Oblivion:Soul Trap

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	Soul Trap
School		Mysticism
Type		Offensive
Effect ID		STRP
Base Cost		30.
Barter Factor		0
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Soul Trap in A feet for D seconds.

Soul Trap locks the soul of a given creature or NPC in an empty soul gem immediately after their death. Note that the spell doesn't capture souls on its own. You must ensure that your victim dies within the next D seconds after you have cast a Soul Trap spell on them. If you fail to kill the target before the Soul Trap spell expires, you miss the chance. That's not all, to really trap a soul you must have an appropriate soul gem to store it in. All creatures and NPCs in the game have souls and their related strengths:

Soul	Owner	Strength
Petty	Creature	150
Lesser	Creature	300
Common	Creature	800
Greater	Creature	1200
Grand	Creature	1600
Grand	NPC	1600

And there is a soul gem for each soul strength:

Soul Gem	Capacity
Petty	150
Lesser	300
Common	800
Greater	1200
Grand	1600
Black^*	1600

^* The only soul gem capable of holding NPC souls.

The more powerful the creature, the greater the soul strength it possesses. The Capacity of a soul gem must be greater than or equal to the Strength of a soul confined within that soul gem. See Enchanting below for more details about soul trapping.

[edit] Notes

Soul Trap is one of the enchantments available for making a custom mage's staff.
The sword Umbra found during the Clavicus Vile daedric quest is enchanted with a powerful Soul Trap.
Although Soul Trap does not physically harm the target, this effect is tagged as hostile. Therefore casting it on someone is considered an attack and may incur a bounty.