ALL ABOUT GHOSTS
CHAPTER 1:
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behir, or area-attack spells such as fireball. Ghosts with this sort of appearance scare children and usually cause a disturbance when they appear in public (and may be arrested by the City Watch because of it). NPCs interacting with a character in this category can never start with an attitude better than indifferent. Repulsive characters take a –6 penalty on Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Perform, and Charisma checks to influence NPC attitudes. They gain a +6 bonus on Intimidate checks. Gruesome: As repulsive, but the creature’s wounds are the stuff of nightmares: people who have had their brains extracted by a mind flayer, who have been tortured to death by malevolent sadists, who died from aggressive diseases such as mummy rot, or who were the targets of an implosion spell. Such ghosts are often mistaken for incorporeal undead and usually travel in disguise to avoid being attacked on sight. NPCs interacting with a character in this category can never start with an attitude better than Unfriendly. Gruesome characters take a –10 penalty on Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Perform, and Charisma checks to influence NPC attitudes. They gain a +10 bonus on Intimidate checks.
rested for at least 8 hours. This allows a ghost character to decide if she wants to rest as a ghost and gain a level in the eidolon class or receive a raise dead spell and then rest, applying her new level to a character class of her choice. A ghost who is raised or resurrected experiences an event called a life epiphany. This sudden realization allows the ghost to convert some or all of his eidolon levels to levels in any other character class, similar to how a fallen paladin can convert her paladin levels to blackguard levels (the character does not have to convert any eidolon levels if she doesn’t want to). This allows, for example, a Sor4/Eidolon3 who is raised to instantly become a Sor5/Eidolon2, Sor6/Eidolon1, or a Sor7. When this occurs, all class abilities from the converted eidolon levels are lost, and the character gains that many levels in another class. These levels do not revert back to eidolon levels if the character becomes a ghost again; the character has sacrificed the eidolon levels to advance in another area of study. The life epiphany allows a character to balance her eidolon levels with her other class levels in order to stave off the Calling. Of course, if the character chooses to keep any ghost levels, some of her ghost abilities acquired from feats may be useless while she is alive. ADVENTURING AND GHOST LEVELS Because of the potential for a life epiphany, a charA creature that is a ghost can adventure and acquire acter who gains levels in the eidolon class should keep experience points just like any living character. Howtrack of hit points, skill ranks, base attack bonuses, ever, a ghost can only gain levels in the eidolon or saving throw bonuses, and feats acquired on a level-byeidoloncer class (described later in this chapter). This level basis. Doing this makes it easier to remove the means that adventuring ghosts develop their supereidolon levels (and the benefits of those levels) and natural abilities rather than their spellcasting, fightreconfigure the character with levels in another charing, or any other class abilities from standard classes. A acter class. character who advances too far in the eidolon class For example, Valarn (a Sor4/Eidolon3) is raised risks succumbing to the Calling (see below). from the dead and decides to convert two levels of For the purpose of character advancement in the eidolon to levels of sorcerer. When he acquired those Ghostwalk campaign, characters should not gain levels two eidolon levels (2nd and 3rd class levels), he during the course of an adventure until they have gained 2 ranks in Concentration and Intimidate, the pqqqqrs VARIANT: FLEXIBLE GHOST ADVANCEMENT
VARIANT: NO CALLING
Instead of requiring a ghost to take levels in eidolon, allow ghosts who gain a level to select a level in any class that is normally available. This creates a campaign in which some characters may remain ghosts for years, but continue to increase their abilities as clerics, fighters, and so on. Using this variant means that players don’t have to plan as carefully when advancing their characters and aren’t forced to continue to pay for raise dead spells in order to suit a character concept of a ghost character who advances in a Player’s Handbook class. It also tends to make being a ghost a more advantageous choice, since for many characters, there is no reason to remain a living creature.
Instead of using the Calling, allow a character’s ghost levels to exceed his standard class levels without penalty. This creates a campaign where people can be mediocre in terms of the living but very powerful ghosts. Dropping the Calling also introduces the problem of commoners, experts, and other “vanilla” NPCs that find life as a ghost much easier than that of a living person (they don’t need to eat and aren’t affected by cold winters, for example). Poor farmers might quickly populate the campaign with ghosts of their families, perhaps murdering them to keep them from starving, but continuing to enjoy their companionship. Normally, these murdered ghosts would eventually gain levels in eidolon (eventually becoming Com1/Eidolon2 characters), succumb to the Calling, and pass beyond the Veil of Souls, but without the Calling, they are melancholy reminders of the farmers’ crimes and change the mood of the setting.
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