Wight (5e Race)

Wight

Wights are creatures born either through perverted resurrection of the dead, the image of life granted by hatred and violence, or death at the draining hands of another wight.

Twisted Undead

By Autumn Rain Turkel

Wights are risen from extant bodies and so already have the base form. However, they are usually twisted reflections of who they once were. Scars may be exacerbated in appearance, or they may appear gaunt and weird. Basically a wight looks like their living form after having been through the wringer a few times and then warped by something with an evil touch. They typically have a reminiscent humanoid form for a base, and are usually the size of humans.

Born By Hate

These undead beings exist solely for hatred. Unlike a revenant, who exists to dole out an unfinished vendetta, a wight has no particular adversary or subject to channel its hatred into. It simply exists to hate and be feared. Sometimes in grisly battles, when people fall to immense violence, their own unrealized desires manifest as simple, pure hatred of everything. They hate the world for what it denied them, and their life for being unfulfilled. This immense negative force returns a corpse back from the dead with a semblance of life as a wight. Alternatively, wights can raise their victims to be wights as well by draining them of their life and imbuing them with similar hatred. There are also the rumored rare slaughter wights, who are wights risen by means of hatred and the touch of a dark god. With this divine hatred in them, they are easily much more vicious than any other undead.

Sadistic Wanderers

Wights never stay anywhere for long due to their revulsion of life. The living and their pleasures are repugnant to them, making anyone alive a possible target for a wight. They also sometimes cannot even stand other undead, much less another hating wight. Thus, they are solitary wanderers who incite fear in those who see them. Wights take pleasure in sadistically murdering and draining life, as it is the only way they can enact their hatred and release. They are a feared class of undead for similar reasons the revenant is feared: they are persistent sons of guns. Until their hatred is all but used up, they will never rest. Like other undead, they are inured to pain and very resistant to empathy. Their hatred can blind them from reason, forcing them solely to act upon instinct.

Wight Names

Wights typically take on an alias that may be a corruption of their name from when they were alive.

Wight Traits

Wights are undead returned solely by hate
Ability Score Increase. You have one ability modifier from your Past Life. Your Charisma score increases by 1.
Age. Wights retain the memories of their past life from when they were risen and never run out of hatred, seemingly able to go on forever, unaging.
Alignment. Due to their blind hate, wights are usually chaotic and evil, but some are more neutral and treat everything like a maddening chore.
Size. You have the same size as your Past Life. Wights primarily form from Medium humanoids.
Speed. You have the same speed as your Past Life.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Undead Form. Raised from the dead as a being of undeath, you lose your previous creature type and now count as an undead creature for all spells and abilities that affect the undead. You do not need to eat, drink, sleep or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish. You are resistant to necrotic damage but vulnerable to radiant.
Past Life. You retain a corrupted form of that which you once were. You have the same size, speed and one ability modifier as the creature you were alive. For example, if you were a mountain dwarf, you have a +2 to your Strength score or a +2 to your Constitution score, would be considered a Medium sized creature and have a base walking speed of 25 feet. If you were a human, you would instead have a +1 to all, but one of your ability scores, be considered a Medium sized creature and have a base walking speed of 30 feet. Etc.
Sunlight Sensitivity. The change to your body makes you hide your dark self from light. While in sunlight, the wight has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Poison Immunity. Your body no longer processes biologically like it used to. You are immune to being poisoned.
Original Self. You retain one racial trait of your DM's choice from your original race.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write any language your original race does.

Slaughter Wight Variant

These wights are all the more dangerous. The dark gods which touch them have washed away pretty much any semblance of their old self in deep hatred only the divine can tell of. These wights are hellbent on destruction and will slaughter until they are killed.

Design Note: This is the slaughter variant of a wight. This variant replaces the Poison Immunity and Original Self traits.

Undead Fortitude. Your hatred makes it so you never want to stop. When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
Undying Hate. The hatred the gods instilled in you make you numb to any inhibitions. You have advantage in Constitution saving throws against exhaustion.

Random Height and Weight

Their height and weight is the same as their original race.

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