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If your occasion is misplaced in a lavatory at evening and also you see lights bobbing within the distance, run away. That’s not pleasant lanterns, it’s Will O Wisps.
Will-o-the-Wisps have appeared in folklore for for much longer than D&D has had us making up fantasy characters and rolling cube. And for essentially the most half they’re not dissimilar. Will-o-the-Wisp refers to a phenomenon the place a lantern-like mild will seem over swamps, bogs, and marshes. While it’s seemingly brought on by the combination of chemical compounds and regular decay making a bioluminescent adjoining impact, the lights have been blamed on ghosts, faeries, and the paranormal. In the true world, wisps aren’t so magic in spite of everything, however in D&D they very a lot are.
First Edition
Will O Wisps seem as glowing spheres. They are described as trying a bit of like lanterns or a torchlight dancing within the wind however with a blue, purple, or inexperienced tint when partaking in fight. Effectively small spirits, they hang-out abandoned – and often fairly harmful locations like swamps and catacombs – the place naturally occurring traps aren’t unusual. When an adventurer finds themselves trapped in quicksand the Will O Wisps will feed on them. So in impact, they’re attempting to lure victims to their doom like horrible dry angler fish.
Second Edition
I do know their description doesn’t go away an artist loads to work with however come on.
Usually discovered on their very own, Will O Wisps will hardly ever be seen in teams of greater than three. When that’s the case they are going to work collectively, utilizing all of their mixed color-changing, lighting up, and going darkish talents to trick and disorient victims into traps. When working collectively like this they convey optically, utilizing modifications in colour and brightness. Just a few Will O Wisps have mastered easy bits of audible language. They have a ghostly-sounding whisper of a voice when “speaking” to their victims. If I used to be misplaced in a lavatory and barely avoiding quicksand with twinkling lights coming out and in of imaginative and prescient round me, a ghostly whisper in my ear would most likely be sufficient to finish me. Will O Wisps are nightmare gas. Yet they themselves are very small and have restricted methods to straight hurt their prey.
Third Edition
Will O Wisps aren’t restricted to luring their victims into sticky conditions. When they wish to or have to interact in fight they use small electrical fees. These act as melee assaults and do 2d8 of shock injury. They are additionally resistant to most spells, solely affected by magic circles towards chaos, evil, magic missile, maze, and protections from evil and chaos. And that’s provided that you may acknowledge that you just’re seeing Will O Wisps as an alternative of fireflies, far-off lanterns, or optical illusions. Not to say they might have made themselves invisible.
Fourth Edition
Will O Wisps aren’t simply tiny mild balls that wish to lure you to your dying and drain your spirit. They are additionally interested in the sounds of battle. In flip, they appeal to different fey creatures, undead, and predators clever sufficient to benefit from the Will O Wisp’s lures. On their very own, these creatures might be difficult and even scary. But a educated adventurer who is aware of what they’re would simply have the ability to acknowledge and keep away from these risks, very like the Fire Swamp. But this addition makes them pitfalls of hazard. Sure, you might even see whispering flickering lights and know to show the opposite approach. But that doesn’t imply that there aren’t extra aggressive fey or undead simply across the bend.
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Fifth Edition
Here we study that new Will O Wisps might be fashioned when evil beings die within the lures that earlier Will O Wisps have laid out. They can come from different locations as nicely, however when an evil creature dies in anguish or distress in forsaken lands with highly effective magic vitality, their souls turn out to be trapped, luring different creatures into the same destiny as them. At first, Will O Wisps felt chaotic and nearly random. They have been listed as evil, however you can be tricked by one, or not. Throughout the editions, they’ve slowly advanced, and turn out to be extra malicious. They’re an fascinating ghost story inside a marketing campaign. But as an encounter perhaps a bit of one-note with out a lot in the best way of complexity or motivation.
Have you encountered a Will O Wisp? Were they flanked by different terrible monsters, or did you simply should get away from the beautiful lights? Let us know within the feedback!
Happy Adventuring!
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