Why do my Black Soul Gems fill with Grand Souls?

[mountrye]

I know that souls will fill a larger gem if there isn't a matching one, but recently two grand souls have gone into black soul gems even though I was also carrying 5 empty grand soul gems (as well as a selection of smaller ones).

What's the deal here? Am I supposed to know in advance what kind of soul I'll be killing and bring only exactly the appropriate gems?

[Requiem]

Black Soul gems can capture any type of soul with one difference from the regular soul gems - they can trap humanoid souls too.

Directly from the Skyrim Wiki: Sentient souls captured with a black soul gem will always be of the "Grand" value.

From this, I can only assume that you are attacking and trapping sentient creatures of a high enough level that the black soulstone is the optimal target gem.

Hope that answers your question. 8 )

[DrZann]

Ah, I think I know what you're asking. Black Soul gems can capture souls of any type. Which gem a grand soul ends up in seems to be determined randomly as long as the soul fits. And since black souls are grand souls....

[mountrye]

Ah, ok, I think I get that. Although the souls are termed "grand", they're not the same kind of grand soul that would fit a grand soul gem. That makes sense, though it's a bit of a wicked, or at least confusing game design.

Thanks for explaining :)

[Sil]

If you kill someone in Skyrim who can talk to you, his/her soul can ONLY be captured in a black soul gem. So this means all humans basically, Bandits, Vampires, Guards, town people etc.. And these souls will always be of grand value.

The souls of animals and creatures go into the white soul gems. Depending on their size the smalles fitting gem is automatically chosen afaik.

So it would only be strange if you kill..idk..a mamooth, and it's soul goes in a black stone even when you got some white ones..that would be wrong I think :)

[DrZann]

Originally posted by mountrye:

Ah, ok, I think I get that. Although the souls are termed "grand", they're not the same kind of grand soul that would fit a grand soul gem. That makes sense, though it's a bit of a wicked, or at least confusing game design.

Thanks for explaining :)

Sort of, Grand Souls and Black Souls are basically equivalent. Black Souls come from NPCs. Grand Souls usually come from boss-types (Level 38+). While regular old Grand Souls will fit in Black Soul Gems, Black Souls will not fit into Grand Soul Gems. Either way, you get the same bang for your buck with either a Grand or Black Soul.

But Black Souls are much more common than your regular run of the mill Grand Soul. And Soul trapping people is generally frowned upon by the goodie-goodies.

[mountrye]

One suspects that Beth during game design had plans of only letting souls of goodies fill the grand/greater/common/lesser stones, but relented and let some baddy bosses qualify as well so that these stones would also have a little meaning for people who don't play as baddies.

[neilbert1]

I don't know - I usually play what I consider a "good guy", and I have no problems trapping the souls of Bandits, and frankly I think most Necromancers DESERVE to be soul trapped - especially the ones in Hob Cave!

[Sparhawk122]

This is why the official Skyrim gaming guide is so handy. It list what souls qualify for what soul gems. I would recommend getting it. It has aided me tremendously in my travels of Skyrim.

[Tim Timsen]

Originally posted by neilbert1:

I don't know - I usually play what I consider a "good guy", and I have no problems trapping the souls of Bandits, and frankly I think most Necromancers DESERVE to be soul trapped - especially the ones in Hob Cave!

Giving them a taste of their own medicine is the best kind of justice.
It feels even better now, because Dawnguard explains where used souls end up.

[DrZann]

Originally posted by Sparhawk122:

This is why the official Skyrim gaming guide is so handy. It list what souls qualify for what soul gems. I would recommend getting it. It has aided me tremendously in my travels of Skyrim.

This also a good resource. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Souls

[mountrye]

Originally posted by neilbert1:

I don't know - I usually play what I consider a "good guy", and I have no problems trapping the souls of Bandits, and frankly I think most Necromancers DESERVE to be soul trapped - especially the ones in Hob Cave!

Yes, I play mainly "good guy", too (though I have stooped to some things I don't approve of when they were needed in a quest). I was just speculating here that there might have been a time during Beth's development when black gems couldn't hold good souls. But that's highly speculative, of course.