Tempered Soul/Usage Log: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 00:15, 21 September 2026

Tempered Soul Usage Log

A running record of every time a member of Deez Nuts spends Tempered Soul. The feat was granted to the whole party when they signed the Compact in Session 50, so the log begins there.

Why we track this: Tempered Soul is meant to be narrated, not just rolled. Per the DM's rule ^[1]: each use, the player tells the table what they are feeling, what they are using it to empower, and how they envision that power coming about. And because in-domain Aspect use is what grows the Aspect (d6 → d8 → d10 → d12 → d20), the log separates base d4 spends from Aspect d6 spends. What you log is what your soul becomes.

How to log a use

For every spend, add a row to that character's table below:

Session it happened in.
Die — the base d4, or the character's named Aspect d6. If the table never said which and the result doesn't prove it (a rolled 5 or 6 can only be the d6), log it as the d4.
Empowered — the exact roll or effect, with the math: base roll + die(result) = total. (An attack, a save, a save DC raised, a check, a harvest roll, damage.)
Feeling & how they described it — the emotion, memory, or instinct, quoted verbatim.
Outcome — did the soul die change the result?

The Aspects

Full domain definitions are on Tempered Soul.

Character	Aspect (d6)	Domain, in short
Shade	Arcane Certainty	Unhesitating confidence in her own magic
Baelgrum	Protector's Debt	Shielding, aiding, healing, rescuing those in his care
Xanphina	Hellworn Fury	Rage sustained past all reason
Karma	Heartwood Resolve	Planting herself and refusing to bend
Keyleth	The Righteous Hunt	Prey judged deserving — including harvesting the deserving dead
Gootcha	Raven's Remembrance	Deliberate memory; acts in the Raven Queen's sight
Carl	Aye Aye, Captain	Afraid, and doing the thing regardless

Prelude — the return strikes ^[1]

Before the feat was formally granted, each soul returning from the Hells imbued one action with more power than they had ever managed — the DM had each player roll a d4, add it, and describe what they felt. These six simultaneous strikes killed Arauthator (89 damage, all at once). They are the feat's origin, logged here for the record and not counted in the tally.

Character	Empowered	Feeling & how described (quote)	Outcome
Keyleth	Longbow shot (the first strike; Hunter's Mark re-cast) — 16 + d4(2) = 18	Infernal rage: "Well, some infernal rage I felt, I believe. Anger. And, pixies were all fired up. They're more swarm and bug-like. And so I channeled a lot of that, the rage into it, and drew back my bow, and… let loose."	Hit — and time itself slowed after her arrow, letting the others strike as one
Xanphina	Returning Trident throw — 17 + d4	Rage at the whole ordeal: "Obviously, rage. Rage at… how long and hard I already have been fighting him. And having gone literally to hell and back. And still being here fighting him… I felt it as I threw my trident, and I just put all of it into the throw."	Hit
Baelgrum	Guiding Bolt (his first act with the party — "Dragonfight! I think I like you people already.")	Cold rage / revenge: "Anger. A need for revenge… [a dragon] actually burned my brother to death in a grain store as he was trying to protect our village. So… the past 3 years has been sort of a revenge tour on dragons and cultists. It's cold rage."	Hit
Karma	Blight — d4(1) added to the Constitution save DC (first-ever save-DC use)	Total conviction: "Pure confidence. I have never felt so confident that this will strike true in my entire life."	Dragon failed; Blight burned deep
Shade	Chromatic Orb (4th level) — 24 to hit + d4	Power: "I'm feeling super fucking smart. And… powerful. And so I'm just, like, putting all my power into it."	Hit
Gootcha	Silence — 20-ft sphere over the dragon, d4 rolled into the effect	The Raven Queen: "I am feeling annoyed. And I am also feeling the Raven Queen through me. Tell[ing] me to silence him. And end him."	The kill landed in eerie, total silence

Usage by character

All S50–S51 spends predate the Aspects (crystallized during S52) and are base d4 by definition.

Baelgrum — Aspect: Protector's Debt

#	Session	Die	Empowered	Feeling & how described (quote)	Outcome
1	S50	d4	Attack — last charge of his Orb of Dragon's Breath (fire) vs. the Hydra	Revulsion → protectiveness: "I'm feeling revulsion seeing this monstrosity on my friggin' boat. And I am channeling this energy to protect my new friends."	+3 → hit (24); 23 damage, Hydra down to two heads
2	S50	d4	Save DC — raised the Wisdom save DC of his 4th-level Spirit Guardians vs. the Dragon Turtle to 19	Confidence + protectiveness + awe: "I'm feeling… Confidence? … want to sort of protect these [good] people. I'm also feeling bewilderment at all the shit I've seen in… the one day I've been with this group."	Turtle rolled a natural 1, failed the DC 19; 19 radiant + speed halved
3	S51	d4	Wisdom save (DC 15) — volunteering to open Halvard's bolted chest of 3,000 red coins	Duty to strangers: "…while I was not involved in this particular escapade to start this, I am feeling like it is necessary for us to try and help these people out."	12 + d4(4) = 16 — the d4 was the whole margin; avoided the curse's failed-save rider
4	S51	d4	Spell attack — touching the hostile dockmaster Bargus with Remove Curse (had already hit; spent it anyway; second spend without a long rest between, allowed at the table)	Responsibility / setting things right: "…we were… in a roundabout way, the cause of this. So yeah, responsibility, trying to set things right."	28 → 31; the curse "washes through him very powerfully" — Bargus uniquely kept his memories of the coins calling to him
5	S52	d4 (deliberate — out of domain)	Persuasion check (with advantage, from Keyleth's Insight) — getting the burned-out villagers to open up about the red dragon and the cultists. "The four banger, I think."	Personal grief: "…where I'm from, this exact thing happened. This is how I lost… chunk of my family… this is particularly personal."	Success. The roll that cracked the cult's method — a villager reveals the cultists are "working through their list… collecting more and more gold and treasure for their dragon god."
6	S52	d4	Survival check — the 8-day Baldur's Gate → Elturel march. 14 + d4(1) = 15 (−1 Survival, plus Keyleth's Guidance)	— none narrated: "Another one on the D4, sick." (sarcastic — a 1)	Travel resolved as uneventful
7	S52	Aspect d6 — the first Aspect spend in campaign history	Save DC — 4th-level Command ("Halt") on Garrick, Vex and Keith at once. Base DC 17 + d6(4) = DC 21	Protecting the party: "I'm… attempting to slow some of these fools down from swinging on my friends."	Devastating — all three failed and lost their whole turn. The single most load-bearing spend of the ambush.
8	S53	d4 (deliberate — "this is not necessarily protecting")	Save DC — 4th-level Fireball vs. the undead horde; d4(1) → DC 18 for the dragonborn cultist only (the one-creature ruling was made on this spend)	Vengeance: "My guy's pissed… he wants to send these guys back to hell."	Dragonborn failed; zombies incinerated; the dragonborn left bloodied
9	S53	Aspect d6	Save DC — Command ("Halt") (1st level) on the second blue dragon wyrmling; d6(2) → DC 19	Protective calm: "…now I just want to protect Gootcha and Will." (Will down; Gootcha exposed on the wall.)	Failed — the wyrmling halted mid-air, could only land, and died to Gootcha. The spend that grounded the fight's last flier.
10	S54	Aspect d6	Save DC — 2nd-level Command ("Approach") on the Yuan-ti Anathema (advantage on saves vs. magic); d6(6) → DC 24 — the maximum roll	Protection, plus civic pest-control: "Not only am I trying to protect my friends, I'm also trying to rid this town of this sneaky-headed asshole."	Unbeatable — DM: "He can't, he fails." The silenced, poisoned anathema was dragged through the wolf pack and died before arriving.
11	S54	d4	Harvest check — the Anathema; 14 + d4(3) + Guidance(3) = 20, exactly the Very Rare DC	Providing for the party: "Want to build up some good stuff to protect the homies."	His best smithing harvest yet — the Anathema Scale Coat
12	S55	Aspect d6 (named: "there's my D6. Come on, baby." — rolled a 3)	Save DC — Scrying (5th level, his first casting) on Varram the White, keyed to the purple wyrmspeaker's thread and his 1,000-gp crystal; d6(3) added to the save DC, with Guidance over his shoulder	The quest, and the one who matters: "This target is specifically important to our quest… pretty much one of the figureheads of this whole deal."	The vision came through — Varram revealed as a prisoner of the yuan-ti, tortured in a windowless cell, pleading for her life. The reveal that reframed the whole pursuit.

Keyleth — Aspect: The Righteous Hunt

#	Session	Die	Empowered	Feeling & how described (quote)	Outcome
1	S50	d4	Attack — longbow reaction shot (Captain Larusta's command) vs. the Hydra	Fear/anger: "I can't think of an inspiration right now. Other than fear, I'm very upset about the dead people up front, angry, as usual…"	Hit; 12 damage + 4 Hunter's Mark
2	S50	d4	Harvesting roll — Dragon Turtle carcass (d4 = 1)	Vengeful & righteous: "…I find myself relishing it more than I probably would have in the past. Feeling vengeful and righteous."	Result deferred
3	S51	d4	Wisdom save — retconned onto the psychic pulse from the first coin-melt	Ancestral guidance: "Channel the wisdom of my elders… Feeling pretty confident in that role."	Shielded her mind from the infernal pulse
4	S52	d4	Survival check — day 3 of the Luskan → Neverwinter march	Teenage angst: "…my survival has not been as easy every day… a lot of angst, teenage angst almost."	Day passed uneventfully
5	S52	d4	Survival check — the night's camp. 25 + d4(1) = 26 — the highest of the party	Anger for the villagers: "…it's more of anger and frustration at what the villagers went through."	Carried the group to an excellent night's rest
6	S52	d4	Survival check — the Baldur's Gate → Elturel march. 18 + d4(2) = 20	— none narrated	Travel uneventful
7	S52	d4	Damage — Worm Reaver hit on Vex, "Whopping two more" (the spend that later produced the damage-is-legal ruling)	Indignant fury: "…how dare he get all up in my business and lay hand upon me."	+2 damage; Vex left "still standing, but barely"
8	S53	Aspect d6	Damage — the killing of the first blue dragon wyrmling, stacked on her super-inspiration auto-crit. In-domain: "it's your hunter's [aspect], basically" — her prey, found and struck	Declared through action rather than narration — the killing shot itself	Killed the wyrmling — ensnared out of the sky, pixies desecrating the corpse
9	S54	Aspect d6	Harvest check — the Anathema; 14 + d6(3) + Guidance(3) = 20, exactly the Very Rare DC. In-domain by name: harvesting the deserving dead	— none narrated; she self-targeted Guidance	Recovered the Heat-Pit Clusters; the d6 was part of the exact margin
10	S55	d4 (die not named; a 2)	Investigation check — the dug-up explorer's grave on Varram's trail; 22 + (2) = 24	— none narrated: "Should I add some Tempered Soul to that bad boy?"	The extra reach found the pattern: the digger ignored the coin and rifled only spaces big enough to hide a mask or a helm
11	S55	d4 (die not named; a 2)	Attack roll — longbow vs. a diving Peryton; a natural 1 (12), + (2) = 14 → hit. The ruling was made on this spend: a Tempered Soul spend can overcome a natural 1	— none narrated; the DM: "If you put your tempered soul on, I'll say that that can overcome a 1."	Miss into hit — 11 damage into the wounded man-hunter
12	S55	Aspect d6 (rolled a 5)	Damage — the killing arrow on the same peryton, limping for the horizon. In-domain: prey judged deserving — a flight that ate only people	The DM supplied the image: "You force the world around you to obey, and the arrow buries itself even deeper, striking into its heart."	Killed the peryton — "That felt good."

Shade — Aspect: Arcane Certainty

#	Session	Die	Empowered	Feeling & how described (quote)	Outcome
1	S50	d4	Attack — Chromatic Orb (fire) vs. the Hydra	Pure confidence: "what I'm feeling is just, like, pure confidence."	Hit (32); 40 fire — killed the Hydra
2	S50	d4	Attack — 3rd-level Chromatic Orb (acid) vs. the Dragon Turtle, "just in case I miss"	Bloodlust + confidence + anger: "…all my new power has been wonderful. And I'm really mad, because I also got some of his steam."	Hit (24); 30 acid
3	S51	d4	Wisdom save (DC 20) — the infernal pulse of 2,400 coins melting in the Host Tower vault	Confidence, and pyromania: "I too am feeling confident that we can do this. And I like fire."	Took 2 psychic (halved)
4	S52	d4	Survival check — the night's camp. 10 + d4(1) = 11	Restless anticipation: "I'm feeling… anxious for a fight, but, like, in a good way."	A wasted spend — she slept badly anyway
5	S52	d4	Survival check — the Baldur's Gate → Elturel march. 4 + d4(3) = 7	Weariness: "Ambitious but tired."	Travel still resolved as an easy trip
6	S52	d4 (die not named; a 3)	Wisdom save (DC 14) vs. Rook's shadow-arrow — failure = blinded. 13 + (3) = 16 — the 13 would have failed by one	— none narrated by the player; the DM supplied the image: "you use your arcane power and push them aside." (Keyleth: "Be tempered.")	The die was the entire margin. She immediately Hellish Rebuked Rook in return
7	S54	Aspect d6 (rolled a 5)	Harvest check — the Anathema; 25 + d6(5) = 30, the table's best	Determination: "I'm feeling determined to get this poison."	Signature Venom Glands ×2 and the deepest haul of the carcass

Gootcha — Aspect: Raven's Remembrance

#	Session	Die	Empowered	Feeling & how described (quote)	Outcome
1	S50	d4	Long-rest Constitution save / Survival check (DC 18)	Longing for rest: "I need rest, and I'm looking forward to sweet dreams."	Not individually resolved on-screen
2	S50	d4	Hex — d4 (rolled 1) applied to the Dragon Turtle's Dexterity saves while hexed (DM ruling: disadvantage −1)	Memory of the slain dragon: "As I'm hexing him, I am thinking of a memory of the dragon… that we just killed."	The turtle failed every Dexterity save for the rest of the fight
3	S51	d4	Sleight of Hand — mid-attempt reroll pickpocketing a Kurth bridge guard (with Baelgrum's Guidance)	Her old self: "I'm feeling my past and how good I used to be at this. Feeling like I got this."	Success — 20 gold (18 red — the discovery that cracked the whole mystery) plus a ring
4	S52	d4	Survival check — day 3 of the Luskan → Neverwinter march	Frustration: "…every other day was so easy. Why is today so hard?"	Day passed uneventfully
5	S52	d4	Survival check — the Baldur's Gate → Elturel march. 18 + d4(2) = 20	— none narrated	Travel uneventful
6	S52	d4 → Aspect d6 (retroactive upgrade — the crystallizing spend)	Attack roll — sneak-attack shortbow at Vex; 14 (miss) + d4(3) = 17, then the DM ruled the spend itself tipped her into her Aspect: "I'm gonna treat it like a D6… bump up that extra 2" → 19	Remembering who she is: "I am… remembering what a badass I am."	Miss into hit — and revealed the ambush's hidden piece: the arrow struck the invisible Rook, popping her invisibility
7	S54	d4 (die not named; a 4)	Harvest check — the Anathema; 23 + (4) = 27, second-best of the table (Thieves' → Jeweler's fine work)	— none narrated on-mic	Both pairs of Gemlike Serpent Eyes

Xanphina — Aspect: Hellworn Fury

#	Session	Die	Empowered	Feeling & how described (quote)	Outcome
1	S50	d4	Long-rest Constitution save / Survival check (DC 18)	— none narrated: "I'm gonna use mine, too."	Not individually resolved
2	S50	d4	Harvesting roll — Dragon Turtle carcass (d4 = 2)	Rage: "I'm viewing my harvesting with rage, because I'm still raging."	12 total (result deferred)
3	S51	d4	Strength (Athletics) — tearing the dockmaster's bolted-down coin box off his desk (had already passed with 21; spent it anyway)	Accomplishment: "…we are making progress in helping to right this wrong that we have done to this town."	The bolts sheared and flew across the room
4	S52	d4	Survival check — day 3 of the Luskan → Neverwinter march	Calm: "I'm feeling, um… Zen."	Day passed uneventfully
5	S52	d4	Survival check — the Baldur's Gate → Elturel march. d4(3)	— none narrated	Travel uneventful
6	S52	d4	Save DC — Restraining Ward DC 15 → 17 (d4 = 2) on the caster winding up a Fireball (available "because you are not yet raging")	Anger: "I am feeling angry that he is trying to fireball me."	He rolled exactly 15 — pass vs. 15, fail vs. 17. Restrained mid-cast; the Fireball never went off
7	S53	Aspect d6	Wisdom save (DC 15) vs. the necromancer's Bestow Curse (fail = lose her action); rolled low, added the d6 (in-domain — refusing to drop under a force pressing on her)	— none narrated; a grasp at freedom ("Can I use my… whatever, Tempered Soul.")	Failed anyway — "didn't get me there." Lost her action; cast Shield of Faith as a bonus action instead
8	S54	d4 (die not named; a 4)	Harvest check — the Anathema; 17 + (4) = 21	Curiosity: "I'm just really curious about what we're going to get out of this weird snake guy."	Cleared the Very Rare DC — the Mageward Ichor
9	S55	d4 (rolled a 1)	Attack roll — heavy crossbow at the last Peryton fleeing at 400 feet, with disadvantage; 10 + (1) = 11, needing 13. The DM ruled her rage-fueled shot qualified for Hellworn Fury, but her sheet carried only the d4	— none narrated; woken by talons, throwing everything after the one that got away	Still missed — she ran it down on foot instead, cliff and all, and left it barely flying with a Javelin of Lightning

Karma — Aspect: Heartwood Resolve

#	Session	Die	Empowered	Feeling & how described (quote)	Outcome
1	S50	d4	Long-rest Constitution save / Survival check (DC 18)	— none narrated: "Might as well use mine."	Not individually resolved
2	S50	d4	Harvesting roll — Dragon Turtle carcass (herbalism kit)	Curiosity: "Pure curiosity and interest. I want to know what we're going to be able to make from this."	26 ("close")
3	S51	d4	Wisdom save (DC 20) — the infernal pulse of the vault melt she herself triggered	Hardened resolve: "…just hardened resolve and confidence flow through me."	Took 2 psychic (halved)
4	S52	d4	Survival check — the night's camp. 9 + d4(4) = 13 — the best possible roll on the die	Confidence: "I'm feeling confident I'm gonna get an excellent night's sleep."	Lifted a below-average roll to a solid one
5	S52	d4 (die rolled a 1)	Save DC — Cone of Cold DC 16 → 17 on four enemies at once (predates the S53 one-creature ruling)	Ferocious confidence: "I'm just feeling so confident, I'm gonna fuck these guys up."	The single point mattered — a 16 that would have saved now failed. "All of them are taking full damage." 36 each
6	S54	Aspect d6 (rolled a 5)	Harvest check — the Anathema; 12 + d6(5) = 17	Determination: "I am determined that I'm going to get something good out of here."	Missed Very Rare by three; cleared Rare — the Antivenin Organ

Carl — Aspect: Aye Aye, Captain

Carl carries Tempered Soul: Aspects too — reforged alongside the company. No spends recorded yet. When he spends, log it here: the d6 fires only when he is visibly afraid and follows through anyway — and never, by party treaty, on his bow.

Declined or deferred uses

Also part of the record — moments a character weighed the surge and held it:

Gootcha ^[1]: a hopeless roll — "even 4 points isn't gonna get me anywhere."
Keyleth ^[1]: offered mid-fight, chose the Hellhound Whistle's Erupting Earth instead and saved the surge for the harvest.
Gootcha ^[2]: offered a retcon — "Actually, you know what, I'm gonna save it, because we might need to stealth our way into another place." (First deliberate hoarding of the surge.)
Baelgrum ^[2]: passed the DC 20 clean — "I guess it doesn't matter. I was gonna say Tempered Soul."
Keyleth ^[3]: invited by name to spend toward her Aspect, and let it pass (a 5 on the die, but +11 Survival).
Keyleth ^[3]: an Insight of 11 went un-tempered — she used the mediocre result to pick the most talkative villager and handed the moment to Baelgrum.
Baelgrum, Gootcha, Xanphina ^[3]: sat out the night-camp survival check; Baelgrum ate a 7 without flinching, having just confirmed camping resets the feat.
Karma ^[3]: the only member not to spend on that check. Her 16 stood on its own.
Keyleth ^[4]: held her die when told "it's probably not enough to take them out" — the model hoarding play — then spent the moment the crit made it lethal (spend #8).
Keyleth ^[5]: offered the die on her Strength save — "you would need to get, like, a 5 out of it" — and held: "I'll wait, I'll see what I can do next time. Or if you guys kill it." Freed herself next turn with Conjure Animals advantage plus Bless.
Karma ^[5]: held her spend in combat and banked it for the harvest.
Baelgrum ^[6]: readied his die for the religion check on the gnolls — "I'm going to use my four" — and the DM waved it off: he would know the answer before spending. The 15 stood un-tempered.

Tally

Feat uses only (the S50 return strikes are logged in the Prelude and not counted). Aspect spends are the growth metric. Where the table never named the die, it is counted as the d4.

Character	Aspect	d4 spends	Aspect d6 spends	Total
Baelgrum	Protector's Debt	8	4	12
Keyleth	The Righteous Hunt	9	3	12
Xanphina	Hellworn Fury	8	1	9
Shade	Arcane Certainty	6	1	7
Gootcha	Raven's Remembrance	6	1	7
Karma	Heartwood Resolve	5	1	6
Carl	Aye Aye, Captain	0	0	0
Total	—	42	11	53

Reading the tally: Baelgrum leads on Aspect spends — three Command save-DCs and now a Scrying, every one in service of the people or the quest in his care. Keyleth has pulled level with him in total spends, and her d6 keeps firing where her domain lives: the kill and the harvest of deserving prey. Name your die when you spend — an unnamed die is logged as the d4, and only Aspect spends grow the Aspect.

Rulings history

S50: the feat granted — a d4 on any d20 test, narration required.
S52 — the Aspects awaken: repeated in-domain use crystallized an Aspect for all six (Shade and Baelgrum by vision on the first night; Gootcha mid-combat, the DM retroactively upgrading her die). The charge pool established: pool = the total sides of your soul dice (d4 + d6 = 10); a die costs charges equal to its sides; half the maximum back on a short rest, all of it on a long rest; camping overnight counts. Other rulings: any d20 roll qualifies; retroactive application allowed; may raise an imposed save DC; may be spent after you know what you face.
S53: a save-DC boost applies to one creature only of a multi-target spell.
2026-08-09 errata: damage is a legal target for the die — "a less useful usage so I don't see a problem with it" (retroactively blessing Keyleth's S52 #7 and S53 #8).
S54: harvest checks are legal targets; with a long rest imminent, the whole party may spend on one carcass; Keyleth's d6 explicitly covers "harvesting the deserving dead."
S55: a Tempered Soul spend can overcome a natural 1 on an attack roll — the auto-miss becomes a hit if the total reaches the AC (made on Keyleth's peryton shot). A spend on the save DC of Scrying is legal (Baelgrum's first casting).

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 Session 50.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Session 51 — stables heist.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 Session 52 — day-2 survival.
↑ Session 53 — the wyrmling.
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 Session 54 — the anathema's Entangle.
↑ Session 55 — the gnolls.

Hammer 17, 1489 DR, 1:00 PM — Carl: Knot (Weave), failed
Hammer 17, 1489 DR, 1:00 PM — Carl: Lock (Weave), failed
Hammer 17, 1489 DR, 1:00 PM — Carl: Rune (Weave), failed
Hammer 17, 1489 DR, 1:00 PM — Carl: Lock (Weave), failed
Hammer 17, 1489 DR, 1:00 PM — Carl: Knot (Weave), failed
Hammer 17, 1489 DR, 1:00 PM — Carl: Thread (Weave, d6), failed

[s50-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 Session 50.

[s51-2] 2.0 ^2.1 Session 51 — stables heist.

[s52-3] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 Session 52 — day-2 survival.

[s53-4] Session 53 — the wyrmling.

[s54-5] 5.0 ^5.1 Session 54 — the anathema's Entangle.

[s55-6] Session 55 — the gnolls.

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Tempered Soul/Usage Log: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 00:15, 21 September 2026

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