Malevolent Possession and "That Restriction"

[Illeist]

The ghost's Malevolent Possession ability reads:
"The ghost attempts to possess an adjacent corporeal creature. This has the same effect as the possession spell, except since the ghost doesn't have a physical body, it is unaffected by that restriction of the spell."

Which restriction of possession is it that ghosts are unaffected by? And, specifically, if it's the restriction that they're unconscious during the spell's duration, then how does that alter the spell? If a creature critically fails against a ghost's Malevolent Possession, is the ghost able to continue taking actions, potentially also possessing other characters? That seems against the flavor of the ability, but I'm not sure how else it would work.

[Baarogue]

Could be the ability to physically enter their body being a H: 9th thing? As for that question and the rest of your questions, they might be answered in the possession trait

[Errenor]

Illeist wrote:

Which restriction of possession is it that ghosts are unaffected by? And, specifically, if it's the restriction that they're unconscious during the spell's duration, then how does that alter the spell? If a creature critically fails against a ghost's Malevolent Possession, is the ghost able to continue taking actions, potentially also possessing other characters?

This one: "While you're possessing a target, your own body is unconscious and can't wake up normally. <...> If the possessed body dies, the spell ends and you must succeed at a Fortitude save against your spell DC or be paralyzed for 1 hour, or 24 hours on a critical failure. "

Ghost's body isn't unconscious, they don't have one, paralyzed (or stunned from the trait itself) is ignored for the same reason.
No, ghost only has actions of possessed character, as normal.

[Illeist]

Errenor wrote:

Illeist wrote:

Which restriction of possession is it that ghosts are unaffected by? And, specifically, if it's the restriction that they're unconscious during the spell's duration, then how does that alter the spell? If a creature critically fails against a ghost's Malevolent Possession, is the ghost able to continue taking actions, potentially also possessing other characters?

This one: "While you're possessing a target, your own body is unconscious and can't wake up normally. <...> If the possessed body dies, the spell ends and you must succeed at a Fortitude save against your spell DC or be paralyzed for 1 hour, or 24 hours on a critical failure. "

Ghost's body isn't unconscious, they don't have one, paralyzed (or stunned from the trait itself) is ignored for the same reason.
No, ghost only has actions of possessed character, as normal.

Losing your own actions is specific to the Failure line in Possession. Normally, it's not that big of a deal, since the caster would lose their actions simply due to being unconscious. But, if the ghost doesn't become unconscious, and the target crit fails, then we wind up in an awkward place where there's nothing preventing the ghost from continuing to take actions.

[Baarogue]

What parts of your question are not answered by the possession trait?

[Errenor]

Illeist wrote:

Losing your own actions is specific to the Failure line in Possession. Normally, it's not that big of a deal, since the caster would lose their actions simply due to being unconscious. But, if the ghost doesn't become unconscious, and the target crit fails, then we wind up in an awkward place where there's nothing preventing the ghost from continuing to take actions.

You mean you are stuck at the absence of 'You no longer have a separate turn' in Crit Failure? And think that from that follows a ghost would have two turns in a round? Well, as players don't play with ghosts generally, this looks as a GM question and I can't say that any reasonable GM would block that. But I can say: be reasonable and don't read the text as a computer program. "You possess the target fully, and it can only watch as you manipulate it like a puppet. The target is controlled by you" means that it's even stronger then Failure result, but 'You no longer have a separate turn' is still in force. Then, 'The possessor must use its own actions to make the possessed creature act' from the trait comes in play.

An actually interesting question would be what happens on a Success result because ghost can't control anyone, but just kind of hides in someone. But I guess the answer would be that everything in the Possession trait works apart from irrelevant (controlling) parts, so the ghost would still take mental damage when possessed creature takes damage, can be forced out, is affected (only) by anything which can affect possessing creatures (not in the trait, but there are several abilities that explicitly do that) and 'can’t use any of its own abilities except spells and purely mental abilities' (but does this on their own turn).

[Illeist]

Errenor wrote:

But I can say: be reasonable and don't read the text as a computer program.

If the RAW and the presumed RAI diverge, then you don't need to be a computer program to be confused. Even on this thread with three people posting, there are three different ideas of how these mechanics work.

Errenor wrote:

"You possess the target fully, and it can only watch as you manipulate it like a puppet. The target is controlled by you" means that it's even stronger then Failure result, but 'You no longer have a separate turn' is still in force. Then, 'The possessor must use its own actions to make the possessed creature act' from the trait comes in play.

That is not the case. The success line will often say "as critical success, except...", and that line of text is conspicuously absent here. Unless otherwise stated, each degree of success is its own, self-contained line of rules text.

[Errenor]

Whatever.
What do you even need from us? You've got working interpretation for not even really involved case. And you still aren't satisfied. What more do you need?