Defeating an incorporeal creature

[Jaligard]

I'm writing a fantasy story where one of my characters is going to fight two incorporeal creatures (undead). He has no spell-casting ability and no magic items (particularly no +1 weapons).

I want to stay true to the d20/D&D rules, but he needs to defeat the two undead somehow. He's pretty smart, but I'm drawing a blank on how to defeat them. Anyone have any suggestions?

(It works best if they aren't destroyed.)

Thanks for your help.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

This is tough since incorporeal creatures are immune to non=magical attack forms. Incorporeal creatures can harm each other, so how united are the creatures? Do they hate each other? Undead tend to be evil, and evil sometimes turns against itself. Perhaps the protagonist could play one icreature against another to kill or severely wound one another. I could be wrong, but I vaguely remember reading somewhere that incoporeal creatures cannot manifest in dead magic areas, so if your character could somehow trap these creatures in a dead magic zone, then he would be free of them. Alternately, he might trap them in an area with force effects surrounding it if there are any such nearby terrain.

 

[gtJormungand]

Besides running away and magic (Magical Weapons, the spell of that name, Actually spells), there is nothing that he can do. Maybe he could get help from a friendly hireable NPC that will cast Magic Weapon for him, but that's about it.

Lurking Serpent signing off,
gtJormungand

 

[Jaligard]

Well, it's going to be difficult because they are good undead (he doesn't know this and they are trying to kill him). The best I can do for him--maybe--is give him an adamantine dagger, which can hurt them.

He's basically in a small dungeon with very few critters in it. There are no magic-dead zones or force effects in it at all. Hmm...there is one beast in the dungeon that could hurt them, though.

If need be, he can also (eventually) lead them to people who can take care of them, but he needs to survive the encounter for awhile before that happens.

 

[The Sigil]

Option...

IIRC, not even adamantine will harm them. Adamantine's +2 enhancement bonus is nonmagical and therefore does not allow him to hit incorporeal creatures.

Another option (from Spells and Spellcraft) is to give him a weapon made of wraithspoor. IIRC, it adds 1000 gp to the cost of a weapon (masterwork) and gives it the ghost touch ability with no other bonuses (IOW, a masterwork dagger made with wraithspoor would be a +1 (nonmagical - this is from masterwork) ghost touch dagger for about 1320 gp.

Wraithspoor is something to the effect of "occasionally incorporeal undead leave a corporeal residue when slain; this residue can be mixed into metal to create an alloy and then made into weapon capable of harming incorporeals."

Someone with Spells & Spellcraft on hand might be able to better help you out, but that's my suggestion... this way his dagger isn't magical per se, but he can still fight.

--The Sigil

 

[Jaligard]

Bummer about the adamantine. (Are you sure about that?)

I can't give him any special weapons other than that, but you have given me an idea.

The undead will be using halberds which could be seperate from their bodies and would have to be Ghost Touch for them to use them. It would just be a matter of disarming one of them.

 

[Wicht]

He could use fire to drive them away - it works story wise though in reality (i.e. rules wise) they take no real damage from the fire.

 

[anglachel]

It seems that everyone has forgotten the age old method of hurting something immune to most attacks...FIRE!

I don't know if thats actually a rule, but I would allow it in my campaign. It worked for Aragorn.

 

[Painfully]

If he's not a cleric, call the ghostbusters.

Give him a "blessed" weapon, or have a priest bless the weapon to be used. Or provide a "special" weapon that was crafted specifically to kill these ghosts that doesn't necessarily have the +1 bonus, but can be used against undead successfully. Or have him sprinkle holy water on his weapon.

If you're the DM you should be providing SOMETHING he can use; it might be a weapon, it might be knowledge, it might be the ability to do something the ghosts cannot do themselves. If not, then you need to make sure he knows he doesn't have the tools to take on these ghosts and he should turn around and fight other critters for a while longer.

You say you don't want to destroy them?! A powerful cleric might banish them, or successfully turn them. If your fighter has no magic items, it's time for him to find help.

You dont' provide enough details for anybody to help you very much. If the fighter doesn't have the resources to fight ghosts, he should know enough to run away and not mess with them, at least in a fight. Maybe he can talk to them, or manipulate them by performing a favor for them. Ghosts usually want something besides just to hang out. There is usually a reason they stayed behind--what is it?

This is where role-playing can take place. Think about the motivations for all individuals involved. What do they want, what do they fear, what do they get upset or angry about? You need to do this for all your villains and NPCs!

**edited to cut out my smart comment about the person not actually having an idea in the first place**

(Ahh, to be a young DM)

 

[Jaligard]

Well, it's a story not an adventure, so I need to worry about it in a different way than a DM. The character will initially run away, but he will have to deal with these critters by himself.

He is a Dwarven Rogue 9 and has no magical items. I can give him an adamantine dagger (which is a +1 weapon, but not magical). He has no holy water, though there may be some in the dungeon.

They are good undead charged with protecting the temple/dungeon. Specifically, they don't want anyone to let a particular demon out of his prison. (The dwarf and his companions have already done so.)

Since I'm writing the story, I can add things to the setting, but I don't really want to add anything magical if I don't have to. I'd like the dwarf to defeat these guys mostly with his intellect, if that's at all possible.

And he doesn't have to kill them. He just has to get them to start trying to kill him. Negotiation is a possibility, but it's not very exciting story-wise, so I want to avoid it.

If I do give them Ghost Touch halberds, it becomes a matter of writing his discovery that he can use their own weapons against them and then trying to figure out how to get the weapons. That may work out pretty well.

Anyway, I'm just shoring for ideas here. You guys have already helped me out, but if you can give me a few more ideas, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!