#bro can't even spiderclimb smh

[synchodai]

Does Astarion have a soul?

Even before Larian muddied the waters by introducing their special boy (who defies a lot of conventional D&D vampire rules), there's been a lot of debate amongst players whether undead have souls. Which undead have souls? Incorporeal undead like ghosts and banshees are lost souls, after all, but what about corporeal undead? Are they just necrotic fleshbots (as per Eberron rules)? Does it have something to so with their sentience or power level or autonomy?

A lot of Forgotten Realms source books are contradictory, deliberately vague, and told through multiple unreliable POVs, so we don't really have a definitive answer. D&D vampire lore isn't exempt from this. Usually, the answer is just "DM ruling" since the point of D&D is to twist rules and lore to accomodate the players' stories.

In BG3's case, Astarion clearly still has a soul because he can do the following:

Bargain it with devils

Receive blessings from Astral Plane deities

Attune to equipment (or BG3's version of attunement with the Necromancy of Thay)

Can be revivified and (true) resurrected (unique to Astarion, as other vampire spawn turn to mist when they are lethally damaged consistent with D&D rules)

Unless the mindflayer tadpole re-ensouled Astarion somehow (very very VERY unlikely), this means that vampire spawn retain their souls even after dying.

That being said, I highly discourage turning your PC into a vampire spawn if you're playing D&D. Because they are under the complete thrall of their sire, you will lose any player agency. They will effectively become an NPC and you will have to roll for a new character to continue playing.

This also means a spawn!Tav is not a true vampire spawn since they maintain their free will and cannot be compelled (at least, from what I've heard as I've never gone down spawn-AA route).

Spawn!Tav Implications (aka spoiling your "vampire bride" theories)

I've seen posts going around citing Van Richten's Guide to Vampires (a 2e source book) to explain spawn!Tav's transformation. However, if we were indeed going by 2e rules, Astarion would have to be an ancient vampire (400-499 years old) to be able to make a vampire bride/groom.

In Curse of Strahd, Strahd's consorts function mechanically as regular vampire spawn. As far as I know, there is no special ritual to designate "brides" or "consorts" in 5e. Sources have never specified how much blood a spawn needs to draw from their sire to become true vampires, so theoretically, even one drop should be enough.

And so, here is my more likely theory that explains spawn!Tav: Astarion, either accidentally or deliberately, made his first spawn into a true vampire — into another Vampire Ascendant even. This is the theory I'm leaning towards because it's the funniest and is in-line with Astarion's characterization of not making the wisest decisions and sometimes plain-old just not knowing what he's doing.

But hey, if you still want to use 2e Vampire Bride/Groom rules to explain Ascendent Astarion and spawn!Tav's relationship, feel free to do so. At the end of the day, this is D&D and it all comes down to DM's ruling.