D&D General Spirits and Souls in D&D. What the Heck is the Difference?

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Okay, in my world it's a bit complicated, but some parts of it are similar to what some of you have put.

Your spirit is your incorporeal body. Basically every living creature has a spirit, and once you die, your spirit detaches from your body and enters the Border Ethereal Plane. Your spirit contains your soul, which is your life essence, the combination of your Mind (Intelligence), your Will (Wisdom), and your Heart (Charisma). Your mind is all of your knowledge and experiences, your Will is your personality and agency, and your Heart is your presence in the world and magical font of your soul's power (which is why lots of creatures want souls, to drain the power from the heart). Your soul isn't physical or even incorporeal, it's your intangible life spark that has to exist inside of some sort of container at all times (whether that be your living body, your incorporeal spirit, or an item similar to a Phylactery, Magic Jar, or Soul Coin).

When your spirit leaves your body and enters the Border Ethereal, eventually a servant of the Raven Queen will come along to snatch it and take it to the afterlife. If you can avoid this servant for long enough, you'll eventually become a Ghost, Specter, or Poltergeist.

All creatures have a spirit, including beasts, elementals, and animated plants. Only very specific members of these creature groups have souls, like Awakened Beasts, Genies, and Treants.

Druids draw their magic from the Spirit(s) of Nature, while Clerics draw their power from worshipping the Soul of Nature (whether or not that is in the form of a deity). When a Warlock completes its pact with an Otherworldly Being of enough power, the being will use their magic to change the Soul of the Warlock to allow them to tap into the magic contained in their soul (and this change is irreversible, which solves the issue of a Warlock betraying their patron in my world. Once they become a Warlock, their change is permanent, and they're free to do whatever they want. Practically all Warlock Patrons require their end of the deal come before giving the character the power to become a Warlock).

Practically all corporeal mindless undead (Zombies, Skeletons, Ghouls) don't have souls, and are instead animated by the spirits inherent to the Negative Energy Plane. They're practically constructs, but their bodies are animated by necromantic spirits, which makes them undead. Corporeal undead that retain their souls (Mummy Lords, Liches, Revenants, etc) are rare and it takes great magic to create them, as once the spirit leaves the body at death it is very difficult to draw the soul back into the same body or even a different one. There can be incorporeal undead that don't have souls, which typically happens when a soul is drawn out of a spirit into some other container (a phylactery, soul coin, or sometimes into the afterlife), which most often creates Shadows (spirits corrupted by the Shadowfell), Husks (empty spirits), and Phantoms (empty spirits that were filled by some other kind of soul, typically from a powerful undead).

Creatures with enough power can transform souls into other physical forms, but never without the consent of the creature whose soul is being used (this is how new Celestials and Fiends are created). Souls can be used as a fuel source with or without the permission of the individual whose soul is being used, which is why Soul Coins, Phylacteries, and Larvae exist.

So, that's how it works in my world. It's fairly complicated, but it actually matters to the characters and comes up pretty often in-game. I've seen some nice examples from others so far, and am excited to see more.

 

[Minigiant]

This, but the other way around. The soul contains most of the "self" and is what passes to the afterlife, while the spirit is the force that animates the body, it dissipates after death unless it becomes undead through magic or other curses. Spells like Raise Dead always talk about calling the "soul" back from the dead, while Speak with Dead explicitly doesn't summon the soul, only the lingering spirit.

Potato Potahto really. D&D is very inconsistent on which is which on monsters. but it often says the soul and spirit are different things.

I like soul as the energy because I like the "Sold one's soul for a 1d10 damage cantrip" meme. The idea that warlocks are walking around with 75% and patron are hungry for the rest is both funny and fitting to me.

Although if I were to refine it: there would be souls, spirits, and soul energy. A "soul" soul would be a spirit who still has it's original soul energy either by being alive or being a strong spirit that one's soul energy doesn't seperate and dissipate. This is why raise dead "doesn't work" on randoms.