What can be done with a PC's soul?

[Leviathann]

My players just encountered a mysterious pool of blood that seemed to be a magic portal of some kind. A voice that did not identify itself spoke inside their heads. It asked each of them what they desire and offered to be their warlock patron in return for obedience. None of them wanted to be a warlock.

But three of my players asked if they could have a special power or an extension of a class ability. They haggled with the voice to varying degrees. But in the end they each chose to sell part of their soul.

It's not my entire party, which is probably good. But what could the evil unknown thing do with their souls if they were to encounter it in a dungeon one day?

[Rukelnikov]

My players just encountered a mysterious pool of blood that seemed to be a magic portal of some kind. A voice that did not identify itself spoke inside their heads. It asked each of them what they desire and offered to be their warlock patron in return for obedience. None of them wanted to be a warlock.

But three of my players asked if they could have a special power or an extension of a class ability. They haggled with the voice to varying degrees. But in the end they each chose to sell part of their soul.

It's not my entire party, which is probably good. But what could the evil unknown thing do with their souls if they were to encounter it in a dungeon one day?

Play with it in the mud with toy soldiers

Otherwise, peddle it to a fiend, glean the PCs "true name" though I think true names are not a thing anymore in 5e, frame them for some magic related ritual or whatnot by using the bits of their souls as parts of it.

Also, losing part of ones soul could have an impact, maybe something as innocent as you need to roll 11 or above instead of 10 for stabilizing.

[Greywander]

It's probably too late for this, but one thing you could have done was asked them to give something up, e.g. a race or class feature, in order to get something in return. The entity then combines the soul pieces into a single soul with stronger forms of the abilities the players gave up and uses it to give life to... something. Maybe they need it to take a physical form, or they want to create a servant or champion, or revive someone important to them, like a loved one or a dark master.

[Damon_Tor]

The most serious consequence for a PC not having their soul under their own ownership anymore is that they can't be returned to life by most means.

If I felt like making a homebrew consequence for this it would be a vulnerability to necrotic damage.

[Brookshw]

We'll, since you're off the map already,...

1) Character's seem 'off' to people they interact with and have disadvantage on social rolls.
2) possessor of the soul can always have advantage, and impose disadvantage, on rolls against the character.
3) always by able to target the character with spells without regard to range, line of sight, being on different planes, etc.
4) Animals fear the character and always bust into fight or flight around them.

[Angelalex242]

Here's an idea...

Every death save failed now nudges their alignment towards Chaotic Evil.

Once they hit Chaotic Evil, every failed death saves causes them to do cartoonishly evil deeds. "You feel compelled to tie that random girl up and hang her by her toes in front of a wolf den."

[Mastikator]

A pool of blood? It was a arc vampire of some kind. They gain one of the following benefits each

Spiderclimb
Misty step proficiency/long rest
Gaseous Form 1/long rest
Regen (proficiency bonus/minute up to half max hp)
Polymorph (self only, into bat or rat only) 1/long rest
Charm Person proficiency/long rest


As a drawback they gain one of the following each

Forbiddance: can't enter place of residence without invitation of resident
Must consume blood from a living humanoid every day
Sunlight hypersensitivity take 1 radiant damage every round while in direct sunlight, disadvantage on attacks and saving throws
Harmed by running water: take 3d6 acid damage when starting turn in running water, 20 if submerged in running water


Removed Curse (4th level spell slot or higher) or Greater restoration removes both penalty and benefit. If these are not removed then after some amount of time (years, IDK) then they become vampires permanently. Maybe it could slowly happen that they accumulate both and become more vampirish.

Edit- each player could roll a d6 and a d4 to determine what they get.

[Angelalex242]

A pool of blood? It was a arc vampire of some kind. They gain one of the following benefits each

Spiderclimb
Misty step proficiency/long rest
Gaseous Form 1/long rest
Regen (proficiency bonus/minute up to half max hp)
Polymorph (self only, into bat or rat only) 1/long rest
Charm Person proficiency/long rest


As a drawback they gain one of the following each

Forbiddance: can't enter place of residence without invitation of resident
Must consume blood from a living humanoid every day
Sunlight hypersensitivity take 1 radiant damage every round while in direct sunlight, disadvantage on attacks and saving throws
Harmed by running water: take 3d6 acid damage when starting turn in running water, 20 if submerged in running water


Removed Curse (4th level spell slot or higher) or Greater restoration removes both penalty and benefit. If these are not removed then after some amount of time (years, IDK) then they become vampires permanently. Maybe it could slowly happen that they accumulate both and become more vampirish.

Edit- each player could roll a d6 and a d4 to determine what they get.

...Well...these might be Buffy fans who will gleefully play Angel/Spike if they get the chance. Not every player would say no to playing a Vampire. Perhaps they play World of Darkness in their spare time too.

[animorte]

If they encountered this specific being, perhaps they would have automatic disadvantage on attack rolls against that enemy. Or they would have disadvantage on saves against that bad guy's spells and effects.

Alternatively, you could borrow the abilities from the Phantom Rogue. Or Spirits Bard.

[Catullus64]

Me, I would get specific with which part of their soul each person gave up. Idiosyncratic stuff, generally not rising to the level of numerical game mechanics. Stuff like:


The part of your soul that contains all your memories of a specific NPC.
The part of your soul that allows you to perceive the color yellow.
The part of your soul that gets drunk.
The part of your soul that allows you to feel pain in your left leg.
The part of your soul that allows you to count higher than twenty.
The part of your soul that regulates your internal clock.
The part of your soul that pronounces the letter b.
The part of your soul that tells you when you're full.


You can make these more serious or more whimsical to taste, but the point is that your soul isn't just some ethereal stuff you have floating around in your body: it's what makes you you. Trade away part of your soul, trade away part of your life.

[Mastikator]

...Well...these might be Buffy fans who will gleefully play Angel/Spike if they get the chance. Not every player would say no to playing a Vampire. Perhaps they play World of Darkness in their spare time too.

All the better, reward players for engaging with stuff. Even if it is technically a punishment for their character :smallamused:

[J-H]

If your players were adults back in 2008:
The soul fragments are processed as a time-share (2 nights a week they have nightmares of torture and/or messages from their fiendish patron depending on whether or not they have complied with their patron's instructions). They are then bundled together and resold as a Soul Fragment-based financial commodity in Ba'ator. Every couple of weeks they have a different patron showing up as the SFBS (Soul Fragment Based Security) keeps getting resold. Some of the patrons will offer repayment terms, but only if the repayment is accomplished within a set time period before the SFBS gets resold due to market fluctuations.

You can go all sorts of ham with this including financial-sounding terms and disputes over 3 different patrons holding different rights to the SFBS and arguments over who can give orders regarding magic items vs enemies to kill, who has to provide the power that week, etc., and just make this whole ludicrously complex Baatorian stock market backstory that gently messes with them in minor but annoying ways.

At some point the market for SFBS crashes, possibly as a result of their actions, and they can buy out for pennies on the dollar (relatively) from some Imp who's happy just to get anything out of the deal.

[PallyBass]

Having part of their souls gives a lot of power over those characters, assuming the Evil Pool Entity (EPE) has the knowledge to utilize it. IMO the following could be done;

Death would be a huge deal now, all the resurrection spells function to bring back the deceased person's soul. with the EPE holding part of that soul, you would need its permission for every resurrection to succeed. This could lead to being forced to accept quests/favors/more soul deals on behalf of the EPE to bring back the deceased party member, or otherwise being forced to kill the EPE to get the soul fragment back (assuming its even possible to do so)

Spells such as Scrying and Dream add penalties to the target to resist the saving throw depending on how well you know the creature or if you have something that belongs to the creature. With part of their souls the EPE should have a massive bonus of +15 to the Spell Save and impose Disadvantage on the save, or just make it an auto-fail for the Player Characters affected.

I would also assume having part of their soul and knowledge to use it would grant additional abilities over the affected players: Susceptibility to commands (Disadvantage on all saving throws against enchantment/charm effects cast by the EPE), a permanent telepathic bond between the EPE and affected players, and the ability to read surface thoughts of the affected players.

With all of these taken into account its safe the say the EPE got a really good deal out of this :). Especially with the scrying and mind reading effects it should know well in advance of any machinations to try to betray it and react accordingly.

I am sure there are other fun things to come up with, have fun with this Faustian deal!

[Fable Wright]

Coming in from a different angle, what is a soul?

If it's an immortal record of a character's history that simply goes to an outer plane when it dies, then ownership simply acts as a leash. It's not enough to force you to have a specific afterlife, but if the Evil Pool Entity (EPE) is from Baator, then it certainly prevents you from going to any non-Baator afterlife. You certainly might be able to renegotiate your contract after you realized what happened... when you're a helpless soul without a ton of leverage. In the meantime, the best you got is a quasi-existence as an undead.

If the EPE is from the material and the soul is an immortal record of a character's history, that undead quasi-existence might be the goal. You die, you don't get an afterlife, you will remain as an undead for all eternity, where the EPE can torture your soul if you do not do as it says. Congrats, you're trapped.

If it's the continuation of your consciousness after your death, you... just sold part of your decision-making capacity to a nebulously evil entity. The best case scenario is that you get Disadvantage on any checks not aligned to the EPE's interests, and Guidance on any checks serving the EPE. The average case scenario is that the EPE simply gets to dictate your decisions in certain scenarios. No save, it is simply in control of your decision-making—you sold it off, remember? Clearly define what time(s) the EPE is in control. If the EPE is simply in control whenever you begin eating, you might find yourself writing instructions for yourself in your oatmeal. And self-cannibalizing if you don't follow through. Better hope it didn't get the part of your soul related to more contracts.

[Mellack]

There is another theory that as long as a person lives, they are constantly regrowing and changing their soul. Since beings have free will and the capacity to learn, they are constantly changing. Your soul is not the same as you change over the years. I forget what fiction book it was that described that, but I thought it was a very interesting take on the ideas of souls and how they can be used to power spells and such without long-term damage.