souls what are they good for dnd3.5

[elonin]

Trap the soul is a high level spell costing xp and a gem worth 1,000 gp per hit dice of the creature you are trapping. There are a few spells like this that I've seen and beyond being hugely expensive I don't understand why anyone would use it. Is this a dm only type of spell or one for the parties wizard who is pissed off at someone else in the party. For constructive purposes I could see this being used to capture a freind's soul after they've died but when you plan to clone him instead of resurecting him. The other is to keep someone from being resurected.

Why do people use trap the soul and other research intensive spells that have high material component costs?

[cezyou]

Well, there are some non-core PCs that deal in souls that I've heard about. Don't know any of them, but they exist.

[RTGoodman]

Check the Book of Vile Darkness - I believe it has some stuff on souls.

As for trap the soul itself, I always sort of just thought it was so you could, you know, steal someone's soul. Not necessarily to do anything with it, just to keep them from living and such. I mean, you could kill someone, but at that high level their friends will just have the true resurrected or whatever. If their soul is trapped in a gem and hidden, it's a bit harder.

[ChaosDefender24]

I suppose you could use the soul as a really good bargaining chip.

In terms of keeping someone from being resurrected, I prefer necrotic termination. Less expensive (except the feat cost), utterly irreversible.

[Mando Knight]

If their soul is trapped in a gem and hidden, it's a bit harder.

If their soul is trapped in a gem, they can't be True Resurrected. Or any kind of Resurrected, for that matter. The soul is trapped within the gem. It's the perfect way to ensure that your opponent doesn't get resurrected.

[monty]

If their soul is trapped in a gem, they can't be True Resurrected. Or any kind of Resurrected, for that matter. The soul is trapped within the gem. It's the perfect way to ensure that your opponent doesn't get resurrected.

Then you build the gem into the core of a golem and imprison it on the moon, or something like that. Anybody remember exactly how that trick works?

[streakster]

Then you build the gem into the core of a golem and imprison it on the moon, or something like that. Anybody remember exactly how that trick works?

I thought you casted a cantrip using the soul as a material component. Or am I thinking of something else?

[monty]

I thought you casted a cantrip using the soul as a material component. Or am I thinking of something else?

No, that's not nearly as fun.

Ah yes, now I remember. You build the gem as part of a stone golem. Take it to the moon, or some equally inaccessible location, just in case. Cast stone to flesh, temporarily removing its immunity to magic. Cast imprisonment. Next round, it regains its immunity to magic. Since freedom allows spell resistance, it can't affect the golem. No more gem.

[Jack_Simth]

Trap the soul is a high level spell costing xp and a gem worth 1,000 gp per hit dice of the creature you are trapping. There are a few spells like this that I've seen and beyond being hugely expensive I don't understand why anyone would use it. Is this a dm only type of spell or one for the parties wizard who is pissed off at someone else in the party. For constructive purposes I could see this being used to capture a freind's soul after they've died but when you plan to clone him instead of resurecting him. The other is to keep someone from being resurected.

Why do people use trap the soul and other research intensive spells that have high material component costs?
The spell Trap The Soul is a little bit misnamed - it gets the body entire (and has the option of binding certain creatures to give you, or whoever you hand the gem to, a single favor). If you just want the soul, try Soul Bind (which has a much lower cost, but is a higher level spell).

But basically, the big point is letting the PC's say "no, you're not coming back" for recurring villains with allies that keep resurrecting them.

[Samb]

Very powerful mages use it to power spells that require xp as part of it cost. The lich queen of the githyanki killed high level githyanki to cast wish spells in order to obtain godhood. The devils in the nine hells use souls as currency which they in turn use to make themselves more powerful.

But for good/normal PCs this is more to keep something dead. Using souls as a source of power is one of the vilest things one can do, BoVD said so.

[bosssmiley]

BoVD uses souls as a power component in evil spells. Burning souls substitutes for expended XP.

(Non-WOTC) The Tome Series suggests using souls as a high-level currency, power source and building material(!). Heck, they wrote up an entire Acheronean planar metropolis based on the infernal soul trade.

@v: Sure it does. Where do you think intelligent magic items come from?

[elonin]

Thanks for the replies. In some games (TES series for 1) you can soul trap creatures and use them to create magic items. In a similiar way that a lich soul traps itself in the process of becoming undead, I've thought of a high level mage turnig himself into an item familiar upon his death. This is an element that I've found in a few stories but doesn't lend itself to dnd without extensive work arounds.