Do Not Go Gentle...
DO NOT GO GENTLE is the title of a forthcoming expansion for The Ghost Hack that explores Hades in more detail, focusing on the City of Dis and its bureaucratic Misericordium, detailed rules for Wights, Demons and Angels and new character classes and schools of magic. Some of these new character classes are presented here, in draft. These Phantom Trades are more focused on the dead than the living.
The Anubians
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aka Lictors, Scourges or Stygians
The Anubians are considered a sect – and a heretical sect – rather than a respectable Trade. They are said to venerate Anubis and other pagan gods of death. What is certain is that they have arts to slow the Rot that poisons ghosts’ souls and resist and even control Wights. However, ghosts who turn to the Anubians for Dark Counsel discover these spirits have a hold over their clients. Starting HP: d6+4, gain 1d6 per level
Weapons & Armour: medium Attack Damage: d6/d4 unarmed Class Feature: +1 to starting INT and WIS Mortal Coil: 1d4 Leveling Up: Roll twice to see if INT and WIS increase |
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Anubians can Repel the Rot but, by making a Soul Usage Die roll, they can drive away Wights (but not Demons) with more HD than their level.
By making a INT test after repelling a Harrow-Wight, an Anubian can direct it to menace a different target. This can be either attack another ghost/monster who is Nearby or else to Predate on different Mortal Coil belonging to a ghost the Anubian has counselled.
By making a INT test after repelling a Harrow-Wight, an Anubian can direct it to menace a different target. This can be either attack another ghost/monster who is Nearby or else to Predate on different Mortal Coil belonging to a ghost the Anubian has counselled.
Anubians cannot control Ghastliches, Hel-Wights or Nether-Wights in this way. Their influence is over Harrow-Wights that appear when a ghost is reduced to 0 HP and Rots.
Anubians can offer Dark Counsel to troubled ghosts. This restores a ghost to their Ideal Form and reduces their Grave Die by one step. Counselling requires that the target be willing and the counselor make a Soul Usage Die roll and it takes 2d6 Turns (Moments during combat, Minutes during exploring, Hours or Days at other times). After receiving counsel, a ghost cannot benefit from it again until their Grave Die has increased another step.
Anubians should keep track of ghosts they offer Dark Counsel to, because they gain knowledge of their Mortal Coils and can target them with Wights.
Anubians should keep track of ghosts they offer Dark Counsel to, because they gain knowledge of their Mortal Coils and can target them with Wights.
Doppelgangers
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aka Lemures, Plasmoids or Slimers
Doppelgangers rejected their earthly lot in favour of something better. Some went beyond the limitations of the body they were born into, transforming it through cosmetics, costume or surgery. Others went beyond the body altogether, identifying as an online avatar or imagined self. In death, their form is fluid. They can be what they imagine. Starting HP: d8+4, gain 1d8 per level
Weapons & Armour: light Attack Damage: d6/d8 unarmed Class Feature: +1 to starting DEX and CON Mortal Coil: 1d6 Leveling Up: Roll twice to see if DEX and CON increase |
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Doppelgangers possess Apparition but can shape their ghostly body into any form they can imagine, rather than someone they know. Their Charnel Forms are often outlandish.
Doppelgangers can Heal more easily than other ghosts, restoring 2 HD when they roll their Soul Usage Die.
Doppelgangers can shape their bodies into weapons, which is why their unarmed combat damage is higher than their armed combat.
They start with Resilience 3 because they can shape their bodies into armour. They can refresh the AP once a day without making a Usage roll..
Doppelgangers can Heal more easily than other ghosts, restoring 2 HD when they roll their Soul Usage Die.
Doppelgangers can shape their bodies into weapons, which is why their unarmed combat damage is higher than their armed combat.
They start with Resilience 3 because they can shape their bodies into armour. They can refresh the AP once a day without making a Usage roll..
Helgaunts
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The Helgaunts are as much a military unit as they are a Trade. While Nightmanes explore Hades and Anubians parley with Wights, the Helgaunts exterminate the Rot wherever they find it. They are grim soldiers in an unending war and other ghosts find them offputting, but Nightmanes often serve as their scouts and they must sometimes have recourse to Anubian counsellors as their own Rot grows.
Starting HP: d10+4, gain 1d10 per level
Weapons & Armour: any Attack Damage: d10/d8 unarmed Class Feature: +1 to starting STR and CON Mortal Coil: 1d4 Leveling Up: Roll twice to see if STR and CON increase |
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Helgaunts can soultemper any Totem weapon by making a Soul Usage roll. The weapon inflicts Grave Damage. This lasts for as long as the Helgaunt wields the weapon but if they pass the weapon to another it loses this benefit in 1d6 + Level Turns.
Helgaunts roll CON with Advantage to heal Grave Damage and resist the powers of Wights and Rotten spirits.
Helgaunts treat the Dread as one category lower than it is, which means they can enter Acheron Mist without taking any damage and only take 1 damage per Turn in a Cocytus Fog. They can see in the Dread up to Far-Away.
Helgaunts possess Resilience 3t.
Grimliches
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Grimliches are Wights. But they are more than Wights. Some ghosts are birthed into the Afterlife already corrupted by the experiences of their death: often victims of atrocities, murder, torture or imprisonment. Unlike normal Wights, they have a Mortal Coil, albeit one they hate and wish to see suffer. Not destroy: suffer. A Grimlich wants to torment her Mortal Coil, making mortals wretched and objects and places into things of ill-repute, fear and hatred.
Starting HP: d8+4, gain 1d8 per level
Weapons & Armour: any Attack Damage: d8/d6 unarmed Class Feature: +1 to starting CON and INT Mortal Coil: 1d8 Leveling Up: Roll twice to see if CON and INT increase |
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Grimliches are only harmed by Grave Damage. However, they still have to test CON to heal Grave Damage.
Grimliches are not harmed by the Dread and can see normally in it.
In the Living World, while not in the Dread or in a Fane, their senses are dulled. They do not perceive the living or household objects, furniture or vehicles that are less than a decade old (although they are still harmed by iron of any age) unless they are part of their Mortal Coil or similarly touched by evil or tragedy (Referee’s discretion). Even if they Manifest or Possess the living, they have clouded vision and muffled hearing and make tests involving perception or aiming at Disdavantage.
This blindness to the Living World means that Grimliches cannot perform Vivimancy magic.
This blindness to the Living World means that Grimliches cannot perform Vivimancy magic.
Grimliches begin with a Grave Die of 1d10. They are always in Charnel Form unless they use Apparition. However, even their Ideal Forms have a chilling or unearthly quality.
Grimliches hate their Mortal Coils and draw Soul energy from them through Predation: their targets shatter or burn, suffer accidents, hallucinate, go made. The Grimlich can increase their Soul Die to one higher than their normal maximum by doing this, but if they do so the Grave Usage Die exhausts on a 1-3 rather than a 1-2.
NPCs who are part of a Grimlich's Mortal Coil and who suffer repeated Predation might become Open-Minded about ghosts. The Referee could set a d6 Usage Die after the first clearly supernatural Predation and roll it after each subsequent one. When it exhausts, the NPC no longer disbelieves in ghosts. Refresh the Usage Die and if it exhausts again the NPC becomes Wise and learns about salt and iron. This makes it impossible to draw Soul energy from them with a simple dice roll; the player and Referee need to roleplay assaults on this NPC because there will be barriers to overcome. Alternatively, the NPC becomes a Ghost Hunter.
