Wight

Source: Monster Manual (2024) p. 332. Available in the SRD and the Free Rules (2024)

Wight

Life-Leeching Corpse Warrior

  • Habitat. Desert, Planar (Shadowfell), Swamp, Underdark, Urban
  • Treasure. Armaments

Wights are the withered corpses of relentless warriors whose wickedness sustains them beyond death. Unlike mere zombies, they retain the memories and evil agendas they harbored in life.

After dying and returning from the grave, a wight continues its villainous ways, but it is now driven by a hunger for life. A wight drains living essence through its attacks. Humanoids slain by a wight’s life-sapping grip reanimate a day later and serve the wight as obedient zombies.

Wights might return from the dead for a multitude of sinister reasons. Roll on or choose a result from the Wight Motives table to inspire why a wight plagues the living.

Wight Motives

dice: 1d8The Wight Returned from the Dead To…
1Challenge anyone who passes near its grave on a certain cursed night.
2Conquer the land it believes it should rule.
3Continue the crimes it was executed for.
4Follow the foul master it served in life.
5Honor an oath it left unfulfilled in life.
6Obey the cult or deity that gave it unlife.
7Prove it was the greatest warrior to ever live.
8Seek its stolen heart or other treasure.
^wight-motives