How much for your soul?

[Antarx]

I'm playing a female flying tiefling bard with a dip in hexblade. In her background story, she suffered a lot because her demonic heritage. Her lover died and now she is totally decided to become a goddes... or a demoness. Because when you have divine powers, not even death can stole your loved ones.

She teaches songs that are in fact prayers in her name. She gives "free lucky charms" to orphans and young thieves that are her holy simbol, and then she bribes the city guards to be indulgent with those who wear them. She really wants to create true faith aroud her name that maybe, some day can serve her to promote to demigoddes, or something... (mostly for fluff, because the DM seems to not care at all about those things)

We have little use for money in our campaing. We can't buy magic items, and i don't need more mundane equipment. So, apart of luxury nights in the inns, I have nothing to spend my gold in.

So I thought that I can buy souls. She is daemon-descendant, so may be, enought souls can fuel her powers somehow.
The plan is to pay with gold or with favors (magic aid maybe) to npcs for a contract for theirs souls, so when they finally die, their soul belongs to her.

the question is... I don't know how to do it. How much to pay to a farmer npc. He may want to try to change his life with gold, but i don't know how much can they ask. (the DM keeps silent about this, but I'm going to do it anyway. It's fun, at least for me, even if nothing happens.)

Also, suggestions about how to sign the deal are really welcome.

Thanks for reading

[JackPhoenix]

Depends on what the farmer wants. Wealthy lifestyle is 4 gp/day, 1460 gp per year. I guess about 15 000 gp would be reasonable, if they don't expect to live very long.

Not that you achieve anything except throwing your money away, you aren't a real devil and the contract holds no weight.

[MaxWilson]

I'm informed by a reliable source that this approach works pretty well:

https://d3qdvvkm3r2z1i.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1800x/6b9ffbf72458f4fd2d3cb995d92e8889/d/a/darkside_newthumb.png

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Depends on what the farmer wants. Wealthy lifestyle is 4 gp/day, 1460 gp per year. I guess about 15 000 gp would be reasonable, if they don't expect to live very long.

Not that you achieve anything except throwing your money away, you aren't a real devil and the contract holds no weight.

One of my favorite tropes is to make it uncertain whether real (Baatezu/Tanar'ri) demon contracts have any weight, or whether the demons are just following their own weird religion by bargaining for souls. No one knows what really happens after you sign that contract--are you going to risk it anyway, for something you really want? Are you going to instead let your children go without education or your mother go without medicine because you won't sign the demon's stupid piece of paper? What, really, is the right thing to do here?

[KarlMarx]

First, talk to your DM to see what the mechanics of this would be, since we don't really have any rules for this sort of thing. Depending what level you are, though, it may be a possibility, especially if you can somehow get your patron to hold the souls for you.

From there, I really think it depends. If you're not worried about moral ramifications, it shouldn't be hard to persuade people that they're doomed to damnation and that the only solution is to entrust their soul to you, because you'd never damn such a nice person. You're so much better than those cruel gods...

[Kane0]

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0113/5192/products/corn-chip-web1_1024x1024.jpg?v=1422291070


But i'd probably start low and see where the peasant's (DM's) imagination takes you. More often than not when you offer an open bargain people will either get ludicrously ambitious (which you can then shoot down) or 'play it safe' and put themselves in a bad position (which you take advantage of).

[Laserlight]

Sales technique: get them to make the first offer, then bargain from there. I have made a LOT of money by saying "I don't have the pricing for that right in front of me, so, uh, how much do you think it should be?" Sometimes you get a joker who says "it should be free" but sometimes he'll tell you a number that's higher than you would ever have dated to ask.
And when you do have to make the first offer and they immediately say "yes", you're thinking "how much more could I have gotten?"

[NecessaryWeevil]

Well, my warlock's backstory is that she sold her soul to the Unseelie Prince of Frost to save herself and a village full of children from dying from starvation and hypothermia...so that probably wouldn't have cost much money IF there was someone with a lot of wood and food to sell.

Point is, I guess, find someone who really needs what you're selling and they might be willing to pay.

[Biggstick]

Point is, I guess, find someone who really needs what you're selling and they might be willing to pay.

Totally agreed with this. Warlock Patrons thrive on this, and are typically beings of almost god-like power. They are typically powerful enough to overcome most problems mortals have, and collecting a soul in exchange for something they consider trivial work is an ideal transaction for them.

[rahimka]

You might be able to force your DMs hand in a manner of speaking, with the right spells such as Commune or Contact Other Plane.

First, get at least one sucker/worshiper/sacrifice on the hook, committed, and ready to go. Contact a full-on, soul bargaining Devil. Offer them this first soul as payment on teaching YOU how to write/perform actual soul-binding contracts. Maybe sweeten the pot with the promise of splitting the first 10 souls you collect.

Bingo bango. You've plugged yourself in the hierarchy (and economy) of Hell in exchange for power and wealth. You're on your way to climbing (down) the ladder to success!

...or you've succeeded only in pissing off a powerful Devil (and your DM...) and/or damned yourself completely. Either way, it should be a fun character arc!

[HappyDaze]

Contact a full-on, soul bargaining Devil. Offer them this first soul as payment on teaching YOU how to write/perform actual soul-binding contracts. Maybe sweeten the pot with the promise of splitting the first 10 souls you collect.
And here's where it can all go wrong in a hurry. That devil will be trying to get the best bargain possible, and will certainly require something mightily valuable to you--like your own soul if you fail to deliver a quota of one per X time period. Then it might teach you how it performs the bindings only for you to discover it doesn't work for you because you're a non-devil/mortal being. Too bad for you, it fulfilled it's part of the contract. Now, when does X time period end?

[Unoriginal]

If you want canonical examples of what a soul can be worth, the different books tell us that for 1 soul you can:

-Learn the secret of how to become a Lich
-Go from average Joe to powerful warrior in an instant

And for 3 souls, you can get a mountain of gold. Enough to pay out any debt and still leave you filthy rich.

Now it should be noted, ownibg souls do not grant Devils powers or the like. It's just a form of money, to them, and also how to create more Devils to fight in the Blood War.

If your Tiefling wants to become part of the infernal hierarchy, then she'll have to find a powerful Devil and make a deal so that after her death, her soul will not be thrown into the Styx.

You're better off trying to find ways to become a god, though.

[Antarx]

Sadly, our party is playing online with roll20, so waiting for the Dm at his house with a small gun "for a talk" is not an option.

But even worse, our party is not exactly a "role-playing group" but instead a "roll-play" group. The main complains of most players are "I have spent 2 hours here. When can I roll to stab something in combat" and "your character is not a random combination of 1 race and 1 class, so you are a ****** minmaxer"

So, in resumen, in the best case scenario, I can say something like "I have 2k gold to spare, so I look for desperate farmers, starved drunkards and revengeful widows during our two weeks travel from city A to city B." with the hope that when I achieve 100 hundred contracts, somebody will be interested in me... with luck, may be a Imp. And I will be called minmaxer anyway.

In the end, I know that i have to look for desperate souls, buy I'm trying to find a rasonable average price, so my group doesn't have to waste his pretious "sharp metal stab time" with my fewerish dreams of complex roleplay.

Again, suggestions about how mo make the deals are welcome. (spells that can be used to contact devils, general wording of the pacts, etc)

P.D
My character is Lore bard 5, hexblade warlock 1 female tiefling. I have 2,5k gold and some black ice "cursed" weapons from another unfinished campaing to make deals.

[noob]

Stuff have a cost depending on its scarcity and/or interest to the buyer.
So the commoner which would sell its soul would probably not gain much unless that commoner had a particular property that makes its soul valuable and rare.
However if a devil came toward you in the first place then it is probably because that devil considered your soul to be of interest for him or one of his superiors.
If you are able to find the soul market in hell yourself then it probably means you are a quite knowledgable person in the dark ways and so that you are probably also quite powerful and so it is normal you can sell your soul at a high cost.
But Joe the ordinary commoner which shouts "I am ready to sell my soul for wealth" and that a devil hear by luck will probably not be able to bargain a whole lot of wealth from that.(it is even possible the devil would ignore that person unless it sounded desperate or full of passion or some stuff like that)

[Unoriginal]

Sadly, our party is playing online with roll20, so waiting for the Dm at his house with a small gun "for a talk" is not an option.

But even worse, our party is not exactly a "role-playing group" but instead a "roll-play" group. The main complains of most players are "I have spent 2 hours here. When can I roll to stab something in combat" and "your character is not a random combination of 1 race and 1 class, so you are a ****** minmaxer"

So, in resumen, in the best case scenario, I can say something like "I have 2k gold to spare, so I look for desperate farmers, starved drunkards and revengeful widows during our two weeks travel from city A to city B." with the hope that when I achieve 100 hundred contracts, somebody will be interested in me... with luck, may be a Imp. And I will be called minmaxer anyway.

In the end, I know that i have to look for desperate souls, buy I'm trying to find a rasonable average price, so my group doesn't have to waste his pretious "sharp metal stab time" with my fewerish dreams of complex roleplay.

Again, suggestions about how mo make the deals are welcome. (spells that can be used to contact devils, general wording of the pacts, etc)

P.D
My character is Lore bard 5, hexblade warlock 1 female tiefling. I have 2,5k gold and some black ice "cursed" weapons from another unfinished campaing to make deals.

If the DM and the other players are unwilling to do RP, and your DM can't be talked with outside of session time, then I'm sorry to say, but what you want can't be done.

Maybe try to find a different group which welcome that kind of plot?

Alternatively, just start a cult and convince NPCs to join. That way those people give you their souls to use after death without you having to buy them. With 2500 gold you can have a nice start, and it seems more feasible to do with the group you have.

[DeTess]

But even worse, our party is not exactly a "role-playing group" but instead a "roll-play" group. The main complains of most players are "I have spent 2 hours here. When can I roll to stab something in combat" and "your character is not a random combination of 1 race and 1 class, so you are a ****** minmaxer"


This is odd, as people don't generally have both mindsets at the same time (in my experience). That having been said, maybe your ambitions aren't right for this group? I would talk to the DM for a solo-session/campaign, or find another table where stuff like this is accommodated (and more importantly, enjoyed). Because it sounds like trying to do deep RP stuff like this will annoy the other players, who just want to stab stuff. I'm not saying you're wrong to want to do this (because you're not), but it sounds like doing this properly will take a bunch of spotlight time, which is only fine if the other players enjoy doing similar shenanigans or watching others do stuff like this.

[Gastronomie]

If the DM and the other players are unwilling to do RP, and your DM can't be talked with outside of session time, then I'm sorry to say, but what you want can't be done.

Maybe try to find a different group which welcome that kind of plot?I must 100% agree here. Where you may find those players and DM frustrating, they will probably be frustrated by your own story arc as well. It's not a matter of good or bad, right or wrong, but of personal preference and play style. Your idea is definitely not suitable for your group, and if you want to do it, you should go to a different table. There are many DMs willing to do that sort of story arc for you.

[Antarx]

It's not exactly as if the DM doesn't like roleplaying. It's just that he has no time outside sesions for those things at the moment. And there is a high chance that DM seat will change after this adventure.

So let's say that my character has a secret agenda and is desperate to achieve results. Saving the city from an evil enemy is ok, but empires rise and fall... nothing last, and she aims for a higher objetive. At any cost. She wants to revive her lover and be sure that death will never pulls them appart. Evil, but somehow romantic.

Even if nobody ever reads the in game diary, I take a lot of pleasure writting it (I think that is the very best part of roleplaying... converting a board game into a epic tale that one day you may tell to your grandsons) and I would want to start doing anything in that direction. (Simply farming Xp doesn't seems epic for me)

5ed seems surprisingly empty in some areas. I'm not talking about rules to summon a devil like the part of summing a devil for a free wish for Sharruk powers like 3.5, but even 2ed books had more deep details about Gods, myths, and obscure legends. There are no founts of untold power left to explore, like the ruins of Myth Drannor, and even artifacts are simply "not-so-nerfed-magic-average-items" or just "we don't provide stats for this because never a player will have it in his hands". Even undead and lycantrophy are "not for players anymore"

So, in the end, even if I know that the character probably will never achieve anything like divine powers, fighting when you know that you have no chances of succes is what makes a tale epic. At higher levels, I will cast rise dead over her lover (why we don't have prices for resurrections like older editions so we can just save gold for that??) but I would like to explore other "darker and faster" options.

[Unoriginal]

It's not exactly as if the DM doesn't like roleplaying. It's just that he has no time outside sesions for those things at the moment. And there is a high chance that DM seat will change after this adventure.

Doesn't change the fact that what you want will not be given the time it needs in your campaign.



Even if nobody ever reads the in game diary, I take a lot of pleasure writting it (I think that is the very best part of roleplaying... converting a board game into a epic tale that one day you may tell to your grandsons) and I would want to start doing anything in that direction. (Simply farming Xp doesn't seems epic for me)

Again, a good idea to have, but you should a group tat allows it.



but even 2ed books had more deep details about Gods, myths, and obscure legends.

There are plenty of that in 5e, though. Of course there is less because there is less books than 2e.



There are no founts of untold power left to explore, like the ruins of Myth Drannor

Define "founts of untold power". You can definitively find founts of power beyond the scope of usual magic, from the Lost Mine of Phandevlver to the Elder Evils' machinations.



Even undead and lycantrophy are "not for players anymore"

A good thing.



So, in the end, even if I know that the character probably will never achieve anything like divine powers,

Don't blame 5e for this, Antarx. It's perfectly possible to do that and the rest of the things you want, it's your group who's not giving you the opportunity.



fighting when you know that you have no chances of succes is what makes a tale epic.

Dunno, it sounds more like a Kafka-esque nightmare or just horribly cynical, to me.

You only do things because you know you have the chance to succeed at *something*, even if not your main objective, or because you want to fail.


why we don't have prices for resurrections like older editions so we can just save gold for that??

Because the idea that all the spell-slingers in the world will make you pay the same to bring people back from the dead is both illogical, it's also not the tone they wanted to set for this edition. You CAN get gold and exchange it for a Raise the Dead, Reincarnation, or any other magic that has that effect, but since NPCs are people and not vending machines, the price they'd ask for it would depend of the circumstances.



but I would like to explore other "darker and faster" options.

Find a devil and exchange some souls against a Resurrection spell. Boom.

Except, again, the campaign and group you're in is not likely to allow you to have the time or the opportunity to do it.