Astral Projection (revised)

[rferries]

A slight revision, for more flavour and to prevent the "astral project,then plane shift back to Material Plane" loophole.

Astral Projection
Necromancy
Level: Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9, Travel 9
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 30 minutes
Range: Touch
Targets: You plus one additional willing creature touched per two caster levels
Duration: See text
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

Your mind opens, and your spirit is released to wander the cosmos.

By freeing your spirit from your physical body, this spell allows you to project an astral body onto another plane altogether.

You can bring the astral forms of other willing creatures with you, provided that these subjects are linked in a circle with you at the time of the casting. These fellow travelers are dependent upon you and must accompany you at all times. If something happens to you during the journey, your companions are stranded wherever you left them.

You project your astral self onto the Astral Plane, leaving your unconscious physical body behind on the Material Plane. The spell projects an astral copy of you and all you wear or carry onto the Astral Plane. Your astral copy has the ghost template (with the malevolence, manifestation, and telekinesis special attacks), but not including the rejuvenation special quality or level adjustment from that template. Since the Astral Plane touches upon other planes, you can travel astrally to any of these other planes as you will. To enter one, you leave the Astral Plane, manifesting as a ghost (with your equipment) on the plane of existence you have chosen to enter.

While you are on the Astral Plane, your astral body is connected at all times to your physical body by a silvery cord. If the cord is broken, you are killed, astrally and physically. Luckily, very few things can destroy a silver cord. When you manifest on a different plane, the incorporeal silvery cord remains invisibly attached to you. If your astral form is slain, the cord simply returns to your body where it rests on the Material Plane, thereby reviving it. Although astral projections are able to function on the Astral Plane, their actions affect only creatures existing on the Astral Plane; they must manifest as ghosts (i.e. with the incorporeal subtype) on other planes.

You and your companions may travel through the Astral Plane indefinitely. Your bodies simply wait behind (suffering the effects of thirst and starvation) until you choose to return your spirits to them. The spell lasts until you desire to end it, or until it is terminated by some outside means, such as dispel magic cast upon either the physical body or the astral form, the breaking of the silver cord, or the destruction of your body back on the Material Plane (which kills you and causes you to automatically become a ghost).

Material Component
A jacinth worth at least 1,000 gp, plus a silver bar worth 5 gp for each person to be affected.

[inuyasha]

I just realized, does 3.X allow you to astral project, then planeshift back? Because prior editions specifically say you cannot do that...

[rferries]

3.5 does, yep! Hence the fix here - no more immortality loopholes! :)