DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

[Anastasia]

Eb, your loot post will be in the morning, RL got me.

[Anastasia]

Kotono reaches DM delegation level 83.

- Delegation points rise by 3.
- Maximum tolerance for effort does not change.
- Sleepiness goes down by 1.
- Pixie death glares increase by 2.

[Ebiris]

This will probably be an epic spell but I'm not sure on the exact level. The damage is low-balled because it bypasses a lot of bullshit and can't be healed easily, but really this spell is built specifically to be a fuck you to Malcanthet. Since she has mettle Alicia's even immune to it herself pretty much. Gets a bit wordy with how it interacts with weird shit like phylacteries and magic jars but honestly that's also what makes it interesting so I'm fine with it. There's always going to be edge cases and weird interactions with a spell like that, this just covers a couple of obvious core material issues.

Soul Reave
Evocation
Level:
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25ft + 5ft 2/levels)
Target: One creature or object (see text)
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will partial
Spell Resistance: Yes

This spell directly attacks the soul of the target, inflicting damage that is hard to resist or heal. The target suffers 1d4 points of damage per caster level, this damage is always considered lethal damage regardless of any regeneration the target possesses, and cannot be healed by magic or fast healing, requiring mundane rest and time to recover from.

Because most creatures do not have a physically present soul, this spell inflicts half damage on most creature types with no damage on a successful save as the body provides a buffer of protection for the soul - most humanoids, dragons, and corporeal undead fall under this.

Most mindless creatures such as golems and unintelligent undead have no soul and thus suffer no effect from this spell.

Outsiders, elementals, and incorporeal undead suffer the full effect as their body and their soul are one indivisible unit.

This spell does not completely destroy a soul however anything killed by it suffers a -50% penalty to their resurrection chance, and contingent methods of resurrection such as a lich's phylactery or a clone spell have a 50% chance of failing. If cast on a creature that is currently being possessed, such as by a magic jar spell, the spell only injures the possessing creature and not the host, though they are treated as a normal mortal even if they are actually an outsider or ghost because the host body acts as a buffer. Casting on the magic jar focus, or a crystal that has been used for a trap the soul spell, injures the creature as though they were an outsider regardless of their creature type.

Certain forms of soul mutilation may render a creature more vulnerable to this spell. The process of becoming a lich for instance will inflict a penalty to spell resistance and the will save of -11 (the caster level required to become a lich). A creature that has benefitted from Violet's skill implantation procedure suffers a penalty to spell resistance and the will save equal to the total number of class levels worth of skills gained.

[Anastasia]

This will probably be an epic spell but I'm not sure on the exact level. The damage is low-balled because it bypasses a lot of bullshit and can't be healed easily, but really this spell is built specifically to be a fuck you to Malcanthet. Since she has mettle Alicia's even immune to it herself pretty much. Gets a bit wordy with how it interacts with weird shit like phylacteries and magic jars but honestly that's also what makes it interesting so I'm fine with it. There's always going to be edge cases and weird interactions with a spell like that, this just covers a couple of obvious core material issues.

Soul Reave
Evocation
Level:
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25ft + 5ft 2/levels)
Target: One creature or object (see text)
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will partial
Spell Resistance: Yes

It's worth noting that this is arguably a necromancy spell. Most things that deal with souls are necromancy (smite soul isn't, admittedly, but it's not quite the same thing, as came up with Mystra).

This spell directly attacks the soul of the target, inflicting damage that is hard to resist or heal. The target suffers 1d4 points of damage per caster level, this damage is always considered lethal damage regardless of any regeneration the target possesses, and cannot be healed by magic or fast healing, requiring mundane rest and time to recover from.

Is there a damage cap, or is that omitted because the spell level isn't yet determined?

Incidentally, that bit there reminds me of ability burn from psionics, which is ability damage that can't be healed by magic. Same principle. Those two abilities are fairly hefty there.

Because most creatures do not have a physically present soul, this spell inflicts half damage on most creature types with no damage on a successful save as the body provides a buffer of protection for the soul - most humanoids, dragons, and corporeal undead fall under this.

Okay, makes sense.

Most mindless creatures such as golems and unintelligent undead have no soul and thus suffer no effect from this spell.

Yeah, emphasis on most mindless creatures. There are exceptions, lemures come to mind here. I'd rephrase it slightly to note that or otherwise be more comprehensive.

Outsiders, elementals, and incorporeal undead suffer the full effect as their body and their soul are one indivisible unit.

Are incorporeal undead like that? I'd have to check the SRD and then possibly splatbooks, did you by chance run that down yourself and have a quote I can reference?

This spell does not completely destroy a soul however anything killed by it suffers a -50% penalty to their resurrection chance, and contingent methods of resurrection such as a lich's phylactery or a clone spell have a 50% chance of failing. If cast on a creature that is currently being possessed, such as by a magic jar spell, the spell only injures the possessing creature and not the host, though they are treated as a normal mortal even if they are actually an outsider or ghost because the host body acts as a buffer. Casting on the magic jar focus, or a crystal that has been used for a trap the soul spell, injures the creature as though they were an outsider regardless of their creature type.

Okay, seems reasonable here. Possible exception of the last sentence with magic jar, as I'd have to check the rules surrounding those spells.

Certain forms of soul mutilation may render a creature more vulnerable to this spell. The process of becoming a lich for instance will inflict a penalty to spell resistance and the will save of -11 (the caster level required to become a lich). A creature that has benefited from Violet's skill implantation procedure suffers a penalty to spell resistance and the will save equal to the total number of class levels worth of skills gained.

Powerful but extremely niche, liches aside.

---

The main thing is that it's a hard spell to balance because it's so niche. I'd say...13? 14? You mentioned that in PM and it's about right. It's more pricing it for the ability to simply do that, rather than anything else.

Now bear in mind this manner of thing usually skews evil. Harming souls is usually the domain of either vile creatures or various deities. Deities do have the right to deal with souls in Creation, that's part of their duties, but it's best understood this is a specialized tool to be used at the right time, rather than used wildly. Alicia IC has certainly earned the right to use it as a deity, but understand that you have something powerful in your hands with a spell like this.

I suspect you already realize all of that.

[Anastasia]

This came up in PM, and worth discussing briefly here.

So if animals have souls, how far down does it go. Do insects and vermin have souls?

Yes, generally. If it's living and a functioning creature, it probably has a soul. There's a line there somewhere at just about the bare bottom of insects or similar creatures. I don't think it's terribly important for gameplay purposes, but it's worth noting.

Note that living means a living creature as D&D defines it, which excludes certain things like undead and constructs.

[Ebiris]

Yeah necromancy makes more sense, I just started with smite soul and took evocation. Damage cap yeah, that replies on spell level.

As far as the 'not easily healed damage' I was thinking of the pain respawning outsiders go through as we've seen with Kascha a few times.

For most mindless, stuff like oozes and vermin as well... how complex does something have to be before it has a soul? It's not like I can just slap mind-affecting on there because some intelligent stuff lacks a soul (and also everything immunes mind-affecting).

As far as incorporeal undead that was really just my intuition. A ghost doesn't have a container or anything and it's definitely the real soul in most adventures that use them with the requirement to get them to pass on and so forth, rather than just being some sort of soul-less imprint.

And yeah it's an extremely harsh spell in the right context. I originally had it written as being capable of destroying souls but there's no way Alicia would ever cast that or spread it around if it was so it got tempered down

[Anastasia]

Yeah necromancy makes more sense, I just started with smite soul and took evocation. Damage cap yeah, that replies on spell level.

As far as the 'not easily healed damage' I was thinking of the pain respawning outsiders go through as we've seen with Kascha a few times.

Makes sense on both of those. Poor Kascha.

For most mindless, stuff like oozes and vermin as well... how complex does something have to be before it has a soul? It's not like I can just slap mind-affecting on there because some intelligent stuff lacks a soul (and also everything immunes mind-affecting).

See above. It's one of those situations the game rules aren't well equipped to adjudicate, so a certain amount of expository text in the spell is unavoidable.

As far as incorporeal undead that was really just my intuition. A ghost doesn't have a container or anything and it's definitely the real soul in most adventures that use them with the requirement to get them to pass on and so forth, rather than just being some sort of soul-less imprint.

Pretty much, I just have to check if the rules contradict that anyway. I suspect you're right and that's my own gut hunch, but I haven't done my homework. I will tonight.

And yeah it's an extremely harsh spell in the right context. I originally had it written as being capable of destroying souls but there's no way Alicia would ever cast that or spread it around if it was so it got tempered down

This has come up a few times, but while it is possible to destroy a soul, it's really hard to do so. After all, there's three phases of existence in creation, and the third is meant to be final:

1. Mortal life.
2. Immortal life.
3. Part of a plane, usually an outer plane, or at times unison with a deific force.

That being said, yeah. There's a reason even evil seldom destroys a soul. Creation's meant to use souls and even an outsider that dies merely moves to merge with the plane it represented. Destroying souls could said to be against the purposes of it all: What can an obliterated soul tell them about the Answer? There are ways to do it, since sometimes something like that absolutely has to be done, but these are generally the exceptions to the rule.

[Anastasia]

Okay, go ahead and rewrite it to the above and assume it's a 14th level spell for now, see how it looks with all of those tweaks.

[Ebiris]

Soul Reave
Necronancy
Level: Sor/Wiz 14
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25ft + 5ft 2/levels)
Target: One creature or object (see text)
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will partial
Spell Resistance: Yes

This spell directly attacks the soul of the target, inflicting damage that is hard to resist or heal. The target suffers 1d4 points of damage per caster level to a maximum of 45d4, this damage is always considered lethal damage regardless of any regeneration the target possesses, and cannot be healed by magic or fast healing, requiring mundane rest and time to recover from.

Because most creatures do not have a physically present soul, this spell inflicts half damage on most creature types with no damage on a successful save as the body provides a buffer of protection for the soul - most humanoids, dragons, and corporeal undead fall under this.

Most mindless creatures such as golems and unintelligent undead have no soul and thus suffer no effect from this spell.

Outsiders, elementals, and incorporeal undead suffer the full effect as their body and their soul are one indivisible unit.

This spell does not completely destroy a soul however anything killed by it suffers a -50% penalty to their resurrection chance, and contingent methods of resurrection such as a lich's phylactery or a clone spell have a 50% chance of failing. If cast on a creature that is currently being possessed, such as by a magic jar spell, the spell only injures the possessing creature and not the host, though they are treated as a normal mortal even if they are actually an outsider or ghost because the host body acts as a buffer. Casting on the magic jar focus, or a crystal that has been used for a trap the soul spell, injures the creature as though they were an outsider regardless of their creature type.

Certain forms of soul mutilation may render a creature more vulnerable to this spell. The process of becoming a lich for instance will inflict a penalty to spell resistance and the will save of -11 (the caster level required to become a lich). A creature that has benefitted from Violet's skill implantation procedure suffers a penalty to spell resistance and the will save equal to the total number of class levels worth of skills gained.

[Nephrite]

This is a question that can be answered on a DM day or something, but I'm curious how seasons work within certain places within the game world.

Does Auril actually get to exert more influence over some particularly cold plane versus Lathander? Are "harsh winters" a result of her having more power? Do planes just have their own weather/climate things and then deities can muck with them?

Entirely idle curiosity, but I don't know that I've ever asked about it before.

[Anastasia]

Soul Reave
Necronancy
Level: Sor/Wiz 14
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25ft + 5ft 2/levels)
Target: One creature or object (see text)
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will partial
Spell Resistance: Yes

This spell directly attacks the soul of the target, inflicting damage that is hard to resist or heal. The target suffers 1d4 points of damage per caster level to a maximum of 45d4, this damage is always considered lethal damage regardless of any regeneration the target possesses, and cannot be healed by magic or fast healing, requiring mundane rest and time to recover from.

Because most creatures do not have a physically present soul, this spell inflicts half damage on most creature types with no damage on a successful save as the body provides a buffer of protection for the soul - most humanoids, dragons, and corporeal undead fall under this.

Most mindless creatures such as golems and unintelligent undead have no soul and thus suffer no effect from this spell.

Outsiders, elementals, and incorporeal undead suffer the full effect as their body and their soul are one indivisible unit.

This spell does not completely destroy a soul however anything killed by it suffers a -50% penalty to their resurrection chance, and contingent methods of resurrection such as a lich's phylactery or a clone spell have a 50% chance of failing. If cast on a creature that is currently being possessed, such as by a magic jar spell, the spell only injures the possessing creature and not the host, though they are treated as a normal mortal even if they are actually an outsider or ghost because the host body acts as a buffer. Casting on the magic jar focus, or a crystal that has been used for a trap the soul spell, injures the creature as though they were an outsider regardless of their creature type.

Certain forms of soul mutilation may render a creature more vulnerable to this spell. The process of becoming a lich for instance will inflict a penalty to spell resistance and the will save of -11 (the caster level required to become a lich). A creature that has benefitted from Violet's skill implantation procedure suffers a penalty to spell resistance and the will save equal to the total number of class levels worth of skills gained.

This is a spell we'll see how it works - I suspect it'll be interesting to see how it works out, balance wise.

[Anastasia]

This is a question that can be answered on a DM day or something, but I'm curious how seasons work within certain places within the game world.

Does Auril actually get to exert more influence over some particularly cold plane versus Lathander? Are "harsh winters" a result of her having more power? Do planes just have their own weather/climate things and then deities can muck with them?

Entirely idle curiosity, but I don't know that I've ever asked about it before.

It depends on the plane. For outer planes, the weather comes down to the deities that rule over it as well as the powers there. A snowstorm in Celestia doesn't tie to Auril for example, nor does a sunny day in Hell have much to do with Lathander. A deity's control over their realm supersedes anything else like that.

For the Prime the deities tend to be involved more directly. That's where things like that clash, and there's a lot of Primes where they can do that. See Malana with its winters that are longer than any other season, as Auril has strength there.

[Anastasia]

Actually Eb, quick question. This spell comes with a lot of discussed caveats about using it responsibly. Do you want to keep this spell to yourself/allies for now and include a note there about it? It feels like something worth considering for IC reasons.

[Ebiris]

Hmm. While it's a really nasty spell, it's most nasty towards evil stuff that has done that-which-should-not-be-done with their souls so having it out there could be pretty good, and it goes against Alicia's ethos to be secretive with magic.

Might have a chat with Mystra about it. It won't actually exist in the world until Alicia levels up and can take it herself so it's not an immediate worry.

[Anastasia]

Okay. I won't add it for now then, let me know when you take it at level up and remind me to add it to the spell collection then, with or without note as needed.