Phantom
of faintly glowing eyes give the darkness a hollow semblance of life. I stepped forward towards the whimpering shadow, only for it to retreat further from me. In all my years of life I have never seen something so pitiful.
— A Stonemasons Recollection of
an Encounter with Living Darkness
Phantoms have little need for the conveniences society provides. Often, rather than causing a stir with their presence, they choose a life of solitude, despite their natural desire for social interaction.
Truly Dark Souls
Phantoms are result of a violent death. How they are prevented from leaving the Border Ethereal varies. A few possibilities include; the use of transmutation magic that binds them here, a new form of necromancy used to bar passage, or perhaps it is by their own powerful will that they hold on to their material ties.
Upon awakening after their death, they forget much, if not all of who they once were. As they live their new life, they often rediscover themselves and their memories. This is not always true for those that died young or those that lived uneventful lives.
The Ghost in the Shell
Phantoms are essentially the leftover consciousness or soul of a person after their traumatic death. They often contemplate on the questions their situation raises for them. Such as, what it means to be alive, or what makes a someone a person once they no longer have a body of their own? If the brain is where ones mind stores their memories and personality traits, than are they still themselves without it? Are the memories that seem to remain or return just fabrications?
Glimmers in the Night
Thankfully, not everything about these poor unfortunate creatures is entirely bleak. Given this second chance, many phantoms develop both inward and outward perspectives on themselves and the aspects of life and death that far exceed those of the average person. Once they've overcome their societal anxiety, this development can lead phantoms down truly rewarding paths, such as the forwarding of thought through teaching, or jobs involving the protection of others.
Phantom Names
A Phantom usually adopts a new name given to them by someone meaningful they have encountered, though sometimes they do name themselves. On rare occasion a phantom may learn their old name and some choose to return to its use. These new names that that they adopt, or that they choose, usually are a reflection of their character or something that makes them unique and defined in some way. Most of these names tend to be gender neutral in general, but that is for no particular reason.
Adopted Names. Austere, Barroque, Clunk, Echo, Foster, Grim, Guts, Hoarse, Hope, Ire, Joy, Kindred, Mellow, Merry, Nails, Odium, Peppy, Radiant, Rue, Shadow, Sin, Ting, Vigor, Winter, Wit
Phantom Quirks
| d8 | Quirk |
|---|---|
| 1 | You try to avoid social interactions, afraid of being rejected |
| 2 | It's uncommon for others to compliment you, so when they do, you react oddly |
| 3 | You try to project an outward appearance of coldness and toughness, while hiding your true thoughts and emotions |
| 4 | You avoid sunlight and open flames, as they serve as morbid reminders when you cannot feel their warmth upon you |
| 5 | When danger is afoot, some would describe you as craven. Those people know little of the agony death can bestow |
| 6 | You are confident in your ability to take on life's challenges, or death's even, and this confidence shows in your stoicism |
| 7 | You have a deep understanding of the preciousness of life, and strive to defend it at all costs |
| 8 | Those that deal in death to innocents receive no remorse from you |
Phantom Adventurers
| d6 | Reason for Adventuring |
|---|---|
| 1 | New experiences return forgotten memories of your past life, and adventuring produces experiences like no other profession |
| 2 | Someone is responsible for your violent demise, and you wish to return the favor |
| 3 | Adventuring has given a reason for your existence that you were struggling to find |
| 4 | You hope to discover a solution to your disembodied situation |
| 5 | The thrill and danger of combat and exploration reminds you of what it felt like to be fully living |
| 6 | You've always felt a longing for friendship and bonds, and your adventuring group has helped quell that feeling |
Anthony Vallozzi - Patreon.com/AnnalsOfAdventure
Phantom Traits
Your phantom has a dispersion of traits that it shares in common with other phantoms.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom score by +2.
Age. Phantoms do not physically age. They retain the mental and vocal traits they had at their time of death, and can mature over time.
Alignment. When a Phantom awakens, their alignment is usually near to neutrality, though this can quickly change depending on each individuals experiences and their developing mentality.
Size. Phantoms can be either small or medium size, depending on their size in life. Their heights vary greatly and they are weightless.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Untethered. Without a shell to inhabit you are but an ethereal shadow, which lacks a tether to the mortal world. As a phantom, you are either untethered or tethered to a shell. When you become untethered both the shell you are tethered to and anything you are carrying drops to the floor, and you gain the following effects:
- You have a flying speed of 10 feet and can hover.
- You can move through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain, but you take 1d10 force damage if you end your turn within one.
- You cannot take any action, bonus action, or reaction besides the Hide or Search action or the action required to tether.
- You cannot manipulate objects.
- Each time you end your turn in direct sunlight you lose hit points equal to double your proficiency bonus.
Tethered Shell. You can tether yourself to an unattended shell within 5 feet of you or untether yourself from your current shell as an action. A shell is a set of clothing, armor, or a tiny to medium container. While tethered you lose all of the effects of being untethered and you cannot be forced out of your shell unless it is broken. If you tether yourself to clothing or armor you are considered to be donning it.
When you tether yourself to a container you enter it. In this state, your movement is reduced to 0 and you cannot take any action, bonus action, or reaction besides the action required to untether or the Hide action. While hidden this way, you add +10 to Stealth checks you make to stay hidden.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on Perception checks relying on vision, and ranged attacks made against targets greater than 30 feet away, while you are standing in direct sunlight.
No Matter. You are immune to the poisoned condition and disease.
Restless Soul. Phantoms do not breath, eat, drink, or sleep, and magic can't put you to sleep.
Facets of Death. You know the dancing lights cantrip. You can cast the levitate spell (targeting yourself) once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Your chosen racial ability score increase is the spellcasting ability for these spells.
Something Inbetween. Phantoms are considered to be both humanoid and undead. Spells that do not effect undead such as cure wounds still effect you and you are immune to effects that turn undead.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, and one other language usually determined by the race you were in life.
Racial Feats
If your DM allows the use of feats from chapter 6 of the Player's Handbook, your phantom character has access to the following special feats.
Grasp of the Afterlife
Prerequisites: Phantom
Your connection to, and understanding of, the planes of afterlife deepen, and you learn more of the spells associated with it. You learn the chill touch cantrip. You also learn shadow blade and speak with dead, each of which you can cast once without expending a spell slot. You regain the ability to cast the spell in this way when you finish a long rest. Your chosen racial ability score increase is the spellcasting ability for these spells.
Strengthened Bonds
Prerequisites: Phantom
Your will that forms your tether to the material is stronger than the average phantom's.
- You can gain the effects of your Untethered trait as an action, leaving your shell and anything you are carrying behind. You do not lose hit points at the end of each round. You can not move further than 100 feet from your tethered shell. This effect has a duration of 10 minutes. If you have not returned to your tethered shell, or tethered a new shell, once this time has elapsed, you take 2d10 force damage and become fully Untethered. Once you use this feat this way, you can not do so again until you finish a long rest.
- Your tether extends to objects you are holding, thus you can not be disarmed of them.
Credits
Created by Anthony Vallozzi, you can contact me on reddit as /u/ch33ri000z. You can find my work and follow me for updates at gmbinder.com.
Art in Order of Appearance
"218" by Pavel Shut
"Dark Souls - Humanity" by UnableToFindName
"Vivi and Bobby Corwen" by Thea Kent
Anthony Vallozzi - Patreon.com/AnnalsOfAdventure
