Beast-Bonded Witch’s Twin Soul ability needs clarification. Please!

Hey, this is my first ever post on this site. That’s because it’s been 8 years since Ultimate Magic came out, and there is still no clarification over the Beast-Bonded Witch’s ‘Twin Soul’ ability at level 10. The wording is extremely vague and open to interpretation. Please, I just want an official answer! There have been a countless number of FAQs and threads on multiple sites about this ability. It needs clarification. When the witch or familiar’s soul is riding in the other’s body, the options listed for the guest soul are:

1. ‘Return to its own body (if available) by touch’,
2. ‘Transfer into a suitable vessel (such as a clone), or,
3. ‘Take over another body as if using magic jar (with no receptacle).’

So let’s start with number 1. What does ‘available’ mean? Does the body have to be alive? Is it even alive with no soul in? Pathfinder rules say no, a body without a soul is dead. So is it about the physical condition of the body? How mangled does the body have to be before it is ‘not available’? Also. Let’s say the witch’s soul was inside the familiar’s body, and someone used the spell ‘flesh to stone’ on the witch’s body, turning him into a statue. Is it still his body? Can he still return to it? Or is it being a statue mean it’s not ‘available’? What if his body was permanently transformed into the body of say, a wolf? Is it still his body?

Now number 2 - ‘a suitable vessel’. So, the text references a clone, like the one created by the clone spell, so we know that works. But that’s just an example. What is ‘a suitable vessel’? Could you make a 10ft tall metal golem and put his soul inside? What is a ‘suitable vessel’?

Now number 3. ‘Take over the creature’s body as if using magic jar (with no receptacle). NO RECEPTACLE obviously means you don’t need to put your soul in a gem first. You just attempt to take over the body. But it also means that the creature’s soul has nowhere to go when you force it out. That means the creature Dies. Or is this not the case?

Additionally, the effect states that only the ‘Taking Over of the creature’s body’ is like magic jar. Does this mean that the duration is instantaneous, and therefore permanent, like the other two abilities in the effect?

Please, if anyone could give me an official ruling that would be amazing.

Hey, this is my first ever post on this site. That’s because it’s been 8 years since Ultimate Magic came out, and there is still no clarification over the Beast-Bonded Witch’s ‘Twin Soul’ ability at level 10. The wording is extremely vague and open to interpretation. Please, I just want an official answer! There have been a countless number of FAQs and threads on multiple sites about this ability. It needs clarification. When the witch or familiar’s soul is riding in the other’s body, the options listed for the guest soul are:

1. ‘Return to its own body (if available) by touch’,
2. ‘Transfer into a suitable vessel (such as a clone), or,
3. ‘Take over another body as if using magic jar (with no receptacle).’

I will answer as per my understanding of the rules. If an FAQ contridicts what I say I'll be happy to read said FAQ and revise my answers.

ok, to start with, this ability can only trigger under specific conditions. It essentially allows the witch and the familiar to use the other as a "lifeboat" of sorts when they die or are about to die. So, lets say the witch took a major hit and dropped to -3 HP. At this point they are considered "dying" as per the rules.

If your hit point total is negative, but not equal to or greater than your Constitution score, you’re dying.

A dying character immediately falls unconscious and can take no actions.

A dying character loses 1 hit point every round. This continues until the character dies or becomes stable.

At this point the witch's soul transfers to the familiar. Since magic jar is referenced in option 3, and option 1 is also a thing you can do via magic jar. It's probably safe to assume that the abandoned body is treated the same way an abandoned body would be treated in magic jar.

By casting magic jar, you place your soul in a gem or large crystal (known as the magic jar), leaving your body lifeless.... If the spell ends while you are in the magic jar, you return to your body (or die if your body is out of range or destroyed).

1. So, it seems that your body is dead for all practical purposes. Meaning it doesn't require food, water or air and would start to decay as normal. It also means that it would be treated as an object so anything that requires its target to be a living creature would fail. Its a DM's call as to whether the body continues to "bleed out" or not, I could easily see it either way. Unless you have some way of repairing the body (perhaps a make whole spell) or presevering it. It would eventually reach a state where even if you were allowed to re-enter it you would die immedately. Any effect that doesn't explicitly kill you (flesh to stone is one such spell), would not prevent you from returning to your body. As for effects that do kill you, it would depend if the effect would have a harmful effect against objects or not. If it doesn't harm objects then your body would be fine, if it does damage objects then not so much. So, it really depends on the circumstances that caused you to vacate your own body to begin with.

2. Anything that could contain your soul. Soulbound constructs and soulbound dolls come to mind. I'm sure it was left open ended because the author didn't want to restrict this option to only the clone spell. These would be things that do not already contain a soul but can explicitly have a soul occupy it. Meaning you couldn't possess a rocking chair or a random boulder unless it was actually a soulbound construct that simply looked like a chair or boulder.

3. This one is strange. Since magic jar states that destroying the receptacle ends the spell. So, essentially nothing would happen as the effect would immediately end its self. By RAW this option simply doesn't work and would require interpretation on the part of the DM. IMO I would make it just work the same way the spell possession works. This kind of scenario is why the spell was written and is even stated as such.

The old magic jar spell is unwieldy, particularly with respect to creatures like ghosts and shadow demons that don’t really use a jar at all. Consider replacing magic jar with the new possession spells for both spellcasters and monsters. Likewise, consider using spells based on possession rather than magic jar.

Kirin Kaelthorn wrote:

Hey, this is my first ever post on this site. That’s because it’s been 8 years since Ultimate Magic came out, and there is still no clarification over the Beast-Bonded Witch’s ‘Twin Soul’ ability at level 10. The wording is extremely vague and open to interpretation. Please, I just want an official answer! There have been a countless number of FAQs and threads on multiple sites about this ability. It needs clarification. When the witch or familiar’s soul is riding in the other’s body, the options listed for the guest soul are:

1. ‘Return to its own body (if available) by touch’,
2. ‘Transfer into a suitable vessel (such as a clone), or,
3. ‘Take over another body as if using magic jar (with no receptacle).’

I will answer as per my understanding of the rules. If an FAQ contridicts what I say I'll be happy to read said FAQ and revise my answers.

ok, to start with, this ability can only trigger under specific conditions. It essentially allows the witch and the familiar to use the other as a "lifeboat" of sorts when they die or are about to die. So, lets say the witch took a major hit and dropped to -3 HP. At this point they are considered "dying" as per the rules.

Dying (Negative Hit Points) wrote:

If your hit point total is negative, but not equal to or greater than your Constitution score, you’re dying.

A dying character immediately falls unconscious and can take no actions.

A dying character loses 1 hit point every round. This continues until the character dies or becomes stable.

At this point the witch's soul transfers to the familiar. Since magic jar is referenced in option 3, and option 1 is also a thing you can do via magic jar. It's probably safe to assume that the abandoned body is treated the same way an abandoned body would be treated in magic jar.

Magic Jar wrote:

By casting magic jar, you place your soul in a gem or large crystal (known as the magic jar), leaving your body

...

Thanks for replying. I would more or less agree; unfortunately, not every DM would, and it would be really nice to have an official ‘it’s supposed to work like this’ so that I don’t have to argue with a DM (or with players) every time this archetype is used... I appreciate your reply though - I didn’t know about soulbound constructs/dolls. Thanks :) If you (or anyone else reading this) does see any kind of official ruling on it, let me know!

With PF2 as the new product line and cessation of PF1 product several months ago, it is highly probable that there will be no more offical clairifications or FAQ's on PF1 unless a glaring black hole of contradiction shows up in PFS1 and then that will be for Org Play.

I'm sure with the long history of Magic Jar, Clone, Bestow Curse, and the psychic spells that are variants there is guidance for home GMs.