Wou. Ice, ice, baby, I mean wraith! Ice, ice, Wraith!

Chair too

The wraith should probably be vulnerable to radiant damage 

I am making a dungeon with mostly undeads, and the wraith is the 'miniboss'. it's for lvl 8-ish characters. Does anyone think this is a good/bad choice?

Quote from LukaBeast >>

Do wraiths take more dmg from divine damage from paladins?

 Yes.  They have the "Undead" creature type, and divine smite deals extra damage to fiends and undead.  

Quote from Paladin_of_Pancakes >>

I'm creating a campaign where the main villain is a wraith that can raise all forms of dead, not just specters. I'm talking zombies, skeletons, shadows, and it can raise 2 ogres zombies or 2 minotaur skeletons, or 1 of each per day. does this ability justify it being a CR 7, or should I ad basic spellcasting. 

 To raise it to CR 7, you should buff its HP, AC, and Life Drain attack.  Adding spellcasting is an interesting concept.    

Does anyone have thoughts on how a wraith might be affected whilst submerged in water? Would it take the force damage from ending a turn "in an object" while underwater?

Quote from Snowgiant >>

what. they are actually made out of Dark. Wind. What. 

 "However, sometimes the soul becomes so suffused with negative energy that it collapses in on itself and ceases to exist the instant before it can shuffle off to some horrible afterlife. When this occurs, the spirit becomes a soulless wraith — a malevolent void trapped on the plane where it died."  In other words, the soul of an unrepentently evil creature becomes completely consumed by malice that it is destroyed.  Without a soul, the evil humanoid can't travel to the afterlife.  What used to be the creature's soul is now no more than a pocket of negative energy, destroying all life that is foolish enough to approach it.  

Quote from lbrussbere >>

This should have Frightful Prescence.

 Homebrew that

Create Specter. The wraith targets a humanoid within 10 feet of it that has been dead for no longer than 1 minute and died violently. The target's spirit rises as a specter in the space of its corpse or in the nearest unoccupied space.

Does anyone know if there is a sage advice or clarification on the mechanics of the Create specter ability? Here are my questions:

1. What is the initiative of the specter? I would have it act on the same turn as the wraith, but not act on the turn on which it is created. That way, players can act against it before the undead abomination does, and the DM can describe the ominous smoke slowly pouring out of a corpse's mouth and forming a dark silhouette. It would feel strange to have the creature attack at the very second it is born.
2. Does the specter get any of the knowledge of the creature it was created from? The ability states "The target's spirit rises as a specter" and the creature's stats block states that it retains the languages it knew in life. But since this may not be the "usual" way for a specter to appear it might not apply here. 
3. What happens if a wraith raises an 8th specter? I would rule that another specter of the wraith's choosing breaks free from its control. That way, if the wraith has other minions carrying out a nefarious plan somewhere else, it can choose which one is let loose.
4. If a creature is raised as a specter, does that prevent it from being revivified? What about other resurrection spells? Does the specter vanish then?
5. This last one is a bit of rules nitpicking, but as the text of ability is written right now, only the part about the target's spirit implies that a wraith cannot target the same creature several times. Of course, no one would rule it that way, but "a humanoid within 10 feet of it that has been dead for no longer than 1 minute and died violently" doesn't specify that the creature must not have been targeted by the ability the round before, allowing the wraith to raise 5 minions from a single commoner defeated. It would be nice if this was made clearer.

Quote from A_Warlock_Named_Briken >>

Create Specter. The wraith targets a humanoid within 10 feet of it that has been dead for no longer than 1 minute and died violently. The target's spirit rises as a specter in the space of its corpse or in the nearest unoccupied space.

Does anyone know if there is a sage advice or clarification on the mechanics of the Create specter ability? Here are my questions:

1. What is the initiative of the specter? I would have it act on the same turn as the wraith, but not act on the turn on which it is created. That way, players can act against it before the undead abomination does, and the DM can describe the ominous smoke slowly pouring out of a corpse's mouth and forming a dark silhouette. It would feel strange to have the creature attack at the very second it is born.
2. Does the specter get any of the knowledge of the creature it was created from? The ability states "The target's spirit rises as a specter" and the creature's stats block states that it retains the languages it knew in life. But since this may not be the "usual" way for a specter to appear it might not apply here. 
3. What happens if a wraith raises an 8th specter? I would rule that another specter of the wraith's choosing breaks free from its control. That way, if the wraith has other minions carrying out a nefarious plan somewhere else, it can choose which one is let loose.
4. If a creature is raised as a specter, does that prevent it from being revivified? What about other resurrection spells? Does the specter vanish then?
5. This last one is a bit of rules nitpicking, but as the text of ability is written right now, only the part about the target's spirit implies that a wraith cannot target the same creature several times. Of course, no one would rule it that way, but "a humanoid within 10 feet of it that has been dead for no longer than 1 minute and died violently" doesn't specify that the creature must not have been targeted by the ability the round before, allowing the wraith to raise 5 minions from a single commoner defeated. It would be nice if this was made clearer.

 1. your choice

2. Yes

3. It just can't.

4. It cant be resurrected while the specter lives

5. no it can't do that

Yes they do. Any undead or fiend takes an extra 1d8 dmg from divine smite.

idk what they are made of

This is a perfect example of why CR is so wrong. I mean, this thing according to its entry in the Monster Manual is supposed to control legions of undead so strong that "even if a wraith’s armies are forced to retreat, the lands its forces occupied are so blasted and withered that those who live there often starve and die."

I mean, this thing should be the crux of entire campaigns, rule over continents, control whole layers of the Abyss, and form pacts with Liches and even Orcus, the demonic prince of undeath. Wraiths are literal manifestations of negativity, dread and annihilation taken form, not some lowly CR5 undead that the party uses as a punching bag on their climb to the top of the world.

I wish certain undead weren't so favorited by the community. Sure, that Lich is pretty cool, but what about this thing that's seemingly made from the ground up to be the BBEG? The same goes for ghouls, which according to certain lore, are supposed to look like normal humans but something's off; I mean, they'd be the perfect enemy for high level adventurers looking for espionage and unique foes, as well as a great mental test, or even a gauge on how your new players act against things they can't immediately kill.

this guys look more like the Nameless One boss from Minecraft Dungeons than any of the wraiths in that game.

Lord of the Rings flashbacks anyone

Wraiths are made out of spiritual matter, they can manifest to become real matter and when they are in the "normal" plane of existence, they are usually just partially on both planes, which is partially what justifies their damage resistance(my interpretation). I hope this helps. :)

Quote from GoldainIceblade >>

Damage resistance to non magical, not immunity? So you can technically beat a non corporeal creature to death with a barstool...that’s broken. Werewolves have immunity to nonmagical weapons but ethereal undead only have resistance. Somebody didn’t think that through...

 It's a semi-ethereal undead. It moves through solid objects as difficult terrain and takes 5(1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object. So, you CAN kill it with a barstool because it's not fully ethereal. That aside,  I do agree it should have immunity to nonmagical weapons because it's just not that strong for a CR 5.

I feel like in some places it says that an ancient dragon has CR 5 but it could kill this in about 2 rounds?!

The whole CR thing is really confusing. 

Blah blah blah the beholder is CR 4 CR 11 at the same time. Makes no sense at all.

POV: Wraith from Minecraft Dungeons