Magic Jar and Babies

[Ruethgar]

Say you have a human magic jar into an elf and have a child with a a human, or an elf, or a human in an elf, or an elf in a human? What would the offspring be? Should it be entirely based on physical or does the soul of the creature come into play when creating new life or a mix such as Elf(Human Soul)+Elf(Human Soul)=Elf body with Human racials.

[Vhaidara]

Is it a bad thing that my first reaction was "Good question", and not this (http://i.imgur.com/fnXx9DX.jpg)?

Personally, I still feel races should be separated into biological and society. Bio would cover physical things (ability scores, low light/darkvision, size, etc) while society would be things like racial weapon prof, racial bonus feats, most racial skill mods and the like.

By RAW, I'm pretty sure you just get an elf.

[Jormengand]

If you are successful, your life force occupies the host body, and the host’s life force is imprisoned in the magic jar. You keep your Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, level, class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, alignment, and mental abilities. The body retains its Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, natural abilities, and automatic abilities. A body with extra limbs does not allow you to make more attacks (or more advantageous two-weapon attacks) than normal. You can’t choose to activate the body’s extraordinary or supernatural abilities. The creature’s spells and spell-like abilities do not stay with the body.

A body's ability to have children is presumably natural for two reasons: one, unspecified abilities tend to be natural, and two, having children is about as natural as it gets (I can't make the case for it being spell-like, psi-like, supernatural or extraordinary). Therefore, you keep the body's ability to reproduce, rather than your own.

[Gabrosin]

A body's ability to have children is presumably natural for two reasons: one, unspecified abilities tend to be natural, and two, having children is about as natural as it gets (I can't make the case for it being spell-like, psi-like, supernatural or extraordinary). Therefore, you keep the body's ability to reproduce, rather than your own.

Childbirth is often referred to as a spell-like ability (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/miracle.htm).

[Jormengand]

Childbirth is often referred to as a spell-like ability (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/miracle.htm).

Ah, but it's a spell ("Miracle", not "Spell-like ability emulating Miracle") and the Spells class feature isn't designated either, meaning that it must be natural as well.

:smalltongue:

[Ruethgar]

You don't find the miracle of birth extraordinary?

That aside, your logic is sound, physical form only. Of course I can still alter it with the Draconic and Half Dragon classes since you keep your class abilities, your new body just suddenly becomes a half dragon.

[Flickerdart]

IIRC all the weird half-dragons and similar are explicitly possible because dragony-ness persists when a dragon shapeshifts into a human. However, this is soul transfer, and not shapeshifting, which is not subject to the same principles. I'd say the body determines the offspring, so you could magic-jar anything you wanted into that elf but all it's gonna make is more elves.

[Ruethgar]

Except that if a Half Dragon or full Draconic classed creature Magic Jars into the elf they keep their Half Dragon class features as per the spell's description. So you Magic Jar into a normal Elf and if becomes a Half Dragon Elf. This would technically be true of other template classes and potentially monster classes as well such as Lycanthrope, Ghost(no clue wth a half ghost is) and Lizardfolk.

[Renen]

This is so weird dude! Think of the childre... oh right...

[Bad Wolf]

You'd have one very confused father.

[Jormengand]

You'd have one very confused father.

"Well, the good news is, the baby is technically yours..."

[Xervous]

IIRC all the weird half-dragons and similar are explicitly possible because dragony-ness persists when a dragon shapeshifts into a human. However, this is soul transfer, and not shapeshifting, which is not subject to the same principles. I'd say the body determines the offspring, so you could magic-jar anything you wanted into that elf but all it's gonna make is more elves.

Trust me, the shapeshifting isn't necessary...

With most forms of shapeshifting the rules clearly state that any part separated from the creature returns to its natural form (barring specific, less common exceptions). Polymorph a human into an elf and they'll be making humans, PAO them into an elf (or something) and well... now that might be a tricky question if the duration isn't "permanent".

[atemu1234]

I think that I missed this episode of Maury.

[Psyren]

Say you have a human magic jar into an elf and have a child with a a human, or an elf, or a human in an elf, or an elf in a human? What would the offspring be? Should it be entirely based on physical or does the soul of the creature come into play when creating new life or a mix such as Elf(Human Soul)+Elf(Human Soul)=Elf body with Human racials.

Of course it's based on physical. The body's type and subtype doesn't change when you magic jar into it.

[Ruethgar]

Of course it's based on physical. The body's type and subtype doesn't change when you magic jar into it.

But they can depending on your classes.