Magic of Incarnum... hmm...

[Vocenoctum]

I don't see anything about destroying the source of magic, any more than a normal wizard destroys magic. Really, if anything it looks more like a holy source, think of a cleric drawing on divine energy. If you read the same blurb about clerics and thought it said they got their power from consuming gods, it doesn't make it right.

Anyway, it's for Players. I assume it'll be a positive source. The point seems more to be about a mutable force than anything to do with soulsucking evil. Wait and see before chastising WotC for what the blurb DOESN'T say.

 

[Nightfall]

Right I think blurbs are just as bad as judging a book by ONE review.

 

[Lucky Number]

And then, I thought, "hey waitaminute... unborn souls?? DEAD SOULS?!? Souls don't die -- bodies die, the soul goes on...."

Sounds to me from the blurb that they meant the souls of the living, dead, and unborn, and were just trying to use a poetic turn of phrase that caused a bit of confusion. Indeed, it doesn't even sound like it's necessarily souls themselves being used, but their power.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Perhaps it's like the "magic" in Stephen King's novel Insomnia.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I have a pet project similar to this, which is currently on hold due to this product. I will be buying it when it comes out, to compare it to what I've been working on.

 

[Obscure]

Simmer down, folks...there's NO WAY this book is going to deal with fetuses and unborn babies and such.

The term "unborn soul" was coined by Bruce Cordell in his WotC adventure Bastion of Broken Souls. The gist is that all souls are created on the Positive Energy Plane and then migrate to the Material Plane to inhabit a creature's body when it is born or conceived (exactly when the soul first enters the body is not mentioned and I'm guessing it won't be in Incarnum either -- this is a very dicey subject).

So "drawing upon the power of unborn souls" would mean using these souls before they inhabit any creature's body. The consequences of this in Bastion are that some babies are born without a soul (the physical effects being basically fatigue and lack of energy), so it's not for the squeamish, but far from grotesque.

"Dead souls" I'm sure refers to using the souls after they have departed from the bodies of dead creatures. Maybe a character can weaken incorporeal undead around him to power his own spells. Interesting to see how they would power balance something like that.

 

[Rasyr]

Obscure - you are right that "unborn souls" most likely refers to the souls of sentient beings that have yet to experience incarnation upon the physical plane.

However, the term was not "coined" by Bruce Cordell. I have seen this term used in fiction in a number of different places (fiction/fantasy stories/novels) over the years, and it always means the same thing.

 

[Greatwyrm]

Considering all this, it will either be excellent or terrible.

Way to get a leg on both sides of the fence there.

 

[Rasyr]

Way to get a leg on both sides of the fence there.

That is the new "Straddling Feat"

 

[Obscure]

Obscure - you are right that "unborn souls" most likely refers to the souls of sentient beings that have yet to experience incarnation upon the physical plane.

However, the term was not "coined" by Bruce Cordell. I have seen this term used in fiction in a number of different places (fiction/fantasy stories/novels) over the years, and it always means the same thing.

Fair enough...I meant to say that the term first appeared in 3e D&D in Bastion by Bruce Cordell.