Does Astral Projection leave behind real loot/bodies/etc.?

[AnonymousPepper]

Say I as a GM have a BBEG-of-the-day who has access to 9th level spells.

Say she's fighting the PCs on a demiplane and her form there is actually an astral projection.

Say the PCs successfully kill her body on the demiplane.

The spell seems unclear to me as to whether or not it would leave a lootable body for them. I'm okay with the answer being either way - I'd like to loot the PCs pretty heavily, but I can make that up otherwise if it's not RAW.

So yeah. Does the party then get loot in the form of what was on her projected body for "killing" her?

[Aharon]

Say I as a GM have a BBEG-of-the-day who has access to 9th level spells.

Say she's fighting the PCs on a demiplane and her form there is actually an astral projection.

Say the PCs successfully kill her body on the demiplane.

The spell seems unclear to me as to whether or not it would leave a lootable body for them. I'm okay with the answer being either way - I'd like to loot the PCs pretty heavily, but I can make that up otherwise if it's not RAW.

So yeah. Does the party then get loot in the form of what was on her projected body for "killing" her?

That depends. The main source is the spell description in the PHB, which would imply a lootable body. The Manual of the Planes is a 3.0 source that clarifies the spell (whose text wasn't changed between editions) and says that the stuff is not permanent, IIRC.

[Duke of Urrel]

If you choose to rule that when the Astral Projection spell ends, a lootable body is left behind, be sure that you think through the consequences of that. Above all, clever players will surely use the Astral Projection spell to multiply their own magic items, using the following method.

Step One: Astrally project your own body, with your magic items, onto an alternate plane of your choice.

Step Two: Have your astral body commit suicide by drinking poison. This does no harm to your material body, which awakens.

Step Three: Astrally project your body again and loot your own astral corpse.

Repeat as often as you want.

[Psyren]

That depends. The main source is the spell description in the PHB, which would imply a lootable body. The Manual of the Planes is a 3.0 source that clarifies the spell (whose text wasn't changed between editions) and says that the stuff is not permanent, IIRC.

MotP was officially updated to 3.5, therefore it's now a 3.5 source. IIRC that line wasn't changed.