Ethereal Sight. The ghost can see 60 feet into the Ethereal Plane when it is on the Material Plane, and vice versa.
Incorporeal Movement. The ghost can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
Withering Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (4d6 + 3) necrotic damage.
Etherealness. The ghost enters the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane, or vice versa. It is visible on the Material Plane while it is in the Border Ethereal, and vice versa, yet it can't affect or be affected by anything on the other plane.
Horrifying Visage. Each non-undead creature within 60 feet of the ghost that can see it must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. If the save fails by 5 or more, the target also ages 1d4 × 10 years. A frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the frightened condition on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to this ghost's Horrifying Visage for the next 24 hours. The aging effect can be reversed with a greater restoration spell, but only within 24 hours of it occurring.
Possession (Recharge 6). One humanoid that the ghost can see within 5 feet of it must succeed on a DC 13 Charisma saving throw or be possessed by the ghost; the ghost then disappears, and the target is incapacitated and loses control of its body. The ghost now controls the body but doesn't deprive the target of awareness. The ghost can't be targeted by any attack, spell, or other effect, except ones that turn undead, and it retains its alignment, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and immunity to being charmed and frightened. It otherwise uses the possessed target's statistics, but doesn't gain access to the target's knowledge, class features, or proficiencies.
The possession lasts until the body drops to 0 hit points, the ghost ends it as a bonus action, or the ghost is turned or forced out by an effect like the dispel evil and good spell. When the possession ends, the ghost reappears in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the body. The target is immune to this ghost's Possession for 24 hours after succeeding on the saving throw or after the possession ends.
Description
A ghost is the soul of a once-living creature, bound to haunt a location, creature, or object from its life.
Funny how you act as if a basic statblock is the end all be all for D&D when all of those details you mentioned are up to the discretion of the DM. Hell, I'd say thanks for the possessed Nobles idea. That's actually a pretty sick concept even if it was spawned by your salt.
Question:
If a Ghost possesses a PC, and another PC uses "Turn Undead" on the possessed entity, does the ghost move away from the caster with/in the body it's possessing, or does it un-possess it and move away?
The ghost moves without the body. Possession ends if Turn Undead is used.
from the stats:
“The ghost can't be targeted by any attack, spell, or other effect, except ones that turn undead,”.
Which means other attacks target the host body not the ghost, but turn undead still targets the ghost. So the ghost would be turned if it failed it’s save. Under how the possession ends it includes if it is turned, so yes turning ends the possession if it fails it’s save.
Considering this is a CR 4 foe, I would have preferred if the aging could be reversed by Lesser Restoration within 24 hours, or Greater Restoration after 24 hours.
That is within reach of lower level players, and still requires using up a valuable 2nd level spell slot. And if the party doesn't have that, they still have time to go on a quest to find a 9th level friendly cleric. The way it is now, if the party is lower than 9th, or the spell caster chose to learn a different 5th level spell on reaching 9th level, then anyone aged is screwed until they get access to a Wish.
yeet yeet yeet
1) Is there something in particular that requires an ability that one basic spook (a CR 4 ghost) has be applied to other things?
2) How many ghosts do you think have the drive to possess kings, queens, or nobles? According to this basic info:
The only time a ghost is really going to be interested in possessing a king, queen, or noble is if there is something about its unfinished business that is actively related to that per RAW. You could extend it to other things. Also, they don't need to be exorcised, merely be knocked to 0 hitpoints, though you can alternatively turn them. Ghosts are rare entities, and ones that have something in particular against a king, queen, or noble are probably rarer still. Are you under the impression that every creature, unless explicitly stated, turns into a ghost? It's not like these things are going to be everywhere. Also, a king, queen, or noble probably is someone who can readily be exposed to level 2 clerics or similar. Kings and queens literally have entire kingdoms at their disposal.
…why does it have to be medium? Not all dead things are of human-centric average size.
You are absolutely right, a ghost doesn’t have to be. Medium is just what’s listed because it’s just the most common size. Same with vampires, zombies, etc.
It’s the same thing with the generic NPC statblocks. Although, the average Druid statblock says Medium, a Halfling Druid would be Small. So would the ghost of a Halfling or Gnome.
Okay, this statblock isn't terrible, it's actually pretty good, however there are a couple things I have to say about it:
1.It says there that the ghost takes 5(1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object. However, a ghost should be able to possess an object. It's been done before.
2. How come a ghost can't cast thaumaturgy? One might argue that it's the ghost that does all that stuff, but how else would it make lights flicker and boom its voice out? Thaumaturgy explicitly states some of its uses- being able to cause fire to flicker and change shape and being able to boom your voice. Arguably, a ghost might be able to cast a shapeshifting spell, too, since it can shift forms. It should have an Innate Spellcasting ability:
Innate Spellcasting. The ghost's spellcasting ability score is Charisma(spell save DC 13, +5 to hit with spell attacks):
At will: thaumaturgy, minor illusion
3/day: major illusion, disguise self
1/day: invisibility
Or, if you want a more powerful ghost:
At will: thaumaturgy, minor illusion
3/day: major illusion, shapechange, disguise self, weird
1/day: invisibility, mirage arcane
Just give a Wight the Ethereal ability and Possession and you have a martial ghost, done.
Is the ghost resistant to those elements period, or just when they are nonmagical like with weapons?
I'm annoyed that it's immune to Grapple, & that I can't suplex a ghost because of that.
It is resistant to those elements regardless of the source.
It's kind of mean that ghosts can be turned (and destroyed by Turn Undead if you are a high enough level cleric). Not all ghosts are evil! In fact, if I had to guess, most aren't evil.
If Ya'll ask a man that know Hebrew how translating to Hebrew "Ghost" it will respone you "רוח רפאים (ROO-ah-REFA-im)". But if ya ask the translation team that transleted the document available for download at this link (which, by the way, is the only D&D 5e document translated sometime into Hebrew and not an adventure), they will tell ya that the translation of "Ghost" is "רפא (REFA)". As I researched, the Hebrew translators of the first edition also translated the word "Ghost" into "REFA" while the name "ROO-ah-REFA-im" they translated as the name of a type of demon, and from there it probably rolled.
Attack: 22 Damage: 34
By the way I'm a titan with an intelligence value of 15 and my alignment neutral evil so please don't annoy me.
I would only assume that as a ghost, age has no real effect on them besides physical appearances. So it doesn't really matter if they do or not as long as the DM make a comment that they maybe look older, but still have the same strength.
So if you possess someone... You can't use any proficiencies? Armor weapons?
Question that only applies to the version of Ghost from Divine Contention:
The characters now face Ebondeath. If the dragon fled Leilon in spirit form (see the “Leilon Besieged” quest), the party faces a spectral version of the dragon. This has the statistics a ghost, with the following important modifications:
I believe this means it could cast spells while possessing a spellcaster using the caster's class features but the Ghost's ability modifier. My question is, how many spell slots would it have and would they be consumed from the caster's remaining slots?