The Wandering Soul

A playable ghost race for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition

 Wandering Soul

Y
ou’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you? Death Wandering Soul Names
is, as many are often suddenly made aware, an
unfortunate but eventual part of life. It’s not Many wandering souls prefer to keep their given names or
uncommon for an adventurer to meet a grizzly names they’ve adopted in life. Though, owing to damaged
end on their adventures; perhaps as the result psyches, some wandering souls forget their original names
of a skirmish, or a well-placed trap, or even just and are forced to create new ones. Other wandering souls
a simple misstep. Whatever the cause, that’s simply decide to leave the past behind, choosing to take on
that: the end of the road. Or is it? Who says that death must new names with which to start their new lives. Whatever the
be the end? Wandering souls are the dead brought back from case, the name a soul choose is left up to them.
beyond the veil and given another chance at life, though not
with the intended effect, for better or for worse.
Death and Rebirth
Spells are not always successful and wandering souls are
proof of that, being the rare and spectacular result of failed
resurrection spells. They are beings unliving only partially
bought back to the realm of the living; souls separated from
their body and unable to regain their physical, fleshy form.
While many wandering souls return as they were in life, it
is not uncommon for those deceased for longer periods of
time to come back with something missing. Perhaps as a
reflection of their physical changes and the time for which
they were gone, long-dead wandering souls may suffer from
an irreparably damaged psyche, creating problems such as
memory loss, muteness, and even drastic changes to their
original personality. Fortunately for them – though rather
unfortunately for their loved ones – they often do not
recognise that such changes have occurred.
Bad Omens
By and large, wandering souls are not so easily distinguished
from ghosts and other various spirits by the common folk. As
a result, feelings towards wandering souls are not positive,
with the most common reaction being fear. A newly
resurrected wandering soul returning to their hometown may
be met with the tip of a blade or the screams of their friends.
It is strongly recommended that wandering souls disguise or
hide themselves on entering populated areas to avoid
unfortunate encounters.
Ghostly Visage
Wandering souls appear the same in undeath as they did in
life or, at the very least, as they did at time of death.
Depending on how one died, this can lend a rather upsetting
and sometimes gruesome quality to a wandering soul’s
appearance.
To the average onlooker, wandering souls are known to
float several inches off the ground. However, further
investigation of this fact would reveal that while this certainly
seems to be the case, wandering souls exert a force upon the
ground directly below them to keep themselves up, though it
appears to be an automatic bodily function akin to breathing.
In addition to this, wandering souls appear translucent and
adopt a faint, ghostly blue or green glow.

PART 1 | LORE & BACKGROUND

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Wandering Soul Traits
Your resurrection provides you with a number of traits you
share with other wandering souls.
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by
2, and your wisdom score increases by 1.
Age. As a wandering soul you appear as the age you were
on death. You cannot mature or die of old age.
Alignment. Wandering souls do not have an innate
tendency toward any alignment in particular, but there is a
common trend towards chaotic alignments due to their
incomplete form. However, for many their alignment remains
the same as in life.
Size. Wandering Souls retain the size they were in life.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. You have the
appearance of hovering.
Unliving Resilience. As a wandering soul, your body has
experienced several changes:
You have advantage on saving throws against being
poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
You have resistance to necrotic damage.
You are unable to eat, drink, or breathe.
You are immune to disease.
You no longer require sleep, though you are capable of it.
To gain the benefits of a long rest, you can spend the time
doing light activity, such as keeping watch.
Darkvision. Your ghostly eyes give you superior vision in
dark and dim conditions. 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 colour in darkness, only
shades of grey.
Incorporeal Movement. You can briefly become
incorporeal, allowing you to move through other creatures
and objects as if they were difficult terrain. You take 5 (1d10)
force damage if you end your turn inside an object. Items on
your person or in your hands up to your carrying capacity
also become incorporeal for the duration.
Possession. As a wandering soul you are able to possess
living creatures and objects no larger in size than you. This
action can be performed on a creature once per long rest.
The rules for possession for items and creatures vary; see
Possession Rules for details.
Semi-Spectral Nature. Due to the nature of your
resurrection, you have two creature types: humanoid and
undead. You can be affected by a game effect if it works on
either of your creature types.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write the languages
you knew in life.
Possession Rules
Possessing Living Creatures
One creature that you can see within 5 feet of you
must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or be
possessed by you for one minute. The DC for this
saving throw equals 8 + your Charisma modifier +
your proficiency bonus. On a failed save you then
disappear, and the target is incapacitated and loses
control of its body. You now control the target, but
you don't deprive them of awareness. You can't be
targeted by any attack, spell, or other effect, except
ones that turn undead, and you retain your
alignment, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. You
otherwise use the possessed target's statistics, but
don't gain access to the target's knowledge, class
features, or proficiencies.
On taking damage you must make a Charisma
saving throw to maintain the possession. The DC
equals 10 or half the damage you take, whichever
number is higher. If you take damage from multiple
sources, such as an arrow and a dragon’s breath,
you make a separate saving throw for each source
of damage. Otherwise possession lasts until the
body drops to 0 hit points, you end it as a bonus
action, the duration of the possession runs out, or
you are turned or forced out by an effect like the
dispel evil and good spell. When the possession
ends, you reappear in an unoccupied space within 5
feet of the body. The target is immune to your
Possession for 24 hours after succeeding on the
saving throw or after the possession ends.
Possessing Objects
One object that you can see within 5 feet of you
can be possessed by you for an indefinite amount
of time. You can't be targeted by any attack, spell,
or other effect, except ones that turn undead. You
now control the object and use its hit points, but
you otherwise fully retain your own statistics. While
controlling an item you are unable to move your
hands, though you are still capable of vocalising.
The possession lasts until the item drops to 0 hit
points, you end it as a bonus action, or you are
turned or forced out by an effect like the dispel evil
and good spell. When the possession ends, you
reappear in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of
the item.
PART 2 | TRAITS & RACIAL ABILITIES
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 Appendix
Credits
Created with Homebrewery.
Ghost Halfling image by Kim Sokol, Paizo Publishing.
Wandering Soul by Crayin

PART 3 | BORING STUFF

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