Specter
A specter is the angry, unfettered spirit of a humanoid that has been prevented from passing to the afterlife. Specters no longer possess connections to who or what they were, yet are condemned to walk the world forever. Some are spawned when dark magic or the touch of a wraith rips a soul from a living body.
Beyond Redemption
When a ghost's unfinished business is completed, it can rest at last. No such rest or redemption awaits a specter. It is doomed to the Material Plane, its only end the oblivion that comes with the destruction of its soul. Until then, it bears out its lonely life in forlorn places, carrying on forgotten through the ages of the world.
Undying Hatred
Living creatures remind the specter that life is beyond its grasp. The mere sight of the living overwhelms a specter with sorrow and wrath, which can be abated only by destroying said life. A specter kills quickly and mercilessly, for only by depriving others of life can it gain the slightest satisfaction. However, no matter how many lives it extinguishes, a specter always succumbs to its hatred and sorrow.
Dwellers in Darkness
Sunlight represents a source of life that no specter can ever hope to douse, and it pains them. When night falls, they leave their final resting places in search of living creatures to slay, knowing that few weapons can harm them in return.
At the first light of dawn, they retreat back into the darkness, where they remain until night falls again.
Undead Nature
A specter doesn't require air, food, drink, or sleep.
Statblocks
Monster Manual (5e)
Specter CR: 1
STR
1 -5
DEX
14 +2
CON
11 +0
INT
10 +0
WIS
10 +0
CHA
11 +0
Incorporeal Movement. The specter can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, the specter has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Actions
Life Drain. Melee Spell Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 10 (3d6) necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction lasts until the creature finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
Suggested Environments
Underdark, Urban
Dread Domains
Almost all of the Domains of Dread are haunted to some degree by ghosts & similar spirits of the dead. Some of particular note are:
Forlorn. An industrialized wasteland, this domain is haunted by the ghosts of a circle of druids & commoners that once served the darklord.
Mordent. No one stays dead in Mordent & most return as ghosts to haunt the living. Lord Godefroy uses his fellow haunts as his lieutenants & pawns in his schemes to escape his torment.
Stauton Bluffs. Castle Stonecrest is haunted by the ghost of Teresa Bleysmith, who betrayed her family to their doom. Now she is in turn tormented by the spirits of her treachery.
Dark Powers
- The Lidless Magnus (1). Ghosts are in a unique position of being able to spy on the living from the ethereal plane. Very few mortals are capable of preventing this intrusion, or even of noticing being spied on at all.
- The Twisted Priest (5). Hauntings often have the effect of driving the living to insanity.
- The Final Breath (13). Specters are the vestiges of the recently deceased, but reduced to nothing by the sound & fury the living once had.
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