Create Spawn

[pawsplay]

Any humanoid slain by a wight becomes a wight in 1d4 rounds.

Say you have a wight/sorcerer 6, and it casts fireball on a roomfull of commoners. Has it suddenly created a dozen or more wights?

 

[Loonook]

Say you have a wight/sorcerer 6, and it casts fireball on a roomfull of commoners. Has it suddenly created a dozen or more wights?

Could be... though I don't think I would like to see a wight using a fireball maybe something more thematic .

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[dingle]

No, to create spawn they've got to kill by the energy drain attack. If however a few weren't quite dead it could then have a bit of a spawn fest.

 

[Keith Robinson]

Say you have a wight/sorcerer 6, and it casts fireball on a roomfull of commoners. Has it suddenly created a dozen or more wights?

Heh - now that's a both a funny and scray thought at the same time.

Here's something from Libris Mortis (under Undead Propagation, p11)

Creating Undead Spawn: Many undead have the ability to create spawn ... simply by slaying their victims. Presumably, the undead must have drained at least one of the victims ability scores or bestowed at least one negative level for this death to occur. (For instance, a wight that pushes a gravestone over on an enemy, killing it, shouldn't expect to gain a new wight servant from the victim's remains).

To take a broader view, undead propagation might be regarded as an infectious disease...

My reading of that is that it doesn't matter what actually kills them, the important bit is that the wight has to actually make at least one successful melee attack, causing the victim to take at least one negative level, which causes them to rise as spawn if they are later killed (even if the actual killing blow is a fireball). The negative level is the root of the affliction, as it were.

Now whether you buy into that depends very much on what weight you lend to Libris Mortis, of course.

 

[freyar]

This is interesting, as a number of spawning undead specify which attacks must be used... Makes you wonder if wights (and spectres) had an oversight or not.

 

[pawsplay]

Wights and spectres do fall in the realm of cursed undead. So I really don't know what was intended.

 

[Jhaelen]

Wights and spectres do fall in the realm of cursed undead. So I really don't know what was intended.

I doubt it. The description just doesn't take into account that there may be other ways for wights to slay humanoids than by using their default attack.

Classed wights are also not really possible by RAW/SRD:

Advancement: 5-8 HD (Medium)

 

[pawsplay]

They are not normally classed. However, anything with Int 3 or higher can be classed. Advancement only lists how they usually advance.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I doubt it. The description just doesn't take into account that there may be other ways for wights to slay humanoids than by using their default attack.

I agree that this is probably the intent. It just fits better and makes more sense, thematically.

 

[pawsplay]

On the other hand, spectres and wights are both accursed. Both also happen to be Lawful Evil. I'm kind of picturing something like a ghost ship full crewed by spectres or a gang of riders, that kill all in their path and claim their victims as more of the undead.

So,

Chaotic Evil -> Undeath as an infection or force of decay
Lawful Evil -> Undeath as an edict that enslaves the living