Homebrew Wandering Spirit Species Details

"All houses wherein men have lived and died

Are haunted houses. Through the open doors

The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,

With feet that make no sound upon the floors.

We meet them at the doorway, on the stair,

Along the passages they come and go,

Impalpable impressions on the air,

A sense of something moving to and fro.

There are more guests at table than the hosts

Invited; the illuminated hall

Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts,

As silent as the pictures on the wall…"

 

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ‘Haunted Houses’

 

Wandering spirits are more than just mere ghosts or wraiths, they are spirits that remain in the mortal realm for unknown reasons.

While ghosts remain for a variety of reasons, most if not all remain because they still desire to resolve a task, wandering spirits roam the mortal realm without much guidance. Some are lost souls, some are those undeserving of both the suffering of the Underworld and the pleasures of Heaven, and others asked to roam.

It is your choice as the player to determine who you were while living. Maybe you were a human noble, an elven peasant, or something else. Whatever you were in life, you keep your size and your appearance before death, with a loss of color and with transparency.

Wandering Spirit Traits

Unseen Doorways, Ethereal Sight, Darkvision, Ghostly Flight

Ability Score Increase

Your ghostly being is stronger against substances that will impact your being. You gain a +2 to Constitution.

Age

Wandering Spirits don't physically age, keeping the appearance they had in death permanently. Your age is the same age you died at.

Size

You are the same size as you were in death, most commonly either Medium or Small.

Ghostly Flight

Your ghostly form prevents you from walking, instead you float throughout the world at a maximum of 3 feet above the ground.

Darkvision

Your ghostly sight allows you to see in the dark for 60 feet as if it were bright light, and another 60 feet as if it were dim light.

Ethereal Sight

Your ghostly existence allows you to see into the ethereal plane. This sight goes up to 30 feet.

Unseen Doorways

Your spiritual body allows you to cross through most things as if they were not there. You are able to walk through closed doors as if they were open, through windows as if they were open doors, through walls made of wood that is not a depth of 10 feet or more as if the wall didn't exist, and through partially broken walls as if the wall didn't exist. When considering what a wall is, consider the ceiling, floor, and walls as walls. If you end your turn inside of an object, you take 1d10 force damage.

Languages

You know the same languages you knew in life, commonly Common and one other language.

Free Spirit

A free spirit is a spirit that has no physical ties and can willingly manifest itself in and out of the material plane, with some costs.

Ability Score Increase

Your ghostly being allows you to be more agile. You gain a +1 to Dexterity.

Immunity to Disease

You become immune to disease.

Manifesting

You are able to willfully manifest into the material plane. You can de-manifest back into the ethereal plane 3 times per day. You can be forced to manifest using a ritual if you are within 30 feet of the ritual. After being forcibly manifested, you are teleported into the middle of the ritual. If you are forced to manifest, it does not count to your 3-times-per-day manifestation limit. This is also called "Summoning".

Possessed Armor

Possessed Armor is able to do much of what a normal person can do, but at a price.

Ability Score Increase

Your physical shell of armor allows you to hit harder. You gain a +1 to Strength.

Metal Body

Your metallic body gives you a strength against most non-magical attacks. You have resistance to non-magical slashing damage and non-magical piercing damage. However, this metal body causes you to be forced to walk a mere 25 feet, losing your "Ghostly Flight" benefits. You are also vulnerable to non-magical bludgeoning damage.

Possessed Corpse

Instead of letting a corpse rot, possessed corpses reuse the body of a fallen person that otherwise would've rotted away.

Ability Score Increase

Choose any ability to increase its score by 1.

"Just like old times"

You gain the ability to possess corpses freely.

You gain all of the abilities that come along with being an alive being, without any racial bonuses from the corpse.

The corpse you possess takes on your HP and AC. When the corpse you are possessing reaches 0 HP, you are able to possess a different corpse, restoring 1 HP in the process. If you cannot possess a corpse, you fall unconscious within the corpse you are possessing and you begin to roll death saving throws. If a corpse becomes available while you are unconscious, you cannot possess the new corpse unless you are stabilized. You can only possess a new corpse once a day.

Possessed Object

Mastering possession, a possessed object can quickly hop from one object to the next, with some obvious trade-offs.

Immunity to Poison and Disease

You become immune to poison and disease.

Possession

You are able to freely possess inanimate objects such as crates, jars, and even magical items such as potions. You can only possess an object if it is reasonably movable (i.e., not a wall or building), not burning nor broken, and if it is not already possessed. You can only possess objects within a 30 feet diameter sphere of you.

If you possess a weapon, you can use your action to attack using the weapon. If you possess a spell-containing item such as a spell book or spell scroll, you may use your action to cast a spell that is of a spell slot of your level divided by 4, rounding to the nearest whole number larger than zero. You can always cast cantrips. After casting a spell, you may not cast the same spell again until you have cast a different spell.

You are unable to exist outside of a possessed object, meaning that you must possess an object to continue living. If the object you are currently possessing is destroyed, you must either possess another object or start making death saving throws, as your HP will immediately drop to 0. If you succeed three death saving throws before failing three, you immediately possess the closest inanimate object for the time being. If there is no possessable object close enough to you, you are dead even if you succeeded your death saving throws.

Spirit Animal

You take on an animalistic form, however you are still a spirit. You gain several abilities that your humanoid counterpoints do not.

Ability Score Increase

Your animalistic form allows you to act more dexterous. You gain a +1 to Dexterity.

Animalistic Instint

Your animalistic form gives you the primal instincts that others do not have. You gain proficiency in animal handling and survival.

Animalistic Form

You can take on an animal to appear as after death. You look like a ghostly form of an animal of your choice. This becomes your new appearance, and your size matches the animal. You can choose what your ghostly form looks like, such as distinctive markings or fur patterns. You are able to talk as if you were your alive self, however you lose the ability to dual wield weaponry. You use some of your ghostly magic to slightly possess an item you want to hold, causing it to float in a 5 foot diameter sphere around you. You choose how it floats, and how fast.

Discuss your chosen animal with your DM!!
toto_byafrica

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