Incorporeal Undead wearing Armour?

[Ogrork the Mighty]

If a creature wears full plate, dies, and becomes a ghost, it no longer gains an armour bonus to AC on the Material Plane but does the armour still impact its speed?

I realize it would affect both AC and speed on the Ethereal Plane, but what about on the Material?

 

[Nail]

If a creature wears full plate, dies, and becomes a ghost, it no longer gains an armour bonus to AC on the Material Plane but does the armour still impact its speed?

The template says:

"The equipment works normally on the Ethereal Plane but passes harmlessly through material objects or creatures."

That indicates a property of the armor that is changed on the material plane. It does NOT indicate that all properties of the armor are changed. Moreover, the speed reduction for armor is NOT based on whether the armor passes thru material objects or not.

The Ghost has its move reduced, due to the armor.

 

[smootrk]

Although a being might die and become a ghost, and may visually manifest to appear to be wearing armor, but this is just appearance. There is not really any armor to speak of; it is just part of the ghosts visage. The ghost does not get special ghost armor just because it died with plate on.

Now, if the ghost was able to acquire actual ghost armor (as I have seen certain descriptions), then some new rules may need to be applied.

 

[Nail]

Although a being might die and become a ghost, and may visually manifest to appear to be wearing armor, but this is just appearance. There is not really any armor to speak of; it is just part of the ghosts visage.

That's not true. Check out the template.

 

[smootrk]

The template states that "The equipment works normally on the Ethereal Plane but passes harmlessly through material objects or creatures".

Effectively there is nothing to it while on the Material plane, hence visual appearance only.

 

[Palladion]

If you wanted to wear armor as an incorporeal creature, use the ghost touch special ability (DMG page 219). Then the issue becomes how does an incorporeal creature with no Str score move the armor?

Just some mud to play with.

 

[mvincent]

The template states that "The equipment works normally on the Ethereal Plane but passes harmlessly through material objects or creatures".

Effectively there is nothing to it while on the Material plane, hence visual appearance only.

That is incorrect. The ghost can still benefit from its armor (like when attacked with magical weapons).

 

[smootrk]

I quoted directly from the srd. Copy & Paste. No embellishment. Here it is near the bottom of the page. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ghost.htm

It says nothing about providing protection on the material plane... although it does speak to magical weapons wielded by the ghost.

 

[mvincent]

It says nothing about providing protection on the material plane... although it does speak to magical weapons wielded by the ghost.

Hmm... I stand corrected. You appear to be correct, per this Rules of the Game article.

 

[mvincent]

how does an incorporeal creature with no Str score move the armor?

From the RotG:
"An incorporeal creature wearingghost toucharmor isn't actually carrying the armor around -- it just floats along with the creature. The armor is effectively weightless when an incorporeal creature wears it. The armor does not encumber the incorporeal creature, and the armor's Dexterity cap does not apply. The spectre wearing +2 ghost touch half-plate from our previous example has an Armor Class of 17 (+3 Dex, +2 deflection, +2 armor).

If you're uncomfortable with the foregoing text and you would like the ghost touch armor to work pretty much the same way no matter who wears it, you need to figure out how a creature with no physical body and no Strength score wears armor and you also need to figure out its encumbrance. A fairly easy way to handle this is to use the incorporeal creature's Charisma score as its Strength score for purposes of determining the creature's load. The rules say that a creature cannot fly when carrying more than a light load, but you may want to waive that rule for incorporeal creatures (which often have only a flying speed). You also may want to give an incorporeal wearer the full benefit of the base armor's armor bonus and apply the appropriate speed reductions and Dexterity cap for the base armor."