Possession by many possible

[solooize]

I've been looking at playing a dread necromancer that can view into the ethereal plane. I'm looking to take control of a few 12 hd ghosts and store them in my body or a device

Can I keep them in myself?
What could I keep them in?

[Vizzerdrix]

You can hauntshift them into objects.

[Segev]

You can hauntshift them into objects.

This is a reference to rules in the first few pages of Libris Morris, and a spell later in the book (in the spells section). The haunting presence rules deal with undead being disembodied malevolent forces that haunt sites or objects. The spell forces normal undead to become haunting presences.

[solooize]

As a haunting presence, an undead is impossible to affect or even directly sense. A haunting presence is more fleeting than undead that appear as incorporeal ghosts or wraiths, or even those undead enterprising enough to range the Ethereal Plane.

LoM

What I take from this is that if I can see into the ethereal plane the ghosts are different and stronger. Making haunt shift a cool spell but not as good as blink spell ....then I just cast control undead or even command undead on an incorporeal ghost ....unless I'm looking in the wrong place? I'm thinking this would work? Problem is keeping them around ...

haunts, incorporeal, ghost, shadow, and wraiths... o my

I'm guessing you can keep them as easy as you could a shadow.. any rules say otherwise?

[Segev]

As a haunting presence, an undead is impossible to affect or even directly sense. A haunting presence is more fleeting than undead that appear as incorporeal ghosts or wraiths, or even those undead enterprising enough to range the Ethereal Plane.

LoM

What I take from this is that if I can see into the ethereal plane the ghosts are different and stronger. Making haunt shift a cool spell but not as good as blink spell ....then I just cast control undead or even command undead on an incorporeal ghost ....unless I'm looking in the wrong place? I'm thinking this would work? Problem is keeping them around ...

haunts, incorporeal, ghost, shadow, and wraiths... o my

I'm guessing you can keep them as easy as you could a shadow.. any rules say otherwise?

I'm having difficulty parsing what precisely you mean, but if I am understanding you correctly, it sounds like you still aren't grasping the rules in Libris Mortis about haunting presences.

It isn't saying that ghosts and incorporeal creatures are all haunting presences. It's saying that, if a particular undead is transformed into a haunting presence, it follows those rules.


A normal ghost exists on the ethereal plane and has a monster ability called "Manifest" which lets it co-exist on the material plane as an incorporeal creature. You can use anything that lets you see into the ethereal to see normal ghosts who aren't manifesting. If you can target into the ethereal, you can control undead or command undead or Rebuke/Command Undead at them. You can then have them follow you around on the ethereal plane, until you want them to manifest as incorporeal beings on the material.

A normal skeleton (for contrast) is a physical being, a walking collection of bones in the rough shape of the creature that once surrounded them, using the standard skeleton template. If you use magic to control it, it can follow you around on the material plane and obey your orders.


A skeleton that has been forced into being a haunting presence haunts a location or object, as per the rules in Libris Mortis. It either has some limited ability to animate the object, or can briefly form as a physical skeleton in the presence of the object and act. If you have magical control over the haunting presence of a skeleton that is haunting, say, a red and white ball you're carrying around, you can command it to appear for up to however long it's able to do so, and make it act on your orders as a normal skeleton, per the rules for haunting presences in Libris Mortis. If you have a sufficiently beefy skeleton (i.e., enough HD), it can haunt larger, more complex objects and cause them to animate according to your orders, rather than having to make it manifest. (I believe you have to choose which it can do when you make it a haunting presence, but I could be wrong. I'm AFB at the moment so I can't check.)

A ghost that has been made into a haunting presence is likewise basically carried in your pocket as part of the object it's haunting, until such time as it chooses (or is compelled to) manifest. At which point it exists on the ethereal plane until it further manifests as an incorporeal creature on the material. Alternatively, it can animate the object it inhabits if the ghost has enough HD compared to the size/complexity of the object.


There is a spell, haunt shift, in Libris Mortis which, when cast successfully on an undead creature, forces it to become a haunting presence haunting an item or location of the caster's choice. The same spell, cast on a haunting presence, can force it back into being a normal undead of its sort.