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 ties to the 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 monster 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 riturals can also infuse a body with the powers of unmaking.
Alongside beings and magic of death stand entities that exist in a reality untethered from the material world as mortals understand it.
These others and their minions, manifestations of otherwordly 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 though 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 targer to attempt a saving throw.
For those abilities, the saving throw DC is 8 + you proficiency bonus + your Dexterity modifier.
LEVEL MILESTONES
The following are possible level milestones for becoming a specter.
- Defeat a powerful, ghostly undead and absorb its power.
Or defeat an aberration of similar might that has powers of 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.
- Kill a significant foe with necrotic or psychic damage, or by using necromancy magic.
- Infuse other willing people wit hthe 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.
TRANSFORMATION LEVEL 1
Starting at transformation level 1, you gain the following Transformation Boons and the level's Transformation Flaw.
TRANSFORMATION BOON
SPECTRAL PRESENCE
Your Dexterity increase by 2 and your Charisma increases by 1.
No ability score can increase above 16 in this way.
If your transformation is due to contact with the afterlife, you become Undead in addition to any other creature types you are.
If your transformation is due to an abnormality with reality, you become an Aberration in addition to any other creature types you are.
Spells that affect humanoids still affect you.
However, you're immune to effects that only affect a creature of your new type of a specific CR.
Also, you cease aging and cannot be aged magically.
TRANSFORMATION BOON
SPECTRAL MOVEMENT
Your walking speed increases by 10 feet. In addition, you can move through other creatures and solid objects as if they were difficult terrain and you can move through difficult terrain as if it were normal.
If you end your turn inside a creature or object, you're shunted back to where you entered and take 1d6 force damage per 10 feet (rounded up) you travel in this way.
Objects that have been in your possession less than 1 minute cannot move through creatures and objects with you.
As a final benefit of this boon, due to your incorporeal nature, during your turn you have resistance to all nonmagical bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage from sources you can see.
TRANSFORMATION FLAW
CLOSE TO DEATH
Your body and soul have a tenuous grasp on existence.
You have disadvantage on death saving throws as the pull of a peaceful death calls out to you.
If you would be killed, the GM chooses whether you die permanently (unable to be restored by magic) or you transform into an incorporeal undead or aberration under the GM's control.
If you are on the Ethereal Plane, this flaw has no effect.
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