Ghost rules confusion

[justiceforall]

Hi playground,

Trying to build a ghost opponent, but I'm having trouble figuring out the special abilities.

From the SRD:


The ghost also gains a manifestation ability plus one to three other special attacks as described below.

What determines how many other special attacks a ghost actually gets? Is the entire list of choices all the (Su) abilities minus Manifestation?


That question aside, the ghost I'm trying to build is a guardian warrior of a sacred place. Any (straightforward) advice for how to build it to be able to fight in melee? I assume the ghost's touch attack (if selected?) is a natural attack and therefore cannot get iteratives? If the ghost took improved unarmed strike, could it use those to deliver its touch attacks in the same way as a touch spell?

[ZamielVanWeber]

What determines how many other special attacks a ghost actually gets? Is the entire list of choices all the (Su) abilities minus Manifestation?
The DM. And yes you can pick from anything on that list. Manifestation is automatic.



That question aside, the ghost I'm trying to build is a guardian warrior of a sacred place. Any (straightforward) advice for how to build it to be able to fight in melee?

I am a fan of the malevolence ability personally. Without a defense against it you can hijack a party member and really mess with the action (and help deal with the action economy issue). Another option is to combine Horrific Visage with Draining Touch set to Con. You will quickly kill of party members that way. Set it to Dex if you want to leave them alive but helpless. Corrupting Gaze forces a save every turn so can quickly take a lon Cha party member out of the fight. Remember that the ghost also has class levels to back it up.

As far as I know the ghosts touch attacks are just that and cannot be combined with natural weapons, iteratives, or IUS. If it could imagine: give it a full BAB class and hit for an easy 2d4 stat mod a round. Set it to Cha and rip them apart with the touch + Gaze in one turn.

[justiceforall]

The DM. And yes you can pick from anything on that list.

That seems like very loose design. It's not even bound to CR or HD?

[ZamielVanWeber]

The cr rules are more like general guidelines than useful rules. The point of the ghost template is that it is super flexible and no two ghosts will be the same.

[Milo v3]

That seems like very loose design. It's not even bound to CR or HD?

Nope. It is in pathfinder but not in 3.5e.

[justiceforall]

It's the between one and three thing that really seems odd. Oh well.

Is there a way that the ghost can get multiple touch attacks per round?

[Doc_Maynot]

That seems like very loose design. It's not even bound to CR or HD?

Just thought I'd mention the Ghost template class (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040117a) that gives you an exact amount as you progress though it