Corpse Candle

Medium undead, neutral evil

Armor Class 12
Hit Points 55 (10d8 + 10)
Speed fly 50 ft., swim 50 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
6 (-2)	15 (+2)	13 (+1)	13 (+1)	13 (+1)	17 (+3)

Skills Deception +5, Stealth +4
Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages Common, Infernal
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Special Traits

• Incorporeal Movement. The corpse candle can move through other creatures and objects in a body of water as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object or outside its body of water.
• Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, the corpse candle has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Actions

• Watery Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) necrotic damage, and the target’s Strength score is reduced by 1d4. The target dies if this reduces its Strength to 0. Otherwise, the reduction lasts until the target finishes a short or long rest. A humanoid slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a zombie unless the humanoid is restored to life or its body is destroyed.
• Hypnotic Lights. The corpse candle creates a twisting, dancing pattern of ever-shifting colored lights in a 10-foot cube at a point it can see within 60 feet of itself. The pattern appears for a minute then vanishes. Each creature in the area who sees the pattern must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature becomes charmed for 1 minute. While charmed, the creature is incapacitated and has a speed of 0. When a charmed creature takes damage it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on a success. A creature that starts its turn within the 10-foot cube of lights must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or the target’s Constitution score is reduced by 1d4. The target dies if this reduces its Constitution to 0. Otherwise, the reduction lasts until the target finishes a short or long rest.

About

A pale man with hollow eyes looks up impassively from beneath the rippling surface of the dark water, a dim glow gives his form a ghostly translucence.

Corpse candles are formed when creatures are sacrificed by ritualistic drowning to a sea or water deity. The fear of dying coupled with the hatred of the ones performing the ritual infuses the victims’ spirit with energy that often lingers in the area and empowers the corpse with unlife, raising it as a corpse candle. Corpse candles hate the living and have a particular dislike for clerics. Corpse candles are bound to the area of their death in the sense that they cannot leave that particular body of water (be it a sea, river, lake, or ocean).

A corpse candle appears as a translucent image of its living self. Its body shows little, if any, signs of death, though as its “ages”, the corpse candle’s translucence seems to grow faint and fade (as if a light were burning out). Some sages have researched this phenomenon and believe that corpse candles can actually die of old age. Perhaps some remnant of their former lives binds them to the mortal world or perhaps sages are just reaching for answers to some unknown equation.

Corpse candles detest the living and seek to lure wayfarers to their doom using trickery and misdirection. Corpse candles use their ability of deception to lure unsuspecting victims to their doom. When a corpse candle successfully fascinates a creature, it waits until the creature draws near and then attacks relentlessly with its incorporeal claws. Corpse candles are particularly fond of luring sailors, swimmers, and other seafarers to their watery graves by first fascinating them, draining sapping them of their strength, and finally allowing them to drown as the lights sap their vitality. Drowned victims are left as food for any aquatic carnivores in the area.