The spell text, and lich text prompting my question is as follows :
Text from the Magic Jar spell :
By casting magic jar, you place your soul in a gem or large crystal (known as the magic jar), leaving your body lifeless. Then you can attempt to take control of a nearby body, forcing its soul into the magic jar. You may move back to the jar (thereby returning the trapped soul to its body) and attempt to possess another body.The spell ends when you send your soul back to your own body, leaving the receptacle empty.
Text about a lich's phylactery :
An integral part of becoming a lich is the creation of the phylactery in which the character stores his soul. The only way to get rid of a lich for sure is to destroy its phylactery. Unless its phylactery is located and destroyed, a lich can rejuvenate after it is killed (see Creating a Lich, below).
The above text prompts a few questions.
1) As the soul of a lich is stored in its phylactery is a lich ever capable of using the spell (is it possible to remove a soul from its phylactery, or use this spell without the soul component)?
2)If the lich is capable of casting this spell, would said lich be able to do this anywhere or only near his/her phylactery (to have access to his soul or is the link between the body and phylactery enough)?
3) The spell lists several cases that can result in the death of the caster. Most of these cases relate to the soul of the caster being unable to return to its body if the possessed creature is slain. If one of these conditions is met then what would happen to the lich.
Death conditions for reference
If the host body is slain, you return to the magic jar, if within range, and the life force of the host departs (it is dead). If the host body is slain beyond the range of the spell, both you and the host die. Any life force with nowhere to go is treated as slain.
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). If the spell ends while you are in a host, you return to your body (or die, if it is out of range of your current position), and the soul in the magic jar returns to its body (or dies if it is out of range). Destroying the receptacle ends the spell, and the spell can be dispelled at either the magic jar or the host's location.
Yes. This is exactly what Spock did to McCoy in Wrath of Khan.
There isn't really any rules interactions because both of the descriptions are too fluffy and vague to allow analysis ('soul' isn't defined well enough in the rules). Liches in general are not well described enough to allow for this kind of discussion. As written, because 'soul' is not being used as a rules term, the lich can use magic jar just fine.
Considering that magic jar is a key necromantic spell, and you would expect most liches to be necromancers, I would be inclined to fluff it in such a way that the two can interact normally anyway.
I would simply say that the lich puts its 'animus' that powers its concious body into the gem, just like a soul. All rules then follow as written. If the lich dies due to a magic jar death condition, the animus returns to the phylactery and he reanimates later as per the lich rules.
No.
A Lich must place their soul in their phylactery as part of the lich transformation process. They do not have a soul to place into the Magic Jar.
If you wanted to go nuts with it, you could rule that the lich has such deep and secret knowledge and mastery of his soul, that he can split it in to different components and use it to magic jar a number of opponents, while keeping the important bit in his phylactery.
The Egyptians believed the immortal essence consisted of many, many parts. No reason an ancient and undead necromancer couldn't know such deep secrets as to frustrate a party of adventurers with some heavy magic jar-ing while keeping his own phylactery safe.
Yes, for the same reason that a lich can simultaneously inhabit its own body and its phylactery--because lich.
In all seriousness, it's not well-covered by the rules. I can see good arguments either way, both based on rules as written.
