| Funkmaster Rick |
Correct me if I've missed something here, because this seems a little off.
An ectoplasmic manifested phantom has the outsider type. I can't find anything that says they're unaffected by poisons in this form. And yet, since phantoms don't heal naturally, they don't heal ability damage on their own. And the Heal skill on its own doesn't have an option for treating ability damage directly - you need access to magic to make that work.
I also don't see anything about phantoms that 'die' coming back with full statistics - just half HP.
Perhaps I've misread or overlooked something, but it seems to me that a phantom who gets poisoned at low levels is in quite the pickle, especially if the spiritualist in question can't afford the one (or more) Lesser Restorations required to counter-act ability damage.