Possession

Only spells such as dimensional anchor can thwart this instantaneous transport, and a ghost who is prevented from answering the Calling in this manner becomes aggressive and irrational.

Bringing Back the Dead

Most of the trauma involved in being restored to life comes from the removal of the creature’s soul from the

True Afterlife. If a dead person’s ghost or soul is nearby, that aspect of the trauma is absent. This means that if raise dead or resurrection is cast within the Manifest

Ward, the recipient is restored to life as normal, except that no level loss occurs (or, if the character is 1st level, no Constitution loss occurs). All other factors of these spells apply (raise dead still requires the soul’s consent, leaves the character with less than full normal hit points, doesn’t cure magical diseases, and so on).

Because death in a Ghostwalk campaign is less traumatic for adventurers, it carries less of a stigma and is feared less than in other places. Adventurers in Manifest tend to take greater risks, knowing that, should they die, their ghosts can drag their bodies back to a temple and have themselves brought back to life without any serious trauma and at a cost of only 500 gp. This semicasual attitude about death carries over into other aspects of life in the city (described in Chapter 3: The Ghostwalk

Campaign).

True Death: When a ghost is reduced to –10 or fewer hit points, or otherwise destroyed, the ghost is said to have suffered “true death,” and the soul passes beyond the Veil of Souls. A slain ghost turns into a puddle of ectoplasm weighing approximately 1pound.

The person can still be brought back from the dead in the normal manner (raise dead works if the body is still available, and so on), and spells exist that can bring a person back from the dead as a ghost rather than as a living person.

POSSESSION

A ghost who is possessing a physical body is treated as an incorporeal being within a physical body, even in circumstances where the ghost would be manifested fully if it weren’t inside a borrowed body (for example, within the bounds of the Manifest Ward or under the influence of a forced manifestation spell).

While possessing a physical body, a ghost uses its own mental ability scores (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma) and the body’s physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution). It cannot use any skills or abilities (including spells) of the host that rely on knowledge or training, including base attack bonus and saving throws. Any skill check based on a physical ability score uses the ghost’s ranks in the skill but the body’s ability score modifier. The possessing ghost can use any of its own abilities not tied to its ghost body (a human possessed by a ghost, for example, does not have low-light vision or darkvision, even though the possessor’s ghost body has these abilities). A possessing ghost can cast its spells normally (provided components, foci, and so on are available).

A possessing ghost gains no special ability to communicate with its host’s mind.

A possessing ghost does not need to enact control over the host. As a free action on its turn, the possessor can allow the host to act normally for 1 round. The ghost resumes control automatically on its next turn. The host is limited to a normal set of actions per round, even if the host is cooperating with the ghost—for example, the ghost and host cannot both take a standard action in the same round. Physical attacks affectthe body and not the ghost. A ghost within an unconscious body cannot perform physical actions, but can leave the body as normal. A ghost is automatically expelled from a slain host unless it has the Corpse Malevolence feat, in which case the corpse needs to be reduced to 0 hit points as well. Leaving a Host: Leaving a host is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. When a ghost leaves its former host, it appears in its ghost body in any location within 5 feet of the host. Sequential Possession: A possessing ghost must leave its current host before attempting to possess a new one. Since leaving a host and attempting to possess are both standard actions, a ghost cannot do both of these actions on the same round unless under the effect of a haste spell or similar magic.

Multiple Possessors: More than one ghost cannot possess a single living body at a time. If a ghost attempts to possess a body that is inhabited by another ghost, the target must fail its saving throw (if it gets

JJ