How many souls does an Ettin have?

[Hypersmurf]

One or two?

Sean K Reynolds' Two-Headed Mutant Template has a quality called "Dual Mind", where a two-headed creature, due to having two brains, is less susceptible to mind-affecting spells (you've got to get both heads if you want to charm it, for example).

But is having two brains the same as having two souls?

-Hyp.

 

[Crothian]

I think onme creature one soul personally

 

[Dash Dannigan]

Hehe, does this mean the ettin gets to make two-saving throws vs mind-affecting spells now?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Hehe, does this mean the ettin gets to make two-saving throws vs mind-affecting spells now?

A Monster Manual Ettin, no. An Ettin built by applying SKR's template to a Hill Giant, yes.

-Hyp.

 

[Mahali]

I haven't read his template but acting like the psionic power Schism sounds reasonable.

 

[Rel]

How many souls does an Ettin have?

I dunno, but he's definately got two soles.

I suppose that a Centaur could wear two pairs of magic boots and therefore have four soles. But that's just munchkin.

Sorry about that.

For the original question, I guess it depends on how you view the Ettin. Is it possible for him to argue with himself and can both heads have their own personalities? If so, I'd say that Ettins are rather like conjoined twins and therefore two seperate sentient being and have two souls.

If you view an Ettin as having only one real personality but one that is capable of being expressed by either head (rather like a Pierson's Puppeteer from Larry Niven's Known Space stories) then it is one sentient being and has one soul. (I'll note for sake of completeness that Pierson's Puppeteers contended that they had determined for certain that they had no souls themselves.)

I think the first method is more interesting though. I'd stop short of allowing two Will saves, consistency be damned.

 

[Mike Sullivan]

Also, Pierson's Pupeteers had only one brain (lodged in neither "head").

But I'd tend to agree with Rel. If a two-brained, two-headed creature is actually two people sharing one body, then two souls. If it's one creature which happens to have a backup brain, eyes, and mouth, then one soul.

I presume that this is primarily important for Ressurection-style magics.

 

[AuraSeer]

Is it possible to kill one head while leaving the other alive?

If so, the ettin has two souls, and the body only requires one of them to live. If not, then there's only one soul, and the entire creature is killed or raised as a unit.

 

[Nareau]

Heh. I was thinking about (almost) the same thing the other day: What happens if you polymorph an ettin into a hill giant? Does one personality get absorbed? Is he schitzophrenic?

Spider

 

[Joshua Randall]

But is having two brains the same as having two souls?

This topic has been debated in philosophy for many years. As with many such debates, no certain conclusions have been reached. (One of my professors used to say, "There are very few knock-down arguments in philosophy.")

In your D&D game, you could rule on this either way. Or you could use the Ettin With Two Souls as a way to insert mind-blowing philosophical / religious plots into your campaign (a la Sepulchrave II's story hours).