Sage background, PHB page 138, bond number 6: "I sold my soul for knowledge. I hope to do great deeds and win it back."
So what does this actually mean? Do I lose my sense of morals? Am I weaker somehow? Am I undead? Can I not be revived if I die because my soul goes straight to the new owner?
Are there any answers to these questions in older editions and/or how would you represent a sold soul in your game?
SilentSin wrote:
Jordan175 wrote:
If it were simply "I did a bad 
" as the meaning of the bond, then it should be associated with the criminal background or something similar, not the sage. But since its associated with the sage background, that seems to imply something more along the lines of "I found an old book with instructions on how to summon the demon lord Jeff and traded my soul for an endlessl bag of doritos."
Sure selling your soul doesn't have to be literal, but it can be. My qustion was what if it is? What does that mean? I don't really care about what I get in return at this stage because I have no idea what I'm actually giving up.
Telling me to ask my DM isn't helpful because I am my DM most of the time and my questions are directed at the people on this forum. I'm asking what you'd do if one of your players wanted to pick this bond. Would you figure out some sort of mechanics for a sold soul or would you just leave it as a figurative concept like Jordan175 explains?
Traditionally, in legend and story, when someone "sells his soul", it's not that he no longer has it. Rather, he pledges that the Devil (or whatever) has a rightful claim on his soul upon his death (or some other predetermined event). There's little need to represent this mechanically, except for possibly holding that one cannot be brought back to life, or at least not without one's friends making some other kind of sacrifice or bargain with the power to whom you sold your soul.
Also, in traditional stories of this sort, there are basically three kinds of ways to get out of such a deal/pact. The first is through deep piety. In traditional stories, the powers of Heaven "trump" those of the Pit, so rightful repentence (and personal sacrifice) may allow angelic/heavenly powers to rescue the soul on death. The second is through "rules lawyering"! That is, sometimes it may just be possible to find a loophole in the agreement, and on this view, the devil (or fey or whatever) is bound by the Law/rules of magic/whatever to hold to the agreement. This of it as a supernatural RAW argument. Finally, in some stories the person who sold his soul somehow manages to trick/trap the "offending" supernatural power. This allows a new bargain to be made (e.g. there's a folk tale in which a man traps the devil up a tree by tricking the devil to climb it and then putting crosses at the base of the tree; unable to climb down, the man, who was otherwise meanspirited, forces the devil to promise not to take his soul upon his death).
SilentSin wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
SilentSin wrote: