Haunted Feat

[DeepShadow of FoS]

I have a PC with the haunted feat who is haunted by the spirit of his dead wife. He wound up getting trapped in the ethereal with her for a while, and he gave her his jacket to cover up her death wounds. It makes me wonder, how far could this go? The player is not one to abuse the RAW, quite the contrary, but it reminds me of the alternate rules about summoning monsters where you could hunt down the specific creature and give it gear before summoning. Could he give his wife a ghost touch item? If she gets a cloak of charisma, would raising her stats give her more ghostly powers?

I'll be enforcing fairness, I'm just curious as to what could happen.

[DustBunny]

I'll be enforcing fairness, I'm just curious as to what could happen.

Mmmm - is the dearly departed close to being a NPC/Henchman, or more of a more active background story? If the former she could be watching over the PC as a sort of guardian - like Sir Stuart in the Dresden book 'Ghost Story'.

As for power growth while VRG:GtG says a ghosts powers is set at formation, a way around it would be to take the idea of an allergen and reverse it. A standard allergen weakens or otherwisely negatively affects the ghost, but if the 'allergen' is something the ghost likes it could enhance its powers. So if he gave her a magical 'cloak of charisma' it would do nothing at it was meaningless to her in life, _but_ if he gave her the tatty old cloak her grandmother made for her that would strengthen her. Ditto with other things from happier times - a stuffed toy, engagement ring, a favourite hankerchief, mothers old music box, an in-joke they shared, etc.

This would prevent the dreaded spectre of Monty Haul showing up, as the items have to be personal to the ghost and are useless to anyone else. It would also allow the ghost to grow in personality as parts and memories of her previous life are remembered and found. And by the same token - bad things could act as power drains, memories which she wanted to forget could undo the good. It also lets you as DM keep a firm hand on the controls when deciding what and how much something will boost the spirit.

And the 'romantic ghost story' works a lot better when the PC finds and shares small personal things which binds them together (even after death) rather than going "Happy Anniversary dear. I have a sword +1 as a gift for you".

[DeepShadow of FoS]

I'll be enforcing fairness, I'm just curious as to what could happen.

Mmmm - is the dearly departed close to being a NPC/Henchman, or more of a more active background story? If the former she could be watching over the PC as a sort of guardian - like Sir Stuart in the Dresden book 'Ghost Story'.

Yeah, I was considering offering the option of upgrading her to cohort status if the PC took the Leadership feat. Having her tied to the PC as a ghost actually eliminates a lot of the complications of cohorts as second characters.

As for power growth while VRG:GtG says a ghosts powers is set at formation, a way around it would be to take the idea of an allergen and reverse it. /quote]

Perfect! We already use the rules for companion items, so this makes perfect sense.

And the 'romantic ghost story' works a lot better when the PC finds and shares small personal things which binds them together (even after death) rather than going "Happy Anniversary dear. I have a sword +1 as a gift for you".

Yeah, definitely want to avoid that. Thanks!