Questions tagged [soul]
For questions primarily about creatures' souls, and game mechanics involving souls.
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Are all souls of equal value?
The Monster Manual's Devil entry describes how devils desire souls and enter into contracts with mortals to gain them.
To own a creature's soul is to have absolute control over that creature, and ...
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Do all creatures have souls?
Do all living creatures have souls in the D&D multiverse (Forgotten Realms in particular)?
The only hint I've found so far was from the Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes:
A nabassu can eat the soul of ...
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Is it possible to destroy a soul?
Is there any method for a creature to destroy a soul, such that it is utterly wiped from the multiverse? No afterlife, no wall of the faithless etc etc
I was thinking about the nature of the ...
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What deductive reasoning capabilities would a soulless Simulacrum with an Intelligence score of 22 have?
Assume that:
A level 17 Wizard (School of Evocation) with an Intelligence score of 22 is able to create a finite but arbitrarily large number of simulacrums of himself, using the widely known ...
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How does Trap The Soul interact with a Lich?
Trap the soul forces a creature's life force (and its material body) into a gem.
It seems there's no description in the spell says if it would not work with an undead. So I assume it would just work ...
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How is a soul different from the living creature that it came from?
Short Version
If someone who can cast a spell like Plane Shift or Gate dies, what prevents their soul from simply casting the spell and returning to the Material Plane?
Explanation
From what I can ...
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Is a soul or spirit a creature?
The new Unearthed Arcana gives a new option for warlock's patron: The Undead. One of its class feature is Spirit Projection:
Your body is now simply a vessel for your spirit. As an action, you can ...
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If I use the spell Shapechange to become a Kalaraq Quori and use Soul Binding, is the creature's soul still imprisoned when I turn back?
The Kalaraq Quori has the following attack:
Soul Binding.
Melee Spell Attack: +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 29 (4d10 + 7) necrotic damage. A creature reduced to 0 hit points from this ...
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What happens to your soul when it get trapped in a Lich's phylactery?
All Liches have a phylactery that they use to trap souls so they can live forever. What exactly happens to those souls when they are trapped? Are they gone forever or just trapped in some magical ...
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Interaction between Black Cabin and Ring of Mind Shielding
Spoiler warning: this question contains a spoiler for Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign, a relatively minor one in relation to the main plot but quite an impactful one from player's perspective.
I'm ...
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Is there a difference between "soul" and "spirit"?
Some spells and effects deal with a creature's soul, for example the spells astral projection, clone, magic jar, raise dead, resurrection, true ressurection, reincarnate, and the DMG discusses that a ...
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I have the Blackstaff. How can I be resurrected?
I am playing in a homebrewed setting, not Waterdeep. My DM had my character find the Blackstaff on the body of the leader of a slave owning city where we helped the rebelling slaves. It is modified at ...
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Does Revivify work on trapped souls?
Nearly all the resurrection spells state that your soul has to be free and willing to be revived. The DMG on page 24 further states that A soul can't be returned to life if it doesn't wish to be, so ...
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What soul stealing monsters exist in the 5th edition official material?
Are any published monsters in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition described as stealing souls (or otherwise interacting with souls)?
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Does destroying a Lich's phylactery destroy the soul within it?
The MM entry for a Lich mentions destroying a phylactery is a difficult endeavor but the only way to prevent a Lich from rising again and again.
Does destroying the phylactery destroy the soul within? ...
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Can Contingency be triggered by the presence of an item with a soul-affecting domain of effects? [duplicate]
I want to know if I can prepare a Contingency with Dimension Door to teleport me away if an item that may affect a creature's soul is within 125 feet of me.
More specifically, I would like to be able ...
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Making a character without a soul?
I'm new to D&D, but I'm really interested in it. I've been building a character, but I've hit a spot that I'm not sure how to handle: making a human character without a soul.
I was thinking ...
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How do summons interact with soul-affecting effects?
For reasons of my own, I need a trapped soul for at least a couple of hours. The exact type of soul doesn't matter: so long as I have a soul in a "jar" for, say, 8 hours, I'm good.
I'm a ...
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Is there any way to trap someone's soul?
I'm playing a wizard and I really want to trap someone's soul. I've thought about casting glyph of warding using magic jar, but I don't want them to be able to escape. Is there any way to do this ...
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What is the lore behind why soul coins have the symbol of Bhaal on them?
I am struggling to find an image of both sides of a Soul Coin (Baator’s currency), but everywhere I've looked, I've only found only one side bearing a letter and the other side depicting a skull with ...
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Where do you go when you die?
Following in the line of this question, I know quite a bit about V:TM, W:TA, M:TA, and Mummy, but sadly I have almost no knowledge of the rest.
What happens to the spirit/soul of oWOD creatures (...
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Is there a way to bring a Specter back to life?
The Wraith has this ability:
Create Specter. The wraith targets a humanoid within 10 feet of it that has been dead for no longer than 1 minute and died violently. The target's spirit rises as a ...
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What is the native plane of a larva or lemure?
When a creature dies, and it has a soul, their soul departs to the plane of their deity or their alignment. In case of evil creatures, they may end up in the lower planes.
For Hades, the DMG (p. 63) ...
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Where do souls go upon death and when are they free to be raised?
Where do souls go when they die in 5e? Is it still an outer plane matching their alignment like in earlier editions? Are the souls of evil creatures going to the lower planes?
The spells that can ...
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Could both an alive and an undead version of a creature exist?
Say Bob the fighter dies heroically while fighting some cultists. His companions realise they are outmatched and decide to run. But first, they quickly cut off one of Bob's fingers and take it with ...
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Is a Clone created in a Demiplane native to it?
For this question, I'll pose it in the form of an example since it gets confusing otherwise
Say I am playing a level 17-20 wizard who wants to use the Clone spell to become immortal, but want a safe ...
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Does a simulacrum have a soul?
Inspired by this question about healing a simulacrum with magic jar.
We know a simulacrum is a creature, but does it have a soul?
Is that part of what is considered a creature's features and ...
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What happens to a soul corrupted by a succubus?
The lore text on Succubi / Incubi states the following (MM, p. 284; emphasis mine):
A mortal bequeaths its soul to the fiend not by formal pledge or contract. Instead, when a succubus or incubus ...
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Can a cloned Order of Scribes wizard use their subclass features for replacing their spellbook?
I'm waffling on some interpretations regarding the Order of Scribes wizard subclass in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and would really appreciate some second opinions. Most of the features seem ...
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Can the soul of a creature get swept up by a Psychic Wind while going through the astral plane after dying?
I heard that in the "standard" setting for D&D, when your character dies, their soul goes travelling through the Astral Plane until they eventually end up in the outer plane they belong ...
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Does an intelligent undead have a soul in 5e D&D?
Does an intelligent undead, such as a vampire, mummy, etc, have a soul? Is it the original soul of the person they were before?
There was already a question exactly like this specifically for 3.5e ...
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What happens if magic jar ends and the caster's body is undead?
Suppose I cast magic jar and possess a body, then I kill my old body and cast animate dead on it, and after that I break the magic jar.
What happens when the soul returns to the zombified body?
For ...
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Discouraging the soul-trade
Creatures in D&D have a Soul. This concept is fairly un-explored, though.
In my current open-world game, one of the players has unleashed a number of Devils upon the world. (They are basically on ...
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How can the agent of a devil "capture" a soul?
Devils always want more souls for the Blood War. Mostly, they get those from lawful evil mortals. But as various lore - and this question What groups of souls go to the Nine Hells according to lore? - ...
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What is a creature's "animating spirit"?
The spell speak with dead says:
You grant the semblance of life and intelligence to a corpse of your choice within range, allowing it to answer the questions you pose. [...]
[...] The corpse knows ...
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Does Soulseeker work on undead?
Soulseeker can lead you to the location of a soul, and fails if the target soul is still alive or has been destroyed. But what if the soul belongs to an undead creature, such as a vampire, or, of ...
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When a necromancer raises a zombie, is it animated by the dead creature's soul, or by magic?
I am interested in what precisely "moves" the undead body, in the Forgotten Realms and Eberron.
Is it the magic of the spell?
Is the creature's soul rebound to the body?
Is a "false ...
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Where do dragon souls go after their deaths?
As far as I know, mortal souls go to the plane Fugue and after 100 years Kelemvor sends them to their gods' planes to serve.
But where do dragon souls go? Do Chromatic and Metallic dragon souls go to ...
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Where does an unaligned creature's soul go after death?
In the DMG section on "Bringing Back the Dead" (chapter 1, p. 24), it describes what happens when a creature dies:
When a creature dies, its soul departs its body, leaves the Material Plane, ...
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Can a victim of diablerie's soul be retained within the diablerist?
My latest campaign has reached a rather tragic point, heaved on by diablerie happening more often than it should.
A character's blood bound wife, diablerising that character's childe, was lost to the ...
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Can one capture the 'soul' or 'spirit' of a dying Illithid/mind flayer with a 'Ring of Mind Shielding'?
Do illithids or 'mind flayers' have a spirit &/or soul to be captured in a Ring of Mind Sheilding? This is related to a previous question regarding the mind flayer return to a (previous/humanoid) ...
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Does the Awaken spell give or create a soul?
The Awaken spell adds sentience - granting 'intelligence' of 10 to either one beast or plant target (one that starts with an int score of 3 or less). It also adds mobility, ambulatory function, ...
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Has it ever been officially stated how long it takes for a soul to transform into an outsider after death?
Okay, correct me if I’m wrong:
In the Pathfinder Universe, souls travel along the River of Souls after death, then hang around Pharasmas Boneyard for a while, get judged and then get send to ...
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Can you force out a soul that is occupying a Ring of Mind Shielding?
Per the description:
If you die while wearing the ring, your soul enters it, unless it already houses a soul. You can remain in the ring or depart for the afterlife. As long as your soul is in the ...
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What is the complete lifecycle of souls in the Nine Hells?
The Descent into Avernus adventure provides more information about what happens to souls in the Nine Hells/Baator than was previously available (soul coins and their uses, in particular).
It's also ...
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Could a Lich have a Clone spell prepared as insurance for getting its phylactery destroyed?
I'm thinking of using the following setup for a long-term villain in a campaign I'm planning:
A Lich, for whatever reason, has a prepared Clone spell hanging around (maybe paranoia, maybe a forgotten ...
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What happens when a player violates two devils' contracts?
I'm currently preparing a session in my campaign where one of my players is going to consider signing a contract with a devil. While writing the contract, I noticed something that seems like a ...
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What groups of souls go to the Nine Hells according to lore?
The Nine Hells (or Baator) is the Lawful Evil outer plane, and the home plane of devils. It is a plane of eternal punishment for the wicked.
Which souls go there in the afterlife?
I can think that ...
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Does a soul being resurrected know what spell is being used?
Specifically, would a soul know that the body they're being invited into was created via Reincarnate? After all, for some souls, changing species might be a big deal, possibly of the 'rather stay dead'...
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Could a soul from the Soulmonger be restored in the ToA campaign after this event?
Assume some soul was sucked into the Soulmonger.
This event could happen with this soul, when it is inside:
Is it possible to resurrect a soul after this event happens? Maybe with a Wish spell or ...
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