Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.

Specters have been in the game since the beginning, and here they’re only on the Monster Manual.

The Lore

When I talked about ghosts, I mentioned that every single synonym for that word used to be its own entirely separate type of incorporeal undead, and that 4e consolidated that a bit but not entirely. Specters are one of the undead that retained their own entry.

Specters are incorporeal undead that can form “naturally” when an evil murderer or other equally depraved villain dies. Unlike a ghost, they don’t retain any memory of their life, and aren’t bound to a particular location. However, they’re just as evil as they always were, and their new hatred of the living ensures they keep looking for people to kill.

Specters tend to cling to other equally malevolent undead, and will sometimes ally with evil living beings if that would ensure a steady supply of victims.

The Numbers

Specters are Medium Shadow Humanoid with the Undead keyword. They have darkvision as well as both the insubstantial and phasing traits. If you’re using Monster Vault-era rules this means they take half damage from everything but force attacks, but when specters were published they took half damage from all sources. Their HP is a bit lower than their level would indicate, so being insubstantial doesn’t make fights last that much longer.

As undead, they’re immune to disease and poison and have some degree of necrotic resistance and radiant vulnerability. They have no ground speed, but they fly, and it’s not like you can force a specter to land.

Specter

The basic model is a Level 4 Lurker with 30 HP and all the traits mentioned above. It flies at speed 6, has 10 necrotic resistance, and 5 radiant vulnerability.

The specter has a Spectral Chill aura (1), which inflicts a -2 penalty to all enemy defenses. It attacks with a Spectral Touch that targets Reflex and does necrotic damage. It can also unleash a Spectral Barrage (close burst 2 vs. Will) which does psychic damage and knocks prone. This is likely some sort of scary illusion.

As a standard action, the specter can become invisible until it attacks or is hit by an attack. It will likely alternate between attacking from invisibility, and retreating while invisible.

Voidsoul Specter

This is either the specter of someone really evil, or a basic model that has grown bloated through years of post-mortem murder. It’s a Level 23 Lurker with 115 HP. Its necrotic resistance increases to 30, and its radiant vulnerability to 10.

Spectral Touch works the same with bigger numbers. The Spectral Chill aura is stronger, dealing 10 cold damage to enemies caught inside in addition to inflicting the same -2 defense penalty. Its special attack is Life Siphon (Close Blast 5 vs. Fortitude; encounter) which deals necrotic damage and makes the specter heal 5 HP for every target damaged by it. Finally, its invisibility works the same but becomes a 1/round minor action instead of a standard one.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

The sample encounter has a basic specter, a deathlock wight, and a bunch of zombies and skeletons.

Specters feel to me like one of those monsters that should have been rolled into the “Ghost” entry. They don’t have much to distinguish them from ghosts or from wraiths (the other surviving synomym). I’d guess that’s why they didn’t make the Monster Vault.