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I'll be running M.T. Black's Tower of the Mad Mage adventure in D&D 5e next week.

On p. 8, there is a specter that, according to the description, has been weakened to where it can't use its Life Drain ability:

Note. The specter has been weakened by the close proximity of the chantry. Therefore, it cannot use its life drain ability.

Since that seems to be all a specter can attack with, what can this specter use as its attack?

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The only things it could effectively use are magic items

You are correct that Life Drain is the only option in the Specter's statblock but it still has all the options that every creature has, including (but not limited to): unarmed strikes, improvised weapons, magic items, and grapple/shove.

Unfortunately the Specter has a -5 Strength modifier so it will almost never grapple anybody, and its unarmed strikes and improvised weapon attacks will always deal 0 damage. Tower of the Mad Mage doesn't mention the Specter as having access to any magic items so those are out of the question which means we've exhausted all of our options...

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    \$\begingroup\$ Minor nitpick, but the throwing weapon only works if your DM rules that the thing it is throwing is a finesse weapon, else it'll be doing 1d4-5 damage. rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/108337/… \$\endgroup\$
    – Theik
    Commented Nov 1, 2019 at 8:51
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Theik Wow I never realized you always add Strength to improvised weapons. I guess the specter has no options then \$\endgroup\$
    – Exempt-Medic
    Commented Nov 1, 2019 at 13:05
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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm thinking of maybe using the Poltergeist variant. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rock Stone
    Commented Nov 2, 2019 at 4:33

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