Rimewraith
Medium undead, usually chaotic evil
- Armor Class 14
- Hit Points 105 (14d8 + 42)
- Speed 0 ft., fly 60 ft. (hover)
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 6 (-2) 19 (+4) 16 (+3) 12 (+1) 14 (+2) 18 (+4)
- Saving Throws Dex +7, Wis +5
- Skills Perception +5, Stealth +7
- Damage Resistances acid, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
- Damage Immunities cold, necrotic, poison
- Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
- Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 15
- Languages the languages it knew in life
- Challenge 6 (2,300 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3
Deathly Cold. Whenever the wraith deals at least 5 cold damage to a creature that isn't restrained by this feature, that creature must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or have its movement speeds halved. A creature already subject to this effect is restrained and unable to use reactions instead. This effect lasts for 1 minute, until the target or a creature adjacent to it expends its move (even if its speed is 0) to make a successful DC 15 Strength saving throw, or it takes at least 5 fire damage.
Fear of Fire. The first time each turn that the wraith takes at least 5 fire damage, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw with a DC equal to the damage dealt or become frightened of the source of that damage until the end of its next turn.
Incorporeal Movement. The wraith 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.
Innate Spellcasting. The wraith's spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). The wraith can innately cast the following spells, requiring no spell components. The wraith is immune to all damage and effects from these spells and is unimpeded by them:
At-will: gust of wind, rime's binding ice
1/day each: ice storm, sleet stormRime Cursed Aura. At the start of each of the wraith's turns, each other creature within 10 feet of it, or within a spell area it created, takes 3 (1d6) cold and 3 (1d6) necrotic damage. A creature also takes this damage whenever they touch the wraith, or hit it with a melee attack while within 5 feet of it. A creature reduced to 0 hit points while in this aura dies and freezes solid, rising as a Rimewraith in 1d4 days unless it's a construct or undead or its remains are cremated.
Actions
Gravechill Touch. Melee Spell Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft. one target. Hit: 17 (3d8 + 4) necrotic damage and 13 (3d8) cold damage. If the target is subject to the effect of the wraith's Deathly Cold trait it cannot regain hit points until that effect ends for the target.
Reactions
Frozen Tomb. When the wraith deals at least 5 cold damage to a creature restrained by the wraith's Deathly Cold trait, that creature must succeed on a DV 15 Constitution saving throw or become petrified until it is no longer restrained by Deathly Cold. While petrified in this way the target has vulnerability to bludgeoning damage instead of resistance, and always counts as being within the wraith's Rime Cursed Aura.
Rimewraith
These wretched undead consist of the resentful victims of deadly cold and exposure where necromantic energies swell, animated only by endless torment and a consuming desire to inflict their ceaseless misery upon others. Rimewraiths dwell in the icy reaches that spawned them, forever bound to the frost and snow responsible for their death, left wracked with bottomless agony vascillating between miserable, piercing cold and the creeping numbness of their final moments alive.
The more fortunate among these damned are able to enjoy a temporary peace in places where winter yields to warmth, their unlives melting away with the ice they are inexorably condemned to until the seasons turn once more, dragging them from transient reprieves back into the frigid hell that spawned them.
Fresh Rimewraiths whose humanity has not yet succumbed to their torments may be occasionally capable of fleeting moments of reason and compassion, particularly when it comes to dealing with those who they knew in life, but such instances are few and far in between, and their underlying instinct to snuff out life quickly and inevitably overwhelms save for the strongest willed among them.
A cruel irony of their new state is that the Rimewraiths now instinctively shun and fear the heat and flames that could have brought them solace in life, recoiling from fire and avoiding warmth whenever possible, finding it anathema, even as they writhe and suffer in the sensation of perpetual cold. Thus, bonfires and other open flames can be effective deterrants save for the most crazed and wrathful among them.
Combat Tactics
Fresh Rimewraiths are typically simple minded when they aggress, acclimatizing to their new, hellish unlife as they rage and seek to lash out by the most direct and straightforward means available. Those that have acclimatized to their agony are much more dangerous, often acting like cunning predators capable of employing at least basic tactics to ambush and surprise the living they hate and resent, particularly those they might see as being a challenge otherwise.
Typically Rimewraiths will open a combat by casting Sleet Storm, including as many enemies as possible within its area as well as itself. As they do not suffer any adverse effects of Sleet Storm, including the obscuration it creates, and the area of the spell counts as being part of the wraith's Rime Cursed Aura it is invaluable for them to cast and maintain. Gust of Wind is typically used only when the wraith has lost concentration on Sleet Storm and it seeks to snuff flames, control an area, isolate a foe, or push one into a hazard.
The wraith will either try to attack enemies caught in Sleet Storm's area with advantage due to them being either prone or unable to see it through heavy obscurement, or it will cast Ice Storm or Rime's Binding Ice on as many enemies as possible, again not caring if it is caught in its own spell areas. If it cannot target multiple enemies, it will use Gravechill Touch. It particularly hates characters using fire and will prioritize slaying them. If all else is equal it will prioritize the most heavily injured creatures. Whenever possible it will seek to use the Frozen Tomb reaction to petrify an enemy, ignoring a frozen foe until they are broken free.
Using Rimewraiths as a GM
Rimewraiths can be challenging enemies if their Fear of Fire trait is not diligently exploited, particularly if it gets to cast Sleet Storm from stealth before battle commences due to their ability to ignore its effects. Using more than one or two in a combat is generally not recommended due to how disruptive Sleet Storm can be.
In combat venues with dangerous hazards such as cliffs, pitfalls and slippery and thin ice, Rimewraiths can punch significantly above their CR weight with clever use of Gust of Wind so be mindful of that.
In general Rimewraiths offer an enemy that features a very different threat profile from most in the bestiary, heavily focused on movement disrupting control effects.
Credits:
- Image 1: Grim Harvest by Alex Konstad
- Image 2: The Others by Magali Villaneuve
- Brew by Surrealistik
