• 2 Soulstones, each filled with a CR 1/2 soul.

Ritual Casting

Starting at 2nd-level, the Soulbinder has access to a number of unique rituals they can cast without the need for spell slots and without needing to prepare those spells as long as they have the required time and material components. Your spellcasting ability modifier is Wisdom. The Soulbinder gains access to new rituals at specific levels noted on the Soulbinder Ritual Table below.

Soulbinder Ritual Table

Soulbinding

At 1st-level, you have the ability to capture the souls of those that your weapon has cut when they die. By modifying a weapon to hold a Soulstone, attacks made against creatures have the chance to capture the soul of that creature when they die, whether you make the killing blow or not. You must remain within 30 ft. of the creature to bind its soul upon its death.

When a creature you can see within 30 ft. dies after you have damaged it with your weapon, you can use your reaction to attempt to capture the spirit in the Soulstone attached to your weapon. Make a Wisdom ability check with a DC of 10 + half the CR of the creature that has died (rounded down). On a success, the creature's soul is captured in your Soulstone.

Only one captured spirit can be stored in a Soulstone, though you can have as many Soulstones as you wish. You can then use these souls for your class abilities. When capturing the soul of a creature of a CR higher than 6, you can only capture a portion of it, and when beckoned, it can be used to beckon a CR 6 spirit or lower.

Beckon

At 1st-level, you can call a spirit forth from within one of your Soulstones to manifest it, allowing you to command it to fight for you. Creatures beckoned from your Soulstones have the statistics of one of the "Beckoned" creatures on the table below, according to the CR of the soul that was captured. A higher CR soul can be used to beckon a lower CR spirit, but the rate at which the soul fades remains the same. Beckoned spirits remain until they are dismissed, banished, or defeated, and can be given very simple instructions that can be carried out even while you are asleep. A beckoned spirit is tethered to you and cannot move more than 60 ft. from you, or it will be dismissed.

The number of spirits you can beckon depends on how many Soul Points you have available, as well as how many Soulstones you have containing souls. The cost to summon a spirit from one of your Soulstones is shown on the table below, and the number of Soul Points you have available is shown on the Soulbinder table. Your Soul Points do not restore on a long rest. Instead, you recover them when your spirits are dismissed, banished, or destroyed. A banished soul simply returns to its Soulstone and cannot be beckoned again until a short rest. Once a spirit has been destroyed, it must be reconstituted, and cannot be beckoned again until after a long rest, after which when beckoned, it returns fully restored. Beckoning a soul causes some of its essence to fade, and after you beckon a particular soul a certain number of times, it fades completely, emptying the Soulstone it inhabits. Weaker creatures will fade very quickly, while stronger creatures will take much longer to fade. The amount that a creature has faded has no bearing on its effectiveness. Beckoning a creature after willfully dismissing it does not cause it to fade.

The cost to beckon a creature, and the number of times a spirit can be beckoned before fading, can be found on the following table:

Ritual Caster

At 2nd-level, you have the ability to use a number of Soulbinder-specific rituals. These rituals often utilize or consume souls as a material component, or use other valuable materials or blood sacrifices. You do not have spell slots for these rituals and can cast them as needed as long as you have the time and materials required. Refer to the Soulbinder Ritual table to see what rituals are available at each Soulbinder level.

Soul Tradition

At 3rd-level, you choose a path to take as a Soulbinder that determines how you will utilize the souls that you harvest.

Spiritual Mending

At 3rd-level, you gain the ability to reconstitute your spirits. As an action, you can restore hit points to your spirits. Roll a number of d8s equal to your proficiency bonus, and the amount rolled can be distributed among your beckoned and dormant spirits. You can do this a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus.

Danse Macabre

At 9th-level, you have the ability to change your spirits' appearance to look just like you and trade places with one of them, confusing your enemies. Once per long rest, as an action, you can perform a strange dance that changes the appearance of your beckoned spirits to look identical to you for up to 1 minute. When you do this, you can use your reaction to teleport once up to 60 ft. to trade places with one of your beckoned spirits. The teleportation is instantaneous and imperceptible.

A creature must succeed on an Investigation check against your spell save DC to see through the illusion. This Investigation check must be made separately against each of your beckoned spirits. A creature that attacks one of your spirits while they are in your form immediately dispels the illusion on that spirit, revealing their true form, but not revealing the others. A successful Investigation check against you reveals that you are the real one.

Ghostlike

At 13th-level, your proficiency in summoning spirits and connecting with them has made you like a ghost yourself. You now have resistance to cold, necrotic, and poison damage. You also become immune to the frightened and poisoned conditions, and you no longer age.

Part the Veil

At 20th-level, your connection to the spirit world has transcended the veil of death. Once per long rest, you can cast Speak with Dead without the need for a body from a spirit you are familiar with, or you can contact a spirit at random. You can ask the spirit 5 questions as per the Speak with Dead spell, or you can request aid from the spirit. If you request aid, the spirit will be immediately beckoned as a CR 6 soul which does not count against your Soul Points.

The spirit remains for 1 hour and cannot be bound in any way that would keep them there permanently. After the hour has elapsed, the spirit returns to the afterlife. If you attempt to use this ability to contact a spirit at random, or you do not know at least the target's name and appearance, roll a d20. If you roll a 1, the spirit that is contacted could be from The Vortex, and be malevolent. If this occurs, it may give false or misleading information when questioned, and if beckoned, could turn against you (at the DM's discretion). You will not know whether a spirit is malevolent or friendly when contacted.

Bonecarver

The Bonecarver goes beyond the spiritual and chooses to bind the souls of the dead within corpses, animating them like undead, and modifying their bodies to give them more flexible capabilities. This binding is permanent, transferring the soul from its Soulstone into the prepared body. However, once these creatures are killed, their soul is lost permanently and cannot be rebound. This particular tradition can be horrifying to many civilized societies, but the Ettinor are very accepting of the practice.

Carve

The signature ability of the Bonecarver, beginning at 3rd-level, you have the ability to prepare corpses by carving special glyphs into their bones. You can then bind your captured spirits to these bones, transforming the corpse into powerful undead creatures that you can bestow with various abilities. The bodies that you prepare to contain these spirits, called vessels, require ritual preparation. A vessel takes 1 hour to prepare, after which you must perform a 10 minute ritual to bind the spirit to the bones of the vessel. Only a CR 1 and above spirit can be bound to a vessel.

Once bound, the spirit transforms the vessel's physical form to take on the traits you have bestowed it with. Once a spirit has been bound to a vessel, its Soulstone is emptied and it cannot be recovered. You cannot use your Soulbind ability to recapture the soul of the vessel when it dies until you reach a higher level. Vessels are permanently bound to your service until they are killed. Binding a spirit to a vessel does not require Soul Points. The base statistics for the vessel depend on the CR of the spirit bound to it, and are shown below.

Each vessel can have a number of abilities bestowed upon it equal to half your proficiency bonus (rounded down). Each ability can only be bestowed once. The abilities that you can bestow upon your vessels are as follows:

• Blindsight - Your vessel gains blindsight 20 ft.
• Damage Resistance - Gain resistance to one damage type (acid, cold, fire, lightning, non-magical physical, poison, psychic, thunder).
• Enhanced Ability - Your vessel gains proficiency in saving throws of an ability score of your choice.
• Fast - Your vessel's base walking speed increases by 10.
• Fly - Your vessel grows wings and has a Fly speed of 30 ft.
• Multiattack - Your vessel gains an extra attack.
• Natural Armor - Increase the vessel's AC by 2.
• Regeneration - Your vessel recovers 5 hit points at the start of their turn.
• Skulker - Your vessel can become invisible for 1 minute as an action once per long rest.
• Stench - The smell of your vessel nauseates those around it. Creatures within 10 ft. must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned. This save can be repeated at the end of each creature's turn, ending the effect on a success and making the creature immune to the effect for 24 hours.
• Venomous - Your vessel's attacks can deliver a poison that can paralyze the target for 1 minute on a failed DC 15 Constitution saving throw. If paralyzed, the saving throw can be repeated at the end of each of the creature's turns, ending the effect on a success.

Death Rattle

Beginning at 7th-level, your vessels can be volatile when damaged, and upon death, give off a blast of necrotic energy. When one of your vessels is killed, you can use your reaction to cause its body to explode, and all creatures within 10 ft. of it must make Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, they take 4d6 necrotic damage, or half as much on a successful saving throw. This damage increases by 2d6 when you reach 11th level (6d6), and 17th level (8d6).

Last Stand

At 10th-level, you have the ability to sustain one of your vessels temporarily after it dies. Once per long rest, when one of your vessels dies, you can sustain it by concentrating for up to 1 minute, recovering half of its maximum hit points. However, once combat ends or the minute has elapsed, the vessel dies.

Diminishing Returns

You have learned to bind the souls of your vessels as they die. However, the strain of doing so weakens their soul. Beginning at 15th-level, if you capture the soul of a dying vessel, no ability check is required, but the CR of the soul that enters your Soulstone is one tier lower than before. If the vessel was bound to a CR 4 spirit, then re-capturing their spirit diminishes their strength, making them a CR 3 soul. You cannot re-capture the soul of a vessel with a CR 1 spirit or below.

Transient Vessel

At 18th-level, you have mastered the art of creating vessels to the point where you can immediately force a creature's soul back into its body when it dies rather than having to soulbind it and prepare a vessel. However, vessels whose bones are not carved last a very short time. As a reaction when a creature within 60 ft. that you have damaged with your weapon dies, you can immediately transform its body into a vessel without any special abilities, and bind it to your service. These vessels only last for 1 hour before degrading and falling apart. You cannot capture the soul of a vessel transformed in this way. You can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.

Wraith

The Wraith has the ability to consume the animate Flow of souls as well as binding it. They can heal themselves and their allies by consuming the soul. Most do not take issue with this act when it is used against monstrous creatures, but even other Soulbinders find the act of consuming the soul of a person to be abhorrent. The Wraith can also bind souls to themselves and others temporarily to grant them powerful boons and temporary hit points. At higher levels, they can even use souls to jump start the life force of someone who has recently perished, reviving them.

Reap

Starting at level 3, when you use your Soulbinding ability to capture a soul, you can consume it to restore hit points. Multiply your proficiency bonus by the hit die size of the creature whose spirit you have consumed, and roll that many dice to determine how many hit points are restored. If you were to capture the soul of a Goblin, who have a d6 hit die, and your proficiency bonus was +2, you would roll 2d6 and regain that many hit points. You can also use the soul's energy to heal one of your allies within 30 ft. Doing this consumes the soul so that it cannot be captured in your Soulstone. You can also consume the soul already contained within one of your Soulstones in this way.

Resuscitate

At level 7, you can consume one of your captured souls to revive a recently deceased ally. As an action, you can consume a soul from within one of your Soulstones or one of your beckoned spirits to revive a creature that has died within the last minute. Upon doing so, the soul is consumed and its Soulstone crumbles to dust and cannot be restored. The revived creature returns with 1 hit point. This ability cannot revive someone who has died of old age, and it cannot restore missing limbs.

Soul Bond

As an action, instead of beckoning one of your captured souls, you can bond one to yourself or one of your allies instead. When you do so, you gain temporary hit points equal to the spirit's hit points. Unless you dismiss the spirit prematurely, if your temporary hit points are exhausted, the soul is consumed, and does not return to your Soulstone. In addition to these temporary hit points, the targeted creature gains one of the following effects of your choice for 1 minute:

• Spiritual Guidance: Bonded creature is guided by the bonded spirit, gaining advantage to all attack rolls.
• Spectral Step: Bonded creature becomes Ethereal and gains resistance to non-magical physical damage. Additionally, they can see 60 ft. into the Material plane. The bonded creature can move through creatures and objects on the Material plane as if they were difficult terrain, but if they end their turn inside an object, they take 5 (1d10) force damage. When this effect ends, if you are inside of a solid object, you are immediately shunted to the nearest unoccupied space that you can occupy and take force damage equal to twice the number of feet you are moved.
• Wraith's Touch: Bonded creature's attacks become touched by the bonded soul. When the bonded creature hits with an attack, the attack deals an additional 2d8 necrotic damage, and the target creature must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
• Frightful Presence: Bonded creature gives off a terrifying aura. Creatures within 15 ft. must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw with a DC equal to 12 + your proficiency bonus or become Frightened for 1 minute. Affected creatures can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of their turns.
• Spiritual Soothing: Bonded creature regains 1d6 hit points at the start of each of their turns.

After the effect of the bond ends, the soul returns to its Soulstone. The number of souls that you can bond at one time is equal to your proficiency bonus. Once a soul has been bonded, it cannot do so again until you complete a long rest.

Haunt

At 15th-level, you have the ability to bond your spirits to your enemies, allowing you to wreak havoc on their soul. As an action, one of your spirits can bond itself to a creature that you can see within 60 ft. Target creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, your spirit can invoke one of the following abilities to hinder or harm the creature:

• Possess - Your spirit can control target creature's movements and actions until the end of that creature's next turn. Movement does not provoke an additional saving throw, but if you attempt to force the creature to take an action that is harmful to itself or its allies, it can make a Wisdom saving throw to resist your spirit's control.
• Drain - Your spirit drains the internal Flow of target creature, withering them. Target must make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, target creature takes 4d8 necrotic damage that cannot be reduced in any way (can overcome resistance, but not immunity), and they become Weakened until the end of their next turn. On a successful saving throw, target creature takes half damage and is not Weakened.
• Terrorize - Your spirit searches the target creature's mind for its deepest fears and manifests an illusory image of what the creature fears the most. Target creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, target is Frightened. While Frightened in this way, the source of its fear remains in sight even if it closes its eyes, as the image appears in their mind.

Target creature can repeat the Wisdom saving throw at the end of each of its turns to attempt to break the bond with your spirit. On a success, the bond is broken and your spirit returns to its Soulstone.

Soulstorm

You gain the ability to draw upon the very life force of your captured souls, allowing you to unleash a storm of necrotic energy. Choose a number of souls up to your proficiency bonus to use to unleash the storm. You can either use the soul, which if it is currently beckoned, will return it to its Soulstone, and count once against the soul's fade counter (in addition to any fading incurred by dismissing a beckoned spirit). Or, you can consume the soul entirely, which will make the storm even more powerful. Souls used to fuel the storm cannot be beckoned or used again for any purpose until after a long rest. The storm is unleashed in a 20 ft. radius centered on you, and all creatures caught in this radius except for you are affected, and must succeed on a Constitution saving throw equal to your spell save DC, taking necrotic damage according to the below table, or taking half as much on a successful saving throw.

For each soul used or consumed, the damage added to the storm can be determined by the following table:

After unleashing the Soulstorm, you incur 1 level of Exhaustion for each soul consumed, to a maximum of 5.

Veilwalker

The Veilwalker toes the line between life and death, becoming like a spirit themselves, granting them many abilities of the spirits they command. Additionally, the Veilwalker has a stronger connection to their spirits and can speak to the dead, as well as command more spirits than other Soulbinders, and to make them stronger. The Veilwalker is a formidable foe you may never see coming.

Cunning Souls

Your spirits are better when they work together, becoming more proficient in combat when around other spirits. Beginning at 3rd-level, when your spirits are within 10 ft. of another one of your spirits, they gain the following benefits:

• They gain a +1 to AC.
• They gain an extra damage die on their attacks.
• They can distribute damage among them when one of them takes damage from another creature.
• If a spirit attacks a creature that another spirit has attacked this round, they gain advantage on their attack.

Veilwalk

At 7th-level, you gain the ability to shift into the Ethereal plane to become like a spirit yourself. As an action, you can shift into the Ethereal plane, becoming intangible for up to 1 minute. While in this state, you can see 60 ft. into the Material plane, seeing anything beyond as a vague pale green-white mist. You can move through solid objects at half of your movement speed unless the material you are trying to move through contains Zegrumite. You can occupy the same space as another creature. You are invisible to creatures on the Material plane unless they can see into the Ethereal plane.

You cannot interact with creatures on the Material plane and vice versa. However, if you have a magical weapon, you can make an attack against a creature on the Material plane, doing necrotic damage on a hit -- but this will make you visible to creatures on the Material plane until the end of your next turn, making you susceptible to attacks from magical sources.

You can choose to shift back to the Material plane early. When you re-enter the Material plane, if you are occupying the same space as another creature or object, you are shunted to the nearest unoccupied space, taking 5 (1d10) force damage for each 5 ft. you are moved. You can do this a number of times per long rest equal to half your proficiency bonus (rounded down).

Possess

At 10th-level, you gain the ability to enter the body of another creature while Veilwalking, allowing you to take control of them. Once per long rest, as an action while you are in your spirit form and while occupying the same space as another creature, you can enter their body and try to take control of it. The target creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC to avoid being controlled. On a failed save, you assume control of the creature's body for up to 10 minutes, gaining full access to all of their abilities. If the target creature is killed while you are possessing them, you are ejected back into your spirit form, taking 11 (2d10) psychic damage. The creature may repeat the saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ejecting you to your spirit form on a successful saving throw.

If the creature you are attempting to possess succeeds on their initial saving throw, your ability is not expended, and you can attempt to possess another creature after 1 minute. Your Veilwalking duration pauses while you are possessing a creature. After a creature has been possessed or succeeds on their saving throw against possession, they are immune to the effect for 24 hours.

Spiritual Affinity

You have mastered the art of beckoning spirits, and can call more spirits to your side. Beginning at 15th-level, you have an additional 10 Soul Points you can use to beckon spirits.

Enduring Spirits

Your connection to your spirits has strengthened to the point that you can sustain them indefinitely, preventing your captured souls from fading over time. Beginning at 18th-level, the souls captured in your Soulstones can be beckoned as many times as you wish.