Ghost
- Armor Class
- 0 [19]
- Hit Dice
- 10
- Attacks
- Touch (1d6 plus Constitution drain)
- Special
- fear, Constitution drain, possession, telekinesis, undead immunities
- Move
- 9
- HDE/XP
- 11/1,700
Description
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased sentient creature that has for some reason remained on the material plane. They usually appear as they did in life, but sometimes the appearance of a ghost is altered by its original personality; for instance, the ghost of an angry person might have a threatening or even demonic visage. Ghosts are undead, and as such are immune to Sleep, charm, and hold magic.
Seeing a ghost is so terrible that any living creature who does so must make a saving throw or flee for 2d6 rounds. Anyone who successfully makes this saving throw may not be so affected by that ghost again.
A ghost that hits a living target with its touch attack does 1d6 points of damage, and at the same time regenerates the same number of hit points. In addition, the victim loses 1 Constitution point. Elves and dwarves (and other long-lived creatures such as dragons) are allowed a saving throw to resist this effect, which must be rolled on each hit. Characters who lose Constitution appear to have aged. If a ghost is fighting a living creature which does not have a Constitution score, the GM should assign whatever score they see fit.
Like most incorporeal creatures, ghosts may normally be hit only by magical weapons. However, if a ghost makes use of its touch attack, it becomes vulnerable to non-magical weapons until the beginning of the next round of combat.
Lost Constitution can be regained at a rate of one point per casting of Restoration; nothing else (except a wish) can restore Constitution lost to a ghost. If a character's Constitution falls to 0, they die permanently and cannot be raised (but still may be reincarnated).
Once per turn, a ghost can use Telekinesis (as the spell) as if it were a 10th level Magic-User.
Instead of attacking, a ghost may attempt to possess a living creature. This ability is similar to a Magic Jar spell (as if cast by a 10th level Magic-User), except that it does not require a receptacle. To use this ability, the ghost must be able to move into the target (so it is possible to avoid this attack by outrunning the ghost). The target can resist the attack with a successful saving throw. A creature that successfully saves is immune to being possessed by that ghost for 24 hours. If the saving throw fails, the ghost enters the target's body and controls it; control may be maintained until the ghost chooses to leave the victim's body, or until it is driven out by means of a Remove Curse or Dispel Chaos (Law) (Chaos only) spell. While it is possessing a living creature, a ghost may not use any of its special abilities.
Source note: This creature is converted from Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, 4th Edition Release 142, © 2006–2025 Chris Gonnerman. The Basic Fantasy textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.