I guess, you could say, wizards are a lot like doors. When they're not themselves, they're ajar.

I used it for a bbeg in one game. Since the "jar" is actually a gemstone, he had it set in a crown. Using it he ruled a theocratic kingdom, "reincarnating" every generation into a new body. Whenever he 'died', any new children born in the next year were 'tested' by placing the crown on them and he chose one to inhabit. Yes he was absolutely an evil bastard.

I think the jar could work for a cult. I mean, imagine a jar cult that worships this ancient vessel and keeps giving it offerings in the form of bodies so their master can live on only for it to be some turbo old ass wizard using them as protection and a means of continuing their body snatching.

For ethical immortality, build a warforged body with the jar on the inside.

My DM had us fight a Villain once who used this spell. He was an archmage and "friend" to a warlord. One day the familiar of the Villain gave the Jar and a letter to that same Warlord, saying "it's a powerful artifact, use it wisely". Then it happened... and now the archmage is essentially also a 18th level fighter. That guy was terrifying as a Villain and horrificly strong to fight due to an improved spell list.

So it's basically an extra deranged and super unhinged version of phylactery

This is one of those spells that probobly was not created to be what it is, but instead was a very early attempt at creating a form of immortality.

Magic jar really is part of the lich ritual. That with a thing to automatically generate a body, and something to retrieve your soul on death.

I had a player nonchalantly pick up a jar in a market, then many sessions later, use Magic Jar to take control of a BBEG's high-level number 2 henchman and proceed to DESTROY the BBEG with round after round of Chain Lightning. This is why you need to pay attention to what spells get picked up as people level, lol.

Ever since I saw "1 Guy 1 Jar," I, too, and am afraid of jars.

You just had to bring up THAT jar at the last minute

I believe there's also a combo where you can use this spell to possess way stronger stuff if you're high level. Basically, Magic Jar can only be used to possess humanoids, but what you can do is cast True Polymorph on a creature of your choice, such as a dragon or other powerful monster, and turn that creature into a humanoid. Then you use Magic Jar to swap bodies with the "humanoid", and dispel your True Polymorph. Thus, you now possess the body of whatever terrifying thing you had captured to begin with.

I would like to make one addendum: The spell can be used, not only on mundane jars of mayonnaise (actually, only if you have mayonnaise worth over 500 gold), however also on any sufficiently valuable gemstone or reliquary. It does not specify this gemstone needs to be nonmagical, so one could, say, make their magic jar the "indestructible crystal staff of awesomeness", and, if you put a magic aura on it masking that it is being affected by a spell, you not only got your budget lichdom with a mostly shatterproof container. But also have a guarantee that at some point someone important will probably hear of this great relic of old, go find it, only for this person to be body snatched.

This could also be used in a different way. Neutral wizards/others storing their souls in a library or academy. Having a willing host that can take up time in a jar so the stored soul can bring forth knowledge and expertise from the past. Soul Jar library.

In a previous campaign one of my players was turned into a jar of Vegemite, she still could fight as a Warrior Jar (think Elden Ring), but was weak to bludgeoning damage. Took her nearly 4 months to undo that. Was possibly the most Australian D&D experience I have ever had.

My dm once gave us a great encounter in an insane asylum with a guy who thought he was a lich trapped in his own phylactery but had actually just been jarred

An alternative, not evil use of this could be as a sort of wizard conscious data library. Like you need information from some Wiznar the magnificent who lived a full, happy life and decided to “donate his soul” so to speak. You contact the librarian, they find the correct jar, and temporarily switch souls with the wizard. You get your info, the wizard goes back in the jar, and you go on your way. Maybe they’ve tweaked the spell a bit for safety, like if the host tries to leave the building they go back automatically or there’s a time limit.

In one of my campaigns, the BBEG is a necromancer in the process of trying to become a Lich and she used Magic Jar as a key part of her plans. Since she knew she would need multiple lifetimes to accomplish the transformation to lichdom, she made multiple clones that she could jump to whenever she unalived. But, assuming that she would gain some powerful enemies in the process, she used Magic Jar to possess about a dozen people over a few years, each time making a Clone using that person's body before swapping back to the jar and unaliving the "donor". So now whenever she dies, she jumps to a Clone of a different body, so no one knows who she will be when she comes back.

For safety, you could keep a couple of them in a bank. You know, the Jar-Jar Banks.

"Your players don't deserve this." Debatable.

Of all the forms of undeath, this one is the one you'd pick if you don't want to give up on the pleasures of life. A lich is powerful, but cannot taste or feel. The jar allows you to go on living while at the same time escaping death, and escaping death is ultimately what it has always been about.

Fun idea: Cast Clone on the barbarian, cast Clone on yourself, cast Magic Jar on yourself, inhabit the Barbarian clone. Carry the jar with you, if you die you return to the jar, if the jar breaks you die and inhabit the clone of yourself, if the barbarian dies you can share custody of the barbarian clone until you can reach your own body and inhabit that instead, then repeat the process

Pair it with simulacrum, party kills a wizard, he poofs into some magical bullshit and they loot a potion off his body. In another encounter they go to drink it and bam, evil wizards back. I wouldnt do a health potion, as theyd already be injured but maybe a charm or strength one, as theyre rarely used when hp is low.

Alternatively, charm your target to accept a nystuls magic aura and change any creature’s creature type into humanoid. Now, you can swap bodies with literally anything!

I always thought of this spell as a way to do some cool infiltration. Your group kidnaps a member of some organization you're against and gets the wizard to possess them, and now they're an inside man and can't be caught with stuff like detect magic and the like. Very evil, very good potential.

This reminds me of that creepy post after Mario odyssey was revealed, where old man on his death bed gave his son his hat, and then possessed him saying “there are no more game overs”

He turned himself into a jar. Funniest shit I've ever seen.

My brother once used it in a Pathfinder 1e game to trap the soul of a solar angel so he could then possess its body as his own. This was also mid-flight, so he left the jar to fall to the ground thousands of feet below.

There are 3 uses i think can of. 1. Allow you to play as a humanoid monster. Example a goblin. 2. character in a jar. Have your backup character come from the jar. 3. Fake death. There is a spell that can cast another spell when trigger conditions are matched and have it thrown your soul in the jar before you die.

It's sort of like they failed at becoming a lich. Instead of the mind staying in the body and the soul moving, they accidentally moved the everything.

And insult to injury it was the jar that guy kept his farts in.

My favourite TTRPG, Nephilim, has you play as this pretty much! You're a spirit that's existed for most of eternity, but around the middle, humanity rose up and forced you into a jar. You have to steal someone's body whenever you're not in the jar, and when they die you have to switch body, get back in the jar or dissipate. The game takes place in Real World Earth But Fucked Up à la WoD, and you can pull from historical periods your character was incarnated in for skills rather than having full stat sheets (e.g. "I pull from my XVIIth Century Charlatan incarnation to convince this guy that those pearls are Totally Real")

I feel like this can be used as a fun way to give away your character in higher level campaigns. Like "I don't want to play this character anymore" and someone else goes "Ooh but I do". Highly unlikely, but y'know, fun.

As if the risk of an oil lamp or a mirror isn't enough, we have to be suspicious of the peanut butter jars XD

Who does this? A wizard who is trying to delay damnation. Great uncle Gannondolf made a devil's deal, but doesn't want to pay up now that his time has come. So he stashed his soul into an urn that gets handed down through generations to the least liked nephew.

So you put a bunch of bad people to sleep indefinitely. Stash them with the jar in a bunker like building deep underground and reach practical immortality. Just snag another body if the one you are using expires. Or if you just want to play as many different assumed identities like a spymaster or something.

Funniest method to achieve immortality in all of fiction.

There are several spells in the player's handbook that are really more there for the DM to use as a plot device, not for the players. Magic Jar is one of them.

I feel like this could work I lot like how you described rogue intilect devoured, just hopping from body to body stealing all the knowledge of all of them.

How about a dungeon where there is no traps, well there are but they're inactive...at the end is a ton of gold... and a jar of seemingly magical ooze... the person who picks it up immediately loses due to wizard bull, and now they are possessed and they secretly have to activate all the traps and get out

I'm real sorry guys

I see this as a spell a wizard keeps in their back pocket for an emergency. Say magical protections youve cast on your fortress have failed, and you know you cant defeat the people coming to destroy you. So you cast this spell on a jar hidden away in the walls of your fortress and later on take over the body of someone that finds it

Narratively I tend to imagine that royal crowns and regalia get this treatment you basically get to be king forever as long as no one manages to kill you in your sleep

Used this spell when my wizard got infected with an illithid tadpole back in 3.5. Little bastard activated my trap card.

I feel like somehow surviving the attepted kill/reswap could be a fun oragin story for a oath of vengeance paladin who has it out for all practitioners of the arcane arts and preserved goods alike.

I feel like this spell (with some homebrew finaggling from the DM to make it work) would be really cool for a backstory as someone who got their soul sucked out of their body and then left in the jar for a while before some other people found it by accident, somehow swapped with that person, and then are trying to find the evil wizard running around the world in your body while also protecting a jar with the poor dude who you accidentally body swapped with so you can both have your bodies back

It seems like a useful spell for an antagonist who has nothing left to lose. A PC, not so much.

I dunno about later editions but initially, that spell is just a part of the process. To become a lich, you mummify your corpse then animate it, then possess it back. You can also use planar binding to bargain for better bodies, or possess certain constructs.

Magic Jar: When you don't want to bother with being a lich.

Our game had an interesting use for magic jar, one of our players was playing someone actively dying of old age, so he cast magic jar and stuffed his soul into a warforged's body. Suddenly he was immortal. Or at least immune to aging. He didn't quite get he wasn't indestructible until a few sessions in (our other wizard said "yeah you can still die")

i actually did this to my party. the wizard just used it to body swap a bunch to escape being killed by the party, then when he was clear, he stashed the jar in a pocket dimension so it was safe. he was plotting his return when we ended the campaign. good spell, really fun.

New character idea: A person from ancient times who spent so long in a Magic Jar that they forgot who they were and only got out by happenstance.

Now I want to create a vigilante character in Pathfinder that's basically just a fighter and a wizard jar acting as a system together. Like they're both on board with the arrangement

Being a wizard, you could try to divine when your current body is going to die and just swap out before then, like your volcano scenario, only you can get out any time before the end. Also divine someone to jump into that isn't going to die for a long time. Repeat forever. Or until the murderhobos catch up with you. They're probably the only thing that can kill you at that point.

Now I'm just imagining a scenario where you introduce PC that's a wizard stuck in jar form and through shenanigans, you have 2 players using the jar to share a body to achieve a common goal (maybe for 2 players that have conflicting schedules?)

I think this spell would be a really cool if unpredictable way of breaking into a secure place like a well guarded castle, especially if you are paired with a druid character who can turn into a small animal. Have the druid as a small animal carry the jar into the castle and then switch bodies with a guard and put the jar and small animal into your pocket. Every time you reach a security check point you can't get through or pass someone of higher rank switch bodies with the person above you. You would need to "take care of" the guy whose body you have left behind, but given that you are now of higher rank you can accuse him of being a traitor or something and have his jar and animal "confiscated". If it doesn't go your way have the druid grab the jar and run; you'll both be small enough to hide somewhere out of sight pretty easily. This would admittedly require a lot of luck, but is successful could get you to the right hand of king with the perfect disguise.

I've always wanted to make a character like this, it'd make for a very interesting play style. Playing as a character that's functionally immortal, but would definitely be considered and evil, body snatching necromancer that's to be hunted down and slain by an order of paladins. So the goal would be to remain inconspicuous and hide your jar using abjuration spells like nystuls magic aura and nondetection. It just wouldn't mesh with a party very well as you can't keep this secret from them for long and if any of them are good they just wouldn't like you or want you around.

Imagine this getting flipped into the most wholesome, middle school chapter book altogether- a jar of Smuckers that gets passed around, and helps kids with their homework, ace their piano recital, and helps the kid in the hospital passively come along in Jar form to the school camping trip.

A DM can use this on a player who is gettign bored with their class. basically you have them find the jar, then pass them a note to explain what has occurred... and emphasize they have to keep it secret (unless they think the party will go along with the fact the player is now a different person and has squashed the personality of their character). Even more fun would be watching the rest of the party begin to question why the player seems so attached to a jar...

Lorewise, I am under the impression that the spell is a necessity for making a Phylactery, as the Phylactery functions in a similar manner but at much better range and much greater range of success. There was a whole process in older editions, but obviously they haven't released any details on how to become a lich for 5e canon yet, so don't know if that's still up to date. I once used Magic Jar for taking over a barbarian's body from a player who was about to leave the campaign. Let me tell you, its nice having that d12 hit points. As a gnome wizard, the Charisma save was still reasonably easy to make when it did come up. The only thing that sucked was needing a separate clone jar for the host body and my wizard. Also Flesh to Stone is certainly not in an instant, it takes its sweet time to happen at best. Never seen anyone use it against anything that wasn't like a commoner or something that would easily fail the back to back saves. It is decidedly less useful than Magic Jar.

This is where having a true friend helps find your jar a nice body, LOL I smell an evil party theme here...

So, I've known about this spell in a vague, half remembered way from another channel's D&D deep dive. I always assumed it was the earlier form of the Lych spell, complete with a phylactery and a need to "consume" other living people.

A particularly evil use would be a king using it to possess his children when he became too old. He could largely look and act the same, and people would chalk it up to genetics.

The thing is, the jar doesn't need to be a jar. It needs to be an "ornamental container worth at least 500gp", so you can make a super expensive mythril ring with a tiny little box on it, and make that your jar. You're likely an evil wizard if you're chill with immortality through possession, so grab a "volunteer" as your first new body and cast the spell. Wear the ring around, anyone wanting to kill you will likely just take the ring after you "die" (jump into the ring when you're near death), and you can jump to them at your leisure. It's risky, but easier immortality than becoming a litch

One lich, two jars.

Play as the Jar. Whenever your character dies, have your party take it to the next victim and possess the new character without having to make new lore.

i had the idea for a civilization that used to store their elders in magic jars to preserve their knowledge. of course the civilization collapses, and almost all the jars break, but at least one survives to get found by an archeologist who's studying ancient necromancy, and they agree to some mutually beneficial bodysharing

Alright, so considering how intense the process is to become a lich, I could see an evil necromancer undertaking to use this spell because its easier than lichdom and they don't have the abilities to complete all the preparations that they would want to in time. Then they would elect to using the host's body to progress up to and including completing the ritual if they could. Also if they are doing the ritual on their own body, but using someone else's, they might get a measure of security in case the ritual goes wrong. That way they aren't turned into a demi lich or something worse.

I can see this spell not being used for villainous ends, but more self sacrificial. I am picturing a prosperous village that has been around for centuries, and the villagers grant this prosperity to a wise a benevolent spirit who aid them, the catch being it must inhabit another to communicate and help, many volunteer for this at the local shrine. In reality the spirit is a ancient wizard born in the town who's legend is lost to time, and after a tragedy, made his jar and hid it in the shrine. A way to loop a campaign into it is the wizard is tho only being old enough to remember a crucial fact on defending against a equally ancient threat, however, in the years of being many people and a jar, their sense of time is warped, and can't tell if something happens last week or 500 years ago nor with whom, leading the party on a hunt for items and stories of the wizards first life to jog their memories

This reminds me of H.P. Lovectaft's "the Terrible Old Man. The titular old man had bottles in his house with labels like "Jack, Scar-Face, Long Tom, Spanish Joe, Peters, and Mate Ellis" and when he'd talk to the bottles, the little lead weight inside would vibrate in response.

You can actually have a really good character backstory of someone who was a very promising apprentice/assistant that managed to run away from a very high ranking wizard that's served the kingdom for an unknowable amount of time that's been jumping from body to body of their chosen apprentices and the character may be hunted down by that kingdom or personally wants to put an end to that cruel cycle and returns to end it to see the wizard in the body of a close friend

Okay but imagine a curse that did sort of the opposite: You pass by a jar or something and instantly everything goes dark, and when you regain consciousness everything you see is from the perspective of some wizard who has turned himself into a walking vessel that traps souls in his own body... you have no influence on the wizard whatsoever and no voice to cry out in resistance, only unblinking eyes to watch whatever depravity (or insipidity) the wizard gets up to for an amount of time before being shunted back to your body, possibly even drained and exhausted from the endeavor. As a spell itself, say that as the wizard who casts the spell, you gain the prepared magics (spell slots, magical abilities, enchantments, etc) of the soul you trap in your body for a time, and are unaffected by going without rest except to refresh spell slots (which are theoretically covered by trapping the soul)... when they're released, they suffer the exhaustion you would have instead.

Do you think souls in jars have the consistency of runny honey or set honey.

And as of now the BBEG of my next campaign will be the dark wizard, Grap D'Jelli.

A benevolent twist for the magic jar idea would be one I'd shamelessly rip off from the Star Wars B'omar Monks: A religious order of monks whose oldest and most venerated members are eventually soul jar'd of their own volition so they can exist in a bodyless state when they are at the end of their lives, cutting them off from the temptation of the flesh in order to contemplate the higher mysteries of the universe or their faith to better attain enlightenment without distraction while still being around to offer their wisdom if they so choose. They possess mid-rank monks who willingly offer their bodies to the spirits of the venerated elder monks when they need to speak directly to their fellow monks for a while, but are otherwise left in sanctified peace in a shrine within the monastery, perhaps placed near their mummified bodies preserved in meditative poses (or even IN their bodies, in hollows cut into their chests perhaps).

I like powerful spells that just do one really specific thing. They're always the most fun. my favorite is Ship of Fools. It makes everyone on a boat temporarily forget how to operate a boat. Its such a simple idea, but it can cause a ridiculous amount of chaos. Much like Magic Jar.

I think Magic Jar is meant for short-term applications, since you lose most of your wizardly abilities while in your victim’s body. A “king for a day” situation.

Gain someone's trust Offer them a gift Place the jar in their hand Cast Magic Jar Immediately swap to their body Send the jar to another plane Repeat when necessary

Jar hidden behind two way mirror in shop window or other busy location. No one need select your peanut butter to fall victim and when it's time for a new host the collapse of the old host should draw in likely candidates. This spell was used by the matron of a brothel to not only remain immortal but also the most desirable among the women working there.

I imagine there's like a cult who worships the immortal jar wizard and they keep it safe and whenever the leader needs a new body for any reason, a cultist willingly fails their charisma saving throw to let the jar wizard possess them that's how your villain guarantees he won't like, fail to possess someone and get his jar destroyed or dispelled.

Realize this would be FAR scarier if it werent limited to dnd, because there is literally no where else that has “saving throws” in real life or literally any other fictional world, it just happens and theres nothing you can do about it!! The wider implications of such an item are TERRIFYING!

I imagine a wizard who wasnt quite talented enough to get to 9th lvl spells at the end of their life trying to buy more time so they put their soul in a jar and use that as their life extension until they find a way to become more powerful over lifetimes of research

It is a terrifying spell, that's for sure, but anything with great potential often is. There are scenarios where this can be really, really good to use, especially with some leeway, which DnD has so much of. It does hard vibe as a lich spell from first impression though.

If you're a wizard who can cast 6th level spells, you can employ specialists to procure suitable subjects for transplant and ensure they encounter the jar with penalties to their saving throws.

There is actually a canon Forgotten Realms villain who is a Magic Jar user. I think the spell worked a little different in older editions because her lore/flavor text doesn't exactly match the 5e spell. Her name is Aumathra, and her shtick is that she is revered by a clan of orcs who every 100 years or so capture a young woman who looks like how Aumathra did when she was alive and bring her to the 'jar' (which is actually Aumathra's sarcophagus with Magic Jar cast on it) and the young woman is possessed. Aumathra then leads the orcs to battle, raiding the surrounding countryside until she is eventually 'slain', at which point she returns to the jar/sarcophagus.

I can see a character idea who was stuck in the jar for a while. Somehow, the jar wizard miscalculated and gave the body back and the PC escaped with more time than intended. Instant revenge story and crazy kind of rival for that PC

Question, can you use this spell to posses someone, cast the spell again to inhabited a new jar, posses someone else, and keep the original guys soul in a jar? If so, can i gather a collection of soul jars and use those to get free infinite devil pacts by selling those souls instead of my own? Now THAT would be a terrifying villain

i mean if you could start a cult that worships you as a pretty powerful deity youd live forever too

I played a plasmoid once, and a jar was my final enemy. Jars are truly the most evil enemy in dnd.

Magic Jar is definitely one of the spells used to make a phylactery.

Imagine if you could gathering a whole group of jar wizards that were willing to sit on a shelf in the same room as a trap for any unsuspecting dungeon explores.

So, horror aspect that got missed. Repeat casting. The wizard that took your body and left you in the jar, still knows the spell. So, after a while- maybe centuries, there's a stack of jars, and a pile-up of empty bodies. Now, a clever villain might find a way to keep some bodies alive, so they could swap around bodies like they were changing clothes. That would be handy for a rescuing party to get people back in their own bodies after beating the BBEG.

In 3.5 D&D Magic Jar's duration is an hour per caster level, so this wasn't a path to immortality, but a "win the fight" spell. You could Magic Jar your soul into a gem stone, have a member of your party toss the gem into the room full of things we don't want to fight and close the door. You then proceed to swap with each of them until you succeed. Use your borrowed body to fight the other creatures in the room. In 3.5, if your borrowed body died while you were within range of your jar, your soul just went back to the jar and you could immediately attempt to control another body. You repeat until there are no more enemies. Using your last borrowed body, you open the door and lie down so the party can kill the body. You then return to your original body and continue the adventure. You expended a 5th level spell slot and the party took no damage. In 3.5, you didn't need line of effect. The gem only needed to be within medium range (100ft + 10ft/caster level) and once in the gem, you can sense any life force within 10ft/caster level and attempt to swap with them. I once had a BBEG vampire use a Magic Jar as a defensive tool in his lair. He mostly stayed in the top floor of his tower and he had a gem stone embedded in the floor. In the floor below, he had a loyal servant, in this instance, a fire giant. When the party invaded his tower, he took the fire giant's body in order to fight the party and determine their strength. When the giant was defeated, one by one they had to make saves until one of them failed and the vampire took control of their body. When someone found the secret door that led up to the vampire's lair, he voluntarily returned to his original body. It was quite a fun encounter.

I had a PC who's whole backstory was that they'd swapped bodies with an archmage, intending to swap back after smearing their reputation but their original body and jar got stolen so they couldn't and had to keep living as this old archmage

I had a villain who modified this spell so that he becomes a lemon and can hop into other lemons. Another wizard modified his casting of the spell and forced his soul to be stuck in lemons and can only hop into lemons. And he can talk telepathically to others through the lemons, so now I have a NPC wizard who has a lemon on his shoulder at all times who is constantly shit talking everyone

I always assumed this spell was a failed attempt at becoming a necromancer.

I wrote a oneshot based on an evil necromancer who would steal people from other villages with a slightly modified version of this spell. From how I understood the spell when I wrote the oneshot (it must have been a while because I think I read it wrong). He would capture a soul, control the body, kill it, and add to his dead body collection. And there were plenty of more powerful zombies from a nearby barbarian encampment.

Okay but like....this would be such a fun way for a BBEG to infiltrate a party (using either an NPC or the character of someone leaving the campaign whose character was getting NPC'd, unless an active player was *really* cool with it and it was negotiated ahead of time....)

Congrats! You are now a discount lich!

Omigosh, I just had a great idea: Canopic Jars. A Mummy Lord whose wizard friend helped design the protections for their shared tomb is placed into a canopic jar, willingly becoming an undead horror that takes over minor grave robbers to force them to their deaths or to re-awaken the Mummy Lord when the time is right. It's a form of undeath that actually would make you more resilient to degredation that Lichdom, which requires a constant inflow of sapient souls to maintain.