Ghost

Description:

Ghosts are disembodied souls who have not realized they are dead. Ghosts have no real control over when they are visible or to whom, and have thus become uniformly insane and frequently hateful due to centuries of not understanding why they are arbitrarily ignored. Ghosts usually only become visible in certain places, at certain times of day, or in the presence of certain people. Ghosts are often psychologically blocked from understanding their own deaths - something was left unattended to in their life that has prevented them from being at rest. If a ghost can be helped by resolving its unfinished business it can sometimes come to terms with its own death, and fade from existence.

Ghosts tend to be more or less locked into a daily routine that was important to them in life - often looping through that routine day after day for eternity - becoming visible at moments in the routine that were meaningful or unusual. Very commonly this routine leads up to and includes the moment where their routine was interrupted by their death. Those who knew or know of the ghost, or have been investigating it, or who have some other connection to the ghost or to the cause of its death are more likely to see it, or to capture its attention and cause it to become visible. Ghosts will often not notice or not care about the presence of others, but if a ghost is startled or disturbed, or if people see it and react in a stressful or aggressive way, the ghost is likely to attack.

Special:

While ghosts are often invisible, they become visible when disturbed. A ghost may be able to attack its opponents with surprise if they disturb it and it attacks in the same turn - but it does not normally benefit from being able to fight while invisible.

Ghosts are also permanently phased, similar to the spell, meaning they can pass through any solid matter at will. This state makes them totally immune to normal physical weapons, and to any form of impact or environmental damage. Ghosts are immune to disease and poisons of all kinds. As undead, their attacks are considered magical.

Ghosts can be struck by magical weapons, but only the magical portion of the damage will effect them, with the weapon seeming to pass through without impact. For example, a magical long sword that does +2 fast damage would only do 2 damage with any hit. Spells that do damage to health only cause 1/2 damage, and can still be resisted (causing damaged to be halved again).

Despite this seeming immunity to most damage however, when a ghost attacks using its Deathly Touch, it becomes momentarily semi-material, and a defender with a blessed, silver or magic weapon who also has the Counterstrike, Deflect or Reverse Perk can attempt to strike the ghost in this moment, as defined below.

Other:

Special Damage: Deathly Touch

Because a ghost is intangible, its claws cannot be blocked and can only be dodged. When a ghost strikes, its claws pass through all armour, bypassing all Protection and delivering their icy, bloodcurdling deathly touch directly to the target’s soul. When struck by a ghost, the victim must roll a 21C using Intensity. If successful, they take no additional damage, but if unsuccessful, the damage done by the hit is also done to their other Derivatives (Stamina, Concentration and Composure).

Because a ghost becomes semi-material in the moment of its attack, daring souls who have a silver, blessed or magic weapon and also have the required perks can attempt to Counterstrike, Deflect or Reverse the attack. To do this, roll the specified defense as normal, but in this case, the defender does NOT take max damage if they are unsuccessful, Instead, whether succesful or not, they automatically take normal damage from the hit as specified above and must roll a 21C using Intensity or take the same damage to all their Derivatives. Effectively, they are accepting the hit in order to take the opportunity to attempt to strike the ghost while it is semi-material.

With a successful Counterstrike, the defender will do half their damage to the ghost. With a successful Deflect, the defender will cause the ghost to do its damage to itself (it will not do damage to other derivatives aside from health). A successful Reverse lets the defender decide to either have the ghost damage itself as with a Deflect, or to stun or trip the ghost.