Let's discuss what is probably the most complicated and confusing spell in D&D. It also happens to be one of my favorites. The conclusions I make in this video on some of the more vague elements of the spell are my opinions only.
At least dudes a demon lord miffed is the least of your worries. Demons hold grudges against people so long they pass that grudge down to your family. Not only that but you embarrassed him. Orccus would be down right vengeful to the point of hunting you and your characters future relatives assuming you survive his attempts on your life. Guy would forever be after your lineage. Miffed more like bubbling with blind fury a living creatures sould touched his body you're a perversion to him.
Using magic jar to possess someone, commit a bunch of crimes, unpossess and let the guy face the consequences. I mean, who's gonna believe him when he says "A wizard made me do it!"?
One of my favourite spells, and one I'm glad to see you cover in depth. As a slight correction, on page nine of the Monster Manual there's a box labeled Armor, Weapon, and Tool Proficiencies that reads: Assume that a creature is proficient with its armor, weapons, and tools. If you swap them out, you decide whether the creature is proficient with its new equipment. For example, a hill giant typically wears hide armor and wields a greatclub. You could equip a hill giant with chain mail and a greataxe instead, and assume the giant is proficient with both, one or the other, or neither. See the Player's Handbook for rules on using armor or weapons without proficiency. So RAW all creatures are proficient with their equipment and it's just not listed in their statblock, presumably to save space.
@@TreantmonksTemple Yes. It's right at the top of the page in a lifted out text box, so you probably missed it. It's right above Darkvision, and the challenge rating that you technically get (which I think might cause issues with Polymorph).
I can’t believe this spell is basically intact from AD&D. I always put it in the Exorcism/Cacodemon box of spells that you pretty much never see because of complexity, even though it’s really a lot easier to run than those.
I can confirm that this box exists in the MM on D&D Beyond. On the website it’s located just above the section labeled ‘Legendary Actions’. So that means that the Githyanki Supreme Commander would be proficient with its plate armor (assuming it’s equipped with it).
This is definitely a spell to discuss with your DM before taking. Trying to pull this out mid game with no warning is at best going to slow things to a crawl, at worst result in an argument over rules interpretation. Way too much depends on DM interpretation. Still, even under the most restrictive conditions, it's a really fun spell
Be an evil spellcaster. Raise infants of the race of your choosing to have the best physical stats possible and have them worship you. Leave them in a secure location near the body you cast the spell from = multiple identities, awesome stats, great roleplay potential as the BBEG.
As the BBEG, I would just take over the party's big dumb (and hopefully not very charismatic) fighter and then just play along with what they do until you decide to turn the tables on them.
@@xthebumpx it is a creature that can be a copy of a humanoid or a beast and is partially made of snow. It's also a construct. Nothing in the rules defines what creatures have souls and the spell doesn't say. So, I'd err on the side of fun and say Yes, it does.
By the time you can cast Magic Jar pretty much any "you die" scenario can be pretty easily remedied so long as you've got the body and it's intact. For that reason I certainly wouldn't be dragging it along...
@@backcountry164 In which case, you could just toss the body in a portable hole, or preserve it somehow on a demiplane or something. Then if you happen to die.. the team can just get the body and revive you. You can pay for the diamond.. no skin off their back. :D
@@backcountry164 if the Simulacrum is the one using Magic Jar, you don't even have yo worry about carrying the body around because who cares if the Simulacrum dies?
Was just thinking of how this would combine with the porcupine build you did with the abjuration wizard. If you possess a beefy meleer, you gain those benefits on top of the porcupine features. If the body you possess is capable of casting additional abjuration spells, even better.
@@Wouldyoukindly4545 I'd expect Magic Jar to mostly be used against opponents. If allies caught wind of you using it against other allies, or even neutral parties, you'd probably find yourself without allies. Still, a bit of creativity could still make body hopping really devastating to a group of enemies.
@@ChristnThms I didn't ever suggest doing it to allies. I was saying you can't evaluate the build outside of a particular game, because you don't know what creatures your DM will make available to you.
@@ChristnThms besides, possessing PCs is 100% useless. The body doesn't keep any abilities from a class. This included hit points and armor proficiency.
@@Wouldyoukindly4545 first off, the spell is only assumed to target npc creatures. How do we know this? Hit points. When you assume the body of the target, it has to have hit points which are a class feature for PCs. Since you DON'T have access to class features of the target, this plainly means that the spell is treating the target as if it has a standard stat block, rather than a character sheet. But more to the point... the reason that it matters that you'd be targeting enemies rather than allies or neutrals, is that you'd never assume to have a variety of bodies to choose from. That was never an intelligent consideration. You use it to overcome adversaries BECAUSE they're adversaries. The moment you use it to go hunting for "better bodies" you become the BBEG.
Thats why you get your simulacrum to cast it, you wear the gem as a ring, put simulacrum body in portable hole, capture someone. Now either bury the ring and simulacrum lives in that body (which does heal but also dies to dispel magic), or you remove its original body from portable hole, walk 100 ft, smash ring to auto kill the trapped soul and simulacrum survives. You can also cast the spell yourself, have simulacrum give ring to anyone as gift, repeat attempts until you steal body, then open a demiplane of your undead hordes from inside the castle.. oh wait.. wrong video.
@@pasp9866 I agree. DM interpretation is not a bad thing, but when my character casts a spell, I want to have a good idea of what to expect. Otherwise, I would just play a Wild Magic Sorcerer.
Throughout the video, you talked about always having to keep your body nearby, and ditching the stolen body if it got weakened. However, if you had a Clone spell up, would you even have to worry about that? Couldn't you just leave your body in a Demiplane or something, and get transferred to it if you would die otherwise? In terms of getting killed by a Dispel Magic on your new body, you'd have to be really careful and use Counterspells, but you could totally just play the game as a Githyanki Supreme Leader Wizard without worrying about any negative effects, besides a weakness to Dispel Magic, which technically, most enemies won't even know about! And, if you really wanted to be safe, you could use Contingency to prepare a Teleport/Dimension Door so that when you are targeted by a Dispel Magic, you can leave the spell's range before it is able to affect you.
and could you cast clone on yourself in the new body? meaning when you die you come back still as the gith commander but now without the weakness to dispell.
There's an old *Dragon* magazine adventure where the party goes into this dungeon and one of the chambers is a flesh-lined spiral leading down to a room that has, essentially a magic jar (IIRC psionic-based this time) where a dude will try to take over PCs. Also in the old Judge's Guild *Dark Tower* Adventure there's this wizard in one of the levels who has collected some relatively dimwitted people to keep on hand and magic jar into.
@@MrRDRII I had to look it up because I couldn't remember the name or issue at the time or even today, but it was "The Garden of Nefaron" in issue #53 of TD; winner of a dungeon design contest. That issue also has great cover art btw (unrelated to the adventrure). Turns out the gem here isn't precisely psionic-based but the theme of its use is. If you're also wondering about Dark Tower it was one of the great old Judge's Guild adventures, ranking up there with Tegal Manor.
@@MrRDRII You're welcome! I hope you have fun with these old-school adventures they have a certain quality distinct from contemporary ones (not necessarily better or worse but a great intrinsic flavor of their own).
nonono, what you do after possessing orcust is cast clone on yourself and wait for it to grow a bit, then when you die you have a new body to return to instead of your old one, so you could just go to the orcust clone instead! then bam, you've become orcust only slight problem is like, unlike with normal possession where you retain your alignment, as soon as you are reborn into this new avatar you may get corrupted into being chaotic evil, at which point the DM will probably just take over your character as you become the new villain in the next campaign cool story though
Why not just magic jar poses the clone pseudo die with death ward and then make a new clone next to a clone of your original body so you can respawn and reposes orcas clone.
Two words: Portent Dice. Play a Divination Wizard, then you can guarantee that 1: you always make the charisma save, and 2: the enemy always fails theirs. Take Resilient (Charisma), Take Actor Feat, Learn the Clone spell and put one in a demiplane, just in case. Use Nystul's Magic Aura on yourself and on the gem (repeat until permanent) so that the spell can't be noticed with Detect Magic. Go on a body snatching spree. Forget all this nonsense of keeping your old body with you, you have a clone if things go badly.
(Apologies if this was asked already): As a divination wizard, could I use a prepared low rolled portent to cause the humanoid im trying to possess fail their charisma saving throw?
as far as your orcus and deathward scenario it says your soul goes back to your body. then if the body is more than 100 ft you die. so i'd say with deathward you go back to your body and survive regardless of distance
I would see it as you keeping your old "mental" racial features and trading your old "physical" racial features with the creature you're possessing. For example you get their proficiency in CON saves but not CHA saves, you gain proficiency in Athletics but not Deception, you don't get their languages but gain their natural armors or Darkvision. It doesn't really make sense to have a Gnome Wizard forget about Magic Items but suddenly learn everything that a commander should know when they possess one. You just possess a body, and don't know anything that you didn't originally know. Basicaaly, if it depends on anything physical like natural armor, speeds or even the Genasi's spells, you trade the ones you had for the ones you gain, and if it depends on your mind, like the Elf's spells, Stone Cunning or proficiency in WIS saves, you retain the ones you had.
With the body dying it is actually not that different than just your character died in combat, but with an additional chance of living. If another player character died they would just be dead, so that part of magic jar isn’t even a downside at all.
I always thought this might be a way to infiltrate a guarded location. Possess a guard, have them go to the party, bind them, return to container. Repeat. Risky, but it might work well.
I was wondering, how compatible is Magic Jar with the Clone spell? I was thinking that, if you could manage to make a copy of another creature, and said creature is still alive or can't use the cloned body, can you use it as a host? Also, is it possible to use Clone and Revivify/Ressurection to bring someone (or something) that was dead a VERY long time ago (let's say 10 million years); for example, if I found a cave man frozen in an iceberg, could I make a clone out of the preserved body, and once it is mature, kill it and Revivify it?
@@TreantmonksTemple Could you use clone as a back up should you fail? I mean, with clone you go to that new body after you die right? So you don't have anything to worry about.
What if all the demon lords are actually billion year old wizards who magic jar’s them, but nobody knows the other is actually another wizard so they’re just being cruel and sadistic to keep up the charade, not knowing everyone else is in on the joke
it seems to me that create homunculus is practically a must-have if you take this spell, so that you can always retrieve the jar in case you get trapped somewhere away from humanoids.
I came here from the Time Lord video, and have a question that may have been asked below but couldn't find it: You state that if the jar is broken, Orcus' soul would return to his body and you would return to yours. What if the jar is no longer within the 100ft of Orcus but your body is, would Orcus die and we just return to our body?
You said not to do it so, I use my reaction to cast little kid logic at 9th lvl. Now I have to make a Div Wizard with Magic Jar. 1.Go find an Ancient Gold Dragon 2. Make sure I have a portent that is low enough to fail the save. 3. Convince the Dragon to enter humanoid form. 4. Cast Magic Jar. 5. Use Portent to force failed save 6. Become Ancient Gold Dragon 7. Realize that the session/campaign is now over and you don't get to use your new form.
A lot of people talk about True Polymorph and turning yourself into a metallic dragon permanently, unfortunately that cuts out your ability to cast spells. Magic Jar lets you get around that. Summon a Simulacrum of yourself, and cast True Polymorph on it to turn it into a Metallic Dragon of your choice (Adult Gold or Ancient Brass are the two top tier choices) Have your Simulacrum use the shape change feature to turn into a Humanoid (Either yourself, or something with high Dex/Con) Finally use Magic Jar to possess your simulacrum, In Humanoid form it is a valid target, and you can have it choose to fail its saving throw. Magic Jar doesn't end if the target is no longer a humanoid, and you keep your own class features, in addition to getting the Dragon's Stats, in both forms. Keeping your mental stats means that you also don't have to deal with the
@@jameshardie7678 by RAW sure, but if you tell the simulacra of yourself "let it happen" then narratively it makes sense. Even if your DM does require the failed save, shenannigans involving Simulacra don't happen during adventure time, and you get another try each 24 hours, so it eventually happens. As a DM, if a player wanted to fail a save against something, I'd let them, as would most other DM's I know.
Sixty5 oh you can certainly just try repeatedly until it works sure, I’m just correcting you on your idea that creatures are allowed to choose to fail a save - that’s absolutely a homebrew rule. I won’t get into a discussion of whether allowing it makes narrative sense (suffice to say I strongly disagree) because once you’ve started focusing on what you personally think makes narrative sense there’s no longer a stable shared conception to base a discussion around. Best to just stick to discussion of the actual rules, and clearly denote house rules/homebrew as opinions (as you’ve done in the follow up but not the original)
use a glyph of warding to use clone in the new form and remember to die before hitting any antimagic. glyph of warding to skip custom container feckery. then your possessed stats aught to stick and can no longer be taken from you. well unless you fail a charisma save...
What if you kill your body, cast clone (as orcus so the clone would be an orcus clone) and then you death ward? Then you would for sure be perma orcus. That would also make your chances of magic jarring an ancient gold dragon more possible than ever.
I can't say I agree about the hit points. I think it's a case of Mr. Crawford answering somewhat carelessly in Sage Advice. With good reason; he gets *so many* straightforward questions to which his answer has to amount to, "Have you tried reading the relevant part of the book?" that when he gets the rare puzzler that doesn't have a clear answer in the text, he sometimes answers it just as dismissively. But, supposing for a moment that the body *did* benefit from your Hit Points, the text of the spell says "Your game statistics are replaced by ... the creature, though you retain ... your own class features." The host body isn't *gaining your class features* as if it was a bonus, your own are *replaced, with the exception of the things you retain.* That implies to me that if you take damage to your hit points in the host body and then return to your own, you would not heal that damage. Or worse, if you die by being reduced to zero hit points in the host body and successfully pop back to your OG meatsack, there's no reason to believe you would have more than zero hit points there. One option for a _magic jar_ wizard permanently possessing a target, in regards to lugging around their catatonic body, might be _imprisonment_ by Minimus Containment. That version of the spell *does not shunt the target into a demiplane,* merely reduces them to a height of one inch within a gemstone. It does however say that nothing but light can pass through, which may hamper the return of the soul depending on the sequence of events. The caster can set the freedom condition to be easy and benign--say, "This _imprisonment_ will end if the _magic jar_ component is destroyed, or the host body carrying the _imprisonment_ gem dies." Depending on the DM's interpretation of "nothing else can pass through [the Minimus gemstone], even by means of teleportation or planar travel" it might not be a good idea to end the _magic jar_ voluntarily by returning to your own body from the jar.
15:20: With the examle of possessing Githyanki Supreme commander: I don't think you get HP from both the Commander and your own hit die, but rather the formula becomes your hit dice + the Githyanki's Constritution modifier * your level. Let's say you're a level 11 wizard. HP == 6 + (4*10) + 11 * 4 = 90 HP. Slightly better than most wizards, but not by a lot. (11 or 22 more health than most wizards, I assume)
This spell seems like it would be so cumbersome to use successfully and the risk would be so high. A lot of creatures can just randomly be killed in a round (Probably not orcus) where you wouldn't get a chance to leave the body quick enough. Also, depending on the party to keep up with your body seems almost as scary as having it towed behind you with a floating disk or strapped to an uncontrolled mount like a horse. I feel like if I came across this spell, id be waiting for "The moment" to use it, but I think id be too afraid / filled with too much anxiety about the upkeep / business aspects of it to actually pull the trigger. Managing to somehow pull this off on a creature like a shapechanged dragon could be fun. Or if you managed to have someone polymorph a rakshasa into a humanoid and then magic jar it. The limited magic immunity could be some counterplay to dispel magic.
What happens if you cast Imprisonment/minimus containment on your comatose body while you’re possessing someone else and your body is holding the jar, assuming the save fails?
I believe your ruling on the Archdruid is a misunderstanding by labeling it a spell caster it can be assumed the archdruid has those spells as part of a class feature, as the druid classes hit die is a D8. It can be assumed that the archdruid is a prestige class or a subclass with prerequisites.
The spell is really cool thematically but I don’t like the idea of having to spend the rest of my life worrying about a Dispel Magic being able to kill me.
Treantmonk's Temple Yeah. Not gonna lie, I forgot that spell was a thing for a minute lol. I was thinking if I ever get to play in a high level game making a Wizard with the Actor feat and Magic Jar. I’d just start replacing bodies on a whim and stealing people’s lives.
Here's a fun thought experiment: If I want to play the game as an Imp, can I? Here's a way to possibly go about it: 1st. Cast true polymorph on the Imp changing it into a Spy (same cr of 1 and can be found at the end of the MM under NPCs). 2nd. Cast magic jar and possess the Imp 3rd. Drop concentration on true polymorph and the Spy changes back into an Imp. 4th Cast Clone on yourself as the Imp and wait until it matures. 5th Move the container further away from you than 100 feet and destroy it killing the Imp's soul, your original body, and your soul will not be able to return to your original body so will have to go into your Clone body... which is the Imp body you cloned. Now you would always be an Imp.
Hey, i'm sorry i know this is an old video, but i have a question regarding 12:29 section that talks about if HP is a class feature or not, and how you would gain those benefits in addition to the HP of the creature. ASIs and Feats are also class features, and i'm trying to understand how they interact here. Say a player wizard uses Magic Jar on the body of a humanoid with 19 Constitution, and that player wizard had the resilient constitution feat. I'm certain he would keep the proficiency in CON saves, but would the constitution of the creature they magic jar'd into become 20? Or was that increase a one time thing for the previous body, staying at 19 instead? That one interaction has been boggling a friend of mine and me for a while now, we aren't sure.
Great video! Very in depth analysis but I have a few questions, or at least one. If you cast true polymorph and change a non-humanoid creature into a humanoid of equivalent cr or level and then magic jar into it and then drop concentration on true polymorph... does your soul stay in the non-humanoid form for the duration?
What if you used clone, then cast magic jar, would that allow your body to die while you waited to possess someone, then if they died your spirit would simply go to your clone?
It seems that this spell won't protect your body against lack of food, water or generally aging. It however can save some one in some desperate situations when they are dying. There are also some maybe morally uncertain applications like possessing an infant before it develops a personality of its own. This could be kind of locally approved semi immortality perhaps in some cultures or organizations. Also I wonder if this could transfer a soul to non sentient humanoid war forged or even golem?
It's a little subjective. I mean technically the spell doesn't protect your body from a lack of breathing either, or a lack of blood circulation. If it's assumed you don't need those, then your body would not require the fuel of food/water or even age normally...DM is going to have to decide how that works
I read and reread the description, looking for that too. I think most DMs would use that lack of specifics as a leash on you- he could make you return to your body periodically, to feed it and take a dump.
I don't agree that you wouldn't get proficiency in heavy armor taking over a supreme commander. The monster manual specifies that creatures with armor or weapons in their stat blocks are proficient with them. You appear to be ruling that you would NOT gain armor proficiency, but you WOULD gain weapon proficiency. Neither proficiency is actually listed on the stat block; you are either proficient in neither of them (it's not explicitly stated in the stat block), or both of them (rules for all stat blocks say so).
Using magic jar alongside clone to take over the body of a powerful warrior. One time my DM let one of the players cast revivify and used magic jar to take over the body of the group fighter. Mainly because the fighter wanted to play a new character anyways.
There's no Sage Advice specifically allowing legendary and lair actions to be used by a player, there is a rule specifically disallowing it, so semantically arguing that "possession" is significantly different than "assume the form" so you can rationalize ignoring a very clearly written rule is too far. IMO legendary and lair abilities will be disallowed by any diligent DM adhering to RAW and RAI.
I'm going to have to disagree with your ruling on whether you get to add your own hit dice on top of whatever the target humanoid already has. How would you rule it if an NPC used this spell to possess a humanoid? Technically the NPC doesn't have a "class feature" that grants them hit points, so technically the NPC wouldn't gain any additional hit points on top of what the possessed creature already had. One solution to this issue is to say that your own hit dice replace those of the creature you're possessing. You can "retain the benefit" of that class feature, but you don't get to double dip and gain all of the possesses creature's hit points as well. You could apply the same rule to NPCs casting this spell, though they technically also follow different rules for hit dice, and the size of their hit dice would change if the possessed creature is of a different size. However, none of this explains what to do about the target's current hit points when your soul enters or leaves their body. If their maximum hit points would increase after you possess them, does their current hit points increase by that amount as well? If the body is damaged when you leave their body, but their maximum hit points drops below their current. Would they "heal to full"? There are too many nonsensical things that can happen if the creature's maximum hit points changes as a function of whether or not it is currently possessed. I think that the simplest solution that gets around all of these issues is to just leave the possessed creature's hit points unaffected. I believe that was the design intent, and the technical wording of the spell (and Jeremy Crawford's input on it) is an oversight. It's a technicality that causes more problems than its worth.
Soooo. If I shapechange into a dragon, I not only get the Dragon's hp, but I then add all my hit dice (with the Dragon's con mod) to this number? That is insane.
These days, the thing about getting around attunement, via the possession of an archdruid, or an archmage, they are considered to be druids or Wizards these days
Okay so let's take a look at this one then how about we use magic jar to trap a soul inside and take the body of the individual put them in a chest Ward it trap it off send it into the astral plane take the soul of the body that's inside the jar put it into a rack a rack spell King that soul be milk for pain while it's inside of that magic jar of course you have to do the proper spells for you probably do it in some sort of use some sort of circle magic going in with a levitation spell pop it in the center of it anything in the center of it goes under a rack spell and it's milk for pain..... I realize it I realize that's a little different from what we're talking about but just to be creative with the spell magic jar
maybe I'm not understanding the spell correctly at 7:00 but given its design and intended results I take the explanation of what happens when the body dies and the casters soul returning to the jar the person or being who originally controlled the body before the caster hijacked it for a joy ride, lets say an orc when the orcs body dies I take the explanation as he caster rips the orc out of the soul jar to try and cheat death again with the orc just going on to the afterlife since its body is dead and it has no moral coil to cling to. I figure that's a reasonable thing to have happen provided the jar is within range since they are still stuck in said jar until someone they can control comes by I also figured that the reason the spell doesn't just kill them outride when the caster steals a body is so they can kind of lend aid by taking the controls without needing to kill the intended target incase say the person the caster had to swap with to make use of his/her casting ability was a willing henchman or the like its a lot easier to convince them to let you take the controls if its not deadly or permanent.
@@ldl1477 I don't know about that, Counterspell is a reaction and if I recall correctly it has to be an action cast and only targets you. So this won't work.
YES! While this certainly fits a wizard of dubious moral direction, it seems to fit a Warlock even better. Who's more likely to use a "cheat" spell like this than a caster who cheated to get his power in the first place.
Yes they can, my main issue with that is they have to take it as their 1/day 6th level Mystic Arcanum. No chance I'm casting Magic Jar 1/day! Seems like a waste to fill the slot with a "once in awhile" spell
@@TreantmonksTemple in normal play, absolutely. But I can also see using it as a primary strategy as well. Bring a possessed body to the encounter. Play aggressively with it. The moment things start to go south, swap back to the jar and find a new "host." You'd want a smart "back row" party member to manage your jar for you, so that you'd be nearby without drawing attention. Since you'd retain your class features, I can easily see using this as a very aggressive strategy.
@@TreantmonksTemple I see what you're saying, but what about spells or abilities that let you see into other planes for example? They're not far away, just inaccessible to most people.
@@adamwillis1024 I agree. When you cast Etherealness you don't actually move though you are in a different plane of existence. I'm just saying you better check with the DM before assuming they see it that way.
I feel like a lot of your efforts to extract RAW here is a lost cause since it comes up with blatantly contradictory ideas. This purpose of this spell is to take over some creature's body. Due to RAW (the very, very, very, poor RAW) we immediately begin combining NPC skills, spells, feats with our own. RAW be damned, you aren't learning that crap by doing a mind swap on the creature, and we all know this. What we should be getting are traits like magic/physical resistance, reach, ability scores, advantage/disadvantage based on physical characteristics, etc. They just did a horrible job of wording the spell, and unfortunately it's almost dead in the water for official play.
I like to imagine Caramon carrying Raistlin's inert bodies around in a magic Jar scenario EDIT: OMG the githyanki innate weakness to magic jar explains Vlaakith's reign a lil bit more dont it? I bet you that cursed crown or whatever is her phylactery, she just possesses any gith powerful enough to take it from her and wear it.
I'm probably a bit late to the party here, and the rules-as-balanced probably vote "no" unanimously here, but- 1. What if we were to fool the magic into believing a creature was a humanoid by use of Nystul's Magic Aura? Obviously, we'd need to possess a form with arms so that they can cast somatic components, and we probably want something small to large so that they don't have too much trouble getting around with the party (medium being best for mobility and spellcasting reasons), but who's to say we can't take over pitfiends and archons without polymporph shenanigans? 2. Are physical feats and ASIs considered as class features? Obviously, those from the Variant Human wouldn't count, but what if your wizard picked up Tough at 4th level for whatever reason? These obviously won't be pushing any stats past 20, but it would be interesting to see how some of these could push various BSF-y builds into more viability. Questions aside, there are a few oversights here about how you could cast Magic Jar more effectively - 1. If your party kidnaps a high-level NPC or five, you could easily have them restrained and get several attempts over several days to possess them. Suddenly, a monster with a Charisma saving throw proficiency is actually particularly *good,* because that improves your own charisma saves as well. 2. There's nothing particularly bad with dying as the new creature with magic jar. You're dying just as if you'd died in your original body, but this one's a lot tankier. That said, there are some exploits to minimise the impact of dying there, even less so than with your normal body - 2a. You could easily have your original body Revivified back home. Perhaps you have connections with a cult of dubious morality, or the adoration of an understanding cleric who doesn't mind your Magic Jar shenanigans, or maybe you've multiclassed and gotten access to Revivify somehow. Then, you could occasionally go back and cast Contingency or Glyph of Warding to cast Revivify on your body whenever it dies. At the very least, you could have Gentle Repose cast as a contingency/glyph, which gives you plenty of time to come back to life relatively cheaply. 2b. Your death probably means your party's in a lot of trouble, especially if you were playing a god wizard. Perhaps this is a good time to get back to them, all freshened up and ready for battle. If you're allowing materials from adventure books, then Galder's Speedy Courier could be a fun way of shipping back your dead and very valuable body back to the aforementioned temple or safehouse, followed perhaps by another Gentle Repose to keep it safe for when you next want to take it for a drive. If LLK isn't allowed, well, I'm sure someone can come up with a better solution than I have. You should always bring along something from the area you're adventuring in, which would allow you to use Teleport to the area with your associated object, re-entering the fight fairly quickly. (Edit: You could always dismiss your Familiar from Find Familiar to have it bring a bit of dirt)
Ahem. Glyph of Warding + Magic Jar. No saving throw, unlimited range soul trapping. Combine with Explosive Runes for insta kill. Do I allow this as a DM? Depends on the group. I trust some groups more than others, and if the players can do it the villains can too.
The target of spell it is the jar, not the possessed body. So dispel magic targeting you body don't ends the possession. But any effect that removes possession (aka clerics) turns into a double save-or-die if you are far from the jar and your body (hint: use Sequester - 7th on your body). Be careful, cast Clone too and don't befriend clerics!
Noob question: If a creature is shapechanged to a humanoid form (e.g. demon/Orcus to human), are they sent back to the Abyss using the Banishment spell? If that's the case, then my intuition would say they are still a demon and would not qualify for Magic Jar. In other words, Magic Jar is all about the (humanoid) soul, not the form of the body. What am I missing in my logic?
Recent sage advice says D&D monsters are proficient with all equipment in their stat block. I could be off base but I think that means you would be proficient in the supreme commander's plate armor. twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/1173673395789037568?s=19
My 13th level Wizard used it to steal the body of Arkhan the Cruel. It was amazing. My hit points tripled, I gained innate spellcasting, and since Multiattack is not a class feature, I retained it. With Tenser's Transformation, I was unstoppable.
I'm a little late, but would you be able to slap a creature with Feeblemind before attempting to possess them with Magic Jar and have the effects of Feeblemind end when the possession is complete? Even if not, you could have the Feeblemind effect removed by a friendly cleric, and you've essentially guaranteed that the possession will work. If they succeed on the save by presumably some form of divine intervention, they are still stuck with a 1 in every mental stat and won't have the presence of mind to flee from further possession attempts.
Wish in 5e is reduced significantly from prior editions. Now it mimics any 8th level spell but disregards spell component and othe spell requirements like casting time, or if you do go big you have a 30%chance to lose the spell from your book and self forever. And you would be putting th e dm in the drivers seat to determine effect. Efreeti shenaigans apply.
I wonder about the interaction of magic jar and clone. Say you MJ possess a Githyanki S. Commander, then cast clone on yourself in that body and allow it to mature. when you doe would you come back as the Githyanki?
So I was discussing this on another forum and I'm curious what you might think. Can you True Polymorph the container to become a creature in its own right? The container isn't magical in and of itself, and the soul trapped inside isn't wearing or carrying the container, so I'm thinking you could in fact Polymorph the container to become a minion following along behind you with your victim's soul trapped inside. Take it a step further, if we assume you can then is it still the container for the purposes of Magic Jar while Polymorphed? If so, can you return to it and possess another creature? Can you possess the creature that the container now is?
To my understanding the possesion gives you control of the posessed creature body. While an ArchDruid does not have class levels I dont think you would be able cast their spells since they are tied to their own devotion to nature or by their faith itself. Doing so would imply decoherence with other elementar charateristics of the game. By that what I mean is that abilities inherited by the possessor would be ultimatily defined by the inate factor of whatever monster abilities which are not necessarily phisical such as the Giths psionics (those under the "inate spellcasting" and not "spellcasting" descriptors as some might have both). Same wouldn't apply to Legendary actions which should never be inherited.
Thinking up some wierd stuff. What are your thoughts on using Clone to make a clone, posess the clone and keep your body cared for. That way you have all your physical abilities when you need them and can posess as needed. On an unrelated note now I wast to true Polymorph a Terrasque and use Magic Jar to possess it and drop the Polymorph.
Now...is the living souless body considered a creature or an object? The spell Sequester requires a willing creature. (A great way to preserve the body, if legal.) While your soul is disembodied, could you be considered willing from inside a gem?
