why are ghosts so underappreciated? why don't they occupy the upmost place in the undead hierarchy, instead of liches or vampires?
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 CRIME Shirt $21.68 |
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why are ghosts so underappreciated?
why are ghosts so underappreciated? why don't they occupy the upmost place in the undead hierarchy, instead of liches or vampires?
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CRIME Shirt $21.68 |
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Are *you* going to play Wraith: the Oblivion, anon?
with whom? game's deader than its namesake
because they're dead you idiot
Pliz make tg just about generals pliz
>why are ghosts so underappreciated? why don't they occupy the upmost place in the undead hierarchy, instead of liches or vampires?
Because they're the most common and human of the undead. They also don't usually need to eat anything let alone blood and flesh. The other thing is they can come about for good or neutral reasons that tend to be accidental. Like people can accept a loved one coming back as an ethereal spirit due to trauma and unfinished business. But coming back as a fricking walking corpse that requires blood is entirely different.
What makes you think they are underappreciated?
funny how you always wait so long to give an answer, let alone even give a good answer.
How the frick do you know how long they waited to give an answer? They could have replied the second they saw the thread you fricking moron.
Ghosts come with a lot of baggage like being bound to a location or having unfinished business that needs resolving. You don't have to do it like that in your setting, but it's what people expect.
Because they can't do shit? Ghosts are immaterial while Vampires are physical and have a shitload of powers.
The way that popular culture has evolved, we think of becoming a lich or a vampire as having difficult requirements (making a phylactery or being turned by another vampire) and becoming a ghost as having easy requirements (be dead and not happy about it)- so naturally we portray ghosts as weaker.
Interestingly the medieval concept of a ghost was something corporeal- a manifestation that physically resembled something more like a zombie.
you can always give them powers. since in many settings losing your corporeality means you've achieved ascension and you're basically a maelstrom of power with an intellect, it wouldn't be far fetched for a specter to have the same might of a demilich
Because they don't drop loot.
ghosts make people think of 14 year old girls who buy magic crystals or films about a guy who moves his family out of the hustlin-bustlin big city onto an indian burial ground
Look at all of these non-awnsers!
Depends on the setting but generally ghosts don't have the kind of free will necessary to be at the top of a "hierarchy" of undead. A ghost persists because it has unfinished business and is an echo of a persons soul or whatnot, trapped in a particular location with only a vague awareness of the reality of the world around it.
Since we exist in a material existence, ghosts are gaseous entities.
Why do you want to be a fart? Why would a fart be above a lich? Which is essentially just a cool fart suit by the way. The lich I mean.
>Since we exist in a material existence,
That's just what your religion says, and materialism is the shittiest religion there is.
Was Sauron a ghost?
Sometimes, and post third age is totally one.
I actually agree with this bait thread though. In my games I don't really have "undead" and just have ghosts or spirits, which you can't fight with normal means. I want ghost encounters to feel different and scary compared to fighting goblins or something.
They are the lowest power undead of them all. An incorporeal gaseous entity that just makes a lot of noise and works on scaring people is not exactly the same tier threat as a zombie, skeleton, vampire, litch, basically things that have the capacity to physically harm the heroes. If not a full range of magical capabilities and immunity to all types of harm outside a few specific weaknesses.
>They are the lowest power undead of them all
Depends on the portrayal, doesn't it? Ghosts I think can be even more powerful due to being something intangible or requiring much more esoteric means to banish. And they can depending again on portrayal employ possession, or crazy reality warping shit.
Western ghosts are typically a sad echo, unless they have some sort of curse on a location or bloodline. Onryo can be absurdly powerful though, Tokyo gets wrecked every time they piss off Taira no Masakado.
The main problem with ghosts as a villain is that they lack agency. They don't travel much and their goals are very personal.
Aren't they also basically food for almost every other kind of nasty thing out there like demons, devils, yokai, etc? They are just the lowest level of the spooky monster food chain.
Which is why ghost movies focus on 1000 of them since they are so weak, while zombie flicks only have 1 or 2 undead to balance things out
I disagree. Ghost are great for early adventurers because they are quite dangerous and without the proper equipment or cleric you really can't hurt them too much yet. Also most ghost tend to come back even if you do beat them at combat. Player usually have to actually roleplay to get rid of them or just straight up not go to their haunt anymore.
>Why isnt a non-corporeal being incappable of interaction with corporeal being the most powerful!!1!!!!11
actually
>(ghost mode turns off) bang bang (ghost mode reactivates)
Was he a ghost? I thought he was pretty nasty.
First for Ghostwalk.
>why don't they occupy the upmost place in the undead hierarchy, instead of liches or vampires?
Because they're incorporeal and traditionally depicted as being of uncertain and unreliable personal power. A lich is a magical genius which has used his knowledge to cheat death. A vampire is...well, it depends on your culture and the setting, but something more dangerous than a human which can at least pass briefly for one and prey on them highly effectively.
Ghosts in most traditions don't do much besides move things a bit, stare at you, or make noise. The Japanese are a fairly high-profile aversion, since an onryou is incredibly powerful and incredibly, actively malicious.
Pic unrelated.
They do. The only way to get rid of a ghost is through magic and excorcisms or being forced to appease it.
Vampires and liches on the otherhand can be dealt with through physical violence, making them a more common and popular threat. Smallbrains thus made the conclusion that things that require violence to solve are clearly bigger threats.
>why don't they occupy the upmost place in the undead hierarchy
These guys are the reason
I run with ghosts being powerful by location locked. Ghosts haunt things and places, they can't or just won't go beyond a certain limit from these things. Thus while a powerful ghost might give a vampire a run for its money, they can just walk out. Unless the ghost or ghosts have spacial distorting properties
>why don't they occupy the upmost place in the undead hierarchy
Because they're usually weak in TTRPGs, with the most powerful type of ghosts being wraiths of some sort and ghosts are usually bound to a specific location even when they have reality warping powers in horror stories.
>instead of liches or vampires?
Liches are usually powerful wizards, with the most famous ones like Vecna or Nagash being gods or able to face gods. Vampires are usually weaker than liches, but the most vampire was a practitioner of dark arts tutored by the Devil, and some settings have god-like vampires like Caine, Castlevania's Dracula, the Sacred Ancestor, and Sorin Markov. Even with your pic related, the Obzedat, the liches of the Golgari and vampires of Dimir are equal if not superior threats (the Obzedat got shat on by Kaya on their home turf although that was pretty bullshit and Wotc likes wanking her hard).
GW made ghosts on of the faces of their products for 3 years
Free will. Ghosts are typically limited in how they can or will act - most often they're bound to a specific place or a specific goal such as vengeance or receiving proper funeral. Vampires are only limited by their lust and need for blood, and liches are even less limited (disregard 5e, anyone playing it sucks dicks).
>liches are even less limited (disregard 5e, anyone playing it sucks dicks)
Liches requiring substance of any sort, not just souls, has been a thing since 1e's Lords of Darkness and 2e AD&D's Van Richten's Guide to the Lich. In the former, they needed some blood from the same species every two years to cast Nulathoe's Ninemen on their phylacteries while also requiring a nearby corpse to possess if their physical body got destroyed. In the latter, liches had to perform an elaborate ritual that takes a night or so every few decades to maintain their bodies by using the life force and heart of a living person, and they were extremely vulnerable when carrying out said ritual.
I always thought that “Powerful” ghosts or ghosts In general are just demons in disguise
Conjuring movie touched on that. How God doesn't let people's souls posses objects and any claims of being a dead person is devil's trick to lower your guard
>All these non-answers still and idle chit chat