Wight Lord

This nearly skeletal figure wears the ancient armor of a long-dead king, and carries itself with a sort of regal pride.

Wight Lord (CR 9)

Medium Undead
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Initiative: +5
Senses: Darkvision 60 feet, deathwatch; Perception +16

Speed: 30 feet (40 feet without armor)
Space: 5 feet

Defense

Armor Class: 24, touch 11, flat-footed 23 (+9 armor, +1 Dex, +4 natural)
Hit Points: 115 (11d8+66)
Saving Throws: Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +9
Channel Resistance +4
Damage Reduction: 10/cold iron or good
Immunity: undead traits
Weaknesses: resurrection vulnerability

Offense

Melee: +1 falchion +17/+12 (2d4+11/15-20 plus Energy Drain) or slam +15 (1d6+1 plus Energy Drain)
Reach: 5 feet

Special Attacks: create spawn, Energy Drain (1 level, DC 21)

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 9th; Concentration +15):

• At Will- Deathwatch
  
  
• 3/day- Air Walk, Command, Greater (DC 21)
  
  
• 1/day- Haste

Statistics

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
24 (+7)	13 (+1)	-	13 (+1)	15 (+2)	22 (+6)

Base Attack Bonus: +8
CMB +15
CMD 26

Feats: Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Quick Draw, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (Falchion)

Skills: Climb +15, Intimidate +20, Perception +16, Sense Motive +16, Stealth +9

Languages: Common

Special Abilities

Create Spawn (Su)

Any humanoid creature that is slain by a wight lord becomes a wight itself in only 1d4 rounds. Although spawn so created are less powerful than wight lords, they are more powerful than typical wights, and are treated as wights with the advanced simple template. Spawn are under the command of the wight lord that created them and remain enslaved until its death, at which point they become fullfledged, free-willed advanced wights. They do not possess any of the abilities they had in life.

Energy Drain (Su)

A wight lord inflicts a negative level each time it hits a foe with a slam attack. Like cairn wights, a wight lord can channel this negative energy through any weapon it wields, inflicting a negative level with each successful hit with the weapon.

Resurrection Vulnerability (Su)

While a wight lord is vulnerable to resurrection magic, it isn't quite as vulnerable as a typical wight. A raise dead or similar spell cast on a wight lord staggers it for 1d6+1 rounds if it fails a Will save, but does not destroy the wight. Using the spell in this way does not require a material component.

Ecology

Environment: Any
Organization: solitary or platoon (1 wight lord plus 4-6 advanced wights)
Treasure: NPC gear (full plate, +1 falchion, other treasure)


Dark princes and warlords of old, wight lords are undead monarchs. Where typical wights rise from a wide variety of individuals, wight lords rise from the bodies of despotic rulers or ruthless generals. Wight lords haunt the same ancient burial grounds and battlefields their lesser kin dwell in, but wight lords aren't satisfied by simply guarding their haunts against the living. They continue their reign as tyrants in death, ruling over undead armies and often compelling their unliving minions to wage war upon nearby towns or cities, sometimes even at the behest of bold and powerful necromancers.

The statistics that are presented above represent the minimum power level of a wight lord. A wight lord can rise from the remains of any cruel or sadistic leader, but those who were higher than 11th level when they perished retain some of their previous life's knowledge—although not all of it. When this occurs, subtract 11 from the creature's previous number of class levels to determine the total number of class levels the wight lord possesses.

Assign these class levels to the wight lord in a logical way—if it was a single-classed NPC in life, simply add more levels of that class to the wight lord. Multiclassed characters and those who possessed levels in prestige classes require more creativity in applying the class levels. The goal for building such a wight lord should be to approximate the themes and general abilities the creature had in life.