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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dakkareth" data-source="post: 1871878" data-attributes="member: 9928">(Continuing stream-of-consciousness style)As we knew before, the distinction is mostly between body and soul in the text. Mind, spirit, etc are never mentioned. There's the term 'life-force' however, which is a little ambigous: At many points it's used synonymous with 'soul', at others it is differently. Intelligent undead *do* have souls according to the spell description of magic jar, but theirs is powered by negative energy. Do mindless undead have a life-force, too?And what's the deal with the 'spirit'? This term is only ever used in reference to incorporeal undead, elementals AND in the astral projection spell description. There's other interesting stuff in that text, too: An 'astral body' can be projected using the spell; this term is *also* only used in conjunction with this spell and abilities emulating it. What's more, if your silver cord is severed, you die - at first this seems as simple as 'Any life force with nowhere to go is treated as slain', but then why can't a silver sword threaten a magic jar using wizard? What state exactly are you in, when astrally projecting?Another interesting thing is, what happens to a body without soul. In the case of a demilich's attack, it crumbles to dust within seconds. With trap the soul it's entrapped as well. The Void leaves the body functioning, but without a soul. There must be a difference between these modes of attack, if we stay within the context of this research.Finally, the thing that is to me the most interesting (narrowly trumping the 'undead have souls' revelation) is the most intimate relationship between soul and level, soul and HD, soul and XP, in short the association between the soul and the power of an individual. It is an often used metaphor, that a wizard 'expends a substantial part of his power' or somesuch, when he casts spells with an XP component. Similar is the crafting of magic items - he imbues some of his own power into an item. Soul-draining undead inflict negative levels. And trying to trap a soul within a receptacle that is too small to contain the soul's power (insufficient kgp/HD) fails spectacularily. Why not just say, that the soul is the in-game representation of XP then? Seriously, what's wrong with that?</blockquote>

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