Question about Death Knell

From the one line description it gives , this spell does fit in the category : *Soul Powers* So i ask of this: what exactly happens to the creature ?  Does the spell really suck is soul ? Does the target immediately goes to the afterlife or it would be stuck inside me for the duration of the spell?  Would it's transition taint it enough to change it's afterlife course? Or would you say it gets stuck in the ethereal?

A creature's soul and life force are connected, but distinct, things. The soul is basically the encoded personality, memory, and spiritual power of a creature (represented by experience points, hit dice, skill ranks, feats, class features, and so on). Life force is a special arrangement of positive or negative energy that sustains a creature's animate state. As a simile to a computer, you might think of the soul as software, the life force as electricity, and the body as hardware. Even living things without souls, such as plants, have a life force. In creatures with souls, the soul directs the lifeforce and is anchored to the body by it. If the lifeforce/body is too damaged to function, the body dies and the soul generally moves on to the afterlife after a few rounds. Some spells, like magic jar , affect both the life force and  the soul together. Death effects like death knell  generally attack the life force specifically, not the soul (though negative levels attack both). So when death knell  succeeds, it drains the remaining life force of the creature into your body. Without any life force left, the creature dies; and without the life force there to anchor its soul to its body, its soul moves on the afterlife after a rounds as normal. Dying from that particular spell wouldn't necessarily change the course of a soul's afterlife, though it's always possible that a violent or tragic death could traumatize a soul and prevent it from resting in peace. Such souls are slightly more likely to latch onto ambient negative energy, use it to create a new life force, and spontaneously reanimate as undead, or to become petitioners in the afterlife and plead with their deities for a new corporeal form in the outer planes.

I makes sence, 5 stars explanation !! thank you !

Max said: ... though it's always possible that a violent or tragic death could traumatize a soul and prevent it from resting in peace. Such souls are slightly more likely to latch onto ambient negative energy, use it to create a new life force, and spontaneously reanimate as undead... <.< Kinda like my character in the evil game >.> Who is in no way related to what happened in the previous arc <.< Nope not at all >.>

Mhh...interesting. Would you guys say it leaves the body intact or decrepit? Do you think a death by Death Knell is provable or one of the most low-key kills that exist ?

Cedric D. said: Mhh...interesting. Would you guys say it leaves the body intact or decrepit? Do you think a death by Death Knell is provable or one of the most low-key kills that exist ? Death effects don't generally leave a mark, since they affect the life force directly (by contrast, stabbing someone damages their life force by damaging their body). As a result, they're difficult to identify as a cause of death. You could find the subtle signs with high Spellcraft or Heal check, but to a layman it would probably look like the death knell  victim died of whatever injuries brought them below -1 HP in the first place... and even if an expert were on hand, they'd be less likely to look for something like death knell  with more obvious injuries present to explain the cause of death. For a death attack that doesn't require the victim to be injured, like finger of death , circle of death , or the Death Touch of certain clerics and death elementals, there would be no obvious cause of death at all. Again, a high Spellcraft or Heal check could identify it, but otherwise it would seem like the victim died of something internal and natural, like a heart attack, stroke, or brain aneurysm.