"The etheral ghosts can drain life energy from their opponents, aging their prey in seconds. This causes any target to become slower and weaker in combat." — In-game description
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Ghosts are an undead unit associated with Necropolises, serving as a second tier unit in the video game Heroes of Might and Magic IV. After being left out of Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia, they returned far weaker than previous incarnations, possibly due to their former balance-breaking power. They have however received three new creature abilities to make up for this substantial loss.
Like their previous appearances, Ghosts are fast, tough fliers. Now unable to create new Ghosts by killing enemies, they possess a debilitating touch that confers the Aging status ailment, which reduces the target stack's attack skill by 25%, their defense skill by 20%, and their speed and movement capabilities by 50%. They are now very useful in shutting down dangerous ranged units, and while they take more physical damage than the average tier 2 creature (having the same defense level as the games' Vampires and the Insubstantial creature ability, which increases melee and ranged damage defense by 100%), they are weak to direct-damage spells, possessing a mere 15 hit points.
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A mid-level Necromancer can create devastating hordes of Ghosts very quickly from the souls of falling enemies using their Expert of Master Necromancy, in the same manner that could be used for Skeletons in Heroes II and Heroes III, respectively.
Ghosts can be still be found inside of Shipwrecks found out at sea. In Heroes IV, the hero fights ghosts and will be rewarded with gold.