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I would disagree with a Ghost Touch spell allowing an SR check.

When, say, a Spectre touches the PC, you do not get an SR check against its incorporeal touch. Against energy drains, or aging from other incorporeal creatures such as a ghost, yes. Against the actual attack? No, but it still deals damage.

First, Ghost Weapon only targets the weapon. As someone else said, the *weapon*, being the target, gets the save and/or the SR check. The only creatures allowed an SR check are creatures directly targeted by a spell (target = mook) or if the creature is in the area of an area-effect spell (no target listed, area = blast radius/line/cone).

Second, a weapon affected by Ghost Weapon ignores armor. It does not actually do anything worse to the creature. Similarly, when attacking an incorporeal creature, it just means the weapon gets past the creature's incorporeal defenses... it doesn't actually affect the creature itself. If the spell were instead called "Ignore Armor", I suspect we would be having an entirely different conversation.



But Ghost Weapon does not target the creature, it targets the sword. It doesn't even *affect* the creature, it affects the creature's armor. It does nothing special to the creature. If you succesfully burned or melted all the armor off the creature, it would be just as vulnerable to your weapon. If you caught it sleeping at night without wearing its armor, your weapon will perform exactly the same whether it had Ghost Touch on it or not.

Note that the spell description does not actually make the weapon incorporeal. You can still hold it, it just passes through armor and acts as a force weapon against incorporeal creatures. Which means that said Ghost Weapon is *not* insubstantial. It can be sundered or disarmed. Heck... since the spell says it ignores armor, and not weapons, I'd argue it can even be parried. It can't be stuck through the wall to kill the guy hiding behind it, unless you and the weapon are both strong enough to punch through a wall, as the spell ignores armor, not cover. It's not incorporeal.

If you think it is overpowered, think on this: a creature with armor (leaving aside for the moment natural armor) probably has some familiarity with weapons, which means sundering, dodging, disarming, and parrying are all options. Heck, even a mook with a crappy non-magical weapon has a chance to disarm it, dodge it, parry it, or even sunder it assuming the target of Ghost Weapon is a non-magical weapon as well. I'd argue the only creatures it is significantly powerful against is something with natural armor such as dragons, and if a dragon can't deal with a paltry 5th-level spell, then it's a fairly weak one. Frankly, as a spell it's useful, but hardly overpowering. Start giving your NPCs the Sunder feat and USE it. Remember, mobs *can* be intelligent.


Tiburon, if the weapon were a *carrier* of a spell, I would argue that SR would apply. If a mageblade used an athame to deliver a touch spell through the blade, well, yes. The target would be entitled to an SR check, because in this case, the weapon is not the target. It is a carrier of a touch spell, whose target is the creature attacked with the weapon. But a weapon with Ghost Touch does not apply any magical effect to the creature anymore than an enhancement bonus does. An enhancement bonus increases the ability for a strike to get through armor; so does Ghost Weapon, only more so. The weapon is a 'carrier' of an enhancement bonus just as it is a 'carrier' of Ghost Weapon, but in both cases the original target of the magic is the weapon, not the creature, and neither magical effect targets the creature directly, only the ability of the wielder to get through armor.


For everyone's edification: "Spell resistance has no effect unless the energy created or released by the spell actually goes to work on the resistant creature's mind or body. If the spell acts on anything else (the air, the ground, the room's light), and the creature is affected as a consequence, no roll is required." DMG, pg 82. Continued, it says "When in doubt about whether a spell's effect is direct or indirect, consider the spell's school." In this case, we consider Transmutation. "These spells are subject to spell resistance if they transform the target creature. Transmutation spells are not subject to spell resistance if they are targeted on a point in space instead of on a creature. ... Some transmutations make objects harmful (or more harmful) such as magic stone. Even these spells are not generally subject to spell resistance because they affect the objects, not the creatures against which the objects are used."

(edit: fixed glaring and frankly frightening typos)