Soul Stealing Weapon

[Jaelommiss]

Evening all,

I will be playing my first 4e game in a few days and my DM has asked me to put together a list for loot that I would like to see at some point in the campaign. My character is a blackguard of Asmodeus and I plan on making frequent pacts with devils to overcome challenges. As a lawful evil aligned character, I am already doomed to the Nine Hells, so I cannot trade my soul as a bartering chip in these situations. My solution was to use the souls of others instead. Like all evil adventurers I will be leaving a trail of corpses behind me, so it occurs to me that I would have a far easier time dealing with devils if I could somehow harvest their souls.

The better part of the last two hours has been searching for a magic weapon that I could use to collect the souls of those I slay, however I could find nothing beyond single use weapons at massive costs (massive for a low level character, at least). I have already cleared the concept of a soul stealing weapon with my DM and he was fine with it if I can find one in a manual somewhere.

My question is simple: do you, as far more experienced players, know of any way to rack up a collection of souls that could be used at low levels within the bounds of the rules? I will be hiding my true allegiance from the party, so something with less flashy effects would be ideal.

 

[MerricB]

Honestly, it sounds more like you should get your DM to create a special soul-storing weapon or soul-catching wondrous item to use to catch the souls of those you slay. It's a great character concept, but it's also one that doesn't have rules covering it.

Consider the 2nd level wizard spell "Lifetaker" (Heroes of Shadow) - it's a daily spell that allows you to use the energy of a departing soul to heal someone.

Or the 6th level cleric spell "Soul Cage"...

Cheers!

 

[Jhaelen]

I'm pretty sure, there's a low-level (around level 5-7) soul-stealing headband (?) in Mordenkainen's Magnificient Emporium. IIRC, it features three gems that can hold souls (after the wearer slays someone, the soul goes into an empty gem) which can be released at a later point to give the wearer a +1 bonus to an attack for each expended soul.

 

[M.L. Martin]

You're probably going to have a tough time finding anything official--one of the world design premises of 4th Edition (discussed in Wizards Presents: Worlds & Monsters) was that capturing a soul was a very difficult and rare thing.

 

[Jaelommiss]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll show them to my DM and let him decide how/if to implement it.

 

[Tony Vargas]

According to the World Axis cosmology, a brisk trade in souls goes on in the Astral Sea. It's largely a paragon-to-epic level playground, but the souls of the dead reside there for a time as outsiders, exalted, or exarchs - the first being the easiest prey - with, like the Immortals native to the Astral Sea, what amount to physical forms that can be kidnapped and taken to Hell for fun & profit as easily as any other creature.

Said souls pass through the Shadowfell and the custody of the Raven Queen on their way to the Astral Sea, so there's potential, there, as well.

The various items that trap 'souls' or 'life,' are probably just trapping energies, not whole souls, so might not be of any help. It really depends on your DM. You might work out something where you can choose not to trigger your Pact Boon to build up 'credit' with your diabolical allies, for instance.

But, the option to actually traffic in souls in the Shadowfell or Astral Sea is there.