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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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PFS StandardDread Wraith

These menacing spiritual remnants of wicked warlords or bloodthirsty generals are towering specters of shadow and death. Like other wraiths, dread wraiths haunt the shadowy places of the world, but dread wraiths are more likely to travel greater distances to sow terror or amass influence, often sticking to dark glades or sinister ruins when journeying across sun-dappled lands. Dread wraiths tends to be arrogant and rarely form a pack with others of their kind, preferring instead to dominate groups of ordinary wraiths. A particularly powerful necromancer might compel packs of dread wraiths into service, however, while a particularly malevolent goal—such as to eradicate a bastion of light and life—might draw several dread wraiths together in a common purpose.

Recall Knowledge - Undead (Religion): DC 26
Unspecific Lore: DC 24
Specific Lore: DC 21

Elite | Normal | Weak
Proficiency without Level

Changes from being Weak are marked in red below.
NOTE: The -2 damage penalty to non-strike offensive abilities (-4 if the ability is limited, such as spells) is NOT factored in.

Weak Dread WraithCreature 8

Legacy Content

LE Large Incorporeal Undead Wraith 
Source Bestiary 2 pg. 298 2.0
Perception +19; darkvision, lifesense 60 feet
Languages Common, Necril
Skills Acrobatics +17, Intimidation +19, Stealth +17
Str -5, Dex +6, Con +3, Int +3, Wis +4, Cha +6
AC 26; Fort +14, Ref +17, Will +19; +1 status to all saves vs. positive
HP 110 (negative healing); Immunities death effects, disease, paralyzed, poison, precision, unconscious; Resistances all 10 (except force, ghost touch, or positive; double resistance vs. non-magical)
Draining Presence (aura, negative) 10 feet. A creature entering the aura must succeed at a DC 24 Fortitude save or become drained 1. It recovers after it has been out of the aura for 1 minute. This drained condition value is cumulative with the drained value caused by drain life, but not with multiple draining presence auras. A creature that succeeds at its save is temporarily immune to draining presence for 24 hours.Sunlight Powerlessness A dread wraith caught in sunlight is stunned 2 and clumsy 2.Attack of Opportunity [reaction]
Speed fly 60 feet
Melee [one-action] spectral hand +19 [+14/+9] (finesse, reach 10 feet), Damage 2d10-2+7 negative plus drain lifeAbsorb Wraith [two-actions] The dread wraith extends its hand toward another wraith creature within 100 feet. The target wraith dissolves and streaks toward the dread wraith in a straight line, dealing 6d10 negative damage to each creature along the line (DC 26 basic Fortitude save). The dread wraith absorbs the essence of the target wraith, becoming quickened and gaining a +10-foot status bonus to its fly Speed for a number of rounds equal to the level of the absorbed wraith. It can use its extra action only to Fly or Strike. An unwilling target can attempt a DC 26 Will save to resist being absorbed.Drain Life (divine, necromancy) When the dread wraith damages a living creature with its spectral hand Strike, the wraith gains 10 temporary Hit Points and the target must succeed at a DC 26 Fortitude save or become drained 1. Further damage dealt by the wraith increases the drained condition value by 1 on a failed save, to a maximum of drained 4.Wraith Spawn (divine, necromancy) A living humanoid slain by a wraith's spectral hand Strike rises as a wraith spawn after 1d4 rounds. This wraith spawn is under the command of the dread wraith that killed it. It doesn't have drain life or wraith spawn. If the creator of the wraith spawn dies, the wraith spawn becomes a full-fledged, autonomous wraith; it regains its free will and gains drain life and wraith spawn.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Dread Wraith Origins

The most unusual dread wraiths are those that coalesce from an amalgamation of evil spirits, often in regions where such spirits are shredded from their consciousnesses and churned in foci of negative energy, such as the Negative Energy Plane or on the Isle of Terror.

All Monsters in "Wraith"

NameLevel
Aiudara Wraith18
Dread Wraith9
Wraith, Smog9
Wraith6

Wraith

Source Bestiary pg. 335
Wraiths are malevolent undead who drain life and shun light. Their shadowy, incorporeal forms are dotted with burning eyes that reflect their hatred for the living, and shadowy claws are weapon enough to steal the vitality from their enemies. A wraith may be created by foul necromancy, but more often they are the result of a hermitic murderer or mutilator who even in death could not give up their wicked ways. Further complicating the matter is the fact that wraiths multiply by consuming and transforming the living into more of their foul kind—meaning a handful of wraiths left unchecked can easily turn into a horde of darkness.

Wraiths weigh nothing and are unharmed by most physical attacks. They haunt any place where they can feed on the living, though their vulnerability to sunlight confines them to the shadowy places of the world—places where they can blend in seamlessly with their dark surroundings before silently engulfing their prey.

Wraiths may form packs with others of their kind in places where death and mayhem are commonplace—countrysides ravaged by war, metropolitan underworlds run by criminal overlords, or sites of fiendish cultic rituals. In these places, the living do well to tread with sunrods and powerful clerics in tow. Ruins, sewers, and abandoned buildings provide sanctuary for wraiths during the day, as the creatures hunt exclusively at night or in dark places. Wraiths are smart enough to take advantage of their incorporeality in combat, so they keep to tortuous caverns or structures with hallways and avoid open areas.

As they're formed purely of anti-life from the Negative Energy Plane, wraiths pervade that unholy realm. Within nations and civilizations ruled by the undead, wraiths have places of power as assassins and spies. They're among the ruling class in Geb, but have greater numbers in Ustalav, where packs of wraiths roam graveyards and misty trails, consuming the populations of entire villages. In other parts of the world, wraiths tend not to wander and limit their activity to smaller environs, typically just the site of their chosen haunting and its immediate surroundings.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Wraiths In Civilization

Wraiths are among the ruling class of Geb, functioning as diplomats, spies, and assassins. They are also welcomed with open arms by the church of Urgathoa and the Whispering Way, both groups seeing the void's embrace as a great blessing. In other areas, like Ustalav, even groups of wraiths stick to graveyards and misty side paths.