COMMUNITY - FORUMS - SOULS, TALENTS, & REINCARNATION
Will first born souls come with dispositions?

So, my partner and I have been pretty hotly debating the concept of "three souls to chose from" because it APPEARS as though those souls will already have certain affinities or dispositions to certain skill trees. Is this true?

In games where it can be so important to min-max your character (I don't care about this - partner does), this would potentially appear crippling. Having an idea for a character, lets say, that you want to train to be very good at combat and survival, but then you end up with three souls that do not have any of those things starting off at all, would put your character concept behind and make it an nonviable concept if you're concerned with min-maxing.

Are the souls going to start as blank slates if they're first born, OR, are we going to be disadvantaged by souls that are already more talented in certain areas than others?

Again, I personally love this idea, but my partner who takes more of a max your character out for what you want to specialize in approach, hates this.


Sha'harizi County - Capital City of Ah'wena - Countess Aria - Kitlandria!

2/27/2017 7:48:38 PM #1

Great questions, and somewhat related to my recent topic about "souls vs sparks." I would really love a new DJ or Q&A on character creation, to answer many of these questions. We have a lot of high-level information, but I think many folks would like to hear some more specific answers for specific scenarios (such as yours).

That said, my assumption is that your partner could consider starting as a ward of the state, which will give more freedom in the chargen steps after soul selection, at least.

Link: Character Creation wiki page, which gives our current understanding of the process.


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2/27/2017 7:51:12 PM #2

I can pass along what I think I understand about the soul system and others can correct me if I am mistaken.

You still start your account with 3 souls, each geared towards a different play style (ie. Crafter / Nobility / Combat). Some souls are new souls where others have have a lifetime or two of experience to them. I came to the conclusion that souls have a focus by the inference that after launch, the store will offer soul packs focusing on a different aspect of the game, something like Explorer Souls, Crafter Souls and the like. So it make since to me that souls will be geared this way before launch. Will it be unfair that someone may get a soul that has two lifetimes of experience where I get a fresh new soul, absolutely, but that is the nature of CoE.

If I am mistaken please take the time to set me straight because I would also like to know where I am going wrong.


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2/27/2017 7:56:08 PM #3

Posted By Sullen at 2:51 PM - Mon Feb 27 2017

I can pass along what I think I understand about the soul system and others can correct me if I am mistaken.

You still start your account with 3 souls, each geared towards a different play style (ie. Crafter / Nobility / Combat). Some souls are new souls where others have have a lifetime or two of experience to them. I came to the conclusion that souls have a focus by the inference that after launch, the store will offer soul packs focusing on a different aspect of the game, something like Explorer Souls, Crafter Souls and the like. So it make since to me that souls will be geared this way before launch. Will it be unfair that someone may get a soul that has two lifetimes of experience where I get a fresh new soul, absolutely, but that is the nature of CoE.

If I am mistaken please take the time to set me straight because I would also like to know where I am going wrong.

This is my current understanding of Souls as well.


2/27/2017 8:14:23 PM #4

Just looked through the q&a transcripts, but nothing new about this in there..

So from design journal 2: The first step in character creation is to select which soul you want to use. In the soul selection screen (See Figure 1) you can see the name, age, affinity, skill ramps, talents, and past achievements of each soul. That latter two, Talents and Achievements, won’t be visible the first time you play a soul.

We should know the Age and Skills the Soul has.

and from design journal 5: Your family selection, through a combination of nature and nurture, dictates many of your character's starting attributes such as your starting ability scores, starting skills, and the possible set of physical attributes your character can have. Of course, you have the ability to change and develop these things as you play, but it is your family that dictates your starting scores.

Not only your soul matters, your family plays a big part in your skills as well.

tl;dr: The Soul is your Skill Learning multiplier and your Family dictates your actual starting skill number.

Hope i got this right...else someone will hopefully correct me~


2/27/2017 8:17:02 PM #5

So, for those of us creating a bloodline, will we develop the affinity of the family, or will we have to chose a particular family within the game?


Sha'harizi County - Capital City of Ah'wena - Countess Aria - Kitlandria!

2/27/2017 8:24:27 PM #6

Posted By Kitlandria at 2:17 PM - Mon Feb 27 2017

So, for those of us creating a bloodline, will we develop the affinity of the family, or will we have to chose a particular family within the game?

You will pick a character in an existing family and rename the surname to what you wish.

Think renaming token from other games.

4/12/2017 8:49:30 PM #7

Or maybe upon logging onto your account for the first time you get an opportunity to take a Mulligan on the three souls you are presented with and get a fresh batch to choose from. I'm struggling to work that into CoE lore but hey ho.


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4/12/2017 9:30:08 PM #8

Posted By ZeroCool at 4:49 PM - Wed Apr 12 2017

Or maybe upon logging onto your account for the first time you get an opportunity to take a Mulligan on the three souls you are presented with and get a fresh batch to choose from. I'm struggling to work that into CoE lore but hey ho.

the whole idea of having more than one soul doesn't make sense in CoE lore. That part is purely game based for character slots. Each soul is a character, and each body is just a temporary shell that character wears.


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4/12/2017 9:38:13 PM #9

Also, I do believe at one time it was said that you could buy more souls. I assume the souls you buy would possibly have different characteristics to them than the original 3?


4/19/2017 1:12:37 PM #10

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ [deleted]

I've been corrected by Kaynadin


4/19/2017 1:22:21 PM #11

The souls will have essentially random starting ramps and ages as I understand it. Buying more soul booster packs gives you more variety to choose from and may give you an older soul.

As the game progresses the devs did mention once that players may have higher chances at getting older souls to start with or in the boosters to give some new players a chance to catch up more easily.