The Voidstone Arsenal: For when you really want stuff gone

[Jowgen]

The Voidstone Arsenal: For when you really want stuff gone

This is a guide to Voidstone, the most destructive natural substance in D&D, and how to weaponize it.
DISCLAIMER: Use responsibly, your DM probably likes his campaign world intact.

Understanding Voidstone

Not much is known about Voidstone, as only a select few sources deal with the subject. Based on context and similar rule-sets, one can make educated guesses to fill in the blanks, but that can only go so far. In this section of the guide, we cover what is and what isn't known about Voidstone, and provide some suggestions for patching up the holes.

All the information in this following section is taken directly from the following sources: DMG p. 157, PlH p. 185, MotP p. 81, EoE p. 138/139, BoED p. 129, UA p. 142/145, and -most significantly- Dungeon 153.

What we know from RAW

The Negative Energy Plane contains areas where "the collapsing intensity of the plane" is so great that the negative energy folds in on itself, becoming so so densely concentrated that it stabilizes into solid utterly black matter. The main named location of this sort is the Sargasso of Entropy, a Planar Touchstone site where voidstones have accumulated to form a shifting congregation of annihilation. These voidstones swirl in an unpredictable, chaotic way, making them practically unavoidable. The others are the 2 3.5 ruins of Moil on the Negative Energy Plane.

The text all but explicitly confirms that Voidstones are the raw material for the creation of Spheres of Annihilation, but chunks of voidstone cannot be controlled through mental energy as a spheres of annihilation can be. However, as per the Voidstone door trap entry in Dragon 153, Voidstone's effect is mechanical as opposed to magical, not to mention impervious to disable device (which can suppress magical traps).

Spoiler: Voidstone Door Trap

Show

Voidstone Door Trap: CR 17; mechanical; touch trigger; automatic reset; annihilation (Fortitude DC 25 or disintegrated); Search DC 24; Disable Device —

"Anything" that comes into contact with voidstone is "destroyed". All texts agree that any creature that comes into contact with Voidstone must succeed a DC 25 Fort save to avoid destruction, but as to the exact nature of said destruction, there are a few conflicting texts. According to Dungeon 153, the effect is called "annihlation", which is specified as "DC 25 Fort or disintegrated" (no italics), although it is described as leaving behind ash rather than the "fine trace of dust" mentioned in the disintegrate spell. According to EoE, a creature is destroyed as if it had come into contact with a sphere of annihilation, meaning any matter that comes in contact with it is sucked into it, gone, and utterly destroyed. Only the direct intervention of a deity can restore an annihilated character. Also, while the DMG specifies that the destruction happens "in seconds", EoE and Dungeon 153 claim it to be instant. In either case, Force effects stand no chance though.

The Voistone doors in Dungeon 153 are described as having been made impervious to transmutation magic, mentioning passwall, stoneshape and stone to flesh, via Wish, so normal Voidstone should be subject to these sort of stone-affecting spells. This is supported by a passing metion in BoED, which mentions "Enclose the artifact in a voidstone" as a potential way to destroy an artifact. The doors are also described as being subject to damage-dealing magic and being physically battered down.

Voidstone -"Trapped Voidstone"- can also be used as a Metamagic component. The process of trapping Voidstone is un-specified, but tracking down Voidstone requires a day of scavenging and a DC 30 Knowledge (the planes) check. 3100 gp worth of Trapped Voidstone Empower Disintegrate, while 8600 gp of Trapped Voidstone Enlarge and Widen Mordenkainen's Disjunction.

Lastly, the most ill-defined power of Voidstone is its attraction to living creatures. Very small and very large voidstones are stationary, but voidstones that take up a 5 ft square move. Each round at initiative count 0, each square-sized voidstone moves 1d3 squares toward the nearest living creature. The range and strenght of this attraction are unspecified, as is whether smaller or larger living creatures factor into this.

A character can learn the following about Voidstone using Knowledge (the planes)

DC 20 These black stones can be found floating throughout the Negative Energy Plane and vary from tiny to colossal.
DC 25 Voidstone is a concentrated form of negative energy that is extremely hazardous to handle.
DC 30 Anything that comes into contact with voidstone is instantly destroyed.
DC 35 It is believed that voidstone might be the building blocks for such items as the sphere of annihilation. However, voidstone cannot be controlled through mental energy

What we don't know

The physical stats of Voidstone are unspecified. It could have the Hardness and HP of regular stone, or maybe that of softer or harder stones, like Shale or Granite (Und p. 103). In either case, it seems reasonable to assume that -like a sphere of annihilation- Voidstone is immune to disintegrate.

As it is solid, Voidstone should have some sort of mass (and thus inertia), but in all its mentions it seems to levitatate. In its natural NEP environment, that is to be expected, but in EoE and Dungeon, it appears in areas that have normal up-down gravity. I think it is most reasonable to assume that Voidstone hovers just as the Sphere of Annihilation does, especially considering that otherwise, Voidstone would be able to drop to the floor and thus put holes in things like planets.

The exent of the "anything" that is affected by voidstone is also not very well specified. It is certain that it affects creatures and solid objects; but the rules are (unsuprisingly) unclear on how it interacts with gasses and liquids. In EoE and Dungeon, it does not suck the air out of the area, although in the latter case, that might be due to the same Wish spells that made it immune to transmutation. A sphere of annhilation doesn't suck air. The Umbral Blot epic monster insulates itself from the air to avoid destorying the atmosphere. There is nothing on liquids.

I think the most reaonsable assumption that Voidstone naturally insulates itself against atmospheric and aquatic pressure, maybe via a coat of the dust/ash that it leaves behind (if EoE is not taken at face value). In this, it will annihilate liquids that touch it but don't immerse it; so drops of water are doomed but the Elemental Plane of Water is safe. In any case, we do not know how much matter it affects per touch. One might go with the 10 ft cube from disintegration, or one might make the annihilation area proportional to its own size (e.g. 1:1).

In a smiliar vein, we have the Voidstone's life-attraction power. Why don't the small and very large ones move? I think the most logical explenation is that the range of attraction is proportional to the Voidstone's size (the small ones just don't have enough reach) while the strenght of attraction depends on the size of the living creature and needs to contend with the stone's innertia (the big one's are too heavy to get moving from a medium creature's pull). As for a base-line... I would suggest maybe 30 or 60 ft "reach" for the medium ones, but that is just me. As for how strong the force of movement is once it starts... the DMG uses the term "inexorable" to describe their approach. Does this mean they literally can't be stopped, no matter the opposing force? I think it fits with the sphere of annihilation and the "collapsing intensity" part of their creation, but it's very DM territory.

Lastly, we have the creation of "Trapped Voidstone". Pieces of Trapped Voidstone appear as Metamagic components at two very different prices, but both presumably still fit in a Spell Component pouch, so they can't just be larger versions of each other; and there is nothing to suggest that Voidstone comes in different grades of quality. Based on this, I think the most reasonable assumption is that Voidstone is trapped via the use of Shrink Item. Shrink Item makes different large quantities of voidstone portable. As Voidstone's annihilation effect is no more magical than the burning of a fire, the stasis created by Shrink Item should by all rights be able to suspend it in the same manner, making it safe for transport. Beyond the employment of Wish or maybe Lesser Wish I know of no other effect that could be reasoned to be able to trap Voidstone.

Weaponsizing Voidstone

The DM has many opportunities to block the introduction of Voidstone weaponry into his game despite your ability to track down the raw material. Exposing un-trapped Voidstone to another planar environment might cause it to explode in a shower of negative energy, or just degrade very quickly. Maybe a certain custom spell is needed to trap it, and there just are too few people capable of casting it. Or the DM can just say no. Provided he says yes, you can get planning.

Voidstone is so hazardous that the options for working it are very limited. The most lenient DM might allow Death-effect or Negative Energy Effect blockers to work, but considering that Annihilation affects undead, that is an absolute houserule. A somewhat lenient DM might let Proof Against Transmutation work, and really, this is the optimizer's best case scenario. Avoiding conact with the Voidstone completely, e.g. by trying to rely soley on Telekenisis et al., is an option, but oh boy will one accident screw you over.

The only sure-fire way to gain immunity to Voidstone is to be unable to fail the DC 25 Fort save it forces every round of contact. For this, you need a sufficiently high Fort save bonus and either a) at least be a Demigod, or b) have the Steadfast Determination feat. In any case, once you're able to handle Voidstone safely, you can get to work on building your weapons.

The main challange of working Voidstone into things is that whatever you make has to be 100% voidstone (or abuse Quintessence), and you make sure not to let it come into contact with your unattended objects, as they don't get to use your saves. The advantages are that Shape Stone and Fabricate can do a lot of the heavy lifting, and that your end-products will not be deterred by Force barriers, and in some cases AMFs, thanks to Voidstone's non-magical annihilation effect.

Voidstone equipment

You can make regular weapons out of Voidstone. Attacks with weapons made of stone have a
–2 penalty on attack and damage rolls (with a minimum damage of 1), but that is not the point. The point is that you have a sword that forces a DC 25 Fort save against annihilation with every hit. No walls (of force) will ever block your path. However, any sort of magical improvement to the weapon is something you'll likely have to do yourself, which at least will cost you 1 feat. Whether you can make Voidstone bolts and arrows is debateable, but Voidstone sling-bullets are certainly possible.

Voidstone armor is also arguably possible, but there are few stone armors out there and even fewer than don't explictly use straps or metal joints. However, at the very least, this armor should have a net weight of 0 thanks to Voidstone's levitation property, although whether the DM gives you mechanical benefits for this is questionable. If you can somehow mange to make yourself some Thaalud Voidstone armor or similar (just leave out the boots if you plan on walking), congratulations. Everything that touches you likely disappears on the spot.

More "mundane" options are things like Voidstone trash-bins. Storage of Voidstone equipment is best handled in Extradimensional spaces and Gloves of Storing.

Voidstone Jiggsaw Grenade

Take a large chunck of Voidstone and craft/fabricate it into a large hollow Jiggsaw-sphere (think the Wikipedia logo), with individual pieces no larger than a chicken egg. Cast Glyph of Warding onto this container and cast Pebble Wind (DoF) into the Glyph. Apply Shrink item to make it grenade-sized and store very safely, (including a big note on how much duration is left).

When you throw this grenade (Gnome Calulus, A&E, recommended for the very needed extra range) as an improvised thrown weapon, the Shrink Item effect will end and the Glyph of Warding will be triggered as the container opens, triggering Pebble Wind. For the next round, all the scattered pieces of the jiggsaw-sphere will be whirled around in a 20 ft spread of whirling air. Pebble Wind causes 1d4 bludgeoning damage/CL from flying stones and small debree, but since those stones are Voidstones, everything in the area needs to save or be annihilated.

With this you turn any given 20 ft radius sphere of solid material into an empty space filled with floating Voidstone pieces (remember to recycle). How many saves a creature needs to make while being hit by dozens of individual voidstones over the course of 1 round is up to the DM, but suffice to say, most things will be gone. At the very least, this is handy for hollowing out a mountain when building your new lair. Very agressive interior remodeling.

Voidstone Warhead MK I

This is simply a large chuck of un-shrunk Voidstone that is to be fired by a +1 Dwarven Stonebow (must be attended/fired by someone immune to voidstone) with the Starburst (HoB) WSA (Self-loading is also recommended, not at least for the extradimensional storgage of ammo.). Starburst makes it so that the Voidstone explodes above its target and showers everything within 20 ft with the rock fragments (reflex for half normal impact damage as slashing and piercing).

If enough range-boosting effects are applied, you can fire this weapon from over half a mile away. The end effect is much the same as that of the Jiggsaw-grenade, but making those takes several spells and much physical assembly. The MK I warhead takes no more work to make/use than a regular ballistae. Great for selectively carpet bombing enemy capitals from your airship.

Voidstone Warhead MK II

This is the current crowning achievement of large-scale Voidstone warfare. It combines the the MK I's delivery method with an upgraded version jiggsaw-grenade's mechanic. You make a very very large voidstone jiggsaw-sphere and then use Greater Glyph of Warding on it. Into this Greater Glyph of Warding you cast Control Winds, which is set to create a circular (if possible inwards/outwards alternating spiral) Wind Pattern of at least Severe Wind strength. Shrink Item as usual to allow for simple firing.

When this hits, the Warhead epxands, opens and triggers the stored spell same as the jiggsaw-grenade. For the next 10 min/level, a 40 ft/level wide 40 ft high cylinder of winds blows about, sending hundreds of Voidstone pieces flying about the area. It is ideal to aim at a low elevation in the target area so that plenty of higher-elevation stuff collapses into the storm of annihilation. Entire cities can be wiped clean off the map with this. It is almost certainly a most unethical warcrime to use the MK II. If you're not already Evil, good luck in justifying this to your DM/deity.

Dealing with the Fallout

While the use of regular Voidstone equipment is relatively tame, using any of the explosive options comes with a potentially rather nasty fall-out. The areas where they are used are not only gone, but will be filled with pieces of Voidstone. Unless the Voidstone pieces are all rounded up immediately, there is a chance that prevailing wind conditions or living creatures passing nearby will cause wide-area distribution.

By RAW, since Voidstone has no "half-life", this means that leaving the fallout of a MK II or even a MK I, if unattended, will cause the gradual annihilation of the surrounding landscape that may continue indefinently. It is all rather nuclear winter, except it can just keep spreading. If unchecked, the end result could literally be a planetary cataclysm. I personally would absolutely introduce something like "Voidstone Sickness" if this were to happen in my campaign world.

Luckily, a simple (widenend) prestidigitation spell can be used to collect all the little scattered pieces resulting from a jiggsaw-grenade or MK I, but this should be done very soon after. As for a MK II... Control Weather to make the area wind-still is most certainly a must. Then, you'll need a lot of people running clean-up, and it is not a job that many people can do.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Really cool, I enjoyed the read. Well-suited to Tippyverse inter-city wars, I should think.

[Bronk]

Pretty neat wrap up!

I do think that there are a lot of extraneous bits in here, like the guesses that voidstone might explode on contact to air, which isn't mentioned at all in the rules.

I also think that the only definite way of trapping or otherwise affixing voidstone in place would involve multiple wishes. The voidstone doors are only immune to that list of spells as a side effect of being wished into place, after all. It would be pretty neat if you could use the same method to affix a voidstone blade into a regular hilt that way (hovering just beyond the edge of the hilt), for ease of use. It would be especially useful if you could reverse the door's power to turn into iron, so that the weapon was usually iron or some other metal, and only became voidstone when you activated it. It would certainly be easier to store that way!

[Jowgen]

Pretty neat wrap up!

I do think that there are a lot of extraneous bits in here, like the guesses that voidstone might explode on contact to air, which isn't mentioned at all in the rules.

I also think that the only definite way of trapping or otherwise affixing voidstone in place would involve multiple wishes. The voidstone doors are only immune to that list of spells as a side effect of being wished into place, after all. It would be pretty neat if you could use the same method to affix a voidstone blade into a regular hilt that way (hovering just beyond the edge of the hilt), for ease of use. It would be especially useful if you could reverse the door's power to turn into iron, so that the weapon was usually iron or some other metal, and only became voidstone when you activated it. It would certainly be easier to store that way!

Thanks :)

The thing about explosion on air-contact is meant as an example to how a DM might block the arsenal working in world. Just a thing to illustrate that epic destructive power shouldn't be taken for granted.

For making trapped voidstone, still I don't think Wish is nessecary. For one, purchasing a single casting of Wish costs more than both Voidstone Metamagic compoents combined twice over. Secondly, using the 9th level spell to contain a substance that merely empowers disintegrate a 6th level spell (so 8th level equivalent) is just unconsciousably wasteful. Limited Wish would be more reasonable, but it is only barely addresses the two above-mentioned inconsistencies. Honestly, I would love it if someone just found an obscure spell that reads "can contain any hazardous substance by placing it in stasis" or something.

Your talk about Wishes has actually made me realize something significant. Wish -while capable of suspending Voidstone in relation to things and transmuting Voidstone into something else- is incapable of rendering substances immune to Voidstone. Wish can alter bloody reality and keep the Tarrasque dead, but it can't make a non-voidstone box that won't be annihilated by touching Voidstone, a non-magical substance. If it could, there is no reasons the architects of the Moil, who seemingly cast Wish like it was Magic Missile, would have made it so their Voidstone doors don't touch the surrounding building.

Also yes, Wish should be capable of being used to make Voidstone more convenient for weapons, as you described.

[ExLibrisMortis]

You should be able to use greater metamorphosis and and mind switch to turn into a piece of voidstone, essentially becoming the psionic sandwich of utter destruction.

As nonmagical material, it should be possible - indeed, appropriate - to craft a phylactery out of voidstone.

[Bronk]

Secondly, using the 9th level spell to contain a substance that merely empowers disintegrate a 6th level spell (so 8th level equivalent).

Judging from the save DC, it seems like the 6th level Disintegrate spell, only heightened to 9+ level and somehow persisted on top of that...

If it could, there is no reasons the architects of the Moil, who seemingly cast Wish like it was Magic Missile, would have made it so their Voidstone doors don't touch the surrounding building.

Heh, maybe they were all secretly high level vampiric dweomerkeepers?

[Jowgen]

Judging from the save DC, it seems like the 6th level Disintegrate spell, only heightened to 9+ level and somehow persisted on top of that...

What do you mean? I was referring to trapped voidstone, as a metamagic component, adds the benefit of the Empower spell metamagic (+2) feat to the Disintegrate spell (lvl 6). My point was that using a 9th level spell simply to store the stuff that adds the empower to this one time use of a specific spell seems quite daft.

As for Vampiric Dweomer keepers... you know, my knoweldge of the 2nd edition Moil lore is sketchy at best; but that does kinda sound like what you'd expect all things considering.

You should be able to use greater metamorphosis and and mind switch to turn into a piece of voidstone, essentially becoming the psionic sandwich of utter destruction.

As nonmagical material, it should be possible - indeed, appropriate - to craft a phylactery out of voidstone.

I am not familiar with high-level psionics, so I can't pitch in on that front, but as for the phylactery... It certainly would have a severe coolness factor. If Liches bragged to each other about their Phylacteries, the guy with the Voidstone one would win, no contest. It's just the question whether the Voidstone's annihilation power would affect the soul.

If phylacteries are ruled to work like posession (as in Fiend of Possession) then it would be hard to argue that the Lich's soul doesn't "come into contact" with the stone. If EoE is right about it affecting like a sphere of annihilation, then its even harder to argue past it. I did consider putting something about souls in the guide, but the rules are way too thin and screwy on the topic.

[ATHATH]

Question: Does normal voidstone disintegrate shrunken voidstone? If not, you coat machines made of other materials in shrunken voidstone to make them capable of firing voidstone "rounds".

[ATHATH]

Gloves coated in shrunken voidstone might be an easy way to work with it.

[Zephonim]

Man these things would be great to protect Phylacteries... but what wizard has a +25 fort save?

[Extra Anchovies]

The Sphere of Annihilation is described in the DMG as "nothingness" and "a hole in the continuity of the multiverse", and its primary property is that "any matter that comes in contact with a sphere" is erased. Objects are in contact with themselves, so the SoA is not composed of matter. Voidstone, however, is "utterly black matter", and thus cannot be assumed to share any of the SoA's properties unless Voidstone itself displays such a property (e.g. hovering), in which case the similarity is not indicative of an inherent link between the two.

I'm also not convinced that voidstone can be moved by forces other than stone shape and voidstone's inherent attraction to living creatures. Not even teleport object works, unless the DM assigns voidstone a density. Does the information outside the DMG suggest that voidstone can be pushed or pulled by creatures/objects capable of making the saving throw?

[Jowgen]

Question: Does normal voidstone disintegrate shrunken voidstone?

Debateable, but I'd say yes, especially if the cloth-strip version is used. Now the reasonable thing would probably be that the attempted annihilation qualifies as striking a surface, thus ending the shrink, but I can see it being ruled both ways.

The Sphere of Annihilation is described in the DMG as "nothingness" and "a hole in the continuity of the multiverse", and its primary property is that "any matter that comes in contact with a sphere" is erased. Objects are in contact with themselves, so the SoA is not composed of matter. Voidstone, however, is "utterly black matter", and thus cannot be assumed to share any of the SoA's properties unless Voidstone itself displays such a property (e.g. hovering), in which case the similarity is not indicative of an inherent link between the two.

I'm also not convinced that voidstone can be moved by forces other than stone shape and voidstone's inherent attraction to living creatures. Not even teleport object works, unless the DM assigns voidstone a density. Does the information outside the DMG suggest that voidstone can be pushed or pulled by creatures/objects capable of making the saving throw?

My personal theory is that, to make spheres of annihilation, Voidstone is compressed even further, until it's annihilation properties themselves "fold in" and make a whole in the fabric of the the great wheel. Either case, I do personally consider it better to treat Voidstone as its own thing, rather than a lesser SoA.

For moving the voidstone, it would seem the writers never considered the prospect that someone might actually willingly touch the stuff, so there is nothing about creatures. Obviously there is Trapped Voidstone, which is portable. The Sargaso of Entropy consists of many Voidstones that are moving about chaotically, even though there are no living things to "motivate" them. Considering the NEP is a big nothing, I think its reasonable to assumme that the sargaso's movement is due to Negative Energy waves/pressure/fluctuations; so Voidstone almost certainly is subject to being moved by that sort of stuff.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Judging from the save DC, it seems like the 6th level Disintegrate spell, only heightened to 9+ level and somehow persisted on top of that...

I think the save DC is for a 10th-level spell, cast at the minimum stat required, being 20 int/wis/cha (DC base 10 + level 10 + int mod 5). Alternatively, it's a nice round number, and a pretty tough save to beat.

I am not familiar with high-level psionics, so I can't pitch in on that front, but as for the phylactery... It certainly would have a severe coolness factor. If Liches bragged to each other about their Phylacteries, the guy with the Voidstone one would win, no contest. It's just the question whether the Voidstone's annihilation power would affect the soul.

If phylacteries are ruled to work like posession (as in Fiend of Possession) then it would be hard to argue that the Lich's soul doesn't "come into contact" with the stone. If EoE is right about it affecting like a sphere of annihilation, then its even harder to argue past it. I did consider putting something about souls in the guide, but the rules are way too thin and screwy on the topic.

Incorporeal creatures can't exert a force on corporeal/material objects (which is a convenient definition of 'contact', I think), so unless voidstone is naturally ghost touch, an incorporeal creature, and by extension, a soul, should be fine. Phylacteries work entirely like magic items, as far as I know. You just craft them with Craft Wondrous Item, and the 'soul' bit is fluff. There isn't even a soul trapping spell involved in the crafting, just 'must have CL 11'.

[Jowgen]

Incorporeal creatures can't exert a force on corporeal/material objects (which is a convenient definition of 'contact', I think), so unless voidstone is naturally ghost touch, an incorporeal creature, and by extension, a soul, should be fine. Phylacteries work entirely like magic items, as far as I know. You just craft them with Craft Wondrous Item, and the 'soul' bit is fluff. There isn't even a soul trapping spell involved in the crafting, just 'must have CL 11'.

Souls aren't incorporeal, they are made of soulstuff; which is a tangible substance that flows like water from the soul fonts in the positive energy plane (BoBS). It just so happens that outside those fonts, souls are notoriously hard to come by in a pure form, as they have that annoying habit of never sticking around unless contained in a vessel (living or otherwise) or bonded to the fabric of an outer plane. It's a screwy jumble of rules, really.

Then again, phylacteries are special; having a specific creation process that must be learned in game (e.g from a Tome of the Stilled tongue). I am all for Voidstone phylacteries, I just wouldn't count on a DM letting it fly based on the rules (beyond the all important rule of cool).

[Zephonim]

Waaait.


Idea: Coat it in Quintessence


It can't consume Time can it?

[Jowgen]

Waaait.

Idea: Coat it in Quintessence

It can't consume Time can it?

Ask yourself: is "time" an "anything"?

Joking aside, I did give Quintessence abuse a mention; but considering how straightforward the process supposedly is, how people at non-psionic tables won't have access to it, and how I play at such a table and thus don't have in-depth familarity, I didn't go into it. It was mentioned by more psion-savvy people in one of the precursor threads to this handbook though, if you're interested.

[Zephonim]

Ask yourself: is "time" an "anything"?

Joking aside, I did give Quintessence abuse a mention; but considering how straightforward the process supposedly is, how people at non-psionic tables won't have access to it, and how I play at such a table and thus don't have in-depth familarity, I didn't go into it. It was mentioned by more psion-savvy people in one of the precursor threads to this handbook though, if you're interested.

Can you link the thread?

Well the thing is if it consumed time these things would get weird...

Suddenly starting and stopping maybe even you skip forward in time or something

[Jowgen]

Can you link the thread?

There are two threads, here ya go

[PraxisVetli]

Souls aren't incorporeal, they are made of soulstuff; which is a tangible substance that flows like water from the soul fonts in the positive energy plane (BoBS). It just so happens that outside those fonts, souls are notoriously hard to come by in a pure form, as they have that annoying habit of never sticking around unless contained in a vessel (living or otherwise) or bonded to the fabric of an outer plane. It's a screwy jumble of rules, really.

Then again, phylacteries are special; having a specific creation process that must be learned in game (e.g from a Tome of the Stilled tongue). I am all for Voidstone phylacteries, I just wouldn't count on a DM letting it fly based on the rules (beyond the all important rule of cool).

What is BoBS?

[Inevitability]

What is BoBS?

Bastion of Broken Souls.

[Belzyk]

Sorry for thread necromancy but.... Shaping voidstone just do sent make sense. Its pure homebrew. There isn't enough information on the item to use it without homebrew or dm Fiat. Id love to use a MkII as a end game thing but....

[Jowgen]

Sorry for thread necromancy but.... Shaping voidstone just do sent make sense. Its pure homebrew. There isn't enough information on the item to use it without homebrew or dm Fiat. Id love to use a MkII as a end game thing but....

It's not that old of a thread, and I welcome new contributions myself

Aside from UA "Trapped Voidstone", most of the support for the existence of actively shaped voidstone comes from Dungeon 153. It can be made into doors, pillars, and there is magic that can prevent it from being affected by shape stone, strongly suggesting that in the absence of that magic, it can be affected by shape stone.

Happy you like the MKII. It's the single most unethical thing I have ever conceived.

[Gildedragon]

If Voidstone is a true stone there is a quick way to produce/dispose of it (Greater) Stone Metamorphosis from Underdark.
One can pre-shape an ordinary stone and then transform it into voidstone, or hit voidstone with the spell to transform it into any other rock

[Belzyk]

It's not that old of a thread, and I welcome new contributions myself

Aside from UA "Trapped Voidstone", most of the support for the existence of actively shaped voidstone comes from Dungeon 153. It can be made into doors, pillars, and there is magic that can prevent it from being affected by shape stone, strongly suggesting that in the absence of that magic, it can be affected by shape stone.

Happy you like the MKII. It's the single most unethical thing I have ever conceived.

I just keep imagining the voidstone residue slowly eating away at the planet till there's a hole all the way to the core lol.

[Bronk]

Well, I started reading the 'Lady Penitent' trilogy, and the second book, Storm of the Dead, features voidstone.

So far, it's shown up, contained in a magic box that holds a piece of the stone inside using levitation, and one of the main characters immediately freaks out, stating that it destroys everything it touches, destroying both the body and the soul (p194).

The box and the soul destruction seem new.

Still only two thirds through the book though - it was a slow starter. It appears that it'll come up again later in the book.

[Jowgen]

Well, I started reading the 'Lady Penitent' trilogy, and the second book, Storm of the Dead, features voidstone.

So far, it's shown up, contained in a magic box that holds a piece of the stone inside using levitation, and one of the main characters immediately freaks out, stating that it destroys everything it touches, destroying both the body and the soul.

The box and the soul destruction seem new.

Still only two thirds through the book though - it was a slow starter. It appears that it'll come up again later in the book.

Interesting. I mean, the books are in no way RAW or even canon (except war of the spider queen, afaik); but considering how scarce the info on Voidstone is, every bit helps.

While, to my knowledge, no "levitate what's inside" box exists in game; it makes perfect sense that something like this would work to contain the Voidstone. When I myself started looking into how "Trapped Voidstone" could be made; the first thing that came to mind was a sphere of glass that does what the box does.

The soul destorying thing isn't actually new though. According to the Exemplars of Evil entry, Voidstone annihilates things in the same manner as a Sphere of Annihilation does; which do kill things so that "Only the direct intervention of a deity can restore an annihilated character"; which generally only soul destruction can do.

Of course, the EoE entry stands in conflict with the more detailed Dungeon one; making it a bit of a toos up. Maybe the character in the book got his info from EoE?

[Endarire]

In 3.x, it's limited wish, not lesser wish.

Thank you for the campaign inspiration, Jowgen!

[Bronk]

Interesting. I mean, the books are in no way RAW or even canon (except war of the spider queen, afaik); but considering how scarce the info on Voidstone is, every bit helps.

While, to my knowledge, no "levitate what's inside" box exists in game; it makes perfect sense that something like this would work to contain the Voidstone. When I myself started looking into how "Trapped Voidstone" could be made; the first thing that came to mind was a sphere of glass that does what the box does.

The soul destorying thing isn't actually new though. According to the Exemplars of Evil entry, Voidstone annihilates things in the same manner as a Sphere of Annihilation does; which do kill things so that "Only the direct intervention of a deity can restore an annihilated character"; which generally only soul destruction can do.

Of course, the EoE entry stands in conflict with the more detailed Dungeon one; making it a bit of a toos up. Maybe the character in the book got his info from EoE?

It's a published book from Wizards of the Coast... that's as canon as it gets without being a splatbook and listing out magic item prices.

I just finished the book and there were a few more new things that came up.

First, the levitation box with the voidstone inside was used as an improvised weapon. They opened the lid, put an illusion of a lid back over it, then, when handing the box to someone, they shoved the box up at them, causing them to touch the voidstone and be annihilated (p234).

Second, the bad guys were buying as many tiny voidstones as they could, so that they could make one very large voidstone. The small stones were attracted to the large stone, and merged with it (p239).

Third, later, the box was tossed through a ghost... the ghost was unaffected (p240).

Finally, the larger the big voidstone became, the closer to 'building sized', the more it acted as a portal to the Negative Energy Plane. The whole plan was to bring through a swarm of powerful undead to the Prime Material Plane. That was prevented, but it was successfully used as a portal by another character (p240).

[Jowgen]

Interesting, so according to this novel, incorporeals are unaffected, Voidstone naturally merges with itself, and it can act as a starga... portal to the NEP.

The incorporeal thing makes sense really.

For the pieces merging, did the bad guys have to do anything, or did it just fuse upon contact?

For using it as a portal, do the character just touch the stuff directly and boom, or was there more to it?

[Mr Adventurer]

The naturally-forming portal thing seems unlikely - the voidstone would have to transmute itself into something other than it already is, otherwise anything touching it would be disintegrated rather than transported.