Artifacts can always hit shades (and ghosts in variants which treat them similarly), even when non-blessed.

Ghosts, shades, and any other incorporeal monsters can’t wear armor or wield weapons. (With a possible exception if it’s cursed.)

Monks have ki-empowered strikes, which means they can strike incorporeal beings such as shades bare-handed.

Incorporeal monsters like ghosts and shades are only hit with blessed objects, artifacts, magical attacks, etc 50% of the time they would have otherwise. The only items that are guaranteed to hit (assuming you make the to-hit roll) are those made of either silver or bone.

Priests can hit incorporeal monsters like shades by default. Their attacks never pass harmlessly through.

Occasionally, when a bones file would create a ghost (e.g. most times), and the level difficulty is high enough, create a wraith of the player instead. If in Gehennom, occasionally create a shade of the player.

New artifact dagger The Barrow-blade of Cardolan: has some flat bonuses, some additional bonuses versus undead, and instakills all W, ghosts, and shades. It is either lawful or unaligned. Could also be a short sword, since there are currently no artifact short swords, but for flavor it should be a dagger.

Cancelling shades should remove their incorporeal ability to not be hit by anything, and they should then be hittable normally.

Buff late-game undead, because undead’s significance in Gehennom tends to be pointless since they aren’t scary by the time the adventurer gets there.

• Zombies can resurrect in Gehennom akin to GruntHack zombies.
• Spectres, which are like wraiths but much faster and with more attacks.
• Vampire mages.
• Skeletal dragons.
• Minotaur zombies.
• Z might need to be made ungenocideable.
• GruntHack-like zombies, which inflict zombification sickness and eat your brain to drain Int.
• Shades can generate in graveyards in Gehennom.