Ghost

Ghosts were the souls of a deceased sentient creature that had been bound to haunt a specific area, object, or creature that held significance to them when they were alive.

Often this state of existence was because of a soul having been horrendously evil in life, their deaths being tremendously emotional, being denied a proper burial, or because they had unfinished business.

Personality
The "unfinished business" that drove ghosts varied widely. Some might seek to fulfill an oath, others to relay a message to a loved one, while some might simply desire to have their death avenged.

Evil-aligned ghosts were said to hate goodness and all forms of life, being driven by a sense of wickedness and spite. As well as a desire to end the lives of other creatures, in particular those responsible for or connected to its death.

Sometimes ghosts were unaware that they had died and thus will continually act out the daily routine they had in life.

Biology
Being a form of undead, ghosts had no need for the air, food, drink, or sleep that they formerly required in life. They moved about by flying. Having incorporeal bodies, they could phase through solid objects. When moving they made no noise.

Abilities
Ghosts were capable of phasing between the Ethereal Plane and the Prime Material plane and could see  in either plane. They were resistant to all spells based around acid, fire, lightning, and thunder. They were also immune to spells based around cold, necrotic energy, or poison. Prior to the Spellplague, it was impossible to harm them with spells of any kind unless one was in an ethereal state.

Ghosts also could only be harmed by weapons that were enchanted, made of silver, or had the ghost touch property. They could be harmed by holy water while in their semi-material form. Many also had some form of weakness tied to their former life &mdash; the ghost of a tortured person could be harmed by the implements that had been used to torture them. Alternatively, one could simply rid an area of a ghost by resolving their unfinished business.

Offensive Abilities
These undead spirits exuded a supernatural sense of fear in all non-undead creatures within of them. This sense fear caused creatures flee and sometimes the fear would be so great that their bodies would age by ten to forty years. This aging effect could be reversed with greater restoration, but only if done within twenty-four hours.

Ghosts were capable of possessing the body of any humanoid that they could see within of them. Doing so made the creature incapacitated incapacitated and fully under the control of the spirit. Besides killing the possessed, a ghost could be expelled from their body by means of the spells turn undead or dispel evil and good. Once free, it was impossible for a creature to be possessed by a ghost for the following twenty-four hours.

Prior to the Spellplague, ghosts were more well known to use an ability similar to the spell magic jar on victims within of them rather than possession. Also prior to this period, humans and demihumans killed by a ghost typically remained dead permanently, due to having had all their life-essence drained out of them.

Combat
A ghost's weapons usually consisted of whatever weapons they carried in their mortal life, and maybe a spell or two if they were a wizard or sorcerer. Any weapon they possessed usually had the ghost touch property. Their most direct offensive ability was a sort of withering touch that imparted necrotic energy onto a target.

Variants

 * Ghost Brute: the ghost of an animal, plant, or magical beast that was stuck to the material plane.

Homelands
Ghosts were known to occur in any type of region, but they were most often found haunting areas at night.

Places haunted by ghosts tended to emanate sensations of profound sadness, loneliness, and unfulfilled desires. Haunted locations often had certain areas where there were strange noises, an unnatural silence, an unnatural feeling of cold, or inanimate objects moving around. Though such manifestations would be due to the ghost's presence, the spirit did not intentionally manifest them and it had no control over them.

Languages
Like many types of undead, ghosts knew all languages that they had known in life.

Relationships
A ghost could be controlled of wizards, sorcerers, liches, etc. In this case the ghost was finally put to rest when destroyed on the material plane or the master of the ghost died. This was usually uncommon though, because to raise a ghost used a lot more magic than raising a regular undead.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Dungeon #29: "'Til Death Do Us Part" • Dungeon #30: "Elminster's Back Door" • Dungeon #67: "Witches' Brew"
 * Novels
 * The Paladins
 * Card Games
 * AD&D Trading Cards • Dragonfire ( Sword Mountains Crypt )