In my last post you all met the Seeker Wraith, an Ancestor Wraith tied strongly to the divine domain of Knowledge. Now we’re doing a bit of a 180, as today’s Wraith is the Skirmisher Wraith, a creature intrinsically tied to the divine domain of War.
Tactics:
As with the Seeker Wraith, I’m going to issue a warning that a single Skirmisher Wraith should be more than sufficient challenge for a party of 4th or 5th level. Much like the Seeker Wraith, at higher levels the Skirmisher Wraith can be found alongside others of its kind, high level Clerics or Wizards, or the faithful of its god.
The Skirmisher Wraith is often found at sites where great battles were once fought, guarding tombs of war heroes or the other followers of their gods, summoned to protect a town against fiends, or at the beck and call of a particularly zealous warlord. Because of this, a party is most likely to come into conflict with one if they’re up against a powerful War Cleric or Necromancer, or if they’ve been publicly caught interacting with Evil Extraplanar beings. The Skirmisher Wraith does not typically make use of stealth, rather it will either charge directly towards the front of the group, or come in on their flank from higher ground or behind cover. That said, the Skirmisher Wraith is not mindless, until it can get into range it will open up with its flare burst to try and blind the nearest melee PC. Once it can close the gap and truly get started in combat, it will switch to almost exclusively making use of its Scorching Slash. The Skirmisher Wraith will focus an opponent until they are downed, and then target any allies that move to try and assist the downed creature. If nobody moves in to assist it will then pick its next opponent based on which one seems like it poses the largest threat. It will generally avoid actually attacking any downed creatures, since that would be a waste of its precious actions. If activates its Seething Retribution reaction, it will attempt to use that as an opportunity to pick off any opponents that were weakened or thrown off balance by it, firing off Flare Bursts and Scorching Slashes as needed to whittle its enemies down as quickly as possible. The Skirmisher Wraith revels in combat, and will not yield unless the players can prove that there is no need for it to fight them, with no regard for its own safety.
Plot Hooks:
- 1: The player characters are traversing an ancient and untraveled battlefield, and a Skirmisher Wraith takes their presence as a grave insult to the honor of the dead soldiers.
- 2: The PCs have been caught in dealings with Fiends, and a nearby cleric has dispatched a Skirmisher Wraith to apprehend or crush them as needed.
- 3: A local Warlord believes himself to be the chosen champion of a god of the War Domain, and has summoned several Skirmisher Wraiths to aid him in his conquest.
- 4: The head priest of a War God has asked the player characters to aid him in summoning several Skirmisher Wraiths to defend his town against an oncoming threat.
- 5: A Skirmisher Wraith has approached the party, unable to leave its post as the guardian of a military cemetery, it was unable to stop stop several graverobbers that snuck in and desecrated multiple graves and mausoleums. It requests the players bring back not only the stolen goods, but the graverobbers as well.
- 6: A local cult has accidentally unleashed A long sealed away spirit of a brutal marauder and war criminal, and that spirit has manifested in the form of a Skirmisher Wraith.
- 7: Several Skirmisher Wraiths guard the entrance to an ancient temple that is said to house an armory of enchanted weapons.
- 8: An angry Necromancer has summoned an army of specters, and a group of Skirmisher Wraiths heads up this army.
And with that we wrap up the content for this week. I’m looking forward to next week’s posts, with a lore post and another new subclass, and I hope you’re all looking forward to it as well.
The Wyrm Scribe 