Shadows, Spectres, or Wraiths?

[Mistah J]

I'm fixing to use some incorporeal undead in an upcoming adventure for my PCs. Looking through the MM, I find shadows, spectres, and wraiths are all reasonable choices - I just wonder what the various pros and cons of each are in terms of usability, mechanics, and fun gameplay.

So, I am looking for other people's experiences with these creatures and any tips or tricks you might have to make such encounters memorable. Also, what to avoid to ensure everything runs smoothly and remains fun.

If it helps, here are some details:
- It is a party of 3, each a 9th level character (probably 10th by the time they reach this part of the campaign).
- The adventure should be made up of 14 CR 10 encounters. Not everyone is a fight with undead obviously, but a "main villain" of CR 12 is going to be the climatic encounter.

-The backstory is: PCs track location of McGuffin to be in a long-lost military tower once used in a nothern mountain chain. It is now long buried under an avalanche. The restless dead come from the soliders that were trapped inside, some of whom were killed by others driven mad by cabin fever (probably some cannibalism too).

I should mention that I left ghost out because I plan on having a "good guy" spirit for the PCs to interact with and help, and I will use the ghost template for that.

I should also mention that I do own all 5 Monster Manuals so, if you can think of a better fit from one of the others - I am all ears!

Thanks

 

[Dragonwriter]

Hmmm... Interesting picks. For the pros and cons, there are a few for each that I can think of.
Shadows: Str damage won't kill party, but will seriously weaken them for the next encounters unless the Clr/Drd has lots of Restoration type spells. However, the shadows aren't very tough and are pretty likely to get blasted very quickly. All it takes is a lucky fireball and they fry. You might want to throw a Greater Shadow at them as one of the later encounters.
Spectres: Personally, I hate negative levels, so I wouldn't use this one. It's certainly a scary creature and would probably work quite well (as well as being the nastiest of MM1 incorporeal undead). Whichever party member(s) have the lowest Fort saves are in the most danger here. 5 attacks and they are gone...
Wraiths: These are nasty suckers. Con drain is plain vicious. If your Clr/Drd doesn't have lots of Restoration or Greater Restoration, this adventure will probably be a TPK. Not only will that Con drain hurt badly, but it can spell an end to a character in about 4-5 attacks. And to make a proper EL fight, you would use 3 or 4 wraiths... Yeah, probably kill the PCs.

Of course, I'm mostly going by these monster's stats. If your PCs are stronger than the average, then they may fair better than my guesses. If you want to (possibly) avoid the TPK, at least let the party retreat and get scrolls or wands of Restoration. That, or give them IC warnings beforehand. Maybe some of the undead managed to get out and haunt some areas around the tower, and then attack the PCs as the group approaches. It gives them a hint about what to expect, without giving it to them on a platter. If they are smart, they'll go get some scrolls or wands to help deal with these buggers.

 

[Starbuck_II]

-The backstory is: PCs track location of McGuffin to be in a long-lost military tower once used in a nothern mountain chain. It is now long buried under an avalanche. The restless dead come from the soliders that were trapped inside, some of whom were killed by others driven mad by cabin fever (probably some cannibalism too).


Thanks

Isn't cannibalism Ghoul specific?

But interesting encounter idea either way.

 

[pawsplay]

Thematically, spectres make sense, as these are vengeful dead. But you could say they are cursed and make them wraiths, perhaps even give one of them the Tomb Guardian PrC.

Finally, it should be observed that a bunch of Warriors with the Ghost template would be reasonably challenging and not very complicated to run. Give them corrupting touch and draining touch (Wisdom) and you will have a very credible group of foes.