Death doesn't have to mean the end for a character. With the Dungeon Master's blessing, a player can choose to have their character rise from the grave as a ghost. They may choose to keep the form of their living self as a specter or gain a formless visage. In either case, all previous race/subrace traits are lost and replaced with beyond the veil traits.

An awakened undead character can return to the living through True Resurrection. A character that returns to life this way loses all of the ghost features and abilities and replaces those with the features and traits of the race and subrace they returned to from their Past Life.

The spirits of the departed can linger after their mortal death when there is some important unfinished business, or be summoned into servitude by powerful necromancers. The unfinished business of ghosts can take many forms; protecting loved ones, guarding a valuable item, or revenge upon an old enemy. An awakened ghost might find that the death of their master has released them from service, or the business they've left unfinished in life may take them far and abroad to complete, or they simply cannot find their way into the afterlife, and have embraced their new undead existence.

Ghosts are ethereal, glowing with spectral light. While ghosts still have substance, it is that of an energies and particles closely resembling that of a gaseous form. Ghosts have limited abilities in interacting with the physical plane - they can move small objects and interact with creatures and items. Ghosts tend to maintain a reflection of what they looked like in their past life; wearing armor or clothes they died in, having a spectral reminder of weapons or jewelry they once wore, but these are little more than manifestations. They also will bear the scars of their death - obvious and twisted marks that the living often find deeply disturbing. A ghost who once drowned might be caked in seaweed and spectral sea creatures that crawl on their form, or a murdered soul might have gaping wounds that always appear to be bleeding.

Ghost Traits

Your awakened undead character has the following traits. You count as an undead creature for all spells and abilities that affect the undead.

Ability Score Changes

Your Strength score becomes 7. Your Charisma score increases by 3, to a maximum of 20.

Incorporeal Passage

Starting at level 3, your bodiless nature allows you to manifest enough energy to pass through 5ft of a non-magical barrier. Ending your turn inside a barrier or object causes you to take 1d10 damage and be ejected to the closest safe space. After each recharge, roll a d8. On an 8, you may manifest enough energy to pass through a magical barrier instead. When passing though a magical barrier, you take 1d10 for every level of spell producing the effect. This does not override spells designed specifically to prevent Incorporeal Passage. This charge remains until used.

This effect increases to 10ft with two charges at level 9 and 15ft with three charges at level 14.

Undead Traits

Your awakened undead character has the following traits. You count as an undead creature for all spells and abilities that affect the undead.

Undead Nature

You are sustained by the necromantic energy that raised you from death. Your body is no longer affected by disease, poison or the poisoned condition. You don't require air, food, drink, or sleep. You have advantage on saving throws against exhaustion, but you do still need rest. Instead of sleeping, when you take a long rest, you enter an eerily still period of inactivity of at least 4 hours a day. During this period, you do not sleep or dream; you are not rendered unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal.

Undying Vigor

You are sustained by necrotic energy, which makes you resistant to necrotic damage. As undead, you can't be healed by conventional spells such as cure wounds, nor do you have the bodily means to ingest and gain the benefits from potions of healing, or consuming the products of spells such as Goodberry or Heroes' Feast.

You can gain or regain hit points through a short or long rest, or magically through the following spells: Aid, Aura of Vitality, False Life, Life Transference, Negative Energy Flood, Regenerate, Vampiric Touch, or Wish.

Your hit dice function as normally, except that you regain all of your hit dice after a long rest instead of just half your level.

Dead Lights

Dark magic glows in your sockets, whether there is flesh still there or not. You are able to perceive with clarity that which lurks in the darkness. 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. 

Past Life

You were once a living creature. Choose which living race you died as; this choice cannot be a construct. 

Past Life Traits

Some fragments of your original racial traits will remain. Your size, height, and race stay the same. You retain your skill and tool proficiencies, and any language you spoke in life. You can retain your personality and alignment, and memories of your past life, though they are often incomplete and hazy.

Disembodied Existence

Your lack of physical cohesion makes it very difficult to hurt you. You gain resistance to acid, fire, lightning and thunder damage, as well as attacks from non-magical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing attacks. You are also immune to cold damage. It is also impossible to grapple you, knock you prone, or otherwise restrain you. You can still manipulate objects, open unlocked doors or containers, stow or retrieve an item from an open container, or pour the contents out of a vial. Although you may appear as though you have the equipment you had in life, you can't wear or gain benefits of armor, wield weapons, or activate magic items, or carry more than 10 pounds. 

Ethereal Sight

You exist on the border between the Ethereal Plane and the Material Plane. Because of this, you can see 60 feet into the Ethereal Plane when you are on the Material Plane, and vice versa.

Spectral Movement

You no longer truly walk, swim, climb or burrow. Your spectral nature means you are always floating, or flying. You gain a fly speed of 50 feet. Spells that effect your walking speed instead impact your flying speed.

Withering Touch

Though your ghostly remains may still carry reminders of the weapons you once wielded in life, your weapons are no more than ghostly manifestations. You might appear to attack with your hand, or what looks like a sword or axe, but the effect is always a Withering Touch. Your weapon attacks are replaced with this feature, and your unarmed strikes now deal necrotic damage. As an action, you make a melee touch attack and deal Necrotic damage equal to 2d6 + your Dexterity modifier. This damage increases to 3d6 at 6th level, 4d6 at 11th level, and 5d6 at 16th level. 

Horrifying Visage

Starting at 6th level, as an action you can use your spectral horror to strike fear into your enemies. Each non-undead creature within 60 feet of you that can see you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw equal to 8 + your Charisma modifer + your proficiency bonus or be frightened for 1 minute. If the save fails by 5 or more, the target also ages 1d4 × 5 years. A frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the frightened condition on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune this feature for the next 24 hours. The aging effect can be reversed with a greater restoration spell, but only within 24 hours of it occurring. This cannot end a target's life due to old age - immediately. 

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or a long rest.

Possession

At 16th level, you've become so powerful you can possess the bodies of living creatures. You can target one humanoid that you can see within 5 feet of you. The target must succeed on a Charisma saving throw equal to 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus or be possessed by you; you then disappear, and the target is incapacitated and loses control of its body. You now control the body, but this doesn't deprive the target 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 uses the possessed target's statistics, but don't gain access to the target's knowledge, class features, or proficiencies.

The possession lasts until the body 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 body. The target is immune to your Possession for 24 hours after succeeding on the saving throw or after the possession ends. You cannot use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Etherealness

You are unable to wield, carry, or wear weapons, armor, etc. unless specifically designed for ethereal beings. In addition, you are unable to attune to anything that requires you to use it in this manner.