King-Wight

Every king-wight began as a mighty and evil monarch who became undead at death and went on ruling the walking dead. Often that death was deliberate, a sacrifice made to buy a longer existence. It looks like a well-kept corpse, clad in its favorite armor, carrying its favorite weapons and dripping with costly jewelry. By night or under lamplight it can even pass for a living person, but the reek of the grave clings to it and betrays it.

Its fighting style has not changed since its living days. Armor is chain mail +3, and its blade is a sword +2 of any type. As an exceptional human it keeps remarkable attributes: Strength 18/50, Dexterity 17, Constitution 16, Intelligence 15, Wisdom 13, and Charisma 15 when dealing with undead. These scores and its magic items are already reflected in its statistics.

Each successful hit drains two life levels, as a vampire's does, and anyone drained completely rises as a standard wight bound to obey it. It may cast spectral force or confusion at will, one spell per round, and once per day it can teleport, provided the trip begins or ends at its barrow. Creatures below its level who face it must save vs. spells or run in terror.

It is immune to cold, electricity, insanity, death magic, polymorph, enfeeblement, sleep and charm, and only magical weapons can hurt it. Raise dead turns it into an ordinary 12th-level fighter unless it saves vs. spells. Priests turning it use the special column. Destroying a king-wight is dangerous in itself: 4-16 rounds later an earthquake, as the priest spell cast at 14th level, erupts centered on its body, which is especially deadly inside its underground barrow.

Death does not cost a king-wight its court. Loyal warriors it has turned into wights still serve it, and in its barrow it usually commands 4-32 normal wights. It loves to deceive the living, sometimes calling at someone's home to show off its riches and lure heroes into hunting for its lair. It may seem gracious and generous, but that is a mask. The king-wight hates parting with a single coin and dangles its wealth only to draw adventurers into the barrow, where it can cut them down or make them its wight slaves.