spell is here to save the magic-users life, just hopefully you calculate the blowback appropriately.
Beyond casting fireball and congratulating yourself on a job well done, you can also damage the Wraith in two other ways. The raise dead spell will destroy a Wraith completely if it fails the save and splashing holy water will deal 2-8 points of damage for every vial. Having holy water on you at all times was very important during the time of AD&D, as creatures like the Wraith are very resistant to most other ways of damaging them. Each member of a party should usually carry at least two with them, especially if there weren’t any silvered weapons. Magical weapons didn’t come around that often and silver weapons were quite expensive.
Monster Manual, 1977 TSR Inc.
One last mention of the Wraith is that the lemures, those vaguely humanoid blobs that reside in the Nine Hells, can sometimes be changed into Wraiths or spectres. These are chosen lemures who have existed in Hell for quite a time, and there is no further information given about this strange relationship.
2e - Wraith
Climate/Terrain: Any
Frequency: Uncommon
Organization: Pack
Activity Cycle: Night
Diet: Special
Treasure: E
Intelligence: Very (11-12)
Alignment: Lawful Evil
No. Appearing: 2-12 (2d6)
Armor Class: 4
Movement: 12 Fl 24
Hit Dice: 5+3
THAC0: 15
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 1-6
Special Attacks: Energy Drain
Special Defenses: Hit by silver or +1 or better magical weapons
Magic Resistance: Nil
Size: M (5’)
Morale: Champion (15)
XP Value: 2000
Monstrous Compendium Volume 1, 1989 TSR Inc.
The black shadow of death makes their appearance in the Monstrous Compendium Volume 1 (1989) and in the Monstrous Manual (1993). Since we haven’t mentioned the art yet, now feels like the time to do so as we never knew drawing an evil spirit to be so difficult. In the Monstrous Compendium, it looks like some sort of magma dude with surfer hair and honestly… it looks as surprised to see us as we are too see it. The Wraith in the Monstrous Manual is a little better, though it looks like the earth suddenly rose up like a mountain and grew a muscular upper body with glowing red eyes, a skull face and… hair?
Monstrous Manual, 1993 TSR Inc.
Our Wraith features a few different mechanical changes and a lot more lore to provide greater depth to this nightmare of a ghost. The touch of a Wraith still deals its damage and sucks away your energy, now it is a permanent energy drain of one level of experience points. While it was never very specific in the previous editions, 2nd edition wants you to know it is a permanent situation and you need to go back to the mines and start grinding experience and killing kobolds. Of course, you could also just ask your cleric to cast a restoration spell to get it back, so long as you didn’t sacrifice them to the Wraith… and they didn’t lose that ability to do so during the fight with the Wraith.
The greater lore of the Wraith provides more information on exactly where they got this treasure from. Way back when the Wraith was still a living person, they weren’t much of a nice person. If you were truly evil and a person of immense power, you could return as a Wraith, because most evil humanoids are apparently buried together, you can have packs of Wraiths that haunt through ancient tombs, dungeons, and the like. They prowl through the dark underground looking to kill more humans and increase the power of the Wraith pack.
Because the Wraiths are more a part of the Negative Material Plane, they serve no useful function on the Prime Material plane and end up just killing creatures because they hate life so much. One way of knowing there are Wraiths nearby is that animals can sense them so long as they are within 30 feet of a Wraith and will immediately bolt in the opposite direction. This is a good system to remind you to also start running away… unless you are bathed in sunlight. Sunlight, while not necessarily kryptonite to these creatures, renders them ineffectual. They aren’t damaged by it, but they can’t hurt others while they are in direct sunlight, it also makes them run for darkness, acting as some sort of repellant.
Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Appendix, 1990 TSR Inc.
In 2nd edition, we are also introduced to a few new Wraiths to permanently decrease the party’s level to a more manageable level 1 group of adventurers. The Swordwraith and the Soul Beckoner both appear in the Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Appendix (1990) and bring with them even more horror for the party to contend with. The Swordwraith is a warrior and attacks with the guile and strength of a fighter. Many of them are simply warriors who only lived for fighting and may not even realize they are dead. They attack settlements and traveling parties, not for loot or to kill, but because they like fighting so much. If there is someone among the party who is equal rank to whatever rank these Swordwraiths held in life, they can be negotiated with. Which, negotiating is a great idea because they can only be damaged by +2 magical weapons.
The Soul Beckoner was actually introduced in the 1st edition in the module Dark Clouds Gather (1985). Little changes between that adventure and this version, and while this Wraith might appear a bit easier than the regular Wraith… don’t discredit them. They get two attacks each round, meaning they can drain you two times. They still drain your life energy, but instead of you just losing a level and that being that, they also gain a level as you are fighting them. This means that if they hit you twice, they just gained two additional hit dice and hit points… while you just lost two. We recommend running at this point.
Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendix II, 1995 TSR Inc.
The other settings, like the Forgotten Realms and the Dark Sun setting, also introduce their own types of Wraith. The Desert Wraith, found in the Old Empires (1990) supplement has the ability to turn into a jackal and into a Wraith... which means they sneak up on the party and then transform into a Wraith and ruins everyone’s night. Fortunately for anyone who falls to these Desert Wraiths, you don’t come back as a Wraith… just as a zombie. In the Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendix II (1995) we are given the Athasian Wraith that sucks to fight. It can inhabit hosts, either living creatures or random objects, and it doesn’t take damage while the host is still in working order. You can be lopping the stinger off a scorpion and the Wraith is still all nice and safe in its host’s body, still attacking you. Of course, if you do hit it, you need a +2 magical weapon and you need to hope it doesn’t get tainted. Yup, the Athasian Wraith has the ability to taint your magical weapon and every time it does so, it loses its enchantment by one step. Once it gets tainted after hitting a +1 bonus, it becomes just a mundane sword and useless against the Athasian Wraith… Just run and leave the wizard behind.
Lastly, we have the Wraith Dragon from Dragon #234 (1996) and at this point, you have to be wondering who is actually left alive to fight off these Wraiths. To create a Wraith Dragon, you first need a dragon, the smarter the dragon, the better the Wraith Dragon. Instead of touching their opponents to death, a Wraith Dragon can simply use their breath weapon and breathe out crackling negative energy that affects everyone in the blast and reduces their level by 1. Luckily, a Wraith Dragon can only do this three times per day… unlucky is that if you die to this effect, you come back as a Wraith under the Wraith Dragon’s control. Maybe… just send the rogue ahead of you to check things out and then lock the door behind them and wait until you hear the dragon breath three times before charging in.
3e/3.5e - Wraith
Wraith
Medium Undead (Incorporeal)
Hit Dice: 5d12+12 (32 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: Fly 60 ft (good)
Armor Class: 15 (+3 Dex, +2 deflection), touch 15, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/-
Attack: Incorporeal touch +5 melee (1d4 plus 1d6 Constitution drain)
Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +5 melee (1d4 plus 1d5 Constitution drain)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Constitution drain, create spawn
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., daylight powerlessness, incorporeal traits, +2 turn resistance, undead traits, unnatural aura
Saves: Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +6
Abilities: Str -, Dex 16, Con -, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 15
Skills: Diplomacy +6, Hide +11, Intimidate +10, Listen +12, Search +10, Sense Motive +8, Spot +12, Survival +2 (+4 following tracks)
Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary, gang (2-5), or pack (6-11)
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Lawful Evil
Advancement: 6-10 HD (Medium)
Level Adjustment: -
Monster Manual, 2003 WotC
The Wraith in 3e/3.5e is found in the Monster Manual (2000/2003), and it’s definitely not as bad for you as past editions, though that doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous. While the lore is largely the same, because undead spirit that wants to murder everyone doesn’t really get much better than that, there are still a few things we can talk about.
It’s noted once again that Wraiths dislike the power of sunlight and will flee from it, but unlike in past editions, the spell daylight isn’t going to save you from turning into the husk of your former self. Luckily, when your cleric casts that spell and they still attack you, you don’t have to worry about permanently losing a level, in fact, you even get the chance to not take any negatives from their attacks! You can save against their attack or lose 1d6 points of Constitution permanently. Which… I think I’d prefer the permanent negative level as losing 6 points of Constitution every round just sucks and you are going to die a lot faster than if they are just sucking out your experience points. If you are playing with the 3.5e Wraith, that Wraith also gets a bonus of 5 temporary hit points whenever it does that… so that’s nice, it’s like a small call back to the Soul Beckoner of 1st and 2nd edition.
We are also introduced to the Dread Wraith in the 3.5e Monster Manual. They are a larger, meaner, and more powerful version of a normal Wraith. They can see living creatures up to 60 feet away from them, gauge their life force, and are the old Wraiths that have been around for centuries. Dread Wraiths are designed to attack from ancient crypts, lashing out at the party before disappearing back behind a wall or the floor. Both of these Wraiths have a 50% chance of ignoring any weapon attack against them by a +1 weapon or better, if the weapon is less than that it doesn’t do anything. That’s gotta be rough for the fighter just trying to protect their wizard until they can shoot off that fireball.
There are several new Wraiths introduced not only for 3e but also for 3.5e. The Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead (2004) introduces the Evolved Wraith, City of Splendors: Waterdeep (2005) brings the Sea Wraith, Anauroch: The Empire of the Shade (2007) features the Orb Wraith, Magic of Incarnum (2005) brings out the Incarnum Wraith, Dragon #300 (2002) features a Merfolk Wraith, and Dungeon #131 (2006) gives us the Acid Wraith. We aren’t going to talk about these individually… because that’s a lot. There is one, however, that we left out from the list and that’s because it has a special place in our heart…
Savage Species, 2003 WotC
The Kobold Wraith appears in Savage Species (2003) and is the best form of a Wraith and that isn’t just because we are biased. The Kobold Wraith is created as a sample of the Wraith template and to show DMs how to create their very own Wraiths of death. While the Kobold Wraith has many of the same abilities that the normal Wraith has, they have one thing that the regular Wraith doesn’t. It’s adorable. Who doesn’t want a shadowy Kobold with gleaming red eyes silently moving from room to room murdering their allies and forcing those same allies to become Wraiths and hunt you down? Plus, they travel in packs! That means you can have more than one Kobold Wraith murdering your allies, its great! And if that isn't enough to warm your cold hearts, they still hold on to their hatred of gnomes and will attack them on sight no matter what, take that you gnome wizards!
4e - Wraith
Wraith - Level 5 Lurker
Medium shadow humanoid (undead) / XP 200
Initiative +10 / Senses Perception +2; darkvision
HP 37; Bloodied 18
AC 16; Fortitude 13, Reflex 16, Will 14 Immune disease, poison; Resist necrotic, insubstantial; Vulnerable 5 radiant (see also regeneration)
Speed fly 6 (hover); phasing; also see shadow glide
Shadow Touch (standard; at-will) ✦ Necrotic +8 vs. Reflex; 1d6+4 necrotic damage, and the target is weakened (save ends).
Combat Advantage ✦ Necrotic The wraith deals an extra 1d6 necrotic damage against any target it has combat advantage against.
Shadow Glide (move, encounter). The wraith shifts 6 squares.
Spawn Wraith Any humanoid killed by a wraith rises as a free-willed wraith at the start of its creator’s next turn, appearing in the space where it died (or in the nearest unoccupied space). Raising the slain creature (using the Raise Dead ritual) does not destroy the spawned wraith.
Alignment Chaotic Evil / Languages Common
Skills Stealth +11
Str 4 (+1) | Dex 18 (+6) | Wis 10 (+2) | Con 13 (+3) | Int 6 (+0) | Cha 15 (+4)
Monster Manual, 2008 WotC
The 4th edition Wraith can be found in the Monster Manual (2008) along with some friends, old and new. Our basic everyday Wraith changes barely at all and they just weaken targets instead of actually permanently decreasing stats or the like. Their alignment is now chaotic evil, which seems strange since nothing changes about them lore-wise that would mitigate this change, but all the editions have said that they attack living things on sight, so it probably makes more sense that certain Wraiths behave more chaotically than lawful.
There is also a bit of extra lore included in this edition like a necromancer can summon or even create a Wraith with the right tools. Some Wraiths are born on the Shadowfell and cross over to the Material Plane through planar rifts. Another disturbing fact, sometimes when a bunch of people die abruptly in the same location, their spirits meld together to form a Dread Wraith. That’s pretty creepy and makes you think twice about wandering through old battlefields full of restless spirits and angry souls.
The Monster Manual also provides stat blocks for the Dread Wraith, Sword Wraith, and the new Mad Wraith. The Mad Wraith’s goal is to drive you and your friends insane through its abilities. These Wraiths do psychic damage instead of the usual necrotic damage, blasting and tearing apart your mind. Whereas the other Wraiths have the ability to regenerate every round, the Mad Wraith lacks this ability and instead just keeps dealing psychic damage to your party and providing negative statuses to them all. And you might think, stop, please don’t kill me! I have a family! And to that, the Mad Wraith laughs as its attack forces your ally to turn around and also start hitting you with their weapons. The Mad Wraith really doesn’t play fair.
The other two Wraiths, the Dread Wraith and Sword Wraith are beefed up versions appropriate for fighting parties at high levels. They deal additional damage, have more hit points, and are just meant to be a huge pain in the ass to fight. They are mean, they constantly regenerate hit points, and every Wraith has the ability, once they kill you, to bring you back as a Wraith and throw you into the fight immediately.
5e - Wraith
Medium undead, neutral evil
Armor Class 13
Hit Points 67 (9d8+27)
Speed 0 ft., fly 60 ft. (hover)
Str 6 (-2) | Dex 16 (+3) | Con 16 (+3) | Int 12 (+1) | Wis 14 (+2) | Cha 15 (+2)
Damage Resistance Acid, cold, Fire, Lightning, Thunder; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks that aren’t silvered.
Damage Immunities Necrotic, Poison
Condition Immunities Charmed, Exhaustion, Grappled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Restrained
Senses Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12
Languages The languages it knew in life
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)
Incorporeal Movement. The wraith can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. it take 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, the wraith has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Life Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit:21 (4d8 + 3) necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Coonstitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
Create Specter. The wraith targets a humanoid with 10 feet of it that has been dead for no longer than 1 minute and died violently. The target’s spirit rises as a specter in the space of its corpse on in the nearest unoccupied space. The specter is under the wraith’s control. The wraith can have no more than seven specters under its control at one time.
Monster Manual, 2014 WotC
We reach 5th edition, with the Wraith being found in the Monster Manual (2014), and the lore that comes along with it is pretty nice, even if mechanically it doesn’t really excite us. With their new lore, the Wraith is the commander of undead armies. They can control specters, up to 7 at a time, and under the description for wights, it describes wights as shock troopers for Wraiths. The Wraith is moving up big time as you no longer stumble upon a pact of these Wraiths, instead, you stumble upon an army of undead ready to begin taking over lands and causing general devastation.
You’d think that being the commander of an army of undead would make you Lawful, but no these Wraiths are Neutral Evil, which… maybe? We aren’t completely sold on that alignment, but it’s OK as alignment doesn’t mean much in 5e anyways.
The next interesting bit about these creatures is how they are formed. If you are such a horrible person, or you enter in a pact with a friend, your soul is going to end up on the Lower Planes, however, some souls can “becomes so suffused with negative energy that it collapses in on itself and ceases to exist the instant before it can shuffle off to some horrible afterlife.” We got to say that's a pretty nice, albeit an extremely dark, piece of writing. Maybe we should feel bad for these Wraiths, and the lore even goes on to say that sometimes, Wraiths can still remember fragments of their past life and be merciful to old friends or reminiscence when they see something they once loved… or they’ll become so overcome with rage that they just destroy it.
Going to the mechanics, Life Drain is still the big attack for the Wraith though it’s pretty lacking compared to before. Instead of inflicting permanent negative levels or sucking away your Constitution, it now deals damage necrotic damage and the target then has to save against this creature. On a failure, their maximum hit points are reduced by the amount of damage they took and… then you take a long rest and get those hit points back. Which… not quite as dangerous as before, though if you fall to 0 hit points you rise as a specter under the Wraith’s control! Which is CR 3, which means it’s a weakling compared to the CR 5 Wraith. Well, not everyone can be a badass Wraith.
The Wraith still hates sunlight, though unlike previous editions, they can still attack you, they just suffer disadvantage on the attacks. All Wraiths have incorporeal movement, allowing them to move through walls, objects, and creatures and they keep their immunities to non-magical attacks or attacks not made with a silvered weapon. Also, and this is a big one, you can nose use cold spells on them and they’ll take full damage! That means that cold of cone is back in the fight! Just don’t do anything with poison or necrotic damage as undead spirits made of necrotic energy can’t be affected by poison or necrotic energy… who knew?
One last thing about the Wraith is not only can they command armies of undead, but just their mere presence is enough to destroy the land and suck all life from the surrounding areas. Even if you are able to stop the undead and push back the threat, the land and its people aren’t likely to recover for a very, very long time.
There it is, the Wraith. A nasty, black shadow creature that can suck the life force out of you and make you into their own personal servant. It’s one of the original creatures in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, and while it might not be as fearsome as when it could suck experience points out of you, it now has an army of undead to make you wish you never left that nice tavern.
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