I like this I think it works by raw. Now if the panultimate body you wanted to swap into was a dragon you could true poly say a young gold dragon that isn't a shapeshifter yet into a humanoid do the magic jar trick then true poly someone else into a ghost to age you up to ancient.
Cast magic jar on yourself, your body falls catatonic, and your soul enters jar #1.
You project your soul and possess a hobgoblin. The hobgoblin’s soul enters jar #1.
You recast magic jar, the hobgoblin body falls catatonic, your soul enters jar #2.
You project your soul and reenter your original body
Debatable whether you can enter a body without a soul in it. Spell specifically only mentions switching out souls.
Per the spell “project your soul up to 100 feet out of the container, either returning to your living body (and Ending the spell) or attempting to possess a Humanoids” Your soul from casting #1 reentered your living body from casting #1 which ends casting #1. When the spell ends jar #1 is destroyed so the hobgoblin’s soul returns to its body if the body is alive and within 100 feet. Otherwise, that hobgoblin dies.
Jar #2 is empty.
If the hobgoblin died then you will die if you go into it. If the hobgoblin is alive and within 100 ft then going into the hobgoblin body might mean that both you and the hobgoblin possess the hobgoblin body. lol
Wow, you guys really necroed this post but since it is here, I want to put my 2 cents in since I've 4 years ago, I designed a whole character around a body snatching wizard.
1: Regarding spell overlap: Spells overlap, but RAW only the largest effect or most current takes effect. This doesn't mean the initial cast is suppressed, only overshadowed. It even says they overlap. If it were suppressed, the duration wouldn't matter.
Since @InquisitiveCoder was the person who brought this up, however, I'm inclined to believe there may be a ruling on this.
2: Regarding Death vs Catatonic: This required me to explain to my DM the difference and pull the dictionary definition (or rather, he said I had to do all the research on every aspect to explain how this worked.) Which is as follows:
Catatonic : a psychomotor disturbance that may involve muscle rigidity, stupor or mutism, purposeless movements, negativism, echolalia, and inappropriate or unusual posturing and is associated with various medical conditions (such as schizophrenia and mood disorders)
(Edit: I have since found out that this has been ruled upon.. Catatonic for the purposes of this spell, RAW, up to the DM but RAI is no,, it doesn't require these things.. leaving it here for historical purposes) Which means the brain is still firing, breathing and such is still occurring, therefore the body does not decay. What it MOST LIKELY also means is the body may need sustenance such as food and water to exist or it WILL die. THIS aspect would be the key component to limiting the spell from being an indefinite thing if you wanted to keep the original body alive.
3:Finally, I think the last thing to be discussed is Death. Entering a Catatonic body is one thing, entering a dead body may not be possible. When the Hobgoblin in the previous example dies, there is a very real possibility that the body dies too, not just in a Catatonic state. This means it becomes an object which may have it's own separate set of issues and it was for this reason, my DM limited the effects of permanent body swap in my game. If I could target a corpse, why go through the hassle of even finding a live victim?
The final ruling was that if I did it to a corpse, I had to suffer decay and this would be a rule of cool ruling or I wouldn't be allowed to handle a corpse due to the body not being able to perform its own basic functions as a body such as breathing. The brain is NOT firing, motor functions aren't performing. Not of its own accord. When we cast magic as necromancer, we are animating a body. This spell doesn't animate a body, it only facilitates soul transference and animating a body would likely be outside of it's scope. Reanimated bodies are undead not humanoid and that means you couldn't project into it as the spell explicitly mentions a humanoids body.
Edit: I did find this ruling
"If I magic jar a person's body, then can someone try to Magic jar into the body I magic jarred into" - @ZarconistPreist
"The effects of the same spell don't stack on a target. See "Combining Magical Effects" (PH, 205)." - @JeremyECrawford
This seems to imply that while all bodies involved are under the effects of this spell, then they can't be involved with another castings effects. Since the target is self and this question discusses the body of the victim, this means that neither body may be touchable with a separate casting. Although, it does mean that NPCs can try and detect imposters by having someone try and take bodies at some sort of check point. Cough. Cough. DMs.
Removing quote but trying to tag you in this post since I can't seem to recall how to do so otherwise. Did they rule on magic suppression, this spell as a whole? To your knowledge?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You only lose if you die. Any time else, there's opportunity for a come back.
I like this I think it works by raw. Now if the panultimate body you wanted to swap into was a dragon you could true poly say a young gold dragon that isn't a shapeshifter yet into a humanoid do the magic jar trick then true poly someone else into a ghost to age you up to ancient.
Here is what I think happens:
Wow, you guys really necroed this post but since it is here, I want to put my 2 cents in since I've 4 years ago, I designed a whole character around a body snatching wizard.
1: Regarding spell overlap: Spells overlap, but RAW only the largest effect or most current takes effect. This doesn't mean the initial cast is suppressed, only overshadowed. It even says they overlap. If it were suppressed, the duration wouldn't matter.
Since @InquisitiveCoder was the person who brought this up, however, I'm inclined to believe there may be a ruling on this.
2: Regarding Death vs Catatonic: This required me to explain to my DM the difference and pull the dictionary definition (or rather, he said I had to do all the research on every aspect to explain how this worked.) Which is as follows:
Catatonic : a psychomotor disturbance that may involve muscle rigidity, stupor or mutism, purposeless movements, negativism, echolalia, and inappropriate or unusual posturing and is associated with various medical conditions (such as schizophrenia and mood disorders)
(Edit: I have since found out that this has been ruled upon.. Catatonic for the purposes of this spell, RAW, up to the DM but RAI is no,, it doesn't require these things.. leaving it here for historical purposes) Which means the brain is still firing, breathing and such is still occurring, therefore the body does not decay. What it MOST LIKELY also means is the body may need sustenance such as food and water to exist or it WILL die. THIS aspect would be the key component to limiting the spell from being an indefinite thing if you wanted to keep the original body alive.
3:Finally, I think the last thing to be discussed is Death. Entering a Catatonic body is one thing, entering a dead body may not be possible. When the Hobgoblin in the previous example dies, there is a very real possibility that the body dies too, not just in a Catatonic state. This means it becomes an object which may have it's own separate set of issues and it was for this reason, my DM limited the effects of permanent body swap in my game. If I could target a corpse, why go through the hassle of even finding a live victim?
The final ruling was that if I did it to a corpse, I had to suffer decay and this would be a rule of cool ruling or I wouldn't be allowed to handle a corpse due to the body not being able to perform its own basic functions as a body such as breathing. The brain is NOT firing, motor functions aren't performing. Not of its own accord. When we cast magic as necromancer, we are animating a body. This spell doesn't animate a body, it only facilitates soul transference and animating a body would likely be outside of it's scope. Reanimated bodies are undead not humanoid and that means you couldn't project into it as the spell explicitly mentions a humanoids body.
Edit: I did find this ruling
"If I magic jar a person's body, then can someone try to Magic jar into the body I magic jarred into" - @ZarconistPreist
"The effects of the same spell don't stack on a target. See "Combining Magical Effects" (PH, 205)." - @JeremyECrawford
This seems to imply that while all bodies involved are under the effects of this spell, then they can't be involved with another castings effects. Since the target is self and this question discusses the body of the victim, this means that neither body may be touchable with a separate casting. Although, it does mean that NPCs can try and detect imposters by having someone try and take bodies at some sort of check point. Cough. Cough. DMs.
You only lose if you die. Any time else, there's opportunity for a come back.
Edit: Can I not delete a post?
You only lose if you die. Any time else, there's opportunity for a come back.
You only lose if you die. Any time else, there's opportunity for a come back.
Need an inert body that won't rot away? Play as a custom lineage 'Reborn'. It's also thematic.