[PF] Beast-bonded Witch and Eidolons?

[Dr_Dinosaur]

So as a bit of background for those unfamiliar with the living lich, the Beast-bonded Witch. You can skip to the 2nd paragraph if you already know. It’s an archetype that at level 10 makes the Witch and her familiar each other’s phylacteries and allows them to (so long as both aren’t dead) to Magic Jar into something near their friend. Since there’s no receptacle for the soul, a failed save is death for the target and a permanent new body for the witch or familiar.

Now then, Magic Jar works on outsiders, so what happens if a BB Witch dies and successfully body-jacks a Summoner’s pet outsider? Do the Summoner’s class features still work? Can the witch now be banished? If the eidolon body “dies” does the witch’s mind leave it or get banished until summoned again?

Tl;dr If a Witch’s mind is in an Eidolon body, how does that work?

[Psyren]

"With no receptacle" means the eidolon's soul (or equivalent, outsiders are confusing) doesn't go anywhere - it stays where it is while you occupy and control the body corporeal bit. Note that this functionally makes it work identically to the newer possession spell, which as of Occult Adventures is intended to replace all instances of magic jar in Pathfinder.

The bigger issue for you is that, as written, "as if using magic jar" means that it copies everything from that spell, including its limited duration. So you would want to keep your familiar nearby for when the effect runs out so your own soul has somewhere to go, lest you be slain.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

"With no receptacle" means the eidolon's soul (or equivalent, outsiders are confusing) doesn't go anywhere - it stays where it is while you occupy and control the body corporeal bit. Note that this functionally makes it work identically to the newer possession spell, which as of Occult Adventures is intended to replace all instances of magic jar in Pathfinder.

The bigger issue for you is that, as written, "as if using magic jar" means that it copies everything from that spell, including its limited duration. So you would want to keep your familiar nearby for when the effect runs out so your own soul has somewhere to go, lest you be slain.

There’s actually no range limit on returning to your familiar’s body, so the only reason to have it nearby is to prepare spells. Plus, am I wrong in thinking that Magic Jar does in fact expel the original soul? A soul with nowhere to go dies...

[Boggartbae]

I would think that "with no receptacle" would mean that the soul in the body you are possessing dies, since Magic Jar doesn't allow body sharing, but Possession is replacing Magic Jar, so it's a bit of a moot point.

Since Both Possession and Magic Jar both state that you can't activate any of the body's supernatural, spell-like, or spell-casting abilities, then any ability that the Summoner has that falls into one of those three categories, and requires the Eidolon, wouldn't work, but I think that there's feat that lets you use Su, SP, and Spells of anything that you possess, if you wanted the summoner to retain their abilities.

Also Possession has no range limit for returning to your body, so you can travel the world in the few hours before the ability ends and you'll be fine.

[Psyren]

There’s actually no range limit on returning to your familiar’s body, so the only reason to have it nearby is to prepare spells.

Twin Soul says you need to be in touch range to return that way. The only other means to return would be via the magic jar effect itself, which functions like the spell (i.e. medium range.)


Plus, am I wrong in thinking that Magic Jar does in fact expel the original soul? A soul with nowhere to go dies...

Magic jar says you "force the creature's soul into the jar." If there is no jar, it's up to your GM whether this means it works like Possession or whether you insta-kill the target. Again though, this ambiguity is why PF recommended dropping MJ entirely (Occult Adventures pg. 181 sidebar) for both monsters and PCs.