Tempered Soul
Tempered Soul
Tempered Soul is a feat granted to every member of Deez Nuts when their souls were reforged in the Hells and they signed A Compact of restoration and continuance in Session 50. It is as much a roleplaying device as a mechanic.
As of S52 (2026-07-12) the feat has evolved into Tempered Soul Aspects — see Aspects below. On D&D Beyond, the old Tempered Soul feat is deleted and Tempered Soul Aspects added in its place, with your Aspect chosen from the drop-down.
Effect (the original form, S50–S52)
Once per long rest, a character may add 1d4 to any d20 test they make (an attack, check, or save) — or raise the DC of a save they are imposing on another by the same amount. To use it, the player must narrate the emotion, memory, or instinct that fuels the surge: the grief, rage, love, or stubbornness their soul has been tempered by.
Aspects (from S52)
Using the feat repeatedly in the same domain tempers the soul in that direction until it crystallizes into an Aspect. The DM: "you have used your tempered soul enough times in a single domain that you have… basically leveled up your soul a little bit."
- In-domain, roll a d6 instead of a d4. The d4 stays available for anything — including in-domain, if you want to spend less.
- Charges replace "once per day." Your pool is the sum of every soul die you hold: base d4 + one d6 Aspect = 10 charges. A d4 costs 4 charges to roll, a d6 costs 6.
- Recovery: all charges back on a long rest (camping overnight counts), half back on a short rest — this applies to everyone, Aspect or not.
- Growth: an Aspect scales d6 → d8 → d10 → d12 → d20 with continued in-domain use. Spreading across several Aspects makes any one of them harder to push high — "do you want to focus in one area, or do you want to branch it out so that you have broader domains?" One Aspect each for now.
- The number of charge boxes is tied to proficiency bonus, so the pool grows again at level 9.
Rulings: any d20 roll is a legal target; it may raise a save DC you impose on others; it may be applied to a check already rolled (retroactively); and you may spend it after you learn what you are facing — "the whole point is, like, you know whether or not you need to go bigger."
The Aspects
All six were "bumped up" by the end of S52; the DM finalized the drop-downs afterward.
| Character | Aspect | Domain | Crystallized |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shade | Arcane Certainty | Empowering arcane energy | S52 — overnight visions of "throwing fireballs and chromatic orbs, and just the power of the destruction that you're able to wield" |
| Baelgrum | Protection and Healing | Shielding and blessing the party | S52 — overnight visions of "been sort of the shield for the party… taking on damage so that they didn't" |
| Gootcha | (named after the session) | — | S52 — mid-combat, on the sneak-attack shot that exposed Rook: "your Tempered Soul is going to bump you into your aspect" |
| Keyleth | (named after the session) | Nature and survival (the DM's steer) | S52 |
| Xanphina | (named after the session) | — | S52 |
| Karma | (named after the session) | — | S52 |
Intent
The DM (Wes Vaske) framed this as a deliberately open-ended, evolving feature rather than a flat bonus: "this is something that you should try to use every day… it will evolve over time." Each invocation is meant to deepen the character — a small, recurring window into who each survivor became after passing through death and the Hells. The Aspects are that evolution paying out: what you reach for under fire is what your soul becomes.
Usage Log
Every use is recorded on Tempered Soul/Usage Log — what each character empowered, the roll and the die, the feeling they channeled, and a verbatim quote. The log is how the feat's growth is tracked over time, and the DM uses it to decide when an Aspect has been earned, so narrate (and record) every spend.
Holders
All reforged members of Deez Nuts: Shade, Xanphina, Keyleth, Gootcha, Karma, and Baelgrum (the soul bound in Alexios's place).