A haunting problem

For today's game, I thought I'd mix up the usual run of half-weasel-half-chainsaw monsters and ex-soldiers who've made regrettable life choices, and let the PCs encounter a haunt.

I was moderately excited about this, because I love the concept of a haunt. Here's a problem you can't simply hack or spellcast your way around!

Haunts in Pathfinder are a much closer approximation to occult manifestations that any of the prior "undead". The problem with undead is that mythologically and folklorifically and narratively, they're ominous unearthly presences that mere mortal steel cannot hope to overcome, whereas mechanically they either take half damage from material weapons or have a modest amount of damage reduction. This is before we get onto, say, clerics or the vast array of spells designed specifically to inconvenience the undead.

Undead generally end up being guilt-free cannon fodder with a slightly unconvincing bundle of immunities and perhaps a nasty ability that living creatures tend not to have, like draining your Strength. They're not spooky. They're not all that scary, either, unless you're unlucky about your party composition and ability choices*.

* No I'm not bitter about unexpectedly fighting half a dozen skeletal apes when my tiny pacifist whip-wielding poet was literally unable to harm them in any way, why do you ask?

The idea of haunts is that you do a narratively-appropriate thing in a haunted area that draws the attention of the haunt, and it does something spooky. This is roughly equivalent to a spell, but should be described in weird and spooky terms. And that happens whenever people go there and do that, because it's haunted, and that's what that means. I love it. Time for a haunted necromancer's library!

How it's going

So the party wandered through the ruin, heard eerie whispers (and started doing a standup routine with them instead of reacting with any kind of in-character concern, because players are players) and walked right into the haunt's manifestation, and...

It was around this point that we realised none of us could entirely work out how haunts are supposed to work.

Let me present to you the official haunt rules (entirely irrelevant bits excised):

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Haunt Rules

Although haunts function like traps, they are difficult to detect since they cannot be easily observed until the round in which they manifest. Detect undead or detect alignment spells of the appropriate type allow an observer a chance to notice a haunt even before it manifests (allowing that character the appropriate check to notice the haunt, but at a –4 penalty).

When a haunt is triggered, its effects manifest at initiative rank 10 in a surprise round. All characters in the haunt’s proximity can attempt to notice the haunt at the start of this surprise round by making a notice check). All haunts detect life sources and trigger as a result of the approach of or contact with living creatures, but some haunts can be tricked by effects like hide from undead or invisibility.

On the surprise round in which a haunt manifests, positive energy applied to the haunt (via channeled energy, cure spells, and the like) can damage the haunt’s hit points (a haunt never gains a Will save to lessen the damage done by such effects, and attacks that require a successful attack roll to work must strike AC 10 in order to affect the haunt and not merely the physical structure it inhabits). Unless the haunt has an unusual weakness, no other form of attack can reduce its hit points. If the haunt is reduced to 0 hit points by positive energy, it is neutralized — if this occurs before the haunt takes its action at initiative rank 10, its effect does not occur.

A neutralized haunt is not destroyed, and can manifest again after a period of time — to destroy a haunt, a specific action must be taken in the region to end the effect forever (such as burning a haunted house to the ground or burying the bones of the slaves who died on the site to create the haunt). This specific act is different for every haunt (although a number of nearby haunts often share the same destruction act).

Some haunts are persistent, and their immediate effects continue beyond the surprise round into actual full rounds. Persistent haunts continue to trigger their haunt effects once per round on their initiative rank until destroyed or they no longer have a target.

Haunts are presented in the following format (again, key points only).

Notice: This indicates the skill check and DC required to notice the haunt in the surprise round before it manifests. The sensory input for what a successful check notices — such as a faint ghostly wailing, a smell of burning flesh, or fresh blood oozing from the walls — is listed in parentheses after the DC.

Trigger: The conditions that can cause the haunt to manifest are given here. Proximity-triggered haunts occur as soon as a creature enters the haunt’s area. A haunt triggered by touch does not activate until a living creature touches a specific object or location in its area, but it can sense (and thus target with its effects) any creature in its area.

Reset: This is the amount of time that must pass before a haunt can attempt to reset. Until it is destroyed, a haunt can reset after this period by succeeding on a DC 10 caster level check — failure indicates the haunt must wait that amount of time again before making another attempt to reset.

Destruction: This describes the act needed to permanently destroy the haunt.

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How do I even haunt?

Much reading and rereading occured mid-manifestation, which is extremely atmospheric, as you can imagine.

I believe what's meant to happen is as follows. A haunt does absolutely nothing - and cannot be interacted with - until someone meets the triggering condition by entering the "trap" area, touching the cursed object, etc. This causes a surprise round (a short combat round in which actions are limited) to begin. Immediately, anyone nearby can roll a Perception check to detect the haunt's presence; those who succeed see or hear a manifestation specific to that haunt, and they can take a brief action. PCs tend to have bonuses to initiative, and will tend to act before the haunt. They can use a limited set of abilities (positive energy, basically "life magic" or "white magic") to harm the haunt, potentially neutralising it before any harm befalls them. They could also run away.

Then things get murky.

We're specifically told that Persistent haunts (a game-mechanical upgrade) continue to act every round. This implies that non-Persistent haunts don't do this. Nowhere is it specified what these poor blighters do do. Are they meant to trigger only once ever? That seems counterintuitive considering the whole "haunt" concept, which is very much about being a long-term problem - and there are quite a few haunts that aren't Persistent.

Some players suggested that after the surprise round, the non-Persistent haunt has to wait for the reset period. The Reset text helpfully doesn't specify why a haunt would need to reset. It does call out that a destroyed haunt cannot reset (because it's gone for good). There's an implication by omission that a neutralised haunt can. If that's true, it's not clear what the meaningful difference is between a haunt that's triggered once succcessfully, and a haunt that's been neutralised. The rules do specify that "a neutralized haunt is not destroyed, and can manifest again after a period of time". In a spectacular piece of game writing, the description of "neutralise" does not once mention the word "reset", while the explanation of "reset" avoids the word "neutralise" with equal determination.

Moreover, a neutralised haunt has lost its hit points. What happens when it resets? Does it also reset its hit points? If not, how does a haunt regain hit points between activations? It must be able to do so, because otherwise there would be no difference between neutralising and destroying the haunt.

Well, fine. The haunt triggered, and for want of any better interpretation we decided that the haunt should continue triggering as long as anyone was meeting the conditions. On the next turn, Makoa rushed in and unleashed positive energy like a boss. The neutralised haunt went for a lie down, and the PCs - after a reminder of how these things work - started trying to find out how they could grant it permanent rest.

Oh. What's that you say, Lassie? The rules don't provide any information as to how you should, could, or might learn the destruction method for a haunt? Well isn't that just dandy!

Seriously, this is bad. A very big part of the idea of a haunt is that it's functionally a mini-quest. Learning how to put a haunt to rest requires finding out its destruction condition. There is nary a hint given. Does a successful Knowledge check to learn more about the haunt (which by RAW reveals abilities and weaknessse) give you any clues? If so, that seems potentially quite anticlimactic.

GM: "A terrible phantasmal herd of llamas wafts into being around you, bleating furio-"
Player: "I cast Heal."
GM: "The llamas vanish, but you sense their restless souls linger and gather strength."
Player: "I get a 37 on my Knowledge (religion) check."
GM: "Oh, you... read a book about this specific haunt at some point, I suppose? They want enormous quantities of elderberries."
Player: "I dump seven pounds of elderberries out of one of my bags of holding."
GM: "So, at the next village over..."

If it's meant to be through Roleplaying, Dear Boy, this is something that really ought to be stated outright, because it means the GM needs to prepare clues beforehand. Some of those destruction conditions are pretty out there. Even the common folklorific options, like "find and bury the bodies at the bottom of the lake" aren't all that easy to convey. "Destroyed if the cavern is placed under the effects of hallow or consecrate and is then dealt 100 points of fire damage in a single round" is a challenge. But what about "Organizing a series of dances in the chamber for multiple days wears the haunt out" for a spirit that specifically manifests to dance with people? "The quarry must be covered with a blanket of dirt and sand until no stone is exposed to the air"? "A sentient living creature must throw itself into the gate, where it is killed instantly"?

But I'm being unfair. Looking elsewhere in the rules, we find a nice concise explanation of how you can find out what a haunt needs by talking to it:

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Whether in the employ of the frightened owners of a haunted estate or simply seeking to exorcise unquiet spirits, PCs may attempt communication with haunts to discover the actions necessary to bring final rest.

The GM may elect to treat all neutralized haunts (those reduced to 0 hp) as CR 1 rapping spirits while they reset. Using this option, haunts retain enough ectoplasmic fortitude to linger in the area, where they attempt to convey their needs to the living. While these knockings are still potentially frightening, communication with these feeble spirits can be established by working out a series of codes (such as one rap for “yes” and two for “no”) or by calling out words, numbers, and letters for selection by the spirits.

Such messages can be formed at the rate of 1d10 words for each minute a character makes a successful Linguistics check, with a DC equal to 15 + the original haunt’s CR. Such communications are typically unreliable and cryptic, never conveying knowledge beyond what the spirit knew in life.

While the spectre always behaves according to the original haunt’s alignment, only the most malevolent spirits would deny themselves a chance at final rest. Some mediums carry flat, lettered boards known as “talking boards,” or planchettes—small, wheeled boards with chalk or charcoal extending below—to better facilitate communication with spirits. Such tools increase the efficiency of messages received to 3d6 words per minute of communication, and grant the user a +4 bonus on Linguistics checks to decipher the cryptic messages of haunts.

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So... let's see if I got this right. If the GM feels like it, the PCs can speak to a haunt that they've already neutralized. It's not clear what other options there are: a rapping spirit is weak enough that it isn't much of a threat while you try to interrogate it, but many other haunts are too dangerous to simply hang around and question. So either you have enough positive energy to take down the haunt in the first place and the GM then kindly allows you to interrogate it, or this option is a write-off.

Next, you can very slowly ask yes/no questions and make difficult Linguistics checks. Generally either one PC has a ridiculous Linguistics score or nobody has it at all, and it's not one of the skills that has a spell to boost it - spells just let you understand languages instead. This doesn't seem like a great mechanic. Plus, the communications are unreliable and cryptic, and limited in knowledge! This seems like very hard work for the GM, if nothing else. If the souls constituting the haunt don't know their own destruction condition, you won't learn much from them.

The spell Speak With Haunt makes this somewhat easier. You will be astonished to hear that none of the spellcasters had this niche spell prepared.

(incidentally, one of the sample haunts is only destroyed if its freezing prison imprisons, kills, and absorbs a specific kind of fiend. Those fiends are presumably found nearby in the adventure where the haunt appeared - but they're also immune to cold. They're not mechanically immune to the ability damage this haunt does as a side effect of imprisoning things in blocks of ice, but they absolutely should be, and this shouldn't work at all. If you're immune to the damage from an ability, you shouldn't be taking secondary effects from that damage)

TL;DR

In short, haunts seem like a fun concept that has not been properly thought through and has vague, ambigious mechanics. We're clearly not alone in this, because searching online didn't turn up anyone clearly laying out how all this is meant to work with references. To be honest, I get the impression not many people actually use haunts - which seems like a shame. But given our experience so far, I might steer clear myself.

I'm interested to hear if anyone's used a Pathfinder haunt successfully and how you think it should work. Besides that, do any other games have haunting mechanics that you think work well? Call of Cthulhu and its ilk generally don't have mechanics for this sort of thing - there might be simple rules for what a haunting does when it occurs, but resolving it is a matter of looking around for clues for how to proceed.