Wraith 5e: Life Drain, Specters and Fighting Through Walls

A wraith is a CR 5 undead with AC 13, 67 hit points, a 60-foot fly speed and the ability to pass through walls. Its one attack, Life Drain (+6 to hit, 21 necrotic damage), also lowers the target's hit point maximum, and a creature whose maximum hits 0 dies outright with no death saves. Any humanoid that dies near it can come back as one of its specters. In the 2024 rules the hit point drain no longer allows a saving throw, and the wraith resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage even from magic weapons.

Table of Contents

• •Wraith Stat Block (2014)
• •The Wraith in the 2024 Rules
• •How the Wraith Fights
• •Running a Wraith Encounter
• •How Players Beat a Wraith
• •Wraith Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Wraith Stat Block (2014)

This is the wraith from SRD 5.1, identical to the 2014 Monster Manual version.

AC 13 is low for CR 5, but the resistance line makes up for it: bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren't silvered. Against a party swinging ordinary, non-silvered weapons, every sword and arrow deals half damage, so the wraith's 67 hit points behave like 134. Add resistance to acid, cold, fire, lightning and thunder plus immunity to necrotic and poison, and a level 5 party can discover that half its damage options barely scratch it.

The condition immunities are just as telling. It can't be grappled, restrained, knocked prone or paralyzed, so the usual ways to pin a flier down do nothing. Its weakest saving throw is Strength (−2), and none of its saves are proficient.

The Wraith in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 keeps the wraith's CR, AC, hit points and attack numbers but changes how its drain and its defenses work.

What those changes do at the table:

• •Every hit drains. A 2014 fighter with a good Constitution save shrugs off the drain about two times in three. A 2024 fighter loses maximum hit points on every hit. The reduction ends when the character finishes a Long Rest, which the 2024 rest rules spell out ("If your Hit Point maximum was reduced, it returns to normal").
• •Magic weapons stop solving the problem. In 2014, a +1 sword or a silvered weapon deals full damage. In 2024, all bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage is halved. Radiant, force, lightning, thunder and psychic damage become the party's real tools.
• •More corpses qualify. The 2014 wraith can only raise specters from humanoids that "died violently." The 2024 version accepts any Humanoid corpse less than a minute old, which removes the DM's need to rule on what counts as violent.

How the Wraith Fights

The wraith has one attack, so its strength is not damage output. Its strength is that it picks the fight's geometry and the party cannot follow it.

Life Drain math. At +6 to hit against AC 16, the wraith hits on a 10 or higher, 55% of the time, for an average of about 11.6 damage per round. Against AC 18 that drops to 45% and about 9.5 damage. That is modest for CR 5. The drain is what makes it lethal:

• •In 2014, the target makes a DC 14 Constitution save. A level 5 fighter with Con 16 and save proficiency (+6) succeeds on an 8 or higher, 65% of the time. A wizard with Con 14 and no proficiency (+2) needs a 12, so the drain lands 55% of the time.
• •In 2024 there is no save at all.

Run it on a level 5 wizard with 32 hit points, under 2024 rules (or 2014 rules when both saves fail). The first hit deals 21 damage and drops the maximum to 11, leaving 11 hit points. The second hit deals 21 more. Current hit points fall to 0 and the maximum falls to 0 at the same time, and a creature whose hit point maximum reaches 0 dies. No death saving throws, no Revivify window spent at 0 HP. Two hits on a wizard is a dead wizard.

Walls are doors. Incorporeal Movement lets the wraith pass through creatures and objects as difficult terrain, so its 60-foot fly speed buys 30 feet of stone. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage only if it ends its turn inside an object. That cost is cheap. A wraith can start its turn inside a pillar, drift out, drain the cleric, and sink back in. Inside the pillar it has total cover and nobody can target it. Paying 5.5 hit points a round for immunity to the party's next turn is a trade a smart wraith makes every round.

Pick the isolated target. Leaving a creature's reach still provokes opportunity attacks, so the wraith prefers targets with no ally next to them: the archer at the back, the wizard who climbed onto the cart, the rogue scouting ahead. It comes up through the floor beside them, attacks, and goes back down.

Make specters. Create Specter takes the wraith's action, so it only uses it when a humanoid has just died within 10 feet. A dead hireling, a cultist the party cut down or a fallen player character can rise as a specter under its control, up to seven at a time. Specters are CR 1 with 22 hit points and their own Life Drain, and they arrive right where the party is standing. A wraith that has spent a minute fighting next to a crowd of guards ends the minute with an army.

Avoid sunlight and leave when losing. Sunlight gives it Disadvantage on attack rolls, so it hunts at night, in crypts and in mines. Below roughly 20 hit points it flies straight down through the floor. The party has no way to chase it through rock, and it will be back the next night with full hit points.

Running a Wraith Encounter

A lone wraith fits a party of level 4 to 6. Using the 2024 XP budget (SRD 5.2.1), for four characters:

The XP figures understate a wraith with walls to hide in. If the fight takes place somewhere full of thin walls and pillars, treat it as one step harder. If you plan to let it raise specters mid-fight, count the specters it is likely to create in the budget, since each one adds 200 XP of threat that the party didn't see at the start.

Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, which our encounter calculator uses, a single wraith is an Easy fight for four level 5 characters (1,800 XP, just under the 2,000 Medium threshold) and a Hard one for four level 4 characters (Hard starts at 1,500, Deadly at 2,000). Add two specters and the group multiplier doubles the total to 4,400 adjusted XP, exactly the Deadly line at level 5.

How Players Beat a Wraith

Use the damage it doesn't resist. Radiant and force damage always hit full. Spirit Guardians (3d8 radiant per turn for a good or neutral cleric, against the wraith's +2 Wisdom save) is the strongest low-level answer to it. Guiding Bolt deals 4d6 radiant and gives the next attack Advantage, and Magic Missile never misses and deals force damage. Under 2014 rules, lightning and thunder are halved. Under 2024 rules, Lightning Bolt and Shatter deal full damage.

Bring the right weapons for your edition. In 2014, silvered weapons or any magic weapon ignore its weapon resistance, so a few silvered arrows (the cost is in the 2014 Player's Handbook, not the SRD) are worth buying before a crypt crawl. In 2024 none of that helps.

Target Wisdom and Charisma, not Strength. Its −2 Strength save looks tempting, but grappled, restrained, prone and paralyzed are all on its immunity list. Turn Undead (Wisdom save, +2) sends it fleeing for a minute. Under the 2014 rules, Destroy Undead never reaches a CR 5 creature (it tops out at CR 4), so turning is all a cleric gets. Banishment targets its +2 Charisma save.

Spells that fail. Hold Person only targets Humanoids. Hold Monster, Web and Entangle rely on conditions it is immune to. Charm effects don't work on it in either edition. Poison and necrotic damage, including Chill Touch, do nothing.

Protect the low-Con characters. Keep the wizard next to the fighter so leaving provokes an opportunity attack, and fight with a wall at your back rather than in the middle of a room full of pillars. In 2024 Daylight creates real sunlight, giving the wraith Disadvantage on every attack inside a 60-foot sphere. The 2014 Daylight spell makes bright light that is not sunlight and does nothing special to it.

Fix the drain afterward. A Long Rest restores the maximum in both editions. When the party can't rest, the Greater Restoration spell removes any reduction to a creature's hit point maximum.

Wraith Encounter Ideas

The sealed shaft. A copper mine collapsed twenty years ago, and the foreman who ordered the shaft sealed with men still inside is now a wraith. Under 2014 rules, the buried miners died violently, but the minute has long passed, so it has no specters yet. The new owners are reopening the deep tunnels. Every rock wall in the mine is a doorway for the wraith, and the night shift has started disappearing one worker at a time. Each worker it kills in front of the others rises as a specter, so the longer the party waits, the worse it gets.

The midnight hanging. A town has always held executions at dawn and never said why. A new magistrate orders a hanging at midnight to make a point. The wraith comes through the courthouse wall during the sentence, and the hanged prisoner rises as a specter less than a minute later. The party is in the crowd, surrounded by panicking townsfolk who are about to become very good specter material.

Daylight run. The party must carry a reliquary across a marsh to a monastery before sunset. The wraith follows under the tree cover, where the light never quite reaches, and tests them from the shade at noon with Disadvantage. The real attack comes in the last hour before dark. Whether the party pushes on or camps decides which half of the fight they get.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a wraith in 5e?

A wraith is CR 5 and worth 1,800 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 13, 67 hit points and a flying speed of 60 feet.

Does a wraith's Life Drain reduce maximum hit points permanently?

No. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest, and Greater Restoration also removes it. If the drain lowers a creature's hit point maximum to 0, the creature dies, so it can still be fatal before the party gets to rest.

Can a wraith move through walls?

Yes. Incorporeal Movement lets it move through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.

Are wraiths resistant to magic weapons?

In the 2014 rules, no: its resistance only covers nonmagical attacks that aren't silvered. In the 2024 rules, yes: it resists all bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage, magical or not.

What is the difference between a wraith, a specter and a wight?

A specter (CR 1) is a weak incorporeal spirit, and wraiths create and command up to seven of them. A wight (CR 3) is a corporeal undead that fights with swords and bows and also has a Life Drain attack. The wraith (CR 5) sits above both and combines incorporeal movement with the hardest-hitting drain.

How many specters can a wraith control?

Seven at a time. Each one comes from a Humanoid that died within 10 feet of the wraith less than a minute earlier. If you're running a long campaign against a wraith and its specters, Loreify can record your sessions and keep track of who it has claimed so far.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.