July 14, 2025 • 13 mins
Today we’re digging into an interesting illusionist spell, Wraithform. Found on page 69 of Unearthed Arcana, this third-level illusion turns the caster and their gear into an insubstantial, ghostlike form. I break down what it does, how to use it, and the sneaky power it gives illusionists. We’re talking wall-slipping, trap-dodging, undead-fooling mischief. Can’t attack in this form, but that’s not the point. If you want to float past danger or become nightmare fuel for low-level guards, this is your tool.
#ADnD #Wraithform #UnearthedArcana #IllusionistMagic
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:18):
Hey, good morning and welcome back to the podcast, Evil
Dungeon Master AD and D UniversePodcast.
Hey, I said it right today, EvilDungeon Masters AD and D
Universe podcast. I'm your host, Evil Dungeon
Master Vince. Today is another day.
It's another week and we go further into July and it's less
than, I don't know, less than a month, less than a couple weeks,
(00:41):
two weeks until Gen. Con.
If you're going to Gen. Con, let me know in the
comments. Let me know, ask the DM at the
evil the evil dm.com. What's my e-mail address?
And let me know if you're going to Gen.
Con, because I am going to Gen. Con.
And be nice to meet up with people who listen or provide
feedback or anything to this podcast because you know, it's
all about you. So that with that out of the
(01:03):
way, let's go into everythingelsetheevildm.com is
my website. patreon.com/the EvilDM is my support site.
As I announced the other day, I'm going to be I started
getting back into handwriting orhandwriting writing by hand
inside my journal. I haven't done this in quite
(01:24):
some time because I don't know, I just don't like to write that
often. But in the last week or so, I've
been kind of jotting down thingsinside of AGM journal and or DM
journal. I'm not sure what I want to call
it these days. And it's been a lot of fun.
I just, I've just been jotting down ideas like I did back in
the day when I was, you know, going places and had a little
(01:44):
notebook in my back pocket. And I'm thinking about maybe
sharing the pages of chaos and stupidity in my case and my
Patreon. So those that are on my Patreon
can get a sneak peek at the journal.
I don't know if it's going to be, you know, anything
worthwhile to people, but I heard some people wanted to see
(02:05):
things like that and procedures and whatever else.
So if you're a Patreon member and you're listening to this, I
appreciate everyone of you and those that are members.
Please look forward to that in the next week or so.
Today's topic, let's get into that.
Turning to page 69, dude, in theUnearthed Arcana Arcana,
(02:27):
whatever you want to call it, wehave Wraith form.
Yes, the Wraith form a third level illusionist spell that you
gain upon fifth level. So this may look like a dull or
boring spell, but it actually isvery valuable when you think
about it. And it only applies to the
illusionist. Its range is 0 and it's 2 rounds
(02:49):
per level, so that's at least 2 minutes per level.
The components are semantic and material.
Yeah, I think time is 1 segment.No saving throw, because the
area of effect is just the illusionist.
When this spell is cast, the illusionist and all of his or
her gear become insubstantial. The caster can now only be hit
(03:11):
by magical weapons of plus one or better, or by creatures
otherwise able to affect those struck only by magic weapons.
Undead of most sorts will ignorean individual in Wraith form,
believing him or her to be a Wraith or specter through though
a lich or a special quote UN quote undead may save versus
(03:34):
spell at 4:00 to recognize the spell being passed.
The illusionist while in this form will be able to pass
through small holes, narrow openings, and even mere cracks
with with all he or she wears orholds in his or her hands as
long as the spell is persistent.No form of attack is possible in
(03:58):
rays form, except against creatures which exist on the
Ethereal plane, where all attacks both ways are normal.
The spell illusion and dispelledmagic are the only ways to force
an illusionist in ray form back to normal form.
The spellcaster can return to normal form at will, but this
(04:18):
ends the spell effect. The material component for this
spell is a bit of gauze and a wisp of smoke, which are not
that uncommon materials to have inside of a gaming world.
A wisp of smoke could be broughtfrom anywhere from campfires to
someone smoking a pipe. So you, your character could be
a pipe smoking illusionist and just puff, puff, little bit of
(04:41):
gauze, boom, he's in his great form.
Now. It doesn't say if you can talk
or not, so that's something to think about and consider when
you are the dungeon master of your game.
Will you allow your Wraith illusionist to speak?
And I don't see why not because spirits and ways rates all can
(05:02):
speak. But I would probably rule it as
you would have this wispy echoeygrowling type voice from a race
because that's how a race soundsin my opinion when I think about
it. I don't know what would you do
out there in the comments just let me know.
I'm interested to hear how you would definitely handle it in
your campaign. Now, I had a player that once
(05:27):
was an illusionist and he got upin further levels so that he
could use this spell in a different way.
And he did a lot of research andI allowed him to do a little
research because he was very inventive.
He actually went and made an advance form of this because he
(05:49):
thought it'd be awesome so that it could affect other people
other than himself. So he did.
He renamed it Wraith Form Advanced, or I think it was
Wraith form additional. I might remember what he called
it, but the spell became more ofa six level spell and he did it
(06:12):
so that he can actually do transfer it to another person.
So what he could do is he could slap this on say the fighter and
the fighter could go and run around and be erased.
The only problem with the spell that he didn't like and I argued
with him that it would only be the illusionist that can do this
(06:34):
is the only the illusionist can drop the spell because it says
only the illusionist can drop the spell because it's part of
the magical spell itself. Now what I said to him was that
the person that you affected by this spell is fine.
They will be affected by the spell once you touch them.
There's no saving throw unless you're doing it against their
will. And if they want to come out of
(06:55):
that rave form, they have to either A wait for the time to
run out or B, you have to touch them again to relinquish the
spell from them. Otherwise the spell would have
to be a lot higher. I thought in my opinion.
But this is how I ruled it. And everybody was fair about the
other was fair. I went around the group and I
asked their opinions. I mean, Dungeon Masters don't
(07:16):
have to do that at all. But I like to see what my group
has to say about the whole situation.
And I said, what do you guys think?
I said, is it fair that the spell is for illusions just to
touch another person and then have to touch them again to get
it all, Get the spell dispelled or, you know, run out of time?
And everybody in the group said that was fair.
(07:37):
So we went with that going forward.
Now there, this spell is pretty basic in itself.
And the only thing you really need obviously is a gauze and a
wisp of smoke. And we all agreed that most
people in campaigns or in the DND world, so to speak.
So wisp of smoke is pretty common when it comes to, you
know, adventuring people smoke pipes there's fires and gauze is
(07:59):
pretty much anything that you can easily make or get.
So there's most there's a coupleways.
I was thinking how an illusions could use this in other ways.
And I've seen sneaking into a nobles estate using Wraith form
scaring the guards away while drifting through the walls in
the cracks, making them think they're dealing with a restless
spirit. Make candles flicker by going by
(08:23):
them. Dora's creak secret papers
vanish. It's not a ghost.
It's just a very smug third level spell, why not, right?
This could also be used in a pinch inside of a dungeon.
Party hits a dead end. There is no key, there's no
secret door. The illusionist slips into
(08:44):
Wraith form and drifts through the cracks in the walls and
guides around through the dungeon and tries to find the
places that they've never been. It feels like a video game kind
of thing when you're cheating and doing God Mode and going
through walls. It's not because it's just smart
magic, but it does feel like that whole sensation of when
(09:04):
you're playing those older gameson the PC and you put into God
Mode and you just walk right through the walls and get right
to where you want to go, grab the treasure and leave, right?
No, it doesn't work that way. You could use it to bypass a
dangerous trap area. There's pressure plates, plates,
poison darts, blade walls. The illusionist can just become
(09:27):
a Wraith and guide right throughit.
Go to the other side, find a wayto disable the traps, wait it
out or dispel it, and then just disable the traps.
Or get the item that he wants over there and then throw it
back or something because he can't.
Well, unless you have more than one spell.
You can redo it again, but another way you could use it in
(09:50):
Wraith form is be a scout. You can't attack, but you can
peek through walls. Passover chasms, Chasms.
Excuse me chasms, wow. Chasms.
Return with the perfect Intel for your player, your
characters. Players who love stealth and
Recon and things like that will love just doing that by scouting
(10:15):
ahead and just listening to whatpeople have to say without them
really noticing. Because you don't really make
sounds either in a raised form. You're just kind of quiet and
you could make sounds. And I've ruled that you can make
a bit of sounds, as we spoke about earlier.
So there was one session I remember again, our party thief
(10:39):
got caught, was tossed into a jail cell with some solid bars
and there was kind of no way outof the situation and there was a
guard guarding him. So the illusionist cast rate
form and fazed through the wallsand scared the living poop out
of the guard. And then, and then after the
(11:04):
guard ran away, we were able to break out the thief because the
guard thought the dungeon was cursed and he ran away because
it was just a guard. I mean, if it's just a simple
guard, he's standing there and he sees this thing come through
the wall that's in like incorporeal.
He's going to be like, yeah, I'mout.
I'm not paid enough for this shit.
(11:24):
And he's just going to run. Yeah, low level guard.
I'm, I'm not even going to. Common sense to me is this guy's
not getting paid a lot. He sees this weird thing come
through the wall. He's going to be like, yeah,
fear roll, peace out. I'm done.
Not even a role needed. Common sense is he's going to
(11:47):
run away. Don what you think about this
spell in the comments? Do you have anybody use it in
your campaign again? I've had it and it's pretty
interesting spell like to think how I like to hear how you
adjudicated it in your games. If anything weird came up or
interesting came up, I want to hear it.
Throw it in the comments either on Spotify or YouTube when this
(12:09):
is dropped. I think that's the only places
you can do that. Don't forget to rate the podcast
on Apple Podcasts. Wherever you see this podcast,
don't forget to like the video. Subscribe to the channels,
follow the channels, whatever itis.
There will be no podcast Wednesday as I'm heading into
(12:30):
the office pretty much all week except for Friday to do
something with some clients. So I'm not going to be able to
do a podcast early in the mornings like I do on Monday,
Wednesday, Fridays. With that said, I'm going to
head out. I want you to have a wonderful
day. Keep original, keep it old
school. Goodnight, God bless everybody.
Hey, good morning and welcome back to the podcast, Evil
Dungeon Master AD and D UniversePodcast.
Hey, I said it right today, EvilDungeon Masters AD and D
Universe podcast. I'm your host, Evil Dungeon
Master Vince. Today is another day.
It's another week and we go further into July and it's less
than, I don't know, less than a month, less than a couple weeks,
(00:41):
two weeks until Gen. Con.
If you're going to Gen. Con, let me know in the
comments. Let me know, ask the DM at the
evil the evil dm.com. What's my e-mail address?
And let me know if you're going to Gen.
Con, because I am going to Gen. Con.
And be nice to meet up with people who listen or provide
feedback or anything to this podcast because you know, it's
all about you. So that with that out of the
(01:03):
way, let's go into everythingelsetheevildm.com is
my website. patreon.com/the EvilDM is my support site.
As I announced the other day, I'm going to be I started
getting back into handwriting orhandwriting writing by hand
inside my journal. I haven't done this in quite
(01:24):
some time because I don't know, I just don't like to write that
often. But in the last week or so, I've
been kind of jotting down thingsinside of AGM journal and or DM
journal. I'm not sure what I want to call
it these days. And it's been a lot of fun.
I just, I've just been jotting down ideas like I did back in
the day when I was, you know, going places and had a little
(01:44):
notebook in my back pocket. And I'm thinking about maybe
sharing the pages of chaos and stupidity in my case and my
Patreon. So those that are on my Patreon
can get a sneak peek at the journal.
I don't know if it's going to be, you know, anything
worthwhile to people, but I heard some people wanted to see
(02:05):
things like that and procedures and whatever else.
So if you're a Patreon member and you're listening to this, I
appreciate everyone of you and those that are members.
Please look forward to that in the next week or so.
Today's topic, let's get into that.
Turning to page 69, dude, in theUnearthed Arcana Arcana,
(02:27):
whatever you want to call it, wehave Wraith form.
Yes, the Wraith form a third level illusionist spell that you
gain upon fifth level. So this may look like a dull or
boring spell, but it actually isvery valuable when you think
about it. And it only applies to the
illusionist. Its range is 0 and it's 2 rounds
(02:49):
per level, so that's at least 2 minutes per level.
The components are semantic and material.
Yeah, I think time is 1 segment.No saving throw, because the
area of effect is just the illusionist.
When this spell is cast, the illusionist and all of his or
her gear become insubstantial. The caster can now only be hit
(03:11):
by magical weapons of plus one or better, or by creatures
otherwise able to affect those struck only by magic weapons.
Undead of most sorts will ignorean individual in Wraith form,
believing him or her to be a Wraith or specter through though
a lich or a special quote UN quote undead may save versus
(03:34):
spell at 4:00 to recognize the spell being passed.
The illusionist while in this form will be able to pass
through small holes, narrow openings, and even mere cracks
with with all he or she wears orholds in his or her hands as
long as the spell is persistent.No form of attack is possible in
(03:58):
rays form, except against creatures which exist on the
Ethereal plane, where all attacks both ways are normal.
The spell illusion and dispelledmagic are the only ways to force
an illusionist in ray form back to normal form.
The spellcaster can return to normal form at will, but this
(04:18):
ends the spell effect. The material component for this
spell is a bit of gauze and a wisp of smoke, which are not
that uncommon materials to have inside of a gaming world.
A wisp of smoke could be broughtfrom anywhere from campfires to
someone smoking a pipe. So you, your character could be
a pipe smoking illusionist and just puff, puff, little bit of
(04:41):
gauze, boom, he's in his great form.
Now. It doesn't say if you can talk
or not, so that's something to think about and consider when
you are the dungeon master of your game.
Will you allow your Wraith illusionist to speak?
And I don't see why not because spirits and ways rates all can
(05:02):
speak. But I would probably rule it as
you would have this wispy echoeygrowling type voice from a race
because that's how a race soundsin my opinion when I think about
it. I don't know what would you do
out there in the comments just let me know.
I'm interested to hear how you would definitely handle it in
your campaign. Now, I had a player that once
(05:27):
was an illusionist and he got upin further levels so that he
could use this spell in a different way.
And he did a lot of research andI allowed him to do a little
research because he was very inventive.
He actually went and made an advance form of this because he
(05:49):
thought it'd be awesome so that it could affect other people
other than himself. So he did.
He renamed it Wraith Form Advanced, or I think it was
Wraith form additional. I might remember what he called
it, but the spell became more ofa six level spell and he did it
(06:12):
so that he can actually do transfer it to another person.
So what he could do is he could slap this on say the fighter and
the fighter could go and run around and be erased.
The only problem with the spell that he didn't like and I argued
with him that it would only be the illusionist that can do this
(06:34):
is the only the illusionist can drop the spell because it says
only the illusionist can drop the spell because it's part of
the magical spell itself. Now what I said to him was that
the person that you affected by this spell is fine.
They will be affected by the spell once you touch them.
There's no saving throw unless you're doing it against their
will. And if they want to come out of
(06:55):
that rave form, they have to either A wait for the time to
run out or B, you have to touch them again to relinquish the
spell from them. Otherwise the spell would have
to be a lot higher. I thought in my opinion.
But this is how I ruled it. And everybody was fair about the
other was fair. I went around the group and I
asked their opinions. I mean, Dungeon Masters don't
(07:16):
have to do that at all. But I like to see what my group
has to say about the whole situation.
And I said, what do you guys think?
I said, is it fair that the spell is for illusions just to
touch another person and then have to touch them again to get
it all, Get the spell dispelled or, you know, run out of time?
And everybody in the group said that was fair.
(07:37):
So we went with that going forward.
Now there, this spell is pretty basic in itself.
And the only thing you really need obviously is a gauze and a
wisp of smoke. And we all agreed that most
people in campaigns or in the DND world, so to speak.
So wisp of smoke is pretty common when it comes to, you
know, adventuring people smoke pipes there's fires and gauze is
(07:59):
pretty much anything that you can easily make or get.
So there's most there's a coupleways.
I was thinking how an illusions could use this in other ways.
And I've seen sneaking into a nobles estate using Wraith form
scaring the guards away while drifting through the walls in
the cracks, making them think they're dealing with a restless
spirit. Make candles flicker by going by
(08:23):
them. Dora's creak secret papers
vanish. It's not a ghost.
It's just a very smug third level spell, why not, right?
This could also be used in a pinch inside of a dungeon.
Party hits a dead end. There is no key, there's no
secret door. The illusionist slips into
(08:44):
Wraith form and drifts through the cracks in the walls and
guides around through the dungeon and tries to find the
places that they've never been. It feels like a video game kind
of thing when you're cheating and doing God Mode and going
through walls. It's not because it's just smart
magic, but it does feel like that whole sensation of when
(09:04):
you're playing those older gameson the PC and you put into God
Mode and you just walk right through the walls and get right
to where you want to go, grab the treasure and leave, right?
No, it doesn't work that way. You could use it to bypass a
dangerous trap area. There's pressure plates, plates,
poison darts, blade walls. The illusionist can just become
(09:27):
a Wraith and guide right throughit.
Go to the other side, find a wayto disable the traps, wait it
out or dispel it, and then just disable the traps.
Or get the item that he wants over there and then throw it
back or something because he can't.
Well, unless you have more than one spell.
You can redo it again, but another way you could use it in
(09:50):
Wraith form is be a scout. You can't attack, but you can
peek through walls. Passover chasms, Chasms.
Excuse me chasms, wow. Chasms.
Return with the perfect Intel for your player, your
characters. Players who love stealth and
Recon and things like that will love just doing that by scouting
(10:15):
ahead and just listening to whatpeople have to say without them
really noticing. Because you don't really make
sounds either in a raised form. You're just kind of quiet and
you could make sounds. And I've ruled that you can make
a bit of sounds, as we spoke about earlier.
So there was one session I remember again, our party thief
(10:39):
got caught, was tossed into a jail cell with some solid bars
and there was kind of no way outof the situation and there was a
guard guarding him. So the illusionist cast rate
form and fazed through the wallsand scared the living poop out
of the guard. And then, and then after the
(11:04):
guard ran away, we were able to break out the thief because the
guard thought the dungeon was cursed and he ran away because
it was just a guard. I mean, if it's just a simple
guard, he's standing there and he sees this thing come through
the wall that's in like incorporeal.
He's going to be like, yeah, I'mout.
I'm not paid enough for this shit.
(11:24):
And he's just going to run. Yeah, low level guard.
I'm, I'm not even going to. Common sense to me is this guy's
not getting paid a lot. He sees this weird thing come
through the wall. He's going to be like, yeah,
fear roll, peace out. I'm done.
Not even a role needed. Common sense is he's going to
(11:47):
run away. Don what you think about this
spell in the comments? Do you have anybody use it in
your campaign again? I've had it and it's pretty
interesting spell like to think how I like to hear how you
adjudicated it in your games. If anything weird came up or
interesting came up, I want to hear it.
Throw it in the comments either on Spotify or YouTube when this
(12:09):
is dropped. I think that's the only places
you can do that. Don't forget to rate the podcast
on Apple Podcasts. Wherever you see this podcast,
don't forget to like the video. Subscribe to the channels,
follow the channels, whatever itis.
There will be no podcast Wednesday as I'm heading into
(12:30):
the office pretty much all week except for Friday to do
something with some clients. So I'm not going to be able to
do a podcast early in the mornings like I do on Monday,
Wednesday, Fridays. With that said, I'm going to
head out. I want you to have a wonderful
day. Keep original, keep it old
school. Goodnight, God bless everybody.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.