# D&D General Monster ENCyclopedia: Will-o'-wisp



## Shiroiken

I have to say, I think Will-o-Wisps being undead makes for a very simple and effective design, but I personally prefer them being a form of evil fey spirit.


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## Hexmage-EN

That is....significantly more information about will ' wisps than I expected there to be. Makes me more interested to use one, though. Thanks for the stellar work as always!


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## Richards

I am constantly amazed by the amount of effort you put into these articles, Echohawk.  Another brilliant entry into the series.

Johnathan


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## Celebrim

So many of the good content creators that made it worthwhile to come to EnWorld and learn things have left, that your articles are like the best thing on the forums any more.  I wish I could give you a 1000 likes.


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## GDGD

Shiroiken said:


> I have to say, I think Will-o-Wisps being undead makes for a very simple and effective design, but I personally prefer them being a form of evil fey spirit.



I agree. There's a dearth of fey opponents in D&D while there's an overabundance of undead. Plus, having an evil fey hanging out with the undead makes for a nice encounter mix as they aren't susceptible to being turned.


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## Rabulias

Echohawk said:


> _A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords_ has a will-o’-wisp that is described as ancient and feeble, as it has not fed in some time. It tries to lure visitors to a nearby sandling lair. The illustration accompanying this encounter shows two incongruously underdressed adventurers fighting a sandling while the will-o’-wisp waits to feed on whoever dies first.​



The adventurers in the illustration are not underdressed without reason - in that module, PCs start out as prisoners of the Slave Lords (hence the title) with nothing more than loincloths, IIRC.


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## Tonguez

I love willowisp as dark fey and in 3.5e made myself a Willowisp Psion PC (telekinesis to overcome no hands and thus gain the ability to lock doors).

I too am impressed at your research @Echohawk, I had absolutely no idea there were so many variations on the irrlicht theme, especially the Hound and Raging fiend variants - absolutely  mindboggling just how much can be done with a glowing puff of swamp gas


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## Weiley31

Echohawk said:


> The article _If You Wish Upon a Star…_ in _Dragon #146_, lists a will-o’-wisp as one of the creatures that could occupy a magic item and grant wishes to the possessor of that item. The accompanying text makes it clear that these would be unusual examples of their kind, as wisps cannot typically grant wishes.






Echohawk said:


> In _ALQ4: Secrets of the Lamp_, will-o’-wisps are included in a list of creatures that might be servants or companions of djinn.



Honestly, if they can be a companion option for Djinns then it isn't surprising that after "years" of service to one, said Will-o-Wisp was either taught or learned how to grant wishes.

_I mean, the likelihood of something like that happening is EXTREMELY rare though._


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## Voadam

The changing types and general lack of narrative description in the core books has always been a little weird. 5e going undead and being from dead souls felt like a big change in D&D lore for them to me.


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## Weiley31

I'm *SO USED *to Will-o-Wisps being depicted as just a floating, glowing orbs of light, that _ACTUALLY_ seeing these as variant options for how they "could" potentially look is just awesome and really starts getting the gears going. _Also, some interesting naming conventions._







Another fantastic article @Echohawk.


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## Weiley31

Also: _When the Will-o-Wisp decides to wear armor._


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## GuyBoy

This article, like this whole series, is fantastic. Thank you!


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## LuisCarlos17f

_Could a pokeball be used to catch a hound of law by a pokemon trainer? I was only asking._


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## Tonguez

LuisCarlos17f said:


> _Could a pokeball be used to catch a hound of law by a pokemon trainer? I was only asking._





Absolutely


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## EthanSental

Man I enjoy the detail and knowledge in these articles,  Thanks!


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## Garrann

Fantastic job as always, thanks! One of the best series of articles on the site.


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## sevenbastard

Echohawk said:


> Clearly one of the wisps from _CR4: Deck of Encounters, Set One_ has emigrated to a more profitable D&D product!I




I copied this to quote and had something funny to say but that was three hours ago when I first started reading this and I forgot.

Great article, and a two for one with all the Boggart info. 

Well educational and funny.


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## Zaukrie

Another amazing entry. Wow.


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## Ramaster

"In Brazil wisps are the fiery eyes of a serpent that only eats the eyes of others. Many cultures view will-o’-wisps as some sort of spirit or phantom; one Columbian story, for example, claims a will-o’-wisp is a flaming, ghostly grandmother. It is no surprise that the translation of will-o’-wisp in many languages is “ghost light”."

I haven't finished the whole piece, which I assume is AMAZING as allways, but I think that on this sentence at the begining you meant to say "Colombian" instead of Columbian. "Colombian" meaning from the country "Colombia" instead of the other word, which relates to a place on the US.


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## Echohawk

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I appreciate the support for this series.



Hexmage-EN said:


> That is....significantly more information about will ' wisps than I expected there to be.



Indeed. When I started writing it, I thought this would be one of the shorter entries, but I was surprised at the sheer number of wisp relatives and variants in D&D lore.


Rabulias said:


> The adventurers in the illustration are not underdressed without reason



Of course! I don't know how I missed that. Fixed, thanks.


Voadam said:


> The changing types and general lack of narrative description in the core books has always been a little weird. 5e going undead and being from dead souls felt like a big change in D&D lore for them.



In some ways, the 5th Edition will-o'-wisp circled right back to its roots. It started out as an undead creature (and without any immunity to _magic missile_, etc.) and ended up the same way.


Ramaster said:


> I haven't finished the whole piece, which I assume is AMAZING as allways, but I think that on this sentence at the begining you meant to say "Colombian" instead of Columbian. "Colombian" meaning from the country "Colombia" instead of the other word, which relates to a place on the US.



Fixed, with apologies. Thanks!


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## Voadam

Echohawk said:


> In some ways, the 5th Edition will-o'-wisp circled right back to its roots. It started out as an undead creature (and without any immunity to _magic missile_, etc.) and ended up the same way.



So you demonstrate.  I thought I was fairly familiar with D&D undead lore, and had seen them in the core monster manuals from 1e to 5e from roughly the eras when those books came out and were current edition. I've only seen the Oe stuff in PDF and I was unfamiliar with the specifics of a lot of the secondary sources you cite so the 5e undead nature was a shift for me personally from the non-undead nature I had seen them as.


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## Hussar

Goodgrief.  I had no idea will-o'-wisps had appeared so many times.  I can honestly say, it's one of those monsters I don't think I've ever used or ever remember encountering as a player.  

Must fix that.


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## Toriel

This feels more like a thesis than a regular article . Awesome work!


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