Wights vs. PCs (help!)

[fireinthedust]

I'm trying to gauge the power of Wights in terms of their build, and using them against a group of adventurers.

How killer are they? Those 4d8 HD and high stealth/mobility: will a group of 4d8HD Wights overpower a 5th-7th level party? Or weaken them to a great degree?

What's the ideal number of Wights? My worry is that too few and they'll get knocked over fast, but too many and my group will be wight-spawn in a round or two.

 

[Jadeite]

In my opinion wights aren't going to overpower a level 5-7 party, even if they outnumber them. Low attack, low AC, low hp. Their level drain still hurts character of that level, but they have to hit them first. Death Ward, a spell level 7 characters can have, grants total immunity against it.
Channel Energy is very strong against them, 2-3 uses should be enough to kill any number of wights. A character focused on channeling might destroy them in his first turn.
Wights don't make good minion monsters. They are more of a boss monster type, especially Cairn Wights with class levels.

 

[Dingo333]

personally, I feel the only way a group f wrights will win is with the element of surprise and if there is no cleric or paladin in the party (ie. no positive energy)

Wrights are a CR 3 creature, meaning a CR 6 encounter equates to 3 Wrights

A Challenging encounter for a party of 5-7 level players is CR 7, a Hard is CR 8

A CR 8 encounter means 6 Wrights

and I would decrease the CR (or well, increase the encounter's CR to 10, 12 Wrights) if there is an abundance of divine channeling in the party, level 7 cleric = 4d6 damage. Any Wrights in that burst that do not save, will lose half their unlife on average (roughly 14 points, 7 if the make the save)

A larger party also changes things. If there are 3 people, that is roughly 2 apiece at CR 8, if 6, that is 1 each and there is little to no hope of flanking. If more, the party is at the advantage here

 

[Terath Ninir]

Go by the CR -- they're usually pretty accurate for Pathfinder, since they've had several versions of playtesting. If they are getting trounced, though, you can always have a few more come in from a nearby room.

 

[fireinthedust]

Actually, I was thinking of the Wights as more of a random encounter villain. Every so often the PCs just encounter a group as they go along. 3 sounds about right.

They're more atmosphere than a planned encounter, so it works that they're easy to defeat yet pose a degree of threat with negative levels.