My favorite line: “...Orcus returns to his own body, and he’s probably going to be upset.”

"Orcus is back in his body and he is probably going to be upset." Understatement of the century.

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.

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!"?

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.

Simple way around the "you die" scenarios - have the Simulacrum use the Magic Jar spell....

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.

Awesome breakdown of a rather confusing spell. It has the possibility of making some really cool encounters when used by an NPC.

Chronurgist Wizard with lucky feat forcing orcus to fail the true polimorph spell is like Doctor Strange vs Dormammu, and I love it

True polymorph your body into a ring or other item with the gem set into it.

Too many "you die" scenarios for my taste. I would risk using that spell only if I had no other choice.

Seems like Clone is a neccessary back up to get full use out of this spell.

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.

So excited for this; this spell is about to enter my group’s campaign in a big way!

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.

You've opened up a whole new world for me, a new fantastic point of view..

Amazing video, I can't wait to try this spell out...

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'm trying to use magic jar to be a form of a lich, also you are the only person to make a video on this spell i think, thanks.

Thank you for this, I never could figure out this spell just by reading it a couple of times without studying it.

You get to draw two cards! No, wait... That was the Pot of Greed. ;p

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.

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.

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.

Woooo this the spell I'm most looking forward to on my wiz!

Also helps with 3.5, with some tweaks. Very cool!

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.

What an intriguing item! Since I'm still new at D&D i tend to discover items while playing. hopefully i make my saving throws from now on inspecting gemstones and crystals!!

Awesome video, I think that in my campaign, if a player got to the level of this spell I would allow them to use it and it would be more of a direct body swap. keep your mental stats get the physical stats. I would use the base race. this is a great spell for a villain though.

I think the hit dice works like AC calculations from multi-classing. Pick one source not combine them. you could take the creatures hit points Or your class feature not both. I also think that by a strict definition of "assume." you the player are assuming the form even if your body is still unchanged. There is also the "valid target" argument for many of those situations.( i.e the gold dragon or orcus) the target would be valid so long as it stays in humanoid form but once changes the target would no longer be valid and the spell would end. Even so great vid. keep up the good work.

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

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

This is a spell that needs a backup Clone before you start using it! Also - the section you quoted from the MM says “Spellcasting Class feature” as part of the text. I would say the a creature with a “class feature” that says “18th level soellcaster” would equate to class levels. At least to me.

This spell has far too many risks to use normally, however it combines very well with a casting of the clone spell while your using magic jar.

(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?

Is there a way to create a failsafe against dying while in a host? (Clone maybe, or I guess just use Revivify)

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

Excellent video as usual. Since you didn’t mention it during the video, I’m curious what your opinion is on the interaction between Magic Jar and Find (Greater) Steed? If I’m a bard with both, when I cast magic jar, since the spell only targets myself I should be able to extend it to my steed too right? So both our souls are now in the jar and either or both of us can slip out and possess someone. The steed soul could even just flow into your body to pilot it around and keep it safe while you are “out” - making sure it eats and drinks, etc.

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.

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?

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?

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.

Great NPC BBG spell. I made it a magic item and had the BBG take possession of a party member, then allowed the PC to control the BBG for a few sessions. The party eventually took control of the magic item and it gave them some interesting options in future sessions. Also, I would agree with your interpretation. The soul trapped in the jar can't return to a broken body, so if the possessor dies in the host body, it's body would need to be restored in some way prior to being usable by a soul again. The only thing I question in the video is the Gith being proficient in the armor. I guess RAW you wouldn't get the feature as it is not listed, but I certainly don't see anywhere listed that the Gith Commander is taking Disadvantage on all it's ability checks, saving throws, and attacks. It can also clearly cast spells, which it couldn't do without proficiency in the plate armor. Finally, Found it interesting you wouldn't allow the Archdruid because while it wasn't a Druid it "emulated" one, but I would argue it's pretty clear that the Gith Commander is emulating a Gish Fighter build (it clearly isnt getting those abilities from it's Race) but you dont have issues with that, because - spells.

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.

I have a question - how would this interact with True Polymorph done on your vacant body? As in, after you've successfully possessed another creature could you then use True Polymorph on your own body to turn it into something your familiar could carry or wear? If you turn your body into an item, can you return to it? What if you turn it into a tiny humanoid? (If that's plausible w/in RAW, your familiar could be wearing whatever has the soul in it while your body is somehow tied to/riding it.)

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.

Sign up for Patreon! Your content is just too good. More!

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)

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?

Wow Thanks Jeremy for that answer on class features. Don't add the words, "yes, so this works in this way..." So perfectly clear! It's kinda moot anyway though, going from a Wizard low low HP to a Kobold's 5HP, just the shear increase in tankiness makes this spell one of the best in the game. Really though, this spell is far too nuanced. I don't think I'd take it just because it seems generally not very useful, and when it is, it really is but requires a lot of potential set up. And it just reeks of if the DM doesn't nerf or play into it, it's either too much or nothing. That end was just amazing though, really good and funny.

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.

How would the conditions of clone interact with magic jar? If you "die" does your clone activate?

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.

I'm really surprised you didn't touch on how the clone spell can interact with Magic Jar.

Did I ever tell you I love your videos? Well I do.

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?

What is the hp equation for possessing a fellow PC? and how do we track damage between the body?

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.

plan on doing this as a necromancer after i construct an iron golem

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.

you probably could use wish to create a magic jar during combat, although im not sure it would be so useful at level 17

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?

I think that if you want to keep your original body in working order then you have a time limit on how long you can leave your body since the spell does not preserve it while your soul is away. Your body still needs to eat and drink and breathe though you can assume that the requirement is reduced since it is catatonic. Also, your body is defenseless while you are in possession of another body. Something as small as a poisonous spider that drops down on the body when no one is looking could be your demise. I see this as a good ambush spell though. Have it set up somewhere in a place that you can hide your body securely like under the floor of a house. Let your familiar or other mention guard over your body. I wonder if you could combine this spell with tiny hut. Your soul probably would not be able to penetrate the dome of force but in theory your body is within a hundred feet still so maybe you could wait it out. If nothing else a glyph of warding with dispel magic could be set up in advance using the trigger of magic jar ending as the trigger to dispel tiny hut and allow for your. I guess the next question is if tiny hut would end if your soul left the hut. From my understanding, it should remain so long as your body stays inside the hut but I'd talk to the DM before hand to clear that up.

Another great video. Question: How do you keep your original body alive? You can bring it along, but how are you feeding it? Can it chew? Swallow? Bonus question (hard): Can you think of any way I can add Magic Jar to my "spells known" on a Sorcerer (or at least use it)?

Sage advice said creatures have the proficiencies of the armor they’re wearing even though it’s not specifically listed (also page 9 of mm)

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?

27:32 I’d recommend turning him into something with a lot more hit points. The kobold can easily kill itself and revert back to Orcus.

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.

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?

Does the dispel have to be on the jar or on the creature to end the spell? It seems like a pretty big weakness.

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?

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?

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.

This video is almost most view. Though yeah The best use for it is to give an unwindable situation to a party or villain. It is the ultimate kidnapping.

Are there any humanoids beasts? I was looking around and bugbears seem to fit

Well, about the casters: they are noted to be an 18th level spellcaster and thats why I would not consider them to be a good target

How would this spell work when cast via wish? Since you don't need material components for wish, would the spell create a container?

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.

I watched one thing where they polymorphed a dragon into a commoner then possessed it with magic jar, then undid polymorph. As a dm for my families table I would think this would work as well. I'd love to hear others thoughts on this though. (I am heavily simplifying this as well. The other spells needed required an army of spellcasters.) Also would cloning the target and killing the original not be a way to cheat magic jar as well as long as you don't die?

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

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?

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.

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but how would demiplane interact with your body being required to be within 100ft?

forgive the ignorance of this question, but, could a magic user possess the body of a green slime?

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.

Thank you.

It says when the spell ends, the container is destroyed. Therefore it is still there. Can mending fix it?

So random question. If I am a Old One Warlock, could I use my telepathy while within the jar?

Used it to replace a mcguffin prince's soul with a polymorphed squirrel 😌

Thank you!!!!!!

Is there a possible use of Contingency that would add to the fun?

can u carry the body in say a portable hole? with some way to create air?... say put some plants and a light source in said portable hole?

16:35 but it doesnt make sense tho . The githyanki is obviously proficient in heavy armor ?!

What happens if a simulacrum casts the spell?

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!

It seems like having a clone of your original body would be a good safeguard. If that is the case, you might want to intentionally kill your old body to remove complications and insure that you go to the nice young clone body.

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.

What wizard subclass would work best for this?