Being Insubstantial

[RigaMortus2]

Can't seem to find what other effects of being insubstantial grant you. All it states in the PHB is that you take half damage from any attack that hits you. Is that it? No more flying through walls and such? No more wraiths attacking through the floor? Seems kind of weak.

 

[cdrcjsn]

Going through walls is a different effect.

 

[Dragonblade]

Insubstantial is half-damage from physical attacks, phasing is going through walls and such. Most creatures that have one also have the other from what I have seen. Wraiths have both, for example.

I think they broke it out into two things to be able to cover different types of creatures. For example, some creatures can phase through walls but when attacking they revert to solid form thus they don't gain the half damage benefit of insubstantial.

And if you think about liquid creatures, they would likely get insubstantial without phasing since being liquid does not allow you to move through walls.

 

[hong]

Insubstantial --> 3E gaseous form?

 

[RigaMortus2]

Phasing kind of works. It lets you go through walls, but you have to end your move in an unoccupied space. Occupied usually means by another creature. So would phasing allow a wraith (for example) to end it's movement so that it is mostly under the ground and then reach out of it to attack.

 

[Dausuul]

Can't seem to find what other effects of being insubstantial grant you. All it states in the PHB is that you take half damage from any attack that hits you. Is that it? No more flying through walls and such? No more wraiths attacking through the floor? Seems kind of weak.

Phasing covers what you're talking about.

Although I have to say, I'm almost certainly going to house-rule that you need a magic weapon (or magic, period) to harm a naturally insubstantial creature. It was one thing to handwave it in Iron Heroes, where there weren't any magic weapons to be had, but it seriously bothers me that it's possible to cut down a wraith with ordinary weaponry.

 

[eleran]

Not to threadjack, but speaking of phasing. Has anyone given any thought to making a 4e Phase Spider? I am eventually going to need some for my campaign and just wanted to see if any of the braintrust had already given them some thought.