Is there a spell that can replicate/duplicate a complex item?
Specifically, if one were to transport a PC from a modern game into a fantasy (3.5/PF) game, is there a way to magically duplicate his/her sidearm or ammunition?
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Is there a spell that can replicate/duplicate a complex item?
Specifically, if one were to transport a PC from a modern game into a fantasy (3.5/PF) game, is there a way to magically duplicate his/her sidearm or ammunition?
wish
Seriously though. If the character was knowledgeable enough and he is both a chemist and gunsmith. You could Craft(alchemy) gunpowder and Craft(weapons) the gun itself. Fabricate could be used to mold the parts of the gun as long as the caster of the spell was intimately familiar with the exact size of each gun part.
A wish would do, certainly, though a limited wish might be sufficient to also produce a copy; the cost of the diamond dust would likely outweigh the usefulness of the replica's limited amount of ammunition however. Fabricate could also do it easily, except that the end product is dependant on the caster's craftsmanship. Chances are that most fantasy settings doesn't have anyone sufficiently skilled to cast and finish the various parts properly to make a safe working gun or combine the chemicals, casings and projectiles so as to create jacketed bullets. Modern crafting techniques and ballistic science has fairly exacting standards; I just don't see a wizard being able to easily replicate that, even with a Fabricate spell. He'd likely end up with something that looks approximately like the original gun, but which either jams, fails to fire, or explodes when used. Even if it did fire properly, its range and precision would likely pale when compared to the original. The replica gun would probably be about as effective/safe as an early firearm; something like a matchlock.
So, since a modern gun couldn't be easily/cheaply replicated, it's biggest effect on the setting might be to spur alchemists and smiths to start the ball rolling on reverse-engineering it; kicking off a arms race to develop modern firearms. That'd be a slow climb however, with little short term effects except to make the PCs in possession of the gun moderately wealthy once he finds a buyer for it. My ¢2.
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I think this is a DM-dependent call. Obviously if all of the natural laws are the same in the two game worlds, then any sufficiently skilled craftsman could conceivable duplicate even a highly sophisticated mechanism like a firearm - at least enough to repair it, perhaps. And if it could be achieved by a mundane craftsman, then it makes perfect sense that a craftsman with magical help or ability could duplicate or reverse engineer something like a firearm.
Now, for something more esoteric, like a plasma gun or a sci-fi blaster rifle, which may require certain scientific knowledge that doesn't exist in the game world, then that may be beyond even magical duplication. However, it's just as likely that a magical craftsman could duplicate the practical effect of such weapons via magical means, or even possibly enhance them with magic of some kind.
But all of this depends on the natural laws of the game worlds in question being consistent enough - and that's up to the DM. I've made it pretty clear to my players that my game world doesn't support gunpowder - no firearms, and no chemical high-explosives that don't involve magic somehow. There's no higher rationale for it, it's just part of the ground rules in my game. Other DMs may have a different approach, and that's cool.
In fact, didn't Gary Gygax have a gun-slinging cowboy wizard in one of his early D&D campaigns? Murlynd, I think his name was.