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Playing a Ghost PC

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Good morning!

Last night, my character died and the GM has allowed me to recreate her as a ghost rather than having her resurrected. She is a 16th level oracle (+2 CR with the ghost template). Her focus will be in both healing and necromancy - healing the party with cures, healing herself and fellow undead (which she can summon) with inflicts.

That said, I'm curious if anyone has any advice? For example...

1. Are there any magic items that would be especially useful as an incorporeal PC? (She has the Ghostly Trappings ability, so she can have up to her charisma in special items).

2. Are there any spells that are must-haves?

3. Are there any feats that are must-haves?

4. Are there any weaknesses that I should be aware of? I checked on turn undead, but it looks like she would get a will save, so I'm not too concerned there.

5. Are there any other tricks or suggestions that you may have?

Sounds complicated, and it wouldn't surprise me if the GM ends up house-ruling things because ghosts are very specialized critters. All the strengths, weaknesses, and confusion are the kind of thing that have made many a GM throw up their hands and say, "oh gods this was a mistake, lightning strikes and you live again because this &*%$ is ridonkulous!"

Let us start with a link to the template for reference.

1. Ghost-touch gauntlets and/or armor. Baseline ghost has spectral copies of all her "valued possessions" (gear) unless the original items are stolen, but can't use a dang thing in terms of new toys unless they're bi-dimensional* and even the +1 sword you used to have has a 50% miss chance because now it's incorporeal. BTW, you are incorporeal, that's kind of a big deal. As far as I can tell your magic still works just fine, but other folks' magic doesn't work on you near as well and unless you have those gloves you legit can't touch anything in the living world. Actually you don't even have a strength score so I got no clue how you're supposed to be usin' 'em even though it says you can.

2. Must-have spells? Well cure and inflict eat up a lot of your spells known, but after that it's honestly pretty free-for-all. In theory** Instant Armor (it's a force effect) could be used to give you a "body" that could interact with the world, but honestly you're pretty good with the standard Oracle list you were already rockin'.

3. Telekinesis ghost ability is pretty much a must-have, the dash feat or something that boosts your speed might be a good idea too since you can fly at 30 but there aren't many things that can boost that speed. Stealth skills might be useful since you can walk through walls (there are limitations) and fly everywhere and can't be hurt easily. If you end up using your special abilities a lot there are some monster feats that let you boost 'em, only make use if you really think you'll get mileage out of possessing people. (You probably will, it's hilarious)

4. Aside from the endless litany of challenges associated with being incorporeal, they're emo as hell. RP-wise you are straight outta white-wolf's Wraith the Oblivion. Wangsty poetry and cutting that doesn't actually do anything. I mean you don't HAVE to be like that, it's boring, but that's what the book says you're supposed to do. Turn undead is no worry, you'll just reform later if it comes to it, but control undead and just blasting you with channel energy can be a real hassle. "Save for half" isn't "save for all." And you're vulnerable to Evil Dudes throwing holy water on you.

5. Vehemence means you can possess objects. Possess a door, rip yourself off the hinges, and walk into the room to party down. Possess a wagon and fly the entire party wherever you wanted to go. All your physical stuff hits the ground, so you'll need someone to play "caddy" but cohorts or the wizard's familiar are generally not that busy.

*Yes I'm making-up words again, it means ghost-touch
**means "ask you GM and see what happens, could be good for a laugh

If any of this comes off as rude, I'm not trying to be, I'm uncaffinated right now and tend to ramble.

Thanks for the advice! I figure I have a huge advantage in that I like to use HeroLab, so some of the complicated issues are handled automatically.

I looked at armor and weapons and I'm actually thinking of bypassing both, because I'm silly.

Actually, as an Oracle of Bones, I get a +10 armor bonus to AC for 16 hours/day, so even the most expensive armor isn't going to do much better. I'll probably see about some rings of protection and/or amulet of natural armor, though.

As for weapons, my ghost's corrupting touch does a crazy 18d6 damage, so between that and spells, I'm not too worried about dishing it out. Besides, I'm the healer, and our GM plays hardball so I figure I'll be spending most of my time spamming heals anyway.

When you say ghost touch gauntlets, would those just be gauntlets that would let me use, say, metamagic rods?

Yes.

I wasn't even thinking in terms of attacks or defense, you're an oracle, you'll be using spells in combat. And at that level a 50% miss chance is better than most armor classes will get you. But ghost-touch gauntlets are how you actually pick things up since otherwise you just pass right through everything.

I'm having a mental image of the slightly insane ghost girl who spends most of her time drifting like a jellyfish and only physically interacting with things via a pair of glowing magic gloves. Drifting through walls by accident and always having a cloud cuckoolander vibe.

LOL! Well, she's sort of the ghostly version of my last character, so her personality won't change too much. But I am kind of excited about the roleplay opportunities. Her lover died in the same fight, so the reason she is staying around as a ghost is to finish the mission that he couldn't complete (his player decided to make something new).

Now I just need to decide if it's worth taking the leadership feat to go with her dabbling in necromancy.

There's a unique ghost from the Rite Publishing Haiku of Horror: Autumn Moon Bath House that might worth checking out, as one of the ghost's abilities is to become corporeal for a limited period of time and could thereby use corporeal weapons and items, the ghost also has corporeal hair attacks, not unlike a white haired witch which the ghost is somewhat inspired by.

I played one once. She was a sorceress. Charisma for everything. It was a lot of fun.

Thanks guys! I have a new question.

In order to supplement the fact that my character won't be benefiting from party treasure, I thought I'd give her the craft wondrous item feat. My question is... if a ghost crafts a belt of dex, for example, would that belt automatically be incorporeal?

And a secondary question. If she wants to make something that anyone in the party can use, I figured I'd use the ghost touch spell (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/3rd-party-spells/4-winds-fantasy-gaming---3r d-party-spells/ghost-touch) when crafting it. The question is... how would that affect the cost of the item?

Personally, I don't think a ghost should be able to craft anything. A ghost, in essence, is a lingering memory of the material world. I don't see a ghost as the type of entity that feels any desire to improve him/herself in the afterlife. Most motivations would be stripped away, and the few that remain would be intensified. The caring for the party and completion of the mission would be the entirety of her purpose. Besides, what 'materials' would an incorporeal item be crafted from?

Also keep in mind, this may likely be a short term deal. All you are is a resurrection spell away from being corporeal again.

You might check out Ghostwalk from WotC. It's 3e but you can probably tweak to Pathfinderize the ghost rules. I've always wanted to try it but haven't had the opportunity.

As a ghost you should really be tied to a certain location, and ghost normally can only be gotten rid of permanently if a certain thing is done for them.

Your GM might regret this later when you start to own encounters.

The ghost in the Haiku of Horror product has a curse that moves its location anchor onto a PC or NPC, so when she rejuvenates, she appears whereever the cursed PC/NPC is, which is a work-around the being "tied to a single location" - she haunts the party. Again its inspired by The Grudge where the ghost in that film can leave the house it haunts and attack victims who have visited the house and now is found elsewhere...

Hmm... a good point. In this case, my character is staying behind as an undead because the goddess they are working for asked her to finish the mission. So it might make sense for there to be a ring that the other follower of said goddess can wear, which is effectively my character's anchor.

Have fun being stuck on guard duty the full night every night. Doubt the others will stay up just to keep you company. Not their fault you don't need to sleep

Don't worry about not being able to interact with the normal world. You lack a Strength score so you can't lift anything anymore anyway.

The "Tied to a single location" could be fixed by binding you to an item instead that the party gets to lug around
souldreamer wrote:

Thanks guys! I have a new question.

In order to supplement the fact that my character won't be benefiting from party treasure, I thought I'd give her the craft wondrous item feat. My question is... if a ghost crafts a belt of dex, for example, would that belt automatically be incorporeal?

And a secondary question. If she wants to make something that anyone in the party can use, I figured I'd use the ghost touch spell (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/3rd-party-spells/4-winds-fantasy-gaming---3r d-party-spells/ghost-touch) when crafting it. The question is... how would that affect the cost of the item?

It's a copy of the enchantment that you put on weapons and armor, and runs a +3 enchantment if memory serves.

Crafting incorporeal items isn't normally an option. Your "magic items" are actually just YOU, extensions of your spirit and the memory of who you were and what you carried. Creative license says you might be able to throw down some magical ritual that lets you upgrade your existing items or make new ones with burning incense and magic stuff but that's up to the DM. If you go that route it makes more sense to take some brand of homebrew "sculpt self" feat that lets you do so.

Making items in the material world involves finding a way to manipulate those items. If you have ghost-touch gloves or requisite skill with telekinesis (as determined by DM fiat) you're good to go. If the DM allows you to use Permanency on the Ghost Touch spell the general pricing of a spell that level is 10k and totally subject to GM's whim. It can also be dispelled pretty easy.

As mentioned above, having a fetter (object you're magically bound to) carried by a party member is a good idea. Having them carry magic gloves so you can interact with the material world or slip through walls as needed is also a good idea. There are various ways to synergize this relationship with crafted wondrous items, or possibly even possessing those items when it would be useful/funny. A flying harp that plays itself seems like a fun thing to be once in a while.

On the subject of RP, I won't claim they're popular by any stretch, but I've seen the "lively and energetic ghost" character played out in fiction before, so you don't HAVE to be so goth you poop bats. Super-emo is the standard though.

I don't think the super emo is the way to go.. but fanatical is important. What you are fanatical about might vary, but everything should be hot or cold, no middle ground.

I just have to say I think this is a very bad idea, with all sorts of 'special snowflake' connotations.

Ghosts were not designed to be PCs. Balancing a party with a character who is a ghost is going to be very difficult. Basic assumptions of the game don't work very well when one PC is a ghost.

I suspect that either the player, the other players, the GM or all three will really end up regretting this choice.

Ultimately, its about the storytelling. Luckily, in pathfinder, this is easily a two-way trip.
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