Necromancy · Soul Transfer · Possession
Magic Jar Spell – Possession Rules, Uses & Lore
The councillor arrives on time. His signet is genuine. His guards know his face. He remembers which chair is his and signs the decree in the hand everyone expects.
Only when an old colleague asks about yesterday’s private conversation does he hesitate.
Magic Jar is identity theft made literal. The spell separates a caster’s soul from its own body, shelters that soul in a prepared vessel and allows it to seize another body. A stolen face may pass a gate, inherit authority or stand among friends unnoticed—but the spell does not automatically provide the memories, knowledge or relationships needed to become the person whose body has been taken.
Game Mechanics
Magic Jar changed substantially between editions. Select the ruleset in use rather than combining modern and legacy procedures.
Magic Jar — D&D 5.5e / SRD 5.2.1
- Level & School
- 6th-level Necromancy
- Class
- Wizard
- Casting Time
- 1 minute
- Range
- Self
- Components
- V, S, M (a gem, crystal or reliquary worth 500+ GP)
- Duration
- Until dispelled
- Possession Target
- A Humanoid you can see within 100 feet of your soul
- Saving Throw
- Charisma
Your Soul Enters the Vessel
Your body falls into a catatonic state as your soul leaves it and enters the container used as the spell’s Material component.
While your soul is in the container, you perceive the surroundings as though you occupied the container’s space. You cannot move or take Reactions.
Your only available action in this state is to project your soul up to 100 feet from the container. You can use that projection to return to your living body, ending the spell, or to attempt to possess a Humanoid.
Attempting Possession
You can attempt to possess a Humanoid within 100 feet of your soul that you can see. A creature warded by Protection from Evil and Good or Magic Circle cannot be possessed by Magic Jar.
The target makes a Charisma saving throw.
On a failed save, your soul enters the target’s body and the target’s soul becomes trapped in the container.
On a successful save, the target resists the possession and you cannot attempt to possess that creature again for 24 hours.
Which Host Statistics Do You Gain?
Once possession succeeds, you control the host body. Replace your:
- Hit Points;
- Hit Point Dice;
- Strength;
- Dexterity;
- Constitution;
- Speed; and
- senses
with the host creature’s corresponding statistics.
You otherwise keep your own game statistics.
Important 5.5e ruling: possessing a creature does not mean copying everything in its stat block. The spell names the statistics that are replaced and tells you to keep your remaining game statistics. The host’s class features, proficiencies, spellcasting, special actions and unrelated traits are not automatically gained.
The Host Soul
The possessed creature’s soul is trapped in the container. It can perceive from the container using its own senses, but it cannot move and has the Incapacitated condition.
Returning to the Container
While possessing a body, you can take a Magic action to return to the container if it is within 100 feet. The host creature’s soul then returns to its own body.
If the Host Body Dies
If the host body dies while you possess it, the host creature dies.
You then make a Charisma saving throw against your own spell save DC.
On a successful save, your soul returns to the container if it is within 100 feet. If it is not within 100 feet, or if you fail the save, you die.
If the Container Is Destroyed or Magic Jar Ends
Your soul attempts to return to your original body. If that body is dead or is more than 100 feet from your soul, you die.
If another creature’s soul is trapped in the container, that soul returns to its own body only if the body is alive and within 100 feet. Otherwise, that creature dies.
When Magic Jar ends, the container is destroyed.
The container is not consumed when the spell is cast. It survives while Magic Jar continues and is destroyed when the spell ends.
Dispel Magic
Magic Jar is an ongoing 6th-level spell and can be ended by Dispel Magic. A lower-level Dispel Magic requires the appropriate spellcasting-ability check against DC 16, while a Dispel Magic cast using a 6th-level or higher spell slot can end a 6th-level spell without that check.
Ending Magic Jar immediately triggers its soul-return rules, including the living-body and 100-foot requirements.
Higher-Level Spell Slots
Magic Jar specifies no additional benefit when cast using a higher-level spell slot.
Magic Jar — Pathfinder 1e
- School
- Necromancy
- Printed Levels
- Alchemist 5, Sorcerer/Wizard 5, Summoner 4, Unchained Summoner 5, Witch 5
- Additional Access
- Arcanists gain access through the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list; Investigators gain access through the Alchemist formula list.
- Casting Time
- 1 standard action
- Components
- V, S, F
- Focus
- A gem or crystal worth at least 100 gp
- Range
- Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
- Target
- One creature
- Duration
- 1 hour/level or until you return to your body
- Saving Throw
- Will negates; see text
- Spell Resistance
- Yes
Enter the Magic Jar
Your soul enters the gem or crystal focus, leaving your body behind. The jar must be within the spell’s range and you must know where it is, but you do not need line of sight or line of effect to it.
Your abandoned body appears dead to ordinary observation.
Sense Nearby Life Forces
While your soul occupies the jar, you can sense life forces within 10 feet per caster level, provided they are on the same plane and the jar has line of effect to them.
You do not learn their exact creature types or positions.
You can distinguish life forces that differ by 4 or more Hit Dice and determine whether a life force is powered by positive or negative energy. Sentient undead can have, or be, souls for this purpose.
If several qualifying life forces cannot otherwise be distinguished, you can choose a stronger or weaker category when such a distinction exists, but the particular creature within that category is determined randomly.
Attempting Possession
Attempting to possess a body is a full-round action.
Protection from Evil or a similar ward blocks the attempt. Spell Resistance applies.
The target makes a Will save. On a failed save, your soul enters the host body and the host’s soul is imprisoned in the magic jar.
If the target succeeds, your soul remains in the jar and that creature automatically succeeds on later saving throws against further possession attempts from the same casting.
Your Statistics and the Host Body
You retain your:
- Intelligence;
- Wisdom;
- Charisma;
- level;
- class;
- base attack bonus;
- base save bonuses;
- alignment; and
- mental abilities.
The host body retains its:
- Strength;
- Dexterity;
- Constitution;
- hit points;
- natural abilities; and
- automatic abilities.
A body with extra limbs does not grant you more attacks than your normal attack routine allows. You cannot choose to activate the body’s extraordinary or supernatural abilities. The host’s spells and spell-like abilities do not remain available to you.
Returning to the Jar or Your Own Body
As a standard action, you can shift from the host back into the magic jar if the jar is within range. The host’s trapped soul returns to its body.
You can then attempt to possess another life force.
The spell ends when you move from the jar back into your own body.
Host Death
If the host body is slain while the magic jar is within spell range, your soul returns to the jar and the host dies.
If the host body is slain while it is beyond the spell’s range from the jar, both you and the host die.
Any life force with nowhere to return is treated as slain.
Ending and Dispelling
If the spell ends while your soul occupies the jar, you return to your body or die if your body is destroyed or outside the spell’s range.
If the spell ends while you possess a host, your soul attempts to return to your original body and the soul in the jar attempts to return to its own body. A soul whose body is destroyed or outside the relevant range dies.
Destroying the receptacle ends the spell. Magic Jar can also be dispelled at the jar or at the host’s location.
The 100 gp gem or crystal is a focus, not a consumed material component.
Occult Adventures and Possession
Occult Adventures later introduced the Possession spell family and a cleaner general framework for possession effects. It notes that the older Magic Jar approach can be awkward, particularly for creatures whose supernatural possession does not literally depend on a receptacle.
A GM may use that later framework for appropriate possession effects, but the Core Rulebook Magic Jar above remains a complete spell in its own right. If one framework is chosen, its range, body, soul and ending procedures should be used consistently.
Mythic: there is no official Paizo mythic augmentation for Magic Jar added here. Third-party mythic versions are separate material.
Magic Jar — D&D 3.5e
- School
- Necromancy
- Level
- Sorcerer/Wizard 5
- Components
- V, S, F
- Casting Time
- 1 standard action
- Range
- Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
- Target
- One creature
- Duration
- 1 hour/level or until you return to your body
- Saving Throw
- Will negates; see text
- Spell Resistance
- Yes
- Focus
- A gem or crystal worth at least 100 gp
Enter the Magic Jar
Your soul enters the gem or crystal focus, leaving your body behind. The jar must be within spell range and you must know where it is, but you do not need line of sight or line of effect to it.
Your abandoned body appears dead.
Sense Life Forces
From the jar, you can sense life forces within 10 feet per caster level on the same plane, provided the jar has line of effect to them.
You cannot determine exact creature types or positions. You can distinguish life forces separated by 4 or more Hit Dice and can tell whether a life force is powered by positive or negative energy.
Only sentient undead have, or are, souls for this purpose.
If several life forces are otherwise indistinguishable, you may choose a stronger or weaker category, but the particular qualifying creature is determined randomly.
Attempting Possession
Attempting to possess a body requires a full-round action.
Protection from Evil or a similar ward blocks the attempt. Spell Resistance applies.
The target makes a Will saving throw. On a failed save, your soul occupies the host body and the host’s life force is imprisoned in the magic jar.
On a successful save, your life force remains in the jar and that target automatically succeeds on subsequent saves against your attempts to possess it during that casting.
Your Statistics and the Host Body
You retain your Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, level, class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, alignment and mental abilities.
The host body retains its Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, natural abilities and automatic abilities.
Extra limbs do not grant additional attacks beyond your normal attack routine. You cannot choose to activate the body’s extraordinary or supernatural abilities. The host’s spells and spell-like abilities do not remain with the body for your use.
Changing Hosts
As a standard action, you can move from a host back into the magic jar if the jar is within range. The trapped host soul returns to its body.
From the jar, you can attempt to possess another eligible life force.
The spell ends when you move from the jar back into your own body.
Host Death
If the host body is slain while the jar is within range, your soul returns to the jar and the host dies.
If the host body is slain beyond the spell’s range from the jar, both you and the host die.
A life force with nowhere to go is treated as slain.
Ending and Dispelling
If Magic Jar ends while your soul is in the jar, you return to your own body or die if that body is destroyed or outside range.
If the spell ends while you possess a host, your soul attempts to return to your own body and the soul in the jar attempts to return to its body. A life force whose body is unavailable or out of range dies.
Destroying the receptacle ends the spell. Magic Jar can also be dispelled at either the jar or the host’s location.
How Magic Jar Resolves
- Separate the caster from the caster’s body. Record where the original body and soul vessel are.
- Find an eligible host. Use the selected edition’s targeting or life-force rules.
- Check possession wards. Apply Protection from Evil and Good, Protection from Evil, Magic Circle or another edition-appropriate ward before resolving the attempt.
- Resolve resistance and saving throw. PF1e and D&D 3.5e also apply Spell Resistance.
- Move the souls. Record where the caster’s soul and host’s soul now reside.
- Use only the host statistics the edition grants. Possession does not automatically copy an entire character sheet or monster stat block.
- Before the spell ends, check bodies and distance. Death, dispelling or destruction of the vessel can turn successful possession into a fatal mistake.
Easy table method: track three physical locations—the vessel, the caster’s original body and the host body. Magic Jar becomes much easier to adjudicate once everyone knows which soul currently belongs at each point.
Common Magic Jar Rulings
Does Magic Jar Give You the Host’s Memories?
No edition of Magic Jar automatically grants the possessor the host’s memories.
A stolen magistrate’s body may have the right face and voice, but the spell does not reveal what the magistrate discussed with the burgomaster yesterday, where private correspondence is hidden or what childhood nickname a sibling uses.
Other magic may provide information separately. Magic Jar itself does not.
Does 5.5e Magic Jar Give You the Host’s Class Features or Monster Actions?
No, unless another rule separately provides them. The modern spell specifically replaces Hit Points, Hit Point Dice, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Speed and senses. The caster otherwise keeps their own game statistics.
Can 5.5e Magic Jar Possess a Dragon, Fiend, Fey or Undead?
No. The normal 5.5e possession action targets a Humanoid.
The broader creature targeting used by PF1e and D&D 3.5e belongs to those editions and should not be imported into the modern spell.
Can You Retry a Failed 5.5e Possession?
Not against the same creature immediately. A creature that succeeds on its Charisma saving throw cannot be targeted by another possession attempt from that caster for 24 hours.
Is the 5.5e Caster’s Original Body Dead?
No. The modern spell places the body in a catatonic state.
The older statement that the vacant body appears dead belongs to the legacy versions.
Can a Legacy Caster Pick One Exact Person from a Crowd?
Not always. PF1e and D&D 3.5e give only limited information about nearby life forces. If several creatures cannot be distinguished using the information the spell provides, its random-selection procedure applies.
Does Protection from Evil Expel an Existing Possessor?
A rule that blocks a possession attempt does not automatically become a rule that ejects a possessor already inside a body.
Use an effect whose rules actually end, dispel or remove the possession.
What Happens If the Vessel Is Smashed?
Destroying the vessel does not guarantee a safe rescue.
The selected edition’s return rules resolve immediately. In 5.5e, a displaced soul whose living body is more than 100 feet away can die. PF1e and D&D 3.5e likewise make distance and available bodies crucial.
Magic Jar vs Dominate Person
Dominate Person and Magic Jar can both turn a trusted person into a threat, but they do fundamentally different things.
| Question | Magic Jar | Dominate Person |
|---|---|---|
| Who controls the body? | The possessor directly operates the stolen body. | The creature remains in its own body while magically controlled. |
| Is the victim’s soul displaced? | Yes, according to the selected edition. | No soul transfer is inherent to domination. |
| Does the caster physically resemble the victim? | Yes. The caster is operating the victim’s body. | The dominated creature remains itself. |
| Does the spell grant memories? | No. | No automatic memory transfer occurs. |
| Central vulnerability | The vessel, original body, host body and soul-return rules. | Breaking or ending the magical control. |
Countering Magic Jar
Protect the Intended Host
In 5.5e, Protection from Evil and Good and Magic Circle prevent a warded Humanoid from being possessed by Magic Jar.
PF1e and D&D 3.5e use Protection from Evil or a similar ward against the legacy possession attempt.
Use Dispel Magic Carefully
Dispel Magic can end Magic Jar, but ending the spell is not automatically the same thing as safely rescuing everyone involved.
Before dispelling it, establish the location and condition of the caster’s original body, the host body and the vessel. A successful dispel can still kill a displaced soul if its body cannot receive it.
Find the Original Body
A possessor may seem secure while walking inside another person’s body, but the abandoned original body is a major weakness.
Finding it can expose the possessor’s identity, reveal accomplices and provide physical evidence that an apparent illness or disappearance is magical.
Find the Vessel
The vessel is more than a component. It is part of the possession itself.
A caster must decide whether to hide it, carry it, entrust it to an accomplice or place it somewhere defensible. Every choice creates a different weakness.
Three Objectives in a Magic Jar Plot
The Vessel
The bridge between souls. Finding it can expose or end the spell, but destroying it blindly may kill someone.
The Caster’s Body
Often hidden, guarded or disguised as a helpless patient. It may be the strongest physical evidence that possession is occurring.
The Host Body
The visible stolen identity. Protecting it matters because killing the host can kill the innocent owner and may also kill the possessor.
This three-part structure makes Magic Jar particularly effective in investigations and adventures. Defeating the possessor in combat may matter less than discovering where each part of the spell has been hidden.
Magic Jar in the World of 1454
In SpiralWorlds’ 1454, Magic Jar is feared not merely as necromancy but as an attack on identity, office and proof.
A city councillor, guildmaster, chancellor, university rector, wealthy merchant or mercenary commander may possess authority because others recognise the person standing before them. Magic Jar makes that recognition unreliable.
The danger is greatest wherever one trusted individual can open gates, release funds, command troops, alter records, witness contracts or admit an apparent friend into a protected chamber.
A Face Is Evidence, Not Proof
Free Imperial cities, princely courts, guilds, merchant houses and military commands respond according to their own experience and resources. There is no universal law of magical identity and no single European system of anti-possession security.
Where possession is taken seriously, important institutions may use:
- paired or rotating countersigns;
- sealed written instructions;
- multiple witnesses for exceptional orders;
- private questions known only to trusted associates;
- independent confirmation before treasury or armoury access;
- handwriting, cipher or seal checks;
- magical wards around particularly vulnerable officials; and
- requirements that more than one officeholder authorise an irreversible act.
These are local precautions rather than universal magical bureaucracy. A wealthy chancery may maintain elaborate procedures while a rural lord still trusts a familiar face at the door.
The Possessor Has the Face, Not the Life
Magic Jar creates a dangerous asymmetry: the infiltrator can acquire another person’s body without automatically acquiring that person’s memories.
A possessed commander may understand warfare but not remember which captain secretly reported treason that morning. A counterfeit guildmaster may recognise the guildhall yet fail to understand an old private joke. A false husband may look perfect and still answer the wrong name when awakened suddenly.
For skilled investigators, such failures can matter more than appearance.
Body Custody Becomes Part of the Crime
A Magic Jar conspiracy requires somewhere to conceal the caster’s original body.
That may be a locked university chamber, a private cellar, a secluded townhouse, a guarded country estate, a physician’s room or a boarded warehouse where an apparently dead or deeply unresponsive person will not immediately attract attention.
Accomplices may be needed to conceal, transport or protect the body. A servant ordered never to open one particular room may know more about a possession plot than the spellcaster’s political victims.
Natural Philosophy and the Separable Soul
Among university scholars and learned magicians, Magic Jar is disturbing experimental evidence that bodily form and conscious identity can be separated.
The spell demonstrates that a thinking self can leave one body, reside in a prepared vessel and act through another body without becoming identical to that body’s original owner.
What it does not settle is equally important. Scholars debate whether memory, moral responsibility and personal continuity reside entirely in the soul; whether the body retains any aspect of its former identity while occupied; and whether acts committed through stolen flesh belong legally to the possessor, the body’s owner or both.
Magic Jar therefore belongs naturally within the learned magical natural philosophy of 1454. It is a repeatable magical phenomenon with profound consequences for arguments about mind, body and personhood.
Courts Face an Evidentiary Problem
If a duke’s secretary opens a treasury while possessed, the physical evidence still points to the secretary. Witnesses saw the correct face. The right hands touched the keys. The familiar voice gave the order.
Proving possession may require changed behaviour, discovery of the caster’s original body or vessel, magical investigation, recovered correspondence, accomplice testimony or evidence that the apparent official knew things the real person could not have known—and failed to know things they should have known.
Different cities and rulers judge such evidence differently. Magic Jar creates difficult cases rather than a universal magical law code.
Three Adventure Hooks
- The Empty Councillor. A councillor in a Free Imperial city begins behaving strangely before a vote that will decide control of a strategically important gate. He may be possessed—but killing him could murder the innocent host while leaving the true conspirator’s body hidden somewhere in the city.
- The Scholar Who Will Not Wake. A respected professor of natural philosophy lies catatonic behind a locked university door. His servants insist he has also been seen attending meetings elsewhere. A valuable crystal reliquary vanished from the faculty collection on the same night.
- The Perfect Accusation. A prince’s envoy is accused of possession after failing several private identity tests. The evidence appears overwhelming. No Magic Jar was ever cast—the accusation was engineered to destroy the envoy’s credibility and make every denial sound like proof.
Related Magic
Other Soul and Possession Magic
Imprison Possessor, Impotent Possessor, Soul Shackles and Trap the Soul explore related ideas of possession, soul confinement and counter-possession.
Witch Bottles Are Something Else
Historical witch bottles should not be treated as another name for Magic Jar. The best-documented English practice belongs especially to the later seventeenth century and used concealed vessels as counter-magic or magical treatment against suspected witchcraft.
They were not historical containers in which a magician stored a soul before possessing another person’s body. In a 1454 SpiralWorlds context, soul vessel, reliquary, spirit gem or simply magic jar is more appropriate terminology.
Rules Sources and Licensing
D&D 5.5e / SRD 5.2.1
The D&D 5.5e mechanics on this page are based on System Reference Document 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC.
SRD 5.2.1 is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Pathfinder First Edition
The Pathfinder First Edition panel preserves the original Magic Jar framework while keeping the later Occult Adventures possession framework distinct.
Pathfinder First Edition Open Game Content remains governed by the applicable Open Game License v1.0a and Section 15 requirements used by SpiralWorlds.
D&D 3.5e
The D&D 3.5e panel preserves the independent legacy SRD Magic Jar mechanics, including life-force detection, random selection among indistinguishable targets, body-statistic division, range-dependent death and dispelling at the host or receptacle.
D&D 3.5e Open Game Content remains governed by the applicable Open Game License v1.0a and Section 15 requirements used by SpiralWorlds.
Historical terminology
The witch-bottle distinction follows historical and archaeological descriptions of English witch bottles as counter-magical or magical-medical objects especially documented from the later seventeenth century onward. They are not treated here as historical soul-possession vessels.