Soul Stealer

Soul stealers have a different practice of legerdemain than the usual rogues. They collect souls and use them as fuel to enhance their abilities. Like all rogues, they always like to be one step ahead of their enemies.

Soul stealers channel their powers through a special gem called a Key Crystal. Although their methods often involve bloody practices, removing a soul from a creature’s body is a simple part of their daily routine. After a while, stealing a soul becomes something as ordinary as drinking water.

The art of soul-stealing can be taught through a ritual. Dark cults may reveal the details of this ritual to your character or a ritual tome can be found in an old ruin.

Ritual of Soul Dismantling

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you learn the Ritual of Soul Dismantling. It is a 1-hour ritual that should be performed in a place that is somehow tied to death, like graveyards, or the temple of a death god, or near the corpse of a creature who died a day ago (at most). During the ritual, you summon a soul and force it to materialize as a special gem called a Key Crystal. It is aptly named as a “key”, as it opens the door to new powers.

At the end of the ritual, a coin-sized crystal appears in your hand and you learn the basics of the art of soul-stealing. This crystal can be in the shape of a polished gem, bone, or any other trinket of your choice.

If the Key Crystal is taken from you, you can call it back to your hand by concentrating for 1 round. However, if the crystal is taken to a location that is further than 1 mile from you, is broken, or put in a place affected with an antimagic field spell, you cannot call it back. If it is still within 1 mile of you, you may try to find the crystal again or create a new one by performing the Ritual of Soul Dismantling again. If it is broken or is taken to a location that is further than 1 mile of you, the crystal loses all of its properties and the souls in it are set free. In such a case, the crystal becomes worthless.

While you are carrying the crystal, if you kill a creature, you can capture its soul, preventing it from going wherever it needs to go. A Key Crystal can hold a maximum of 10 souls and it cannot hold the soul of a creature if its creature type is one of the following; beast, construct, monstrosity, ooze, plant, and undead. You can save the imprisoned souls to use later as detailed in the following features. Imprisoned souls can only be brought back by a wish spell. Also, the souls used for the following features are destroyed and cannot be brought back.

Soul Force

Starting at 3rd level, you are able to gain different abilities by using the souls imprisoned in the crystal. As a bonus action, you can spend souls from the crystal to gain one of the following benefits for 1 minute:

• Soul Strike (1 soul). Your next successful attack deals an extra 3 necrotic damage.
• Hide within Souls (2 souls). You can make souls cover you, making the space around you blurry. You have advantage on your Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
• Harm of Souls (3 souls). You send souls to help an ally. You can give a friendly creature within 30 feet of you an extra 1d4 necrotic damage on its next weapon attack.
• Soul Armor (4 souls). You wrap souls around your body and armor. You add 2 to your AC.
• Stealer’s Blink (varies). You can spend 1 soul to swap places with an item within 30 feet of you. You can increase the distance up to 90 feet by spending another soul for each additional 30 feet. The item you replace must be carried by you for the last 8 hours.

Face of Souls

At 9th level, you can assume the forms of the souls you currently hold within the crystal.

You can take the appearance and body structure of one of the souls within the crystal, but all of your characteristics remain the same. You can only take the shape of a creature who is the same size as you. When you take a new form using this feature, you keep the new form for a number of hours equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum one).

Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest to use it again.

GM Tip

Since capturing or destroying a soul is a truly evil and unique act, it easily attracts the attention of many different powers of the universe such as deities, warlock patrons, fiends, angels, or aberrations. This attention can create additional and unexpected effects in your campaigns.

Deep Call for Souls

Starting at 13th level, when the crystal is full, you can call upon all of the souls to weaken your enemy as an action. You choose a creature within 60 feet of you and your weapon attacks ignore the creature’s resistance and immunity for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum one).

Soul Steal

Starting at 17th level, you don’t have to wait for someone to die to steal its soul. You can steal a part of the soul of a creature within 15 feet of you. To do so, you make a weapon attack with advantage. On a hit, the creature must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier).

On a failed save, instead of dealing damage with your attack, you reduce the target creature’s hit point maximum by the amount of damage you would normally deal with this attack, imprisoning a part of the creature’s soul. As a bonus action, you can use the imprisoned soul piece either to regain hit points, or to deal extra psychic damage on a successful weapon attack. The amount is equal to the reduction in the target creature’s hit point maximum.

On a successful save, your attack does not deal any damage and nothing happens, but you can try to use this feature again on the same creature until the end of your next turn. If the second try is also a fail, you cannot try again.

Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.