A wight posing in a threatening manner.

The Lore

Athasian wights are, at their root, pretty much the same as standard ones: undead whose soulless bodies are animated by a scrap of animus (or will) the dead person left behind. However, their description here goes on to say that wights were driven to complete some kind of mission or achieve an important goal when they died, and the “will” that animates them is an obsession with fulfilling that task. It also gives them an eternal hunger for life force, and robs them of the capacity to feel anything but hatred, grief, and frustration.

You can technically exorcize a wight by fulfilling its task. This is extremely difficult at best, and it’s often impossible. Wights are not exactly willing to give detailed interviews about the circumstances of their death. Even if the PCs can discover those many of the creatures have been dead for so long that all people and places involved are simply gone. This will probably force the PCs to resort to the second most effective anti-wight strategy: extreme violence.

For a wight to be truly destroyed, its body must be obliterated. A popular tactic is to dismember and then burn their corpses. Not doing this means the creature will restore itself and return eventually.

The Numbers

The Wights presented here are Medium Natural Humanoids with the Undead keyword, and a bunch of traditional undead traits: Darkvision, immunity to disease and poison, 10 resistance to necrotic damage, and and 5 or 10 vulnerability to Radiant.

These wights tend to lack the default ability to eat your healing surges, but they gain other individualized tricks in its place.

Wight Thrall

These are the exception to the wight lore I described above because they’re already living their best unlife. Their obsession was to serve their beloved master for all eternity, and that’s exactly what they’re doing.

Wight thralls have about as much initiative as your typical zombie, but they’re much better at following their master’s commands. If you find these, their master is likely nearby, either as a more powerful wight or as some other monster.

These creatures are Level 12 Minion Brutes with a speed of 7 and the standard traits mentioned above (except radiant vulnerability). Their Claws damage and have a life drain effect that’s modeled slightly differently: targets hit by the attack cannot gain temporary HP at all and recover 5 less HP from healing effects (save ends).

When destroyed by non-radiant damage, their Dark Passing ability restores 5 HP to a nearby undead ally.

Dune Runner Wight

This was an elf who died trying to deliver an important message or warning to their community. Every night they arise and try to complete the impossible run, only to appear back at the starting point when the sun rises. During the day, they terrorize nearby creatures to vent their frustration and slake their thirst.

Dune Runner Wights are level 12 Minion Skirmishers with 124 HP and the common traits mentioned above. Their claws have no effect beyond their decent damage, but they deal extra damage if the runner moved at least 4 squares before attacking, and can be used as part of a Mobile Melee Attack maneuver that lets the runner move its speed without and attack at any point during the move without provoking an opportunity attack from the target.

As a 1/round minor action, they can try to afflict someone with a Running Curse (ranged 5 vs. Will), which forces at target to move at least 4 squares on their turn or take a bit of psychic damage (save ends).

Oath Wight

These used to be inhabitants of one of Athas’ many ancient ruins, who were on the verge of completing an important task when their entire city was leveled by a sorcerous WMD of some kind. Maybe they were scholars nearing a research breakthrough, maybe they were thieves about to pull that big score… or maybe they were mothers undergoing childbirth. So there’s some nightmare fuel for ya. They’re Level 14 Elite Controllers with 140 HP and a speed of 6.

Their frustration with the futility of their task is so potent it leaks out, and can be used as a weapon. This aura of Inevitable Failure inflicts a -2 penalty to attacks, skill checks, and defenses to any non-dominated enemies inside.

The wight can dominate enemies with its Accursed Gaze (minor action, ranged 5 vs. Will), which dominates for a turn on a hit. It can also use the Frustration’s Fury encounter power, which attacks the Will of 2 nearby targets. On a hit, it reals psychic damage and forces the target to make a free melee basic attack (or a charge!) against another target of the wight’s choice. If this secondary attack misses, the target is dominated (save ends). A miss with the power deals half damage and dazes for a turn.

When Frustration’s Fury is unavailable, the wight uses its basic Rotting Touch, which does necrotic damage and prevents HP recovery for a turn.

If you were wondering why the wight has so little HP for an elite, it’s because reaching 0 HP triggers its Promised Return power, causing it to reappear with full HP near its last position at the start of its next turn.

Encounters and Final Impressions

The description of wights as the products of obsession that lingers beyond death is so cool that I’m tempted to make this the default description of wights in any game I run. The mechanics of the ones presented here are interesting and help bring them into the paragon tier.

Wights might very rarely work with the living if they can convince the creature they have similar goals, but they mostly hang out with other undead or with predatory beasts who don’t see them as food.