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[demiurge1138]

I had a lot of free time at work today--can you tell?

This monster was inspired by the illustration in Pathfinder #3 of a wight--apparently, there wasn't enough room to have statistics for it as a unique monster, so it was just an ordinary wight with a badass illustration. I've decided to rectify that.

Ice Wight

Shambling from the fog comes what must once have been a man. Its skin is drawn tightly over its bones, and its face is frozen into a rictus of agony. Ice crystals have formed on its armor and in its matted hair. Its cold blue eyes gaze at you appraisingly.

Ice Wight CR 5
Always NE Medium Undead (Cold)
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60ft, Listen +11, Spot +11
Defenses
AC 22, touch 11, flat-footed 21
(+1 Dex, +6 natural, +5 masterwork chainmail)
hp 45 (7d12)
Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +6
Immune cold, undead immunities; Resist turn resistance +2; Vulnerable fire, light sensitivity
Offense
Spd 40ft (8 squares), 30ft in chainmail
Melee slam +8 (1d6+6 plus 1d6 cold plus rime)
Space 5ft; Reach 5ft
Spell-like Abilities CL 5th
3/day—chill metal (DC 15), fog cloud
Tactics
Before Combat ice wights prepare the battlefield by shrouding it in fog. They make use of their Move Silently skill to stalk foes through the haze.
During Combat ice wights pummel foes with their ice-encrusted fists, focusing their attacks on one victim to freeze him to death. They delight in casting chill metal on a heavily armored target, retreating into the fog to let the damage accumulate.
Morale ice wights may use hit and run tactics, but they never fully retreat from a battle. They continue to press the assault until either they or their foes are dead.
Statistics
Str 19, Dex 13, Con - , Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 16
Feats Ability Focus (rime), Blind-fight, Weapon Focus (slam)
Skills Hide +7 (+11 unarmored), Listen +11, Move Silently +15 (+19 unarmored), Spot +11
Base Attack +3; Grapple +7
Languages Common, Infernal
SQ create spawn
Ecology
Environment Cold land and underground
Organization Solitary, pair, gang (3-5) or pack (6-11)
Treasure Masterwork chainmail, plus standard items
Advancement 1-3 HD (Tiny), 4-6 HD (Small), 8-12 HD (Medium), 13-18 HD (Large), 19-23 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment—
Special Abilities
Create Spawn (Su) Any creature killed by an ice wight rises as an ice wight in 1d4 rounds. Spawn are under the command of the ice wight that created them, and remain enslaved until death. They do not possess any of the abilities they had in life.

Light Sensitivity (Ex) Ice wights hate the sun’s rays, and are treated as being sickened in sunlight. A daylight spell will sicken an ice wight if it fails a Fortitude save against the spell.

Rime (Su) Living creatures hit by an ice wight’s slam attack must make a DC 18 Fortitude save or take 1d6 points of Dexterity damage; a successful save halves the damage. This is a cold effect, rather than a negative energy effect—death ward has no effect, but creatures immune to cold are immune. Resistance to cold grants a +1 bonus to the saving throw for every 5 points resisted. Creatures reduced to 0 Dexterity by an ice wight’s rime are killed. The save DC is Charisma based.

Skills An ice wight gains a +8 racial bonus on all Move Silently checks.

Horrible undead creatures forced to spread the cold curse that created them, ice wights roam the frozen reaches of Golarion. An ice wight stands as tall as it did when it was alive, but weighs an extra 25 pounds due to the weight of the ice atop and inside of it.

Ecology
Not being alive, ice wights have no real place in any ecology, but they bring frozen death wherever they go. Supreme sadists, an ice wight without humanoids to prey on may use its rime on animals native to its haunts, creating frozen undead hares, foxes, wolves and elk. Unless controlled by some evil spellcaster, ice wights will gladly depopulate huge stretches of land, rendering them nothing but a frozen wasteland populated only by the dead. For this reason, many creatures immune to cold, even evil ones such as frost giants and white dragons, kill ice wights whenever possible.

It is believed that the first ice wights were created by hags—hags and ice wights have an odd affinity for each other, and many a covey is guarded by one or more ice wights. The secrets of their creation were taught to the worthy, probably first cultists of Urgathoa, and so ice wights spread through the world. Unlike other undead such as ghouls and specters, ice wights do not appear to spontaneously form from the corpses of wicked people guilty of any specific sin.

Habitat and Society
Ice wights can be found wherever it is cold—frozen tundra, mountain peaks, conifer forests, even clinging to icebergs floating at sea. Their hatred of the sun sends them scurrying into the darkness during daylight hours, and in the Crown of the Word, where they are most common, they are forced to retreat to caves and crevasses for months at a time, when the sun never sets. But woe betides the traveler during the arctic winter, when the sun never rises over the Crown of the World…

Ice wights are quite common in Irrisen—the White Witches keep that land cold the year round and heavy cloud cover and thick forests keep ice wights from the hated rays of the sun. Some ice wights even serve in the armies of monsters that guard that country, and even the wicked cold riders are leery of the ice wights and their power to spawn.

Creating an Ice Wight
An ice wight can be created with a create undead spell by a 15th level caster or higher. The body used must be of a person who died from exposure to cold. A hag covey can create an ice wight using only an animate dead spell, although they must pay triple the cost in material components.

The Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting is copyright 2008 Paizo Publishing. Copyright 2008 Nicholas Herold.