Necromancers of the Northwest / Monsters / Exotic Encounters

Exotic Encounters: Will o' Wisps (PFRPG) PDF

Necromancers of the Northwest

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Exotic Encounters: Will o' Wisps (PFRPG) PDF

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There are all kinds of reasons why you might not want to use a monster stat-block straight from the core rules. For one thing, if your players have a habit of browsing through such books, or are long-time veterans who know the basic ins and outs of most fantasy staples, you may need an unusual stat-block just to throw them a curve ball and teach them that they can’t count on their out of character knowledge to take all the mystery out of the game. Alternatively, many GMs can recall a time when they wanted to make use of a certain monster in their game, only to find that it was a few CRs too high or low for what they had in mind.

Exotic Encounters takes a single, iconic monster, and creates three new variants on that theme. These variants aren’t simple tweaks, and are more than simply advancing or removing Hit Dice, though that occurs as well. Each of these three variations on the monster’s theme has a specific, flavorful goal in mind, and a role to play, and their statistics entries are gently massaged in order to make them fit those roles. Further, each of these variants comes with brand new specially-crafted special abilities, which are unique to Exotic Encounters and not found anywhere else.

This particular installment of Exotic Encounters focuses on will-o’-wisps. While these mysterious creatures of the swamplands are mostly known for their tendency to lead victims on wild goose chases into dangerous situations, the fact of the matter is that Pathfinder will-o’-wisps are built more for mobile beaters with ridiculously high attack, damage, AC, and maneuverability (plus constant invisibility) than they are for being elusive or tricky. While all of these will-o’-wisps can certainly hold their own in a fight, we aimed to capture a bit more of the essence of the wisp. The first result was the wispling (CR 2), a smaller, weaker version of the will-o’-wisp that can instill fear on opponents with its unnerving touch and ghostly lights abilities, and then bask in that fear with their feast on fear ability. The next new will-o’-wisp is the dark guide will-o’-wisp (CR 9), whose guidelights ability compels those who see it to follow it, regardless of where it takes them. These corrupted will-o’-wisps feed on death, more than fear, and lead travelers to early graves in order to sup on their last breaths. Finally, the devil’s eye will-o’-wisp (CR 13) appears at first to be a simple cloud of illuminated marsh gas, but, in fact, has numerous powers, including its maddening witchlight and its terrifying ability to split into multiple creatures.

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Stay out of the swamps

Eric Hinkle — Aug 18, 2013, 11:27 am

And off the moors, away from graveyards, or anywhere else these haunting horrors can find you!

Exotic Encounters: Will-O'-Wisps is a nine page PDF that offers three variants on the typical will-o'-wisp. It has 1 page for the cover, 1 for the credits, 1 for introduction, 2 for the OGL, and for the 1 back cover. That leave three full pages for the new monsters, and here we go.

Necromancer Games argues that the original legendary wisp was meant to be an elusive trickster guiding people to their doom, but the Pathfinder one is more of a very mobile beater with high damage, nasty spell resistance, and a very good AC. Here they offer us three versions of the wisp that try to get back to its mythic roots.

First up is the CR2 Wispling, basically a weaker (younger?) version of the Bestiary wisp. It does have some nice tricks of its own, such as an ability to use ghostly lights that can leave you shaken and a fear-inducing damaging cold touch. It also feeds on fear in a 30-ft radius, inflicting negative energy damage to its prey that heals and buffs the wispling proper. And it has a different version of the full-grown wisp's spell resistance that's not invulnerable but still scary for low-level PCs. They look to me like nice nasty surprises to put into a ghoul-haunted cemetery or the like. You might want to only use a few, though, unless you want to wipe out an entire adventuring party -- their feed on fear ability can be nasty.

Next is the CR9 Dark Guide Will o' Wisp. It feeds on death rather than fear, and can create ghostly lights that act as a lure to draw victims in closer. The lights work better on people suffering from fear, and the dark guide can inflict fear with its touch (which also does more damage than a normal wisp!) to soften you up for its attempt to lure you into whatever hazard it means to use against you. It also has a rather unique feature in that it's immune to divination spells.

Lastly is the CR 13 Devil's Eye Will-o-Wisp. It lacks the spell immunity of its weaker cousins but that's virtually the only good thing from a PC's view of this tiny horror. But it can reflect magic that doesn't penetrate its spell resistance, even when it's not directly targeted (Have your fireball back, wizard!). It has several nasty spell-like abilities, a potent shocking touch attack, the ability to drain life to restore itself, and can cause confusion among viewers. Oh, and it can create up to six copies that can use that shocking touch on you as well. This creature will definitely put the fear of wisps back into a high-level group.

This PDF promised three spooky and scary variants on one of my favorite legendary monsters, the will-o'-wisp, and it delivered. It's a good bargain for the price. Five stars!

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Eric Hinkle

Aug 18, 2013, 11:56 am

I just recently got this one, and it's a very fine bargain for the price. Three great monsters for all levels of play for only a dollar! Anything else that needs to be said can be read in my review.