Help with particles to person (ghost effect)

The effect I'm going for is cloud/smoke forming into a person. As if a ghost is manifesting. Google results get me "convert particles to mesh" and that type of thing which isn't what I'm trying to do. What I want is the particles to emit, flow around for a second or so and lock onto (preferably) the vertices of the targeted geometry. I tried it with PFlow in Max using the Find Target event and it became one huge bungle fuck. I do have TP 5 so I can go that route as well. Perhaps scripting might need to be used. No idea, but any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks.