Soul drinking

The process of soul drinking is an ability mentioned in the Conversion Book (page 54) as an ability of the most powerful of rune weapons, which are termed "soul drinkers".

They were introduced from the Palladium RPG from the 1980s, which also had a more extreme ability called soul eating belonging to the rune weapon called Deathkiss.

Specific versions of soul drinkers later appeared in Atlantis (creations of the Splugorth) and the armaments of various deities in Pantheons of the Megaverse.

Basic rules

The initial Conversion Book description was quite absolute:

A victim devoured by a rune weapon is forever lost.

The savings throw was specified as being a save vs magic, meaning that bonuses to save vs magic could help protect against it. Since natural 1s were not absolute failures, having +13 to save vs magic was effective immunity, since a modified 14 would win ties.

Mega-damage creatures were not immune to this, they explicitly suffer 3x damage (as opposed to 2x) on a successful savings throw.

The savings throw required "blood must be drawn" so creatures that lacked blood (such as elementals) are presumably immune to it.

• it's unclear how this would work with something like an Elemental possessing a being with blood such as a human

Other obvious defenses would be things like wearing body armor, since it's MDC would need to be depleted before drawing blood.

The maximum 1d6 souls per day also implies you might "fill up" a rune weapon to remove it's danger, such as throwing mice at the sword and having the sword suck the souls of the mice. Initially there did not appear to be any option for a rune weapon to abstain and avoid soul-drinking: it was treated like an automatic thing no matter who the target.

"may be done slowly or in a spectacular flash" remains unclear as to whether the rune weapon or it's user could vary the speed and if it was being done slowly, perhaps interrupt it prior to complete.

Errata re greater beings

Since under basic rules this could allow a very easy defeat of high-MDC creatures like gods/demon lords/alien intelligences, the FAQ introduced a new restriction to this later at https://www.palladiumbooks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=213%3Aarmor-cybernetics-equipment-and-weapons-questions-&catid=58&Itemid=200 number 32 which defined five tiers of interaction

• Question: Can soul drinker swords from Rifts Atlantis affect gods and dragons?
• Answer: As Soul Drinkers are Greater Rune weapons, there are very few beings that can resist their power to some degree. Among such entities are:

1. Great Old Ones -- are immune to soul drinking.
2. Alien Intelligence's (like the Lord of the Deep and Apsu of the Abyss), Deities that can be considered as Supreme Beings of their pantheons, and Splugorth -- can easily resist souldrinking because of their power level, but can be affected by continuous attacks.
3. Supernatural Intelligence's (such as Modeus, Mictla, Mephisto), major Deities, and Death (of the Four Horsemen) -- can resist soul drinking with some effort but can be affected by repeated attacks.
4. Vampire Intelligence's, Apocalypse Demons (excluding Death), minor Deities, and ancient dragons -- subject to soul drinking but will have a number of pluses to save (the bonus will vary the power level of the entity).
5. Creatures with power levels below those mentioned already have no resistance to speak of vs. soul drinking.

• For entities and creatures that are not already mentioned, just extrapolate from the existing beings listed above.

The lowest tier with "no resistance to speak of" likely refers to special considerations, since all creatures with high PE who get a bonus to save vs magic should per CB's definition get a bonus to save vs souldrinking.

The above four tiers were not actually quantified regarding what the bonus should be, or how much "effort" it would take. Presumably all such creatures enjoy their usual save vs magic, with some kind of special resistance on top of that.

This is mostly interesting for defining different tiers of "intelligences" with "alien" outranking "supernatural" outranking "vampire".

Errata re magic

number 54 at https://www.palladiumbooks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=213%3Aarmor-cybernetics-equipment-and-weapons-questions-&catid=58&Itemid=200

• Question:If a character is the victim of a Soul Drink from a Rune Weapon can they be brought back to life via magic like the Resurection tatoo or similar spell?
• Answer: They cannot be resurrected because their life essence has been drunk by the soul drinker. Once a soul has been absorbed by a Soul Drinker its gone for good.

Errata re self-stabbing

number 94 at https://www.palladiumbooks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=213%3Aarmor-cybernetics-equipment-and-weapons-questions-&catid=58&Itemid=200

• Question: I also have a question about soul drinking weapons if a bonded person gets stabbed by their own sword should they immune to the soul drinking or did we do the right thing by rolling a save.
• Answer: They would have to roll to save, after all, a soul is a soul.

"Only the wielder of the Soul Slayer can command when this is done" is mentioned on page 57 of Armageddon Unlimited, but it's unclear if that's meant to be a unique ability of Soul Slayers in particular or if it applies retroactively to all Soul Drinker weapons

Minion War Nerfs

Various books released in the Minion War redefined the concept of souldrinking making it a much less intimidating process which no longer results in "forever lost".

While it can lead to the destruction of the soul over time, it is no longer instantaneous and happens after long periods of detachment and confinement.

Following section data TBA

See also

• Soul-Saving