Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Wraith 

Hahahaha, that was funny! With his special alchemy powers he could also turn you into a zombie.

I once trapped and ate a Lore Beast, it had an indescribable flavor.

@@AJPickett Slightly knowledgey I would imagine.

@@AJPickett like Pink Slime?

They can take your soul from their cold, dead hands. :)

one last caress?

@@kylejones6984 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-imcHmSUVEvk.html

That sounds like an epic campaign in the making.

That is easy to conceptualize, and intuitive in how the corporeality vs incorporeality is determined by the hit points. Novel, yet simple & clean idea.

*Even a man who has nothing can still offer his life* _Warhammer 40K_

The Nazgul may be wraiths but not all wraiths are Nazgul. The Nazgul were just special because of the process that led them to where they are, not the actual end result. Also death knights have fairly strong wills and will follow their own goals. The Nazgul are famously enslaved to Sauron's will. They have the autonomy to decide how to do so but they literally cannot act of their own accord. His ambitions are their ambitions. So yeah, they are more than just physically insubstantial. As to Sauron...he is more like a demon. The devils may be evil but they still have a role in creation. They add to it. Ultimately demons bring ruin to all they touch, like Sauron did.

@@jacobfreeman5444 Sauron’s status I feel ultimately comes down to when we’re looking at him. If we’re talking about Sauron in the 3rd Age, absolutely he is a demon. He’s only a shell of his former self, with no personality, and motivated purely by spite. But any time before this and we encounter a categorically different being. The Sauron of the 1st and 2nd Ages is a neurotic, bureaucratic tyrant obsessed with rules, organization, and central planning to the point of micromanagement. This is 100% the description of a devil.

@@redtexan7053 Coming back to this I agree. There is even some precedent for devils to fall into being demons, so Sauron certainly could have made such a jump.

Agreed. I also love the idea of the barbarian smashing it with a massive warhammer and the body just flying apart but the Wraith is still there, blinking red eyes at the sudden freedom from the burden of a corporeal body.

Yikes! That is a great recurring villain. I would have a famous yet distant prophet or soothsayer or village palm reader inform the party with a cryptic statement that warns of the Axes Dark Heart feeding it's freedom... if it keeps on draining life, it will eventually gain the power to break free of the gem and rise again, or perhaps animate a corpse as a Lich, the gem now serving at its phylactery!

@@AJPickett That was about the path it was heading down. Group is on pause, as two members are currently deployed to Iraq. It's gonna be fun when they get back. :) Thanks for the extra angle either way.

@@ericnox2069 Tell them I say Hi and thanks for their service.

My dude, I used to have depression. My advice is: Get help. Medication and therapy, as well as people around you who care, are going to help you. I don't want more people to experience that kind of pain, since I once did.

@@purplehaze2358 thank you I just don't trust anyone So it's kind of impossible for me to talk to anyone or get help

@@linguisticallyoversight8685 Well, at one point, I felt the same. But, believe me, trustable people are everywhere. Family, friends, and even professionals who's job it is to help people.

Any time you want to chat with me directly, just message me on facebook.

@@AJPickett Or Gmail, since you still seemingly have the link for that in the descriptions of some of your older videos.

Spoilers! :)

Apologies

She conjures him to slay Uther but Arthur gets in the way. Also, the wraith is moved by emotion, attacks recklessly and extinguishes fire with his presence, all like in this video. Magical fire.

Mr L more spoilers... River Song is going to kill us.

Sure did!

Thanks Not a Dog, I certainly appreciate information like that, it helps me improve and learn (and it lets me know I was not boring you with Lord of the Rings stuff, I worry about that as it is literally close to home for me here in New Zealand)

AJ Pickett Anyone who gets bored by Tolkien doesn’t appreciate the history/origin of Western High Fantasy.

Acid Wraith obviously killed himself while on LSD.

@@stefanb6539 So the voidwraith is some evil twisted guy who died during erotic asphyxiation?

@@abdullahalghanimi379 Sounds legit to me.

It depends on type of death and the feelings associated with the death. Spell Wraiths were casters that died burning themselves out with their magic (or created by a ritual), Acid Wraiths dies by acid, Void Wraiths were killed by something that could be considered “void” death in Wildspace or being exposed to a rift into the Negative Energy Plane or died in total despair or emotionlessness.

Dunno if anyone cares but if you are stoned like me during the covid times you can watch pretty much all of the latest movies on InstaFlixxer. Have been streaming with my brother these days xD

Snorri Sturluson should rise from the grave and sue the Tolkien estate for blatant Plagiarism! ;)

AJ Pickett Excelent response. He probably had to Google Snorri.

@@gamerguyriyad As did I.

@@AJPickett - Sturluson - 12th century; Tolkien - 20th century; D&D - 20th century How soon is too soon. ;) :P

Why do you think they changed them to Incorporeal in 2nd edition AD&D?

I meant in the 5e stat block. I just checked out of curiosity and it is incorporeal, which is as it should be. I think the Sword Wraith in Mordenkainen's Tome is not Incorporeal.

Thanks for your excellent comment in the Poll thread Joshua, that gave me some excellent questions to answer with the video.

Happy birthday MysterFresko Fean, I hope it is a critical success.

Thank you sir! With the advantage I got from your inspirational video I'm sure it will be ♡

Indeed

Tatsusama Yup. Mumra is now cannon in D&D.

Yes, I just thought it was a really cool picture :) (I had to leave out about 25% of the artwork I gathered in preparation for this video)

@@AJPickett It was a pretty badass picture😁

You could have it so that their armor class is 10 plus their Wisdom or Constitution bonus, or just 10 plus whatever enchantment bonus a magic item or armor provides.

both are similar but different

Because she is a hack? I dunno, I've never read any of her books.

Typical rebranding used by the unimaginative trying to be creative.

Dementors have some light differences in that they're a different species of creature, not an undead. That and there's no need for all of the "weak to holy water" and "weak to silver" crap because Harry Potter is a much more succinct piece of literature where there's no real focus on something like combat unless it comes up naturally in the plot, so spending time describing fighting several dementors was just something that never came up. Mostly because nobody was stupid enough to put themselves in that kind of situation. There's also the fact that the only similar trait a Dementor has to a wraith is the ability to 'siphon lifeforce' which is actually a lot more vague than what Dementor actually does; simply consume a person's soul. The biggest reason would've been related to that, as the process through which Dementors eat souls is related to powerful themes in Harry Potter. Having to do with subtle and few descriptions on negative and positive emotions and their overall importance. Oh, and the Dementors don't really have that big of a role in the overall story. To summarize, she needed a facsimile of the wraith without a bunch of their normal traits and adjusted versions of their most notable. At that point, calling them something different just feels more honest to me.

Cause if you make something new and similar yet bend it a bit to your own creation, then you do not have nerds attacking you going "gnaaaa they don't have that power! It says right here on pg 123 that blah blah blah."

Nobody liked that, ever.

Viztag Kuul it’s a Bose-Einstein condensate. Practically intangible and cold as fuck.

Liquid Eville

AJ Pickett Liquid Evil?? You talking about Jägermeister??

You get a little wraith in your mouth. You've never been so drunk in your entire life.

They can be.

What's Corporeal?

@@docop8926 Solid bodied, instead of immaterial

I am stoked, really looking forward to it, and that looked very much like a spelljammer ship in the sky.

Null Void It could be that the internal process takes days for the tadpole to complete, and the final transformation is like going from 99% to 100% on a load screen. As soon as the tadpole is fully booted up, it takes control and transforms the host into a victim. Otherwise, we’ve just witnessed Illithid evolution. They’ve adapted to convert hosts at an accelerated rate to mitigate vulnerability during gestation.

@@Im-Not-a-Dog , both of your theories are terrifying and I don't know which one I'm more afraid of!

@@AJPickett , I almost forgot about the ship!

AJ Pickett Something else I’ve realized is that since this is an official 5E game, they now have to make an official ruling on whether psionics/psychics are a form of magic for 5E or not. They’ve kind of left it ambiguous up to this point by still calling Mind Flayers psionic but offering no mechanic or differentiation between what constitutes psionic powers from spells that deal psychic damage or effect the mind of the target. We get to see how they deal with it in a campaign where Illithids are the main antagonists. Does a Ring Of Mind Shielding stop Mind Flayers from breaching one’s mind? Does an Anti-Magic Field prevent psionic abilities? Does Dispel Magic cure Ilithid mind control the same way it does for charm spells like Dominate Person? These are the questions that come to my mind now that the Mind Flayers are taking the main stage for the new game.

Yep. :)

Lol I thought he was more like a lich.

more accurate to say he's a fallen angel

@@benthomason3307basically a shape shifting feind.

Mithril perhaps? I have seen lore that says this is actually star metal.

@@AJPickett Hmmmm, maybe. Kinda depends on whether it is really mystical or just supernaturally better as a metal.

Tolkien likewise was not a fan of Gygax; based the character of Grishnákh on him after seeing the young Gygax throw a tantrum. ;)

Gygax built his empire on Tolkien's colossal intellectual back. His lore is confusing, cherrypicked, and entirely arbitrary - he could have greatly benefitted from one of the Tolkiens as an editor at the very least.

I put a picture of him fighting there in the video :) There was a lot of plot going on between Gandalf, Saruman and Sauron before it all boiled over into open warfare, with Sarumon hunting for the One Ring just as hard as Sauron was and Gandalf cautiously manipulating events to kind of keep Saruman distracted from his search. In the end, Saruman's fate was inevitable.

@@AJPickett ah gotcha. I always wondered at what point Saruman decided to work against his colleagues. He was once a good sort I believe, but maybe that weakness was always there. I believe the Samilrion(sp?) Once stated when the wizards first came to middle earth, even then Galadriel wanted Gandalf to lead them over Saruman.

They are pretty much just wights and a few zombies I think.

The rock in the puddle Wraith did not make the cut.

Bummer I thought that looked like a wraith

I think GG did get inspiration from The Hobbit books.

The forces of light are EXTREMELY powerful, most of the time we don't mention that the worlds are a patchwork of protectorates, with Harpers, Lords Alliance, adventuring guilds, clerical orders, knights, good-aligned races that are less common but no less active than the civilised races, the aquatic races, outer planar travellers, Underdark races, and the frequent two and fro traffic from people being raised from the dead to carry on their quests... it is a dynamic world and just as dangerous for the forces of evil, more so because they don't generally benefit from teamwork and alliances.

Also remember the stronger creatures are more rare. This is why it is such a big deal to discover a lich. This is a singularly powerful being that most have little to no knowledge about. And evil beings tend to be backstabbing. Thus evil tends to be self limiting. Your common person almost never meets anything more interesting than a kobold or goblin. Sides, why would most people go looking for trouble? When a beastie they can't beat eats someone most would just agree to not go to where they found it anymore. Having adventurers show up to deal with it would almost a god given miracle.

@@jacobfreeman5444 or devil given curse

@@cypher4783 Yes, there is a lot of "Everything was fine before you turned up and stirred up trouble" attitude towards some adventurers.

I don't think I will ever be finished with the infernals, and Elminster needs more coats of flame retardant paint before I bring him out in public.

Chris Walker you are my soul reaver raziel

I enjoy this type of video layout

Yep, you're right.

Definitely Noob Saibot more than Scorpion, but both were raised under vengence.

@@NanoMayTry Beat me to it. Here's your like. ;)