D&D is stuffed with monsters which may look, sound, and act like g-g-g-ghosts however are literally, technically, a complete different class of spirit.

We are hip-deep in ghost season. And whether or not you’re on the market with a spirit field, searching for spaghetti and apple taters, otherwise you’re on the market with an unlicensed nuclear accelerator strapped to your again, there are many of us who can anticipate to run into ghosts this yr. But… are you certain that was really a ghost?

In D&D, ghosts may simply be impostors. You may assume that the glowing, see-through individual in entrance of you is a ghost. But you might so readily be incorrect. Dead incorrect. You see, a ghost is the soul of a once-living creature, certain to hang-out a selected location, creature, or object that held significance to it in its life.

And they make the atmosphere spooky. Sensations of profound unhappiness, loneliness, and unfulfilled craving emanate from locations the place ghostly hauntings happen. But most notably, a ghost can age you wherever from 10 to 40 years in a single second.

And it might maintain doing that. So you might actually die of outdated age-induced fright upon seeing one.

But that gained’t occur should you run into these monsters which may seem like ghosts however are solely totally different undead entities.

Spectre

Specters, then again, are the indignant, unfettered spirits of humanoids who’ve been prevented from passing to the afterlife. These are stressed undead who’re condemned to stroll the world eternally. They can by no means discover relaxation or redemption, they’re doomed to linger on the Material Plane eternally. Specters hate the residing with each fiber of their translucent being.

They focus on draining life from the residing. And solely within the act of killing, can they lastly discover a second’s reprieve from the hatred and sorrow that consumes them.

Sword Wraith

Don’t be fooled. These flying, blue, incorporeal beings may seem like the soul of a once-living creature, certain to a selected location, creature, or object that held significance to it in its life, however they’re really not. Sword Wraiths are warriors who died in battle with out honor. They are the spirits of troopers who died with out mercy.

Their stressed souls stand up as ghost-like warriors. Each one is a succesful combatant, however they can’t supernaturally age you.

Shadow

Shadows, then again, are ghost-like beings who consist solely of shadows. Dark exaggerations of humanoid shadows, these creatures starvation for all times. The purer of coronary heart the residing creature, the higher the meal for a shadow.

They will drain their sufferer’s energy and vitality, leaving solely a withered husk. The shadow of the sufferer, nonetheless, breaks free, turning into an undead shadow all its personal.

Will-O’-Wisp

Those glowing, wispy lights you see? The ones haunting lonely locations and battlefields, certain by darkish destiny or darker magic to feed on worry and despair?

Those aren’t ghosts. They’re Will-O’-Wisps. These are evil undead spirits who lure unwary creatures to their doom, tricking the unsuspecting into following their ghostly gentle till they drown in quicksand, blunder right into a monster’s lair or another place the place their chosen sufferer dies a gradual, horrible loss of life.

Fitting for the souls of evil beings that perished in anguish. A Will-O’-Wisp could be the soul of a once-living being, however as an alternative of being certain to a spot, it turns into somewhat homicide lamp.

Wraith

Wraiths are additionally the souls of once-living beings. Only as an alternative of being certain to a spot they as soon as cherished, they have been so evil, so wicked, so suffused with unfavorable power, that the soul turned a kind of collapsing singularity of evil. And as a substitute: a wraith. Wraiths are malevolent voids which may resemble the beings they as soon as have been in life.

But these are malice incarnate. They need nothing lower than to quench all life. And wraiths solely exist to annihilate some other life they arrive throughout.

They do that fairly effectively as a result of they’ll increase any humanoid inside 10 ft of it that not too long ago died, making a specter who serves the wraith from the not too long ago useless physique of a fallen buddy.

Still not a ghost although.

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and occasionally eats sandwiches. You can ask him about both at [email protected]

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