Concept: Ethereal ghosts

[whitesphere]

Yesterday, I had an interesting story concept for a game.  Basically, it centers on a world where the powerful Resurrect and Eternal Youth spells, well, draw on the life force of ghosts.  Obviously, this REALLY upsets the ghosts, who start attacking to try to stop this literal ripping them apart...and how people survive in this type of world.

But, in this game, all ghosts are Ethereal.  Conceptually, this means they are just about invulnerable to physical and (most) magical attack from normal Physical beings.  However, if they are attacked by another Ethereal being (a Ghost joins your party, and eventually the PCs learn a spell to temporarily make them Ethereal), the attacks and defense are normal, since both Ghosts are on the same plane of existence.

Does this seem like an interesting play mechanic?  Basically, if a normal PC attacks a Ghost, they do, maybe, 1% damage IF they hit the Ghost (with an effective, say, 95% EVA, good luck doing that!).  Non-sensitive magics would use the normal elemental resistances so they hit for, maybe, .1% unless they are, say, Holy magic..

Of course, for game balance, your PC Ghost has almost no HP (neither do most Ghosts, really), and cannot use any armor or weapons, nor can he use normal Healing spells or most potions.  Of course, the PC Ghost can "die" but resurrects with 1 HP after battle, and has a small, say, 5% HP regen.

 

[Alexander Amnell]

I like the concept; the game I'm working on with my daughters centers around a young exorcist facing upset ghosts. Though it takes a different approach in that you bring ghosts closer to the mortal plane rather than bring yourself closer to the spiritual. Basically making them much stronger but allowing you to harm them whereas before you couldn't interact but they could do minor things to you like try to curse you or throw various world objects at you. It's a cool concept but if it's just one extra step added to the battle than it is kind of pointless. In said game the trick so far is to only empower one ghost at a time(difficult to do as they are invisible unless active) so as not to be attacked by a horde of empowered ghosts all at once. If it's just a matter of using a turn to buff yourself I certain battles so you can fight normally when otherwise you can't touch said enemies it will quickly become tedious rather than fun IMO.

 

[whitesphere]

Since one player is a ghost, that player can always affect ghosts.  And, certain spells can certainly affect ghosts.  I might even allow certain weapons to affect ghosts (i.e. blessed arrows or whatnot).  I agree completely it would be very tedious to have to always waste a turn to fight the ghosts.  But one would need the proper equipment to battle them.

The Ethereal spell is more for certain major boss battles than a "use for every ghost combat" type of thing.  And it might be real helpful for the PCs to avoid physical combat...

 

[omen613]

A priest or shaman could be good at fighting ghosts using holy weapons or chanting banishing words.

or could have a character who died and was resurrected and is like part ghost or something.

Necromancer's could summon or "charm" ghosts in battle...a ghost pokemon like game. Banshee vs Specter vs Ghoul

lots of lore to draw inspiration from

 

[whitesphere]

Hmmmm.  Well, one PC is 100% Ghost

A priest or shaman could be good at fighting ghosts using holy weapons or chanting banishing words.

or could have a character who died and was resurrected and is like part ghost or something.

Necromancer's could summon or "charm" ghosts in battle...a ghost pokemon like game. Banshee vs Specter vs Ghoul

lots of lore to draw inspiration from

Hmmmm.  Holy magic and items definitely do damage to Ghosts.  And so does Music, which is why the Church started using a melodious Bell, so long ago...the Bell keeps Ghosts away.

I like the shaman/priest idea, as well.

And there is a PC who is a ghost.    And, an underlying reason why most Ghosts don't simply tell wizards "Hey, you're hurting us, knock it off!"

That's true --- I can find a ton of interesting lore to play with.

This time when I make the game, I'm focusing on the story first.  

 

[Harmill]

How common are Ghost enemies? Are they the main type of enemies where most fights will include them?

Also, forgive my ignorance regarding ghosts, but if a Ghost is immune to physical attacks because it exists in a different plane, why can the Ghost affect the non-Ghost characters in the physical world?

How obvious is it that an enemy is a Ghost-type based off visuals? If the Player can't tell based off the graphic, then maybe don't make physical attacks miss and always do the 1 damage instead. Doing 1 damage to a target would then provide the player with feedback that the target is a Ghost.

Other than that, it sounds fine. There are different methods of dealing with them, and if they have a large presence in the game, then the player should always be thinking about bringing along someone who can deal with them properly (or you always have a party member with you that is equipped to battle them). Mechanically, I see this as somewhat similar to how some games might make Flying enemies only targetable with ranged attacks, and that doesn't cause any horrible imbalances so this should work well, too.

 

[whitesphere]

How common are Ghost enemies? Are they the main type of enemies where most fights will include them?

Also, forgive my ignorance regarding ghosts, but if a Ghost is immune to physical attacks because it exists in a different plane, why can the Ghost affect the non-Ghost characters in the physical world?

How obvious is it that an enemy is a Ghost-type based off visuals? If the Player can't tell based off the graphic, then maybe don't make physical attacks miss and always do the 1 damage instead. Doing 1 damage to a target would then provide the player with feedback that the target is a Ghost.

Other than that, it sounds fine. There are different methods of dealing with them, and if they have a large presence in the game, then the player should always be thinking about bringing along someone who can deal with them properly (or you always have a party member with you that is equipped to battle them). Mechanically, I see this as somewhat similar to how some games might make Flying enemies only targetable with ranged attacks, and that doesn't cause any horrible imbalances so this should work well, too.

The Ghost enemies are a major part of the plot, but they mainly exist in the Desert, where a huge war caused a lot of deaths, and there is another major plot based reason why they're all there.  Of course, now that Wizards are using their nifty Resurrection and Youth spells, which aggravates the Ghosts, they're drawing the Ghosts nearer.

So, Ghosts aren't a super common enemy, unless you venture into certain areas.  

As for how to identify a Ghost?  They will have certain battlers and events in-game. Ghost NPCs will be somewhat transparent, and the hostile Ghosts will have a certain appearance.

Ghosts can barely affect the purely physical world, so the Ethereal quality works both ways.  If a Ghost can cast spells, like the PC, the spells can cross over to affect physical enemies.  Ghosts by their nature would be highly resistant to most magic except Holy spells and Holy items.   And casting most Resurrection spells on anyone EXCEPT the ghost hurts them badly.

After thinking about it more, I've decided the main character should be a Priest instead.  At first, he can't use Holy spells, but by the time Ghosts are common, he certainly can.  One of the first Holy spells is a buff which grants Holy status to the party's weapons for a fairly decent amount of time.