Astral Projecting to your own plane

[Tiberius]

Hi, everyone.

According to the Astral Projection spell:

The character projects the character's astral self into the Astral Plane, leaving the character's physical body behind on the Material Plane in a state of suspended animation. The spell projects an astral copy of the character and all the character wears or carries onto the Astral Plane. Since the Astral Plane touches upon other planes, the character can travel astrally to any of these other planes as the character wishes. The character then leaves the Astral Plane, forming a new physical body (and equipment) on the plane of existence the character has chosen to enter.

By my reading of this spell, it would appear to be possible to project yourself into the Astral, find a convenient color pool back to the Prime Material, hop through it, and go hassle your enemies without fear of death or loss of valuable equipment. Am I reading too far into this, or are creatures like mind flayers (who may project at will) just that powerful?

-Tiberius

 

[AuraSeer]

I always assume that if you take a color pool to the plane where your body is, you automatically return to your body. The rules don't explicitly say so, however.

Note that a mind flayer really is that powerful, even if you don't let it project into the plane it's already on. Since it can Plane Shift at will, it could place its body on any plane it feels safe, and then project to the Prime Material from there.