Soulswitch - Are your identity and spell slots linked to your body or your soul?


Rules Questions


Soulswitch wrote:
You may only cast this spell if you currently have a familiar. You place your soul into the body of your familiar, and your familiar's soul is placed in your body. This functions as if you possessed your familiar using magic jar; your familiar simultaneously possesses your body in the same manner. You can't freely transfer your soul between your body and your familiar's—if you choose to return to your body as a standard action, the spell ends. If either body is killed, both spirits return to their original bodies, the spell ends, and the original owner of the slain body dies.

This spell

When your familiar is in your body, does it still count as your familiar? For instance, will your familiar in your original body be a valid target for shield companion and does it keep its share spells ability?

Moreover, after switching souls, does your familiar still use its own item slots (as determined by its original form) or does it use the item slots that you had when you were in your own body? Do you use your own item slots or item slots of your familiar?


That spell references Magic Jar.

Magic Jar wrote:
If you are successful, your life force occupies the host body, and the host's life force is imprisoned in the magic jar. You keep your Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, level, class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, alignment, and mental abilities. The body retains its Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, natural abilities, and automatic abilities. A body with extra limbs does not allow you to make more attacks (or more advantageous two-weapon attacks) than normal. You can't choose to activate the body's extraordinary or supernatural abilities. The creature's spells and spell-like abilities do not stay with the body.

You keep anything from your class, which unless you're a dragon is where you're getting your spells.


I'm not asking about spellcasting abilities though.

What I'm asking is, for the purpose of this soulswitch/magic jar:
Are magic item slots regarded as a natural or mental ability? Or do you lose all magic item slots altogether?
What about one's status as a familiar?

On a side note, I would think that many GMs might rule that a dragon's spellcasting ability is mental rather than physical.


Slots are a feature of the body.

Since the Soulswitch ability specifically is used to trade bodies with one's familiar, there's no reason to assume they stop being your familiar.

Scarab Sages

When you use Magic Jar you can still cast your spells from the new body. And when you polymorph into a shape that can no longer use your abilities based on you body you can no longer use those abilities. That should answer your question.

Spell effects that target mental features travel with you. Spells that target the body stay with the body.

Fox's cunning would travel with you, polymorph stays with the body.

Magic Item slots are part of the body.


Lorewalker wrote:

When you use Magic Jar you can still cast your spells from the new body. And when you polymorph into a shape that can no longer use your abilities based on you body you can no longer use those abilities. That should answer your question.

Spell effects that target mental features travel with you. Spells that target the body stay with the body.

Fox's cunning would travel with you, polymorph stays with the body.

Magic Item slots are part of the body.

I don't disagree, but I was wondering where you got these rules from. I'm not seeing them in the magic jar description.

Scarab Sages

FiddlersGreen wrote:
Lorewalker wrote:

When you use Magic Jar you can still cast your spells from the new body. And when you polymorph into a shape that can no longer use your abilities based on you body you can no longer use those abilities. That should answer your question.

Spell effects that target mental features travel with you. Spells that target the body stay with the body.

Fox's cunning would travel with you, polymorph stays with the body.

Magic Item slots are part of the body.

I don't disagree, but I was wondering where you got these rules from. I'm not seeing them in the magic jar description.

Well, from one place, every time an encounter is written that has a caster possess a body they can still use their spells.

Two, you put your mind into the body which includes all your mental stats. Spells are a mental feature, not a physical one.

Also, the lines I bolded from the spell...

"If you are successful, your life force occupies the host body, and the host's life force is imprisoned in the magic jar. You keep your Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, level, class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, alignment, and mental abilities. The body retains its Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, natural abilities, and automatic abilities. A body with extra limbs does not allow you to make more attacks (or more advantageous two-weapon attacks) than normal. You can't choose to activate the body's extraordinary or supernatural abilities. The creature's spells and spell-like abilities do not stay with the body."

And finally magic item slots are based on your physical nature as well as the maximum allowed slots. So, no creature can have more than 2 active rings even if they have 10 hands, five fingers each. But a creature with only one arm can only wear one bracer. The rules for this are spread around.

Also, your familiar is your familiar no matter what body it is in. It will also have the share spell feature as that feature does not have a type. But the EX and SU features stay with the body and can not be activated by you. Though, the ones all familiars get are pretty much always on abilities so you would benefit from them.

Though, the last part is only an extrapolation from the Magic Jar rules and will vary depending on how your GM rules.

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