Dragonwight

Dragonwights, also known as wight dragons, were a lesser undead form of dragon that were equivalent to wights.

Description
The appearance of dragonwights varied with each individual, with color and features depending upon the type of dragon they were in life. They were often in an advanced state of decomposition due to the time it took to prepare them, giving them a resemblance to zombie dragons, except they had glowing eyes (much like a dracolich) and were typically somewhat spectral.

Behavior
Dragonwights had an average level of intelligence and often had some memories from when they were alive. And much like a standard wight, dragonwights disliked bright lights and would try to avoid them, even though they did no actual harm to them.

Abilities
Dragonwights possessed all the same abilities and weaknesses as normal wights. Such as immunities to cold-based spells and abilities, as well as charm, sleep, and hold spells. And they were unaffected by poisons or paralyzation effects. They could be harmed by holy water. And the only weapons that could harm them were those made of silver or enchanted.

In addition, just like normal wights these creatures drained the life out of their victims with their bite and claws. And those killed by them would arise as wights. Dragons killed by them would arise as free-willed, half-strength dragonwights. Humanoids slain by them would arise as wights, albeit with scaley and draconic features, and would be under the control of the dragonwight. A dragonwight's creator had no control over these wights and when it died they became free-willed.

In terms of dragon abilities, dragonwights lost whatever dragon breath they had in life. Some couldn't fly, while others could, albeit with their maneuverability hampered. And only $1/4$ dragonwights retained the spell-casting abilities they had in life. In addition, like most undead forms of dragon the spell protection from evil was ineffective against them and the spell dragonbane would ward against them.

History
While living in the Temple of the Dragon Oracle, a cell of the Cult of the Dragon performed sorcerous experiments on a black dragon, using one of the original copies of the Tome of the Dragon, and transformed it into a dragonwight. It was one that couldn't fly and did not retain its spell-casting abilities. Over two centuries later, this dragonwight was found to still be living within the ruins of the Temple of the Dragon Oracle in 1358 DR.

Creation
Creating a dragonwight required the intact corpse a dragon that was at least of young adult age when it died, though it could only be that of a true dragon. They were best made from dragons of evil-alignment that were especially vicious or territorial. Such as black, brown, red, topaz, and white dragons.

Creating a dragonwight also required the animate dead spell and a fragment of a wight as an additional material component. It took around two weeks to prepare the body and overall the creation process could cost on average 7,500 gold pieces. During the creation process the dragon's spirit would be infused with power drawn from the Negative Material Plane.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * The Shattered Statue