I love Skyrim,and like the idea of capturing souls and binding them to items to give them power,and cause the closest thing l could find were soul coins,I decided to homebrew my own. Obviously I could just plagiarize Skyrim,but l want to be a bit more original,hence this thread.
Any ideas for how to find/make them,how to trap souls into them,how to use those trapped souls,and a tier list are welcome.
Right now,l just have the Skyrim soul gems being sold by a weird shop keep,but any other idea is welcome.
You might be interested in a UA subclass for Rogues called the Phantom. When something dies near them they can capture a piece of it’s soul in a trinket. It gives them some powers at different levels.
One problem with being able to steal the power of a creature, is that you can get a lot more powerful very fast. It would probably be a rare/very rare magic item that requires attunment. I am not sure what it would steal though, but some examples would be:
Gaining a extra low level spell slot from stealing a mages soul.
Soul Cage is a great necro spell from Xanther that lets you capture a dying person's soul and use it to heal and to get information and some other things.
One problem with being able to steal the power of a creature, is that you can get a lot more powerful very fast. It would probably be a rare/very rare magic item that requires attunment. I am not sure what it would steal though, but some examples would be:
Gaining a extra low level spell slot from stealing a mages soul.
Gaining extra max hit points from anything.
Increasing ability scores.
great idea for a magic item! Though Not exactly what i had in mind,i will 100% be useing this!
Edit:here is what i turned your idea into:
Locket of SoulSnatch:(L) (ATU) A locket that can Steal the souls of slain enemys. The soul of a slain enemy can be used to do one of the following:
Gain a Spell Slot of a level no higher then 3rd,based on the highest level Spell Slot the slain enemy had. (so if they had 4th level slots,the pc could only get a 3rd lv slot,but if they only had 1st lv slots,the pc could only get a 1st lv slot )The wearer could chose to instead learn 2 spells that the mage knew,from a level no higher then 3rd.
Gain a permanent + 5 to hp for every level the soul had. (ie 1st level enemys would give +5,but a 20th lv enemy would give +100)
Increasing ability scores.:The soul of the fallen enemy can be used to gain a permanent +1 boost to a stat of your choice,to a maximum of 20 in that stat.
(Enemy is defined as someone who attackes you first,without provocation) (this is to avoid murder-hobo-ism)
I like the idea, but again, it seems like the player with the locket gets VERY powerful VERY quickly. Can the locket only hold one soul requiring them to release a soul they already captured to get a new one? If they can capture more than one, I would consider putting a limit on it. Like..****y allowing them to capture a number of souls equal to their proficiency bonus. If they can capture more than one, I would lower the amount of HP they gain per soul as killing three level 10 demons would grant them 150 hp which is crazy. Maybe +1 per level of the soul? Or if you want to keep the amount higher, maybe make it temporary HP requiring them to catch a new soul to refill it. Same could go for the spells: once expended, they must capture a new soul to get more spell slots. (I would look at what you said pertaining to spells by the way. It seems like they could get A spell no higher than 3rd or two spells no higher than 3rd. I expect you meant 2 spells no higher than 1st, but I just wanted to clarify.) I do like the Enemy definition to prevent murder-hobo-ism. That's a great clarification to make to your party.
HI. thanks for the feedback! For the power of this,this is a magic item l would give to the party no sooner the lv 13-15,so they would be pretty strong by the time they get this. Also,in case it was not clear, they can chouse to absorb 1 SPELL SLOT of 3rd level or lower ,OR 2 SPELLS of 3rd level or less. (though l might change it to 1 spell or spell slot).
Also,when the soul is absorbed the one atuned to the item can chouse only one of the upgrades,and it only effects them while atuned,and each person has their own atunement "pool" meaning the paladin cant smite 20 fiends,use their souls to boost health,then give it to the wizard. (i just came up with this idea)
also,if you can kill a level 20 enemy,you deserve the +100 health. (ps,l have no idea how to turn player level to enemy dc,so the dc would not equal soul level. so really,as the dm,l can decide if the enemys level,which can be enteirly diffrent from their dc. kill a lord of hell? sure,that counts as a lv 20 enemy,what do you want from it? zombie?lv 1. what? you want a spell? it has none,and the soul is wasted.) (do you see my point?)
I love Skyrim,and like the idea of capturing souls and binding them to items to give them power,and cause the closest thing l could find were soul coins,I decided to homebrew my own. Obviously I could just plagiarize Skyrim,but l want to be a bit more original,hence this thread.
Any ideas for how to find/make them,how to trap souls into them,how to use those trapped souls,and a tier list are welcome.
Right now,l just have the Skyrim soul gems being sold by a weird shop keep,but any other idea is welcome.
You might be interested in a UA subclass for Rogues called the Phantom. When something dies near them they can capture a piece of it’s soul in a trinket. It gives them some powers at different levels.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/rogue#PhantomUA
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One problem with being able to steal the power of a creature, is that you can get a lot more powerful very fast. It would probably be a rare/very rare magic item that requires attunment. I am not sure what it would steal though, but some examples would be:
When the DM smiles, it is already to late.
Soul Cage is a great necro spell from Xanther that lets you capture a dying person's soul and use it to heal and to get information and some other things.
great idea for a magic item! Though Not exactly what i had in mind,i will 100% be useing this!
Edit:here is what i turned your idea into:
Locket of SoulSnatch:(L) (ATU) A locket that can Steal the souls of slain enemys. The soul of a slain enemy can be used to do one of the following:
Gain a Spell Slot of a level no higher then 3rd,based on the highest level Spell Slot the slain enemy had. (so if they had 4th level slots,the pc could only get a 3rd lv slot,but if they only had 1st lv slots,the pc could only get a 1st lv slot )The wearer could chose to instead learn 2 spells that the mage knew,from a level no higher then 3rd.
Gain a permanent + 5 to hp for every level the soul had. (ie 1st level enemys would give +5,but a 20th lv enemy would give +100)
Increasing ability scores.:The soul of the fallen enemy can be used to gain a permanent +1 boost to a stat of your choice,to a maximum of 20 in that stat.
(Enemy is defined as someone who attackes you first,without provocation) (this is to avoid murder-hobo-ism)
I like the idea, but again, it seems like the player with the locket gets VERY powerful VERY quickly. Can the locket only hold one soul requiring them to release a soul they already captured to get a new one? If they can capture more than one, I would consider putting a limit on it. Like..****y allowing them to capture a number of souls equal to their proficiency bonus. If they can capture more than one, I would lower the amount of HP they gain per soul as killing three level 10 demons would grant them 150 hp which is crazy. Maybe +1 per level of the soul? Or if you want to keep the amount higher, maybe make it temporary HP requiring them to catch a new soul to refill it. Same could go for the spells: once expended, they must capture a new soul to get more spell slots. (I would look at what you said pertaining to spells by the way. It seems like they could get A spell no higher than 3rd or two spells no higher than 3rd. I expect you meant 2 spells no higher than 1st, but I just wanted to clarify.) I do like the Enemy definition to prevent murder-hobo-ism. That's a great clarification to make to your party.
Best of luck with it! I hope it works out!
HI. thanks for the feedback! For the power of this,this is a magic item l would give to the party no sooner the lv 13-15,so they would be pretty strong by the time they get this. Also,in case it was not clear, they can chouse to absorb 1 SPELL SLOT of 3rd level or lower ,OR 2 SPELLS of 3rd level or less. (though l might change it to 1 spell or spell slot).
Also,when the soul is absorbed the one atuned to the item can chouse only one of the upgrades,and it only effects them while atuned,and each person has their own atunement "pool" meaning the paladin cant smite 20 fiends,use their souls to boost health,then give it to the wizard. (i just came up with this idea)
also,if you can kill a level 20 enemy,you deserve the +100 health. (ps,l have no idea how to turn player level to enemy dc,so the dc would not equal soul level. so really,as the dm,l can decide if the enemys level,which can be enteirly diffrent from their dc. kill a lord of hell? sure,that counts as a lv 20 enemy,what do you want from it? zombie?lv 1. what? you want a spell? it has none,and the soul is wasted.) (do you see my point?)