Draft:Ghost

Omega 0.90.4

g Ghost
Form	Ordinary creature
Attacks	No melee or ranged attack
Special abilities	Fear-inducing moan when hostile; one hint when peaceful
Base level	2
HP	32
Hit	0
Defense	10
Action interval	20 ticks; lower is faster
Kill experience	30, when death is in sight
Generation	Random pools, cemetery and ruined Order headquarters
Carried items	No fixed item or random starting treasure
Immunities	Physical damage, fear, sleep
Remains	Ghost ectoplasm; 50% on normal death
Remains use	No food or alchemical benefit
Traits Normally peaceful; some placements hostile Wanders Intangible; can pass through walls
Reference	minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 81

A ghost is a wandering spirit, displayed as a grey g. A peaceful ghost can whisper a useful hint; a hostile one causes fear. Ordinary ghosts do not use the life-draining melee attacks of spectres or vampire lords.

Generation

Each of the four lesser-undead positions in Rampart's cemetery has an equal chance to contain a ghost or a haunt. Cemetery ghosts begin asleep and nonhostile. They also occur in ordinary random-monster pools, wilderness encounters and summons.

Destruction of the Order headquarters fills its former site with hostile creatures named ghost of a Paladin, using the ordinary ghost's abilities. These are different from the resurrected undead guardsmen.

An encounter named ghost named ... can instead represent a deceased historical adventurer. Its HP, combat level and behavior follow the old character record, so the ordinary data above are not sufficient to identify its threat.

Hints and fear

A nonhostile ordinary ghost gives one hint when spoken to, then becomes silent. A hostile ghost only sneers and does not provide the hint. The service costs no gold; it is one hint per ghost, not an unlimited conversation with the same one.

An active hostile ghost can moan, causing 1 point of fear damage and adding fear according to its level. Fear immunity prevents both effects. There is no separate line-of-sight requirement for this moan, so merely putting a wall between you and a nearby ghost is not reliable protection.

Ghosts can move through obstacles and are immune to ordinary physical damage, fear and sleep. They have no normal tactical attack sequence. Their harmlessness in melee does not stop a hostile ghost from disrupting movement through fear.

Strategy

Preserve the cemetery ghost's initial peaceful state to obtain its hint and avoid the fear effect. Waking a sleeping ghost does not by itself turn it hostile. Attacking or threatening it can discard that advantage.

When fighting is necessary, use damage outside its innate immunities rather than ordinary weapon damage. Fear protection addresses its actual offensive ability; negative-energy protection is aimed at other undead's life drain and does not substitute for fear immunity here. Doors do not reliably confine a pursuing spirit.

A ghost has no starting treasure. Its ghost ectoplasm has no alchemical transformation or food benefit. Killing one is chiefly useful for removing a hostile obstruction, not for obtaining a valuable ingredient.