Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Disjoin soul, Final version?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Cheiromancer" data-source="post: 2361305" data-attributes="member: 141"><p>That other thread you bumped (about souls/spirits/psyche/pneuma/...) is extremely intimidating. I think the main lesson to be learned from it is: don't try to define a soul in terms of game mechanics. Then it doesn't matter if this spell disjoins 1, 2, 3 or 3.5 distinct elements; it is flavor text what is really happening, although it is flavor text that guides the design of the mechanics.</p><p></p><p>If it is unnecessary to define a soul, it is also unnecessary to define what plane it is being sent to. It's just a "bad place." Maybe the spell sends the soul to a different bad place depending on its nature; some living creatures might end up in the negative energy plane, while some undead end up on the positive energy plane. Or in hell, or gehenna, or the abyss, or... Or maybe the spell creates a different bad place for each soul. A little extradimensional space like that created by the <em>maze</em> spell. It doesn't matter, and you don't have to list any of the possibilities in the spell. It's just a "fractured realm of madness and horror which quickly breaks down the exiled soul" or something else flavorful.</p><p></p><p>Deciding not to define these terms solves some of your problems, but not all of them. The bit about <em>dispel magic</em> and <em>mage's disjunction</em> having opposite effects still doesn't make a lot of sense. Fiddling around with <em>resurrection</em> works only to an extent. You can say that if the soul is drained and trapped in the "bad place" that a <em>wish</em> or <em>miracle</em> needs to be used to return it, but saying that they lose an extra level on being raised is hard to swallow.</p><p></p><p>These kinds of decisions are motivated by aesthetics; what makes a spell elegant and interesting, as opposed to needlessly complicated and obscure. YMMV.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cheiromancer, post: 2361305, member: 141"] That other thread you bumped (about souls/spirits/psyche/pneuma/...) is extremely intimidating. I think the main lesson to be learned from it is: don't try to define a soul in terms of game mechanics. Then it doesn't matter if this spell disjoins 1, 2, 3 or 3.5 distinct elements; it is flavor text what is really happening, although it is flavor text that guides the design of the mechanics. If it is unnecessary to define a soul, it is also unnecessary to define what plane it is being sent to. It's just a "bad place." Maybe the spell sends the soul to a different bad place depending on its nature; some living creatures might end up in the negative energy plane, while some undead end up on the positive energy plane. Or in hell, or gehenna, or the abyss, or... Or maybe the spell creates a different bad place for each soul. A little extradimensional space like that created by the [i]maze[/i] spell. It doesn't matter, and you don't have to list any of the possibilities in the spell. It's just a "fractured realm of madness and horror which quickly breaks down the exiled soul" or something else flavorful. Deciding not to define these terms solves some of your problems, but not all of them. The bit about [I]dispel magic[/I] and [I]mage's disjunction[/I] having opposite effects still doesn't make a lot of sense. Fiddling around with [i]resurrection[/i] works only to an extent. You can say that if the soul is drained and trapped in the "bad place" that a [i]wish[/i] or [i]miracle[/i] needs to be used to return it, but saying that they lose an extra level on being raised is hard to swallow. These kinds of decisions are motivated by aesthetics; what makes a spell elegant and interesting, as opposed to needlessly complicated and obscure. YMMV. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Disjoin soul, Final version?
Top