A lithe figure dashes between buildings, their body becomes luminous and ghastly, held together in tatters as the being disappears into a wall.
The ghostly shape reappears on the rooftops, emerging from the solid slate.
They turn, eyes luminous and haunted, and unleash a cry of the dead, beckoning all who hear to the afterlife.
A living person becomes a specter either by touching the realm of the dead or by means of magic that breaks the body’s tie to material reality and time.
The transformation tears at the substance of body and mind, until what is left is a spiritual shadow.
Specters have a tenuous grasp on reality, and some fade into oblivion while others become monsters that sow the same.
Few cursed with this transformation have the fortitude to remain whole.
Becoming a Specter
Methods of becoming a specter vary, and few find their way willingly.
Contact with the forces of death is the most common—a would-be hero is corrupted by the force they wanted to fight.
Sinister rituals can also infuse a body with the powers of unmaking.
And alongside beings and magic of death stand entities that exist in a reality untethered to the material world as mortals understand it.
These Others and their minions, manifestations of primordial chaos, can infuse a person with that chaos, making the victim’s ultimate home a dream of cosmic horror.
Specter Features
A specter, no matter their origin, has the
following features.
Prerequisites
Ability Scores: Dexterity 13 or higher
Roleplay: You must have contact with the world of the dead, either through an encounter with a monstrous and incorporeal undead creature or through contact with the afterlife.
Some magical rituals can infuse mortals with this energy.
Alternatively, you have had contact with an entity or force that has caused your material form to start to slip out of existence.
Transformation Save DC: Some of your transformation abilities require a target to attempt a saving throw.
For those abilities, the saving throw DC is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity modifier.
Level Milestones
The following are possible level milestones for becoming a specter.
• Defeating a powerful, ghostly
undead and absorbing its power. Or
defeating an aberration of similar might
that has powers over space, time, or
death.
• Use a ritual that infuses your body
with the forces of death or primordial
chaos.
• Survive a near-death experience
caused by a ghostly undead creature or
an aberration, especially one in which
your hit point maximum is reduced, such
as by a wraith’s life drain, or in which you
drop to 0 hit points, such as due to a
banshee’s wail.
• Kill a significant foe with necrotic or
psychic damage, or by using necromancy
magic.
• Infuse other willing people with the
power that corrupts you.
• Deal with ghosts and similar spirits,
or beings of other realities, perhaps as a
conduit between them and other mortals.
• Open a gate or path to places of the
dead or the dreams of the Aether Kindred.
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