Wights are broken.

[connivingsumo]

Wights are bad news, to be certain.

WIGHT
No. Enc.: 1d6 (1d8)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90' (30')
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 3
Attacks: 1
Damage: Drain life energy
Save: F3
Morale: 12

Wights are undead creatures who were formerly humans or demi-humans in life. A wight's appearance is a weird and twisted reflection of the form it had in life. Wights attack by touching a victim and draining 1 level, or hit die, from a victim. For example, if a 3 HD monster is attacked and struck, it becomes a 2 HD monster. Likewise, if a 4th level character is struck, he becomes 3rd level. Any human or demi-human reduced to 0 level dies, and becomes a wight in 1d4 days. Wights may only be harmed by magical weapons, spells, and weapons made of silver. Like other undead, they are immune to the effects of sleep and charm spells.

Nasty, huh? Once a party gets up towards 4-5th level, they aren't SO bad. Most parties of those levels have a few magic items to help them, plus more spells per day. But even for 1st-2nd level PCs, there are a couple of factors to consider before labeling them as "broken":

• It's a 3HD creature, so even a 1st level cleric has a shot at turning 2d6 HD of them (up to 4, average of 2).
• 3HD also means an average of 13-14 hit points, which is 1-2 good hits.
• It's AC is 5, so even a 1st level fighter has a 35% chance to hit it (if he has an appropriate weapon), and that's without STR or DEX bonuses.
• Harmed by spells & magic weapons: usually in short supply for low level PCs, but not nonexistent. If the party possesses at least one +1 weapon and someone to wield it, then things aren't totally hopeless.
• One simple rule for dealing with things like wights: DON'T GET INTO MELEE WITH THEM! Turning, ranged spells, silvered arrows, or daggers are your best bet; and don't forget one of every low level PC's best friends: Oil Flasks. They are cheap, they can be thrown from a distance, and even though wights take half damage (1d4) from burning oil (LL54), it still hurts them. If you can afford holy water, so much the better (1d8).
• Protection from Evil. It's a 1st level spell (Cleric or MU), and it makes the caster IMMUNE TO THE WIGHT'S TOUCH. Even a magic user with a silver dagger will take out a wight eventually under those circumstances since the wight's attack does no normal damage!
• Cobb's Traverse.
  

Now, as a GM, you can mitigate your guilt from using these guys in a few simple ways as well:

• Don't make them random encounters unless it really makes sense for the adventure (ie. a lich's keep full of various undeadies).
• Don't throw 8 of them at the party at once unless you're confident they at least have a shot at handling it.
• Give the PCs opportunities to properly equip themselves (buy holy water, oil, silvered weapons, etc.).
• Give the PCs a chance to glean hints/rumors/clues that Here Be Undead Horrors.
• Place a flask of holy water or two (or a silver dagger or an Ward against Undead scroll) somewhere in the adventure. Or, if you are feeling SUPER generous, a +1 sword. (assuming the PCs have no magic weapons already).
• Have a 15th level cleric back in town that might be willing to cast Restoration on the PCs, if they'll perform some task for the temple in return, of course (adventure hook!).

This is the best response yet.
I love data, and wish I was better at crunching the numbers (of course, a bit of initiative on my part would probably solve that! ).

This makes a lot of sense and illustrates selective/strategic placement, and strategies to deal with them. I also like Dyson's ideas to mitigate some of the consequences on the players.

Thanks for the input bighara. Are you on the btown forums too? The name and avatar look familiar.

Cheers

[Dyson Logos]

In the last campaign I ran the players fought wights twice. Not a single level was lost.

Of course, I wasn't enough of a jerk to set them up with a surprise encounter with them, they had time and placement to fight from a distance.

[bighara]

This is the best response yet.
I love data, and wish I was better at crunching the numbers (of course, a bit of initiative on my part would probably solve that! ).

This makes a lot of sense and illustrates selective/strategic placement, and strategies to deal with them. I also like Dyson's ideas to mitigate some of the consequences on the players.

Thanks for the input bighara. Are you on the btown forums too? The name and avatar look familiar.

Cheers

Aw shucks! Twern't nuthin'.

btown? Not sure I know that one. My dog's nose is a fairly frequent visitor to many gaming boards, though.

[Blood axe]

Btown= Bartertown. A game/ warhammer trading site. Im Starslayer there.

[connivingsumo]

Aw shucks! Twern't nuthin'.

btown? Not sure I know that one. My dog's nose is a fairly frequent visitor to many gaming boards, though.

Ya, what Blood Axe said. *Starslayer - hey I've seen you before!
Over at Bartertown I'm... um... connivingsumo

Hmm... well if not btown, how about Privateer Press' forums?

[bighara]

Nope. I hang around Reaper's site (under "Kengar"). Dragonsfoot (as "Bighara") and here of course (and the old GG boards). I recently signed up at MiniWarGaming's forums. I used to post fairly frequently over at Troll Lord's forums (when I was playing C&C regularly).

[JDJarvis]

Wights aren't broken they work quite well at being Wights. Level draining however is a pain in the butt in regards to paperwork. LL however has little paperwork to contend with in regard to character stats on a by level basis. Maximum HP is all every class has to really worry about right away,I roll the deduction right away each time (sometimes over the lifetime of a character level draining can be helpful if they regain more hp then they lost due to energy drain). 0-level is survivable if you still have hp, run out of hp before you run out of levels you still die.
Now that I just typed that, energy drain simply zapping max hp would work just fine to minimize the paperwork problem of energy draining. Having a 10th level fighter reduced to 5 hp due to energy draining following an encounter with wights would realy be awful and it'd certainly make level energy draining stand-out. Restoration would allow the fighter to re-roll hp with full hitdice but gaining levels would only add the normal hp increase.

[Black Wyvern]

I have always just had the players note their rolls for hp for each level. Then you just bring the characters hp down to where they were at the level they are drained to.

[Charlatan]

Yeah if I'm honest I'd rather outright kill a character than set them back. I have yet to use them and the idea of placing wights just so players avoid the area is aberrant to me.

[capheind]

I suppose the point of using a Wight is that, if your going to use it, it better darned well be protecting something more important than some lichs dirty laundry.