Magic Jar: Is it useful?

[BlackMoria]

I've gotten great mileage out of Magic Jar as a player. It is a spell you don't cast on a whim but if you take a prepared and calculated approach to its application, you can do all sorts of things with it that will drive DMs bananas.

 

[schporto]

"Wow, look at the size of the gem on that cat's collar."
You get your familiar a 100gp bauble. This acts as the jar. You leave your body 'safe' somewhere (hmmm, maybe a magnificent mansion?). Occupy the first schlub you come across. Go party.
-cpd

 

[Thomas Percy]

Can anyone imagine how non-evil PC can use this spell?

 

[Thaumaturge]

Can anyone imagine how non-evil PC can use this spell?

I was at an Living Greyhawk table with a guy who would magic jar himself and wait until there was an encounter with a creature with more or less hit dice than the party. It was very odd grouping with an ooze.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Can anyone imagine how non-evil PC can use this spell?

Infiltration inside an enemy location.

 

[Thomas Percy]

Infiltration inside an enemy location.

And it's not evil to steal someone soul and replace it with your own?

 

[Tiberius]

And it's not evil to steal someone soul and replace it with your own?

You do give it back in the end. It's really no more evil than Dominate Person.

 

[Corsair]

I used the spell to communicate with someone under "house arrest".

We tunnelled under his home, so only the person we wanted wuold be at the extreme range of the spell. I then possessed him and wrote him a note, leavnig it on his counter. For the next hour or so, I keep periodically taking over his body to read/write notes with him.

 

[Doug McCrae]

It's high risk, high gain. A gambler's spell. If you aren't a gambler then I can see how it wouldn't appeal.

I got good use out of it in our last long D&D campaign. Our city had been invaded by a MM III lizardman army. All out war, blood on the streets. My necromancer used MJ and the party half-demon flew around with the gem. I'd take over lizardmen, start fights, hop back, repeat. As a tactic it had a lot more staying power than tossing a few fireballs.

My best use was when the half-demon was grappled by a gigantic siege crab. Things looked bad for him and I was MJing trying to get the crab or the controller. By mistake I got the half-demon....

and cast dimension door from the grapple, saving his life. (He was on 1 hit point).

Also I find the body hopping to be fantastic fun.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Can anyone imagine how non-evil PC can use this spell?

It is also an effective way to take someone prisoner. Take over their body, strip naked, enter a jail cell, then return to your own meat sack.

In a combat situation, it is also effective for dealing with low will save mooks. Jar them, then go after the bad guy. It is sinister, but the end result is not much different than ganking someone after nailing them with Tasha's Hideous Laughter or Sleep.

END COMMUNICATION