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I have a few questions about incorporeal creatures, if anyone might be able to help me. I am going to be using a cleric in the Ravenloft campaign setting (massive amounts of undead), and I was wondering about encounters with creatures with the incorporeal quality. Here's what I know:

-Force spells can damage them normally (magic missile for wizards/sorcerers, Spiritual Weapon for clerics)
-Magic weapons have only a 50% chance of dealing damage to them on a successful hit (let me know if the percentage is wrong).

Here is what I am wondering: Are there any other ways of hurting these creatures aside from turning them? (Sometimes turning fails miserably.) I am assuming that Searing Light would work against them because they have the "undead" description . . . am I correct about that? Does anyone know any other "tricks" for surviving an encounter with these creatures besides running away? Thanks very much for your help!

You might look into holy water, or other holy type weapons. Possibly something along the lines of a holy avenger sword, or mace. Of course, most of the traditionaly accepted methods of dealing with noncorporeal entities may be a bit different in Raven Loft.

Thanks, AarronI. I've checked in the Player's Handbook, and it doesn't really say a lot about the effects of holy water vs. undead. Is there a rules chart for it? The only thing I know about it is that a cleric can cast Bless Water, but the description doesn't say anything about throwing it at undead or what effects it might have. Any suggestions?

What level are we talking about?

I would suggest checking the Monster Manual. It may have some suggestions. I'm not sure about the holy water thing, but it seems likely that it would have some effect on that type of creature. I also think that any type of spell or device from the positive material plane would affect the wraiths and such. Those might be hard to find, though.

A ghost touch magical weapon deals damage to incorporeal creatures normally (ie. on a successful hit, you don't suffer the 50% miss chance). You could also try making yourself incorporeal as well through magical means, as the 50% miss chance is only against attacks from a corporeal source.

As Aramant said - a ghost touch weapon is your friend againt incorporeal creatures.

Also, check out Libris Mortis. There's a bunch of new spells such as ghost touch armor (2nd level divine or arcane spell, armor used normally against incorporal creatures), ghost touch weapon (4th level divine spell, does what you'd think), incorporeal nova (5th level divine, 6th level arcane spell, kills incorporeal creatures), ghost trap (7th level arcane spell, incorporeal creatures become corporeal). I've porbably missed loads, too

Incorporeal doesn't mean Undead, check out the Glimmerskin in MM2 if you don't believe me. And even if they were undead, Searing light would still have 50% chance to fail, as all spells that are not Force spells do.

keep in mind, too, that you might be able to look up all the rules in the LM or the MM2, but that might not count (for a crafty DM) as "character knowledge." might have to convince your ref to allow your cleric a knowledge (religion) check to see if your PC knows any of this stuff. otherwise, the only way the character could figure it out is by getting their ass handed to them by a few spectres.

Also keep in mind that you are going to play in Ravenloft so those undead you meet might have some additional bonuses and benefits that are covered only in other Ravenloft material (such as salient powers for liches and vampires, special powers for ghosts based on their rank etc.).