Kaliayev
2018-05-20, 01:40 PM
To be clear, I am not suggesting that anyone actually follow this rule interpretation at their table. I'm just critiquing how the spell was written from a design perspective. Relevant parts of the soul cage spell description:
Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when a humanoid you can see within 60 feet of you dies
Components: V, S, M (a tiny silver cage worth 100 gp)
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the only spell in the game that has both a reaction casting time and a costly material component. Now, let's go over what all this means. First, you cannot use a spellcasting focus/component pouch in lieu of the material component. Importantly, this is something you can do with feather fall. With soul cage, you have to manipulate the cage to cast the spell. Second, if this reaction doesn't occur on your turn, you do not get a free object interaction. For somatic reactionary spells like shield, you can just drop a weapon, torch, etc (i.e. always free, unless trying to drop a shield) in order to cast, or you can pick up the war caster feat. In other words, you have to be holding the cage during your reaction in order to be able to cast soul cage. Third, this can only capture the soul of a humanoid. By the time you get your 6th level spell slot, how frequently are you fighting humanoids? I acknowledge this can vary greatly by table and character alignments, but you're probably encountering greater forces by that point.
Factoring the above, is soul cage probable? Not really. If you manage to kill a humanoid on your turn, you can drop one of your held items and grab the cage with your free object interaction, assuming you haven't used it already. Of course, you risk having your dropped item stolen or destroyed by an enemy. If you aren't fortunate enough to both kill something and have your free object interaction available on your turn, you're likely to be SOL. You generally won't commit a hand to holding a tiny silver cage for an off-turn reaction, as you would be handicapping yourself. One hand is likely devoted to a weapon/shield and the other to your spellcasting focus/component pouch. You have a number of other reactionary spells vying for your attention, reducing the likelihood that both your reaction and a hand will be devoted to soul cage. Given the above, it's not optimal to devote a prepared spell slot to an unreliable spell like soul cage.
I would rather soul cage had been written with the following changes: casting time of one action that is cast within one minute of a humanoid's death, mirroring revivify's time limit. Unlike the higher level spells to return a creature from death, revivify makes no mention of the creature's soul. This suggests that the soul hasn't departed within one minute of death. The same should hold true for a spell like soul cage. With these changes, soul cage would be an immediate, post combat consideration. While others in the party are searching bodies and recovering ammo, you are harvesting a soul. The spell would be more potent, but I think it would fit the game's framework better.
P.S. Of course, you can ignore all this and just cast your damn spells.
Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when a humanoid you can see within 60 feet of you dies
Components: V, S, M (a tiny silver cage worth 100 gp)
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the only spell in the game that has both a reaction casting time and a costly material component. Now, let's go over what all this means. First, you cannot use a spellcasting focus/component pouch in lieu of the material component. Importantly, this is something you can do with feather fall. With soul cage, you have to manipulate the cage to cast the spell. Second, if this reaction doesn't occur on your turn, you do not get a free object interaction. For somatic reactionary spells like shield, you can just drop a weapon, torch, etc (i.e. always free, unless trying to drop a shield) in order to cast, or you can pick up the war caster feat. In other words, you have to be holding the cage during your reaction in order to be able to cast soul cage. Third, this can only capture the soul of a humanoid. By the time you get your 6th level spell slot, how frequently are you fighting humanoids? I acknowledge this can vary greatly by table and character alignments, but you're probably encountering greater forces by that point.
Factoring the above, is soul cage probable? Not really. If you manage to kill a humanoid on your turn, you can drop one of your held items and grab the cage with your free object interaction, assuming you haven't used it already. Of course, you risk having your dropped item stolen or destroyed by an enemy. If you aren't fortunate enough to both kill something and have your free object interaction available on your turn, you're likely to be SOL. You generally won't commit a hand to holding a tiny silver cage for an off-turn reaction, as you would be handicapping yourself. One hand is likely devoted to a weapon/shield and the other to your spellcasting focus/component pouch. You have a number of other reactionary spells vying for your attention, reducing the likelihood that both your reaction and a hand will be devoted to soul cage. Given the above, it's not optimal to devote a prepared spell slot to an unreliable spell like soul cage.
I would rather soul cage had been written with the following changes: casting time of one action that is cast within one minute of a humanoid's death, mirroring revivify's time limit. Unlike the higher level spells to return a creature from death, revivify makes no mention of the creature's soul. This suggests that the soul hasn't departed within one minute of death. The same should hold true for a spell like soul cage. With these changes, soul cage would be an immediate, post combat consideration. While others in the party are searching bodies and recovering ammo, you are harvesting a soul. The spell would be more potent, but I think it would fit the game's framework better.
P.S. Of course, you can ignore all this and just cast your damn spells.