D&D 5E Need help with a High level Wizard Simulacrum Concept

[Stalker0]

So my group is a doing a fun beer and pretzels style one shot with 20th level characters. And so I'm going to try some ultimate cheese with a little simulacrum shenanigans. However, I don't want to go full cheese. The idea is a wizard who never puts themselves in danger, so they send a simulacrum with their buddies to take care of business, and then teleports in to refresh a new simulacrum when needed.

So here is what I want to be able to do, and I wanted to see how easily this can be done with the core rules:

1) If the simulacrum dies or gets drained of juice to the point where its no longer usable the party can contact the wizard over long distances (probably a sending, is there an item that can do that?)

2) The wizard than teleports into whereever the simulacrum is (whether alive or dead).

3) The wizard uses wish to whip up a new simulacrum.

4) The wizard then teleports back home (probably can use a teleport circle for this one, as I will go to my "home base".


I'm guessing the hardest part is the teleport, is there any spell or magic item I could use to make my teleports to the simulacrum almost unfailing?

 

[Fanaelialae]

Sending Stones would work fine for the communication part.

As for the teleportation, if the party could somehow get you an associated object from their location, that would work. However, I don't have any ideas on how that could be accomplished. The simulacrum could use teleportation circle to return to you and give you the associated object, but that's only if it has a sufficiently high level slot left and isn't dead. So, definitely not bulletproof.

 

[Storyteller Hero]

The wizard will need Scrying (5th level divination) so that they know where to Teleport and whether they're about to Teleport into a death trap.

 

[Ondath]

So my group is a doing a fun beer and pretzels style one shot with 20th level characters. And so I'm going to try some ultimate cheese with a little simulacrum shenanigans. However, I don't want to go full cheese. The idea is a wizard who never puts themselves in danger, so they send a simulacrum with their buddies to take care of business, and then teleports in to refresh a new simulacrum when needed.

So here is what I want to be able to do, and I wanted to see how easily this can be done with the core rules:

1) If the simulacrum dies or gets drained of juice to the point where its no longer usable the party can contact the wizard over long distances (probably a sending, is there an item that can do that?)

2) The wizard than teleports into whereever the simulacrum is (whether alive or dead).

3) The wizard uses wish to whip up a new simulacrum.

4) The wizard then teleports back home (probably can use a teleport circle for this one, as I will go to my "home base".


I'm guessing the hardest part is the teleport, is there any spell or magic item I could use to make my teleports to the simulacrum almost unfailing?

So, the idea I have is essentially based on the idea that Teleport automatically succeeds if you have an associated object from the place you want to go to. So a foolproof method would be somehow sending a random item from the party's current location to the wizard, who can then teleport there without failure.

However, that requires finding a method to send an associated object to your Wizard first. Now, teleport can also send objects, so perhaps we can use a magic item that allows you to cast teleport. Conch of teleportation is a magic item from Storm King's Thunder, and allows you to use teleport without failure - but only to a specific preset location. So here's the algorithm in my mind:

1- The simulacrum possesses a conch of teleportation as well as instructions on how to use the conch if it perishes.
2- If the simulacrum is in rough shape, the party finds an object from the area, then sends it to the wizard using the conch.
3- Seeing the object, the wizard knows something is up, teleports to the party's location using the associated object (7th level slot used).
4- Wizard casts Simulacrum using wish (9th level slot used), the simulacrum has the wizard's full powers minus the 7th and 9th slots.
5- Wizard leaves, teleporting with his 8th level slot.

If you want to be more efficient with your resources, the wizard could have a Teleport scroll on hand to get back to his base, thus conserving his 8th level slot if he needs to come back again (maybe to join the final fight in the one-shot?).

 

[Benjamin Olson]

There's no reason for the Wizard to teleport to the party to simulacrum himself. He can just simulacrum himself at home and send the simulacrum.

Or he can be a somewhat disinterested archmage who has cheesed the spell for infinite simulacra but is only willing to sacrifice one for this particular mission, but grudgingly sends another whenever one dies.

If the Wizard has pre-made all his simulacra, and lives on a different plane of existence, then once per day he could use his 9th level slot to unerringly Gate back his used up simulacrum and send a fresh one.

In this simulacra cheese scenario, effectively your character is giving up half their health and having a 9th level spell slot in order to be on a weird separate long rest cycle from everyone else, where they still only get refreshed only once a day, but it can be done near instantly at any point in the day.

 

[DeviousQuail]

Maybe try Wizard 17, Warlock Pact of the Chain 3. With the Voice of the Chain Master invocation you can see and talk through your familiar as long as you are on the same plane of existence. Familiars can deliver touch spells. Simulacrum is a touch spell. Just give it a bag of holding with the ingredients* and let it make a new simulacrum while everyone else long rests.

When the familiar isn't being used it should probably be hidden to avoid dying in combat. If that happens you have to do the whole sending stone, scrying, teleport business. This method is also more expensive since you aren't using wish to make the simulacrum but you are level 20. What's 1500gp to you?

*Have fun deciding whether snow and ice melt in a bag of holding with your GM

ETA: There are 40+ touch spells available to wizards. You can use your familiar to help the team out with Greater Invisibility, Rope Trick, True Seeing, Flame Arrows, Fly, Dragon's Breath, etc. while your simulacrum casts Fireball and whatnot.