Homebrew Wight Species Details

    When someone dies, they pray to ascend to spend eternity with their god or goddess of choice. Their perfect afterlife is what motivates them to follow certain rules and morals in their time living. Unfortunately for some souls, they can't slumber in death for eternity. Some are called back.

    Wights live undesirable lives having been resurrected by a necromancer or evil god while retaining the memories and personality of the life they lived long before. They remember the family that are either dead or will run with fear at the sight of their returned loved one. They remember their terrible demise long ago. They still hate those who have done them wrong. This pain is one they must now inevitably bear until the Wight's new master releases them to the afterlife once more.

    They have pale, ashy skin and rotting features. If they have been dead and well preserved for some time, their features may even be a little more mummified in nature. They still posses everything they were buried or forgotten in. Their skin having been dead for some time is dangerously sensitive to light, and even wights are affected by pain. They still have the flexibility of their former selves, it's just far more terrifying to watch them approach from the darkness.

    Not all wights have evil in their hearts even though the magic that has returned them to the living world gives them a hunger to kill. Pure hearted souls can resist the urge to murder those who are innocent, but some embrace it. The wight is a poor soul meet if they aren't trying to slice open your neck, so if people find their tenderness over the fact it's a walking corpse they may take in the wight in order to restore them to their place in the afterlife. Well, maybe after taking advantage of their undead abilities that is.

Wight Traits

Dead men tell no tales, unless they become a wight. Then they can do everything they did when they were alive.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Age

The age of the body the wight is summoned into is one of their former living selves. So age is based on their past life plus amount of time they were left to decompose.

Size

The size of a wight is dependent on their former life, but most of the time they are a medium sized being like man and elf.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30ft

Sunlight Sensitivity

While in sunlight, the wight has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Life Drain

The wight has the ability to attack creatures within 5ft. and drain their life for 1d6 necrotic damage plus their Strength modifier. If they succeed in hitting their target, the target must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.

A humanoid slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a zombie under the wight's control, unless the humanoid is restored to life or its body is destroyed. The wight can have no more than four zombies under its control at one time.

Undead Nature

The wight does not require air, food, water, or sleep to live. However they do still need to take rests to mend their wounds and restore their magic because they are not immortal.

Languages

The wight can speak, read, and write Common and one other language they knew in their past life.

Alignment

The alignment of a wight depends on two factors: What kind of person they were before death and has the magic that resurrected them turned them evil. This magic can be resisted, but some evil beings that have been brought back embrace their desires to spill the blood of those they meet.

Darkvision

Having such sensitive skin requires the wight to stay in the dark which gives them excellent vision in the shadows. 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.