Incorporeal Movement

Paul Farquhar · May 23, 2019

jaelis said:
I think of it as a speed thing... you could swing a sword slowly through a ghost and not affect it, but swinging quickly causes damage by disrupting the ether or something. Similarly I'd play that if a wall fell on a ghost, it would take damage.

It's psychic resonance. Even a non-magical weapon has a faint presence on the Astral and Ethereal planes due to the belief of the wielder.

Yaarel · May 23, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
It's psychic resonance. Even a non-magical weapon has a faint presence on the Astral and Ethereal planes due to the belief of the wielder.

I would generalize this idea to any form personal magic, including psionic potential, arcane exposure, divine fatefulness. The attacker being magical to some degree seems a plausible flavor for the awkward mechanics.

Oofta · May 23, 2019

Yaarel said:
That too is a confusing part, because the ghost is only ‘resistant’ to weapon attacks. So it is semi-solid so that a sword *can* damage it.

I'm with [MENTION=60210]jaelis[/MENTION] on this one. The fact that an incorporeal creature is slowed to half speed walking through a sword means that it is interacting with it, just not as much as a normal (corporeal) creature.

5ekyu · May 23, 2019

Oofta said:
I'm with [MENTION=60210]jaelis[/MENTION] on this one. The fact that an incorporeal creature is slowed to half speed walking through a sword means that it is interacting with it, just not as much as a normal (corporeal) creature.

Yep, to me, the movement feature is like an effort thing, short bursts of passable. Most of the time it's more semi-tangible.

Ephemeral is the trait they give some traits for more, well, insubstantial types.

Yaarel · May 24, 2019

Thanks guys. This was an issue I needed to make more sense of. I am still mulling my preference. But I found all of your explanations thoughtful.
́

So far, I find four ‘states’ of materialization.

• Intangible: Clairvoyance sensor. Cannot interact or be interacted with, but can see and be seen (by True Seeing or See Invisibility).
• Ephemeral: Will-O-Whisp. Cannot carry or wear items.
• Incorporeal: Ghost. Move thru objects as difficult terrain. Presumably resistant to nonmagical weapons.
• Solid: most objects or creatures.

jaelis · May 24, 2019

Yaarel said:
Thanks guys. This was an issue I needed to make more sense of. I am still mulling my preference. But I found all of your explanations thoughtful.
́

So far, I find four ‘states’ of materialization.

• Intangible: Clairvoyance sensor. Cannot interact or be interacted with, but can see and be seen (by True Seeing or See Invisibility).
• Ephemeral: Will-O-Whisp. Cannot carry or wear items.
• Incorporeal: Ghost. Move thru objects as difficult terrain. Presumably resistant to nonmagical weapons.
• Solid: most objects or creatures.

Don't forget gaseous form

Hmm, so in this hierarchy, a ghost can carry things. That does seem to be how it works, but I'd never appreciated it.

Yaarel · May 24, 2019

So far, five ‘states’ of materialization.

Immune to attacks
• Intangible: Clairvoyance sensor. Cannot interact or be interacted with. Can see and be seen (by True Seeing or See Invisibility).

Resistant to nonmagical weapons (explicitly or presumably)
• Gaseous: Cannot attack, cast spells, carry or use items. Can pass thru creatures and small holes.
• Ephemeral: Will-O-Whisp. Cannot carry or wear items. Also Incorporeal.
• Incorporeal: Ghost. Move thru creatures objects as difficult terrain.

Normal
• Solid: most objects or creatures.

jaelis · May 24, 2019

Do you want to count ethereal?

Yaarel · May 24, 2019

jaelis said:
Do you want to count ethereal?

Not ethereal because thats actually a different plane. The ghost for example can move back and forth between ethereal and material, and be incorporeal in either.

Yaarel · May 28, 2019

Is it possible that a ghost can pick up any object, but necessarily drops it if passing thru a wall?

So only objects that are incorporeal too can pass thru a wall, typically the items that the ghost had while dying, or that are now in the grave of the ghost?