Winter-Wight

A winter-wight is a humanoid skeleton encased in thick, glassy ice everywhere except its bare skull. The ice serves as its frozen flesh, and long, jagged shards jut from its hands as claws. Angered, the creature's skull bursts into a halo of black flame. Despite its frozen shell, it moves as freely as any living thing.

Two claw swipes per round deal 5d4 apiece, but the true threat is blackfire. Anyone the wight touches erupts in midnight-colored cold flame that burns life force instead of wood. Each round it burns, the victim rolls 1d20, modified by the Constitution hit point adjustment (anyone may use the warrior column). An 11 or better means no loss that round as the flame sinks lower, and three such successes in a row snuff it. A failure costs 1d2 Constitution, temporarily, with the matching hit points and abilities. At Constitution 0 the victim dies, leaving a blackened, crumbling skeleton in untouched clothing, and not even a wish can return it.

The flames leap to any other living creature that approaches within 2 feet of a burning victim unless it saves vs. death magic. They cannot be smothered, but they go out inside an anti-magic shell, cannot burn someone under negative plane protection, and are blown out by an energetic blast such as fireball or lightning bolt of 8 dice or more (the victim takes its damage). Lost Constitution returns at one point per hour.

By pulling water from the air, the wight regenerates 1d19+3 hit points each round, until it is reduced to -10 or lower. Physical attacks deal it half damage, while fire and heat deal double. Turned as special undead, it ignores cold, poison, death magic, charm, hold and sleep.

A scheming demilich created these undead in his hunt for power, and at first thought a creature that could burn away life with a touch was the peak of the necromantic art. He soon judged them too physical for his secret aims and posted them as sentries, some in a cursed sleeping city and some in his own lair.

The demilich forged winter-wights out of weaker undead, steeping them in intensified negative energy radiation while performing powerful binding and animating rites.