Player ghost
| The apparition of an unfortunate adventurer. |
A player ghost is generated when your character dies, unless at Dungeon level 1 or 2, or in the Ecumenical Temple.
Each floor past the first two levels of the Dungeon has a 10% chance to spawn a ghost vault, which consists of one or more player ghosts, from a player that previously died on that floor (or in the case of the branches of Hell, in that branch) and possibly other monsters defined by that specific vault. These ghost vaults often contain loot, dependent on how far into the dungeon the vault generates and the difficulty of the vault's monsters. The monsters and loot are always found behind either a transporter or runed door, and are visible through transparent walls in the side of the vault, so the player can make an informed decision about when they wish to tackle the vault.
Ghost Properties
When your ghost is created, its stats are defined as follows:
- Its max HP, AC and EV are equal to yours when you died.
- Its number of hit dice is equal to your experience level.
- Its cold, fire and electricity resistances are equal to yours when you died.
- It becomes undead, gaining immunity to poison, negative energy and torment and vulnerability to holy attacks and Dispel Undead.
- It becomes insubstantial, gaining immunity to constriction and sticky flame.
- If you were able to see invisible, so can the ghost.
- Its base speed is equal to 10, regardless of the species you were playing.
- Its damage is determined by the weapon you were wielding and your skill levels:
- If you had a weapon in hand, the base damage is equal to the weapon's base damage, increased by 4% per skill level you had for this weapon. In addition, the attacks will have the weapon's brand.
- If you had no weapon in hand, the base damage is 4 plus your Unarmed Combat skill, plus your experience level if you were a Troll.
- This base damage is then increased by 3.3% per Fighting skill, then increased by 0.25 times your Strength. Total base damage is capped at 50.
- If you knew spells, the ghost will be able to cast some of your spells as per the algorithm below.
- Ghosts of level 7+ Draconians also have a high chance of being able to breathe Bolts of Draining (30 accuracy, 3d(2*HD) damage where HD was your experience level).
The experience level of a ghost is indicated in their description with one of the following adjectives:
| Ghost description | Experience level |
|---|---|
| weakling | 1 to 3 |
| amateur | 4 to 6 |
| novice | 7 to 10 |
| journeyman | 11 to 15 |
| adept | 16 to 21 |
| veteran | 22 to 25 |
| master | 26 |
| legendary | 27 |
Spell Selection
Player ghosts copy spells from the player if there exists a monster version of the spell, and the spell isn't flagged as a non-ghost spell. Then the chance of it picking a spell is given by (50-[failure percentage])^2/2500. For example, a spell with a 20% fail rate is [50 - 20]^2/2500, which is 900/2500 or a 36% chance of being added to your ghost, and a spell with a 0% fail rate will always be added. Spells above 50% fail cannot be added. Player ghosts can learn any number of spells in this way.
Additionally some spells change slightly when learned by player ghosts: Controlled Blink will change to Blink, Dragon's Call will change to Summon Dragon, and Swiftness will change to Sprint.
Tips & Tricks
Player ghosts can be extremely dangerous, often on a par with the most dangerous uniques for the dungeon depth. There are a number of strategies for dealing with them:
- First and foremost, remember that they are trapped on the level they spawn on. If you facing a ghost that seems like it might kill you, remember that you absolutely don't have to face it now. Skip it and come back to it later.
- You can examine the ghost to get its species, class, and a rough idea of its level when it died. This can give you a good impression of how dangerous it is, but be aware that this may not show everything (e.g. an average KoFi might be a little more dangerous if it was wielding a weapon of electrocution when it died).
- If you have it, Dispel Undead will make short work of ghosts, bypassing their defenses entirely. This can be particularly useful against later ghosts, who will often have much higher defenses than most monsters.
- Be careful around draconian ghosts with XL>=7: they are almost guaranteed to have a nasty bolt of draining attack.
- If you fight the ghost while you are standing on stairs, you can escape quickly at any time because the ghost cannot follow you. Just remember that it takes a little while to use stairs, so it's best to start climbing them as soon as you notice that the ghost is dealing a lot more damage to you than you are to it.
- If a ghost has <50% HP and you leave the level it's on, it will teleport away, and likely not be near the stairs when you return.
- You can check the morgue of the dead character if you wish to see exactly spells/abilities/defenses a ghost has. On local games, just search through your /morgue folder to find it; on public servers, you can usually use one of the IRC bots to find the dumplog: start by searching for deaths on the level you're on, and stop when you find the player whose ghost you are encountering.
If you are playing a local game (i.e. are not on a public server) and are encountering many of your own ghosts, there are a few steps you can take to remedy the situation:
- Play undead. They can't add to the problem, and many undead are quite capable of taking out ghosts themselves. Ghoul monks work well as ghostbusters, as do various casting vampires.
- Worshiping Kikubaaqudgha will guarantee you access to Dispel Undead at *** piety - too late for early ghosts, but great for taking out ghosts in Lair, Orc, and later branches. Necromancers will have an easier time getting the spell online.
- Ghost files are deleted if you die on any other level, though this may eventually be changed. Therefore, simply bypassing a ghost if possible (travel exclusions can be useful here) is often the best option, not just for your current character but also for future ones.
- If you are desperate or simply find ghosts unfun, deleting the bones files (stored in the /saves directory or similar) is always an option. Be aware that this is often considered cheating, particularly if it is done selectively.
History
In 0.17, deep dwarf player ghosts now regenerate normally.
