Resurrection and the connection between body and soul


Rules Questions


First things first, do not read this thread if you are Hardwool. Thanks.

The following situation: Two people switch bodies. Magically and permament. Then they get seperated and no one knows where the other is. One of them, naturally, wants her own body back but doesn't know where it currently is.

The question: If she gets killed, or kills herself, in order to get resurrected shortly thereafter by a friendly cleric, which body would she get? The body she currently inhabits or her original?

Or, to erase the possibility to use the slain body for a resurrection: She kills herself, her body gets disintegrated and then her friendly cleric casts True Resurrection (no body needed) on her. Which body would she get then?

Does it depend on her last body? Or is there some kind of imprint in her soul that's somehow connected to her original body? Is this a viable (and, admittedly, expensive) possibility to get her original body back?

Of course, I could just houserule it, but I'd like to know if this would work rulewise (the spells give no hint, in my opinion) or how you would rule this case.

Opinions very appreciated, thanks!

Grand Lodge

We probably need to know a great deal more about the body switch effect.

Resurrection functions like raise dead. Raise dead restores life to a deceased creature. The subject's soul must be free and willing to return. Which deceased creature is restored and to where does the soul return? It seems to me that can only be the dead creature touched as the target of the spell, receiving back the soul that inhabited it at the time of death.

True resurrection functions like raise dead, except (relevantly) that you can bring back creatures whose body has been destroyed, provided that you identify the deceased unambiguously. "The deceased" means the same thing that it means for raise dead: the dead creature that is the target of the spell. The PC's former body is not dead and has not been destroyed, so it's not a valid target for true resurrection. The cleric would have to identify as a target the body that housed the PC's soul at the time he died and would get that body back.


You might get some ideas for results of dying in the host body when far away from your own body by looking at the effects of magic jar. Short answer is that it's never good.

What does "hardwool" mean? I'm not sure if I qualify.

Given how magic jar functions, and how most possession effects seem to be based on magic jar (although without the need for a receptacle), scrying and questing to recover the original body before attempting a body-switch is probably the best bet.

Grand Lodge

Wolf Munroe wrote:
What does "hardwool" mean? I'm not sure if I qualify.

I would guess, the player of the character in question.


You may be referring to something like true mind switch? I believe in that case you would be resurrected in whichever body is currently possessed by you, since it wouldn't make sense for there to be the other way (so if the cleric uses true resurrection, you get the body you were last in).

If you wanted to use core material, a beast-bonded witch (here) can switch bodies permanently using her 10th level ability (out of her familiar and into someone else) and I think the same rules would apply, though I could see some DMs ruling that in this case you get your previous body back

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