what all can I do with souls? what supplements cover this?

[flamewolf393]

Im the dm in an evil game, and one of my players wants to get into the capturing of souls (specifically through contracts since he is a devil). He has a reliable way of obtaining souls, but the thing we want to know is just what all he can DO with said souls.

Im open to basically any source book or splat book, and will consider not only RaW mechanics, but also setting/fluff based content as well. I know BoVD is the first logical step, but where do we go from there?

[Honest Tiefling]

Well, they could hand them over to the devil, devils sure seem to like them. Perhaps instead of soulcrafting, the devil hands over goodies for the character (and possibly the party) such as equipment and the like?

[Necroticplague]

1.It can be used to make weak outsiders. The exact process varies from plane to plane, but I know that at least in the Lower Planes, the weakest ones are made by torturing a soul until its an insane mess.
2.Food. Simply put, demons (and possibly devils, not sure) can flat-out eat them as sustenance.
3. Crafting. BOVD lets you use souls to save on crafting XP costs.
4. Casting. Using a soul as an optional material component lets you make evil spells harder to save against. (BOVD, again).

In general, try checking out the BOVD and the Fiendish Codex 1+2 if you want to figure out how to use a soul.

[ZamielVanWeber]

IIRC, but my memory is a bit fuzzy, BoVD had rules for using souls, and maybe FCII? Devils use souls to create new devils and BoVD mentions that souls can be used to power things (and are also usable as a currency. Creative way to break WBL!)

Edit: mostly ninja'd

[Yomega]

I had a character that did this in a 4e campaign.

My best advice is to keep the rules out of it, I primarily used them to force either the contract holders or there descendants into doing mostly trivial things for me and a couple time as a bulk offering to a devil I was brown nosing.

My character was preparing for a war the dm didnt know about (I would start one if nothing else) but its a roleplay tool, "what is a soul worth and to whom?"

[Zweisteine]

He is a devil.
The Fiendish Codex II is the go-to book for devils.

Knowing the method he has for getting should would be useful in providing a solution.

I've got a few things on this matter.
How does this player fit into the Hierarchy of the Nine Hells? This could effect what he can do with souls.
If he's some sort of outcast, he can't do much at all with souls.
If he's low-ranking, his choices are basically limited to sending them to hell, and getting promoted for helping the cause.*
If he's high-ranking, he probably should not be out actively collecting souls, unless he's some sort of field general.** High-ranked devils generally are either bureaucrats/military leaders.
If he has direct access to the inner operations of the Nine Hells, he can use souls to increase his powers.***

*Unless he is obtaining souls by making people willingly turn to (lawful) evil, this may or may not be an option. I suspect that Baator does not take captured souls, because they have a working system for the corrupted ones.
**And devil field generals generally serve in the Blood War, where they can't do much in the way of collecting souls.

***However, doing so would likely be an unlawful act, as the Hells certainly have extremely strict laws governing the use of ensnared souls. More certainly, those laws (or rather, the Pact Primeval itself) do specify that only evil souls can be used, and it may specify that they can't have been killed just for that purpose.
To break the Pact would go against all it means to be a devil, and would invoke the wrath of Asmodeus himself (probably). More likely, it is impossible, as measures are in place to prevent such unthinkable crimes.


If you want to know what devils do with souls besides send them to hell, I suggest asking Afroa (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?372289-afroakuma-s-Planar-And-Other-Oddities-Questions-Thread-5!).

[flamewolf393]

For those asking, the evil party is working directly for a Devil Lord that is the 73rd son of asmodeus, so powerful as an entity, but with minimal political influence in hell. Their mission is to corrupt one of the last remaining untouched prime material planes in his name.

The player in question is the son of said devil lord. The party has direct access to hell itself, and as such Hell's soul based economy. They have a way to collect souls in the form of a dagger that extracts souls upon a successful coup-de-grace.

The Devil-son character wants to start getting into the process of making Devil contracts and stealing souls. He wants to know what kinds of things he can DO with souls he collects beyond just spending them in Hell.

[theUnearther]

Mostly they've been covered, unless you start making them up. The only thing I can think of that's not been said is the exact opposite: call up the heavens and hold the souls for ransom. See how many angels you can get to sacrifice themselves for the release of a bunch of mortals. That may be hard to sell without a way to destroy the souls, though.

There are also a couple creatures you can feed souls to, if you want. Some undead, one of the constructs from Magic of Incarnum if memory serves, probably others. That doesn't benefit you though, unless as a credible threat for the idea above.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Angels could not interfere with "properly" gotten souls. That is the entire point of the Pact Primeval. If you got them improperly the solars are more likely to sacrifice themselves in a rescue attempt than sacrifice themselves for your amusement and angels are very strong enemies. Crossing them would not be wise.

[Honest Tiefling]

I believe the Pact Primeval is Greyhawk? Asmodeus makes an appearance in several settings (and he seems to have acquired a lot of children here), so a good question to ask, what is this setting and how open are you to new ideas?

Through if this guy isn't just a half-fiend, but a half-fiend of a big-shot (okay, medium-shot), then...Why not keep some souls on the downlow and make your own infernal army? Have the players find ways to foil the attempts of other devils to spy, and make up new rituals to make what breed of hellspawn THEY want.

What is the rest of the party to help get them involved in this?