Souls as power?

[Dog Moon]

Are there any rules on how to use souls as power? BoVD said little more beyond the fact that souls are bartered and used to gain power. I was thinking more along the lines of a book or section which explained more of how the souls gave the powers, what powers different souls gave, perhaps using souls in spellcasting or crafting items or different, interesting things like that.

 

[thalmin]

Tome of Magic: Pact, Shadow, and the True Name Magic
Tome of Magic introduces three new magic subsystems for the D&D game. Any or all of these systems can easily be inserted into a campaign. Pact magic gives characters the ability to channel lost souls, harnessing their abilities to gain supernatural powers. Shadow magic draws power from the mysterious Plane of Shadow. True name magic gives characters that learn and properly use the true name of a creature or object immense poer over it. All three systems introduce new base classes and spellcasting mechanics. Also included are new feats, prestige classes, magic items, and spells.

More info over on this thread.

 

[ohGr]

Magic of Incarnum, as well.

Magic of Incarnum
This supplement introduces a magical substance called incarnum into the D&D game. With this book, the players characters can meld incarnum—the power of souls living, dead, and unborn—into magical items and even their own bodies, granting them special attacks, defenses, and other abilities (much as magic items and spells do). Incarnum can be shaped and reshaped into new forms, giving characters tremendous versatility in the dungeon and on any battlefield.

This book also features new classes, prestige classes, feats, and other options for characters wishing to explore the secrets of incarnum, as well as rules and advice for including incarnum in a D&D campaign.

 

[Sejs]

Are there any rules on how to use souls as power? BoVD said little more beyond the fact that souls are bartered and used to gain power. I was thinking more along the lines of a book or section which explained more of how the souls gave the powers, what powers different souls gave, perhaps using souls in spellcasting or crafting items or different, interesting things like that.

The idea wasn't so much that souls gave you special abilities that varied with what type of soul you 'used', but rather that souls could be used as fuel for spellcasting, item creation, and so forth.

So power in the hydroelectric- sense, rather than super-.

 

[Dog Moon]

Originally posted by Sejs
The idea wasn't so much that souls gave you special abilities that varied with what type of soul you 'used', but rather that souls could be used as fuel for spellcasting, item creation, and so forth.

So power in the hydroelectric- sense, rather than super-.

I guess I never thought about them being compared to sustenance, pizza for humans, souls for Demons. I assumed that the souls did more than just that. Souls powerfing spellcasting, item creation, and so forth was another thing I was thinking of, but I never really saw much for rules for that kind of thing. Apparently a couple of upcoming books might have information I might enjoy, except they aren't coming out until September and March... sheesh, what a long wait. :\ Oh well, thanks for the responses.

 

[Jdvn1]

Reminds me of SWd20 where 'casting' takes away 'hp.'

 

[NimrodvanHall]

you could use what we did in a rather evil campeign.

inspired by the larvea, as used by the fiends in the planescape setting, one could use larvea (souls given form by the night hags) as a substitute for XP 1 larvea reduced the XP cost of a spell or item creataion by 100.

This would not be a good idea for every campeign, but since we were all liches or (half)fiends it was OK to us.
a larvea was the "standard currency in this campeign, equalling to 500 gp