D&D Monster Spotlight: Will O Wisps 101, Don't Follow the Light (2024)

If your party is lost in a bog at night and you see lights bobbing in the distance, run away. That’s not friendly lanterns, it’s Will O Wisps.

Will-o-the-Wisps have appeared in folklore for much longer than D&D has had us making up fantasy characters and rolling dice. And for the most part they’re not dissimilar. Will-o-the-Wisp refers to a phenomenon where a lantern-like light will appear over swamps, bogs, and marshes. While it’s likely caused by the mixture of chemicals and normal decay creating a bioluminescent adjacent effect, the lights have been blamed on ghosts, faeries, and the paranormal. In the real world, wisps aren’t so magic after all, but in D&D they very much are.

First Edition

Will O Wisps appear as glowing spheres. They are described as looking a little like lanterns or a torchlight dancing in the wind but with a blue, purple, or green tint when engaging in combat. Effectively small spirits, they haunt deserted – and usually pretty dangerous places like swamps and catacombs – where naturally occurring traps aren’t uncommon. When an adventurer finds themselves trapped in quicksand the Will O Wisps will feed on them. So in effect, they are trying to lure victims to their doom like horrible dry angler fish.

Second Edition

Usually found on their own, Will O Wisps will rarely be seen in groups of more than three. When that’s the case they will work together, using all of their combined color-changing, lighting up, and going dark abilities to trick and disorient victims into traps. When working together like this they communicate optically, using changes in color and brightness. A few Will O Wisps have mastered simple bits of audible language. They have a ghostly-sounding whisper of a voice when “speaking” to their victims. If I was lost in a bog and barely avoiding quicksand with twinkling lights coming in and out of vision around me, a ghostly whisper in my ear would probably be enough to end me. Will O Wisps are nightmare fuel. Yet they themselves are very small and have limited ways to directly harm their prey.

Third Edition

Will O Wisps aren’t limited to luring their victims into sticky situations. When they want to or have to engage in combat they use small electric charges. These act as melee attacks and do 2d8 of shock damage. They are also immune to most spells, only affected by magic circles against chaos, evil, magic missile, maze, and protections from evil and chaos. And that’s only if you can recognize that you’re seeing Will O Wisps instead of fireflies, far-off lanterns, or optical illusions. Not to mention they may have made themselves invisible.

Fourth Edition

Will O Wisps aren’t just tiny light balls that want to lure you to your death and drain your spirit. They are also attracted to the sounds of battle. In turn, they attract other fey creatures, undead, and predators intelligent enough to take advantage of the Will O Wisp’s lures. On their own, these creatures can be challenging or even scary. But a knowledgeable adventurer who knows what they are looking at would easily be able to recognize and avoid these dangers, much like the Fire Swamp. But this addition makes them pitfalls of danger. Sure, you may see whispering flickering lights and know to turn the other way. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t more aggressive fey or undead just around the bend.

Fifth Edition

Here we learn that new Will O Wisps can be formed when evil beings die in the lures that previous Will O Wisps have laid out. They can come from other places as well, but when an evil creature dies in anguish or misery in forsaken lands with powerful magic energy, their souls become trapped, luring other creatures into a similar fate as them. At first, Will O Wisps felt chaotic and almost random. They were listed as evil, but you could be tricked by one, or not. Throughout the editions, they’ve slowly evolved, and become more malicious. They’re an interesting ghost story within a campaign. But as an encounter maybe a little one-note without much in the way of complexity or motivation.

Have you encountered a Will O Wisp? Were they flanked by other awful monsters, or did you just have to get away from the pretty lights? Let us know in the comments!

Happy Adventuring!