Simulacrum questions

[justinsluder]

How real are they?

Do they require food?

How about sleep?

I know they don't heal naturally, have there been any other ways of healing them? Aside from the 100 gp per point of damage repaired?

Thanks in advance,
Justin

 

[Pyrex]

Unfortunately the text of the spell does not contain enough information to answer those questions.

For example, while the text does say:

A complex process requiring at least 24 hours, 100 gp per hit point, and a fully equipped magical laboratory can repair damage to a simulacrum.

It doesn't say even say whether or not the result is
a) A creature
b) What type of creature

or even

c) If it heals naturally (though the above rule certainly implies that simulacra don't heal naturally)

That aside:

I don't think it's unreasonable to rule that the simulacra is a Creature of the same type as the original; and that with the exception that it does not heal naturally* it's therefore subject to all the metabolic needs (food/sleep/air) of the original.

Of course, if you make a simulacra of an Undead or Construct it would *not* need to eat/breathe/sleep as the originals don't.

Given that the text of the spell does not prohibit it, any ability that would heal (or Repair in the case of simulacra of constructs) the original should function just fine on the simulacra.

*Fast Healing, Regeneration and similar abilities should function as normal for the simulacra though.

 

[darthkilmor]

Simulacrum
Illusion (Shadow)
Simulacrum creates an illusory duplicate of any creature. The duplicate creature is partially real and formed from ice or snow.

Also Shadow Conjugation ( Illusion (Shadow) )says:

A shadow creature has one-fifth the hit points of a normal creature of its kind (regardless of whether it’s recognized as shadowy). It deals normal damage and has all normal abilities and weaknesses.

I'd say its as real as real gets(also, the effect is One Duplicate Creature, so assuming normal english definition of duplicate..). There's no will disbelief saving throw so the only difference is they have a special process for healing(The whole spell honestly looks like it was just pulled from an earlier edition and not fully thought out).

 

[Pyrex]

Also Shadow Conjugation ( Illusion (Shadow) )says: ...

So what's the past tense of a simulacra? Possessive?

Grammar jokes aside, yeah, it's a badly written spell. :\

 

[justinsluder]

Okay, then I, as DM in my world, rule 0 it to be a simple and easy way to make an army.

They don't eat, sleep, or heal naturally. Maybe warforged are a variant version of simulacrum?

If you do the math, it only costs a little over 600k to make a magic item which does simulacrum 2/day. Just set it to creating the biggest S.O.B. you can get a tissue sample from, leave for 50 days, when you get back you have 100 completely loyal soldiers willing to do anything for you.

Oh, and I'm rule 0ing they're creature type is that of the original, but they can be healed by the repair damage spells, only for 1/2 the amount.

To much?

 

[Pyrex]

Well, for starters, it probably won't just crank out two creatures a day; your hypothetical device should be more like a cloning vat that needs constant tending. (12-hour casting time per use)

Not to mention the fairly major problem of finding a wizard willing to sink a level-and-a-half worth of XP into building said cloning vat.

Oh, and they shouldn't be healed by repair spells unless they're of type Construct.

Given the comparison to a Cannith creation forge though, yeah, changing Simulacra to type Construct with the Living Construct subtype could be interesting.

Just don't try making simulacra of simulacra, it'll cause a div/0 error and make your world implode.

 

[darthkilmor]

Okay, then I, as DM in my world, rule 0 it to be a simple and easy way to make an army.

They don't eat, sleep, or heal naturally. Maybe warforged are a variant version of simulacrum?

If you do the math, it only costs a little over 600k to make a magic item which does simulacrum 2/day. Just set it to creating the biggest S.O.B. you can get a tissue sample from, leave for 50 days, when you get back you have 100 completely loyal soldiers willing to do anything for you.

Oh, and I'm rule 0ing they're creature type is that of the original, but they can be healed by the repair damage spells, only for 1/2 the amount.

To much?

Why don't they need to eat or sleep?
Not really an Easy way to make an army since it costs lots of exp, could just hire one?
I agree it would need some tending(at least to activate it twice a day), cloning vats would be neat, or some kind of teleportation/replicator type device. Or even a "Pulls a copy from an alternate reality" mechanism. Spell says they're completely loyal but are they aware they're just a copy? There was a good stargate episode about that actually..

 

[Thanael]

(The whole spell honestly looks like it was just pulled from an earlier edition and not fully thought out).

Well, d'oh. Of course it is pulled from an earlier edition, as are almost all of the other spells, the classes, the monsters.

 

[Cheiromancer]

If you do the math, it only costs a little over 600k to make a magic item which does simulacrum 2/day.

How are you calculating the cost of the xp component of the spell? Do you have rings that cast wish once per day too?

I don't think spells like simulacrum or wish are well suited for the guidelines for magic item creation given in the DMG. Maybe the result wouldn't be as bad as a use-activated weapon of true strike, but it would still be pretty bad.

 

[darthkilmor]

Well, d'oh. Of course it is pulled from an earlier edition, as are almost all of the other spells, the classes, the monsters.

Oh thank you for that insightful comment.

Maybe I should have said: It looks like it was nearly wholesale pulled from an earlier edition and not adjusted correctly for 3rd edition(like if it had a reference to THAC0). Not at home to check my 2nd edition book though to see how much it actually changed though.

Better?