Ghost

A ghost is the undead spirit of a human who was monstrously evil in life or who died in the grip of overwhelming emotion. It walks at night or wherever darkness lies, loathing all goodness and life and craving the vital essence of the living.

Ghosts exist on the Ethereal Plane. Material beings can see them but generally cannot reach them. Simply laying eyes on one forces any humanoid to save vs. spell or flee in terror for 2d6 turns after aging 10 years. Any priest higher than 6th level is unaffected, and any other humanoid above 8th level gains +2 on the save.

The ghost can try magic jar on anyone within 60 yards. If that fails, it semi-materializes to attack by touch, becoming AC 0. In that state only silver weapons (half damage) or magical ones (full damage) affect it, and holy water burns it. Each touch ages the victim 1d4x10 years. A human or demihuman slain by a ghost loses its life essence and is dead forever.

Spells can be cast at a ghost only by someone who is ethereal. While it stays fully ethereal, only foes on the Ethereal Plane can fight it, and there it has AC 8. Clerics of 7th level and higher can turn ghosts.

Most ghosts are tied to a small haunt, so those who know the local tales can steer clear. The haunting usually serves a purpose, often revenge for something suffered in life: a betrayed lover drifting through the place where the couple once met in secret, or a ruined merchant appearing nightly at his old shop or a rival's. Others linger because they were never properly buried, hovering near their remains until a passerby vows to inter them. Whatever its origin, bitterness toward the living turns the ghost malevolent and destructive.

Now and then several ghosts share one haunt. The best known case is the ghost ship, one that sank or vanished at sea and now sails on, ethereal, with an entirely spectral crew. Such ships tend to appear along with St. Elmo's fire, the eerie electrical glow that dances in a ship's rigging.

Heroes too weak to win by force can often free a ghost by righting the wrong behind it. A young woman murdered by a false suitor might rest once the scoundrel is disgraced and ruined, though many ghosts demand harsher payment, often the offender's life.

Common folk assume the aging terror comes from the ghost being dead, but skeletons and zombies cause nothing of the kind. Folklore muddies matters further by blaming specific forms, such as a headless horseman being scary for lacking a head, which leads people to think enough nerve will see them through. That error has killed many. The terror is a supernatural force the ghost wields, and courage does nothing against it.