magical, necromancy, possession
- Casting Time: 2 reactions; Material and Somatic
- Trigger: 1 creature within range gains the Dead condition
- Requirement: silver cage (worth 300 silver)
- Range: 60 feet
- Duration: 1 hour per Proficiency Score; see text
- Save: Will save
You snatch and imprison the soul of the triggering creature within the cage, depending on its Will save. On a successful save the creature’s soul is unaffected, on a failure the creature is caged and you can use its soul a number of times equal to half its Proficiency Score, and on a critical failure the creature is caged and you can use its soul a number of times equal to its Proficiency Score. The soul remains in the cage for the duration of the spell, until you have used the soul the maximum number of times, or until the cage is destroyed. Soul Cage cannot be dispelled but the spell ends immediately if the cage is destroyed.
While the soul is in the cage, you can use any of the following abilities, granted that one hand is holding the cage. Each ability is a single use of the soul.
- Borrow Experience. As an action, you borrow experience from the soul and grant yourself advantage on all attack roll, saves, and skill checks for the next minute.
- Eyes of the Dead. As a double action, you can see and hear into a location you name which the creature visited in life. You see the location as it currently is when you use this ability. You must spend a single action with the concentration tag to maintain the ability with a maximum time of 10 minutes.
- Query Life. As a free action, you can ask the soul a question. It responds telepathically and you can understand it even if you do not share a language. The soul knows only what it did in life and, while forced to respond truthfully, it can be as cryptic as it wishes to be.
- Steal Life. As a single action, you can drain energy from the soul into yourself. You gain a number of d4s Hit Points equal to half the creature’s Proficiency Score.
While a soul is trapped, it cannot be the target of any spell attempting to bring the creature back to life, such as Raise Dead, Resurrection, Revivify, and so on. If the creature had a critical failure when resisting Soul Cage and it’s soul is released after being used, any spells that bring it back to life succeeds but the creature has the Enervated condition with a value equal to half the number of times you used the soul. Soul Cage is on the Arcane, Divine, and Occult Spell Lists.
Heighten (+2): The duration increases.
Level 8 or 9 Spell Slot. The duration increases to 7 days per Proficiency Score.
Level 10 Spell Slot. The duration increases to indefinite until you have used the soul the maximum number of times or the cage is destroyed.