Soul Captor

The Ranger, through the use of a particular magic item, can attempt to capture the souls of certain creatures. The types of creatures that can be captured are:

• Beasts
• Dragons
• Elementals
• Monstrosities

Creatures that are “Legendary” or “Mythical” cannot be captured. Other creatures can be excluded from capturability at the DM’s discretion (perhaps the DM deems they don’t have what would fall under the typical definition of a soul, or the soul already belongs to someone/something else, e.g., a deity).

The Captor gets a Capture Die (D8) at 3rd level. At 10th level the Capture Die becomes a D10. At 18th level, the capture die becomes a D12.

To capture a creature, the captor must make a ranged (thrown) attack with the Capture Device against the target creature. If the attack hits, the captor then uses their reaction to cast the Capture Soul spell. If the capture ability result is equal to or greater than the capture difficulty, the creature is reduced to zero hit points, and its soul is sealed inside the Capture Device.

A creature must be above zero hit points at the time Capture Soul is cast for the spell to take effect.

Once a creature’s soul is captured, the captor must spend an hour focusing on its capture device to learn its stats and abilities. Afterward, the soul can be summoned.

The captor can cast the Summon Soul spell to call one of their captured souls to their aid. The captor can spend an action to end the spell, returning the soul to its device.

A soul that is returned to its capture device restores hit points equal to 5 x its challenge rating each dawn. The only way a captured soul can regain hit points during combat is by use of either the Healing Spirit spell, or the Life Transference spell.

The Captor can only have one captured soul summoned at a time. If a second soul is summoned, the first is automatically returned to its capture device. This limit can increase as the Captor levels up. (while this is not a concentration spell, it does have this similar limitation).

 

Capture Magic

Starting at 3rd level, you learn the Capture Soul and Summon Soul spells. These spells count as ranger spell for you, but don't count against the number of ranger spells you know. Each spell can be cast once without using a spell slot,  and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.

 

Soul Control

At 3rd level, you are able to summon and control 1 captured soul at a time. If the number of summoned souls exceeds 1, the most recently summoned soul remains, and the rest are returned to their capture devices.

Capture Device Schematics

You learn how to assemble and enchant capture devices. Starting at 3rd level, you learn the recipes for level-0 and level-1 capture devices.

The recipes for higher-level capture devices can be discovered as you experiment and gain experience creating the devices.

The higher level recipes can also be purchased from shops that deal in such things, or learned from texts, or someone willing to teach the methods.

Trained Arm

Starting at 7th level, your practice throwing the capture devices becomes evident. You gain advantage on attacks with thrown weapons. Additionally, whenever you hit a creature with a thrown weapon attack, it takes an additional 1d6 damage.

Enhanced Soul Control

Starting at 11th level, you are able to summon and control 2 captured souls at a time. If the number of summoned souls exceeds 2, the two most recently summoned souls remain, and the rest are returned to their capture devices.

Soul Bond

Your experience with souls allows your bond with them to transcend normal limitations. Starting at 15th level, giving commands to summoned souls is non-verbal and does not require the use of a bonus action (it is now a free action).