Simulacrum
School illusion (shadow); Level sorcerer/wizard 7
Casting Time 12 hours
Components V, S, M (ice sculpture of the target plus powdered
rubies worth 500 gp per HD of the simulacrum)
Range 0 ft.
Effect one duplicate creature
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
Simulacrum creates an illusory duplicate of any creature. The
duplicate creature is partially real and formed from ice or snow. It
appears to be the same as the original, but it has only half of the
real creature’s levels or HD (and the appropriate hit points, feats,
skill ranks, and special abilities for a creature of that level or HD).
You can’t create a simulacrum of a creature whose HD or levels
exceed twice your caster level. You must make a Disguise check
when you cast the spell to determine how good the likeness is.
A creature familiar with the original might detect the ruse with
a successful Perception check (opposed by the caster’s Disguise
check) or a DC 20 Sense Motive check.
At all times, the simulacrum remains under your absolute
command. No special telepathic link exists, so command must be
exercised in some other manner. A simulacrum has no ability to
become more powerful. It cannot increase its level or abilities. If
reduced to 0 hit points or otherwise destroyed, it reverts to snow
and melts instantly into nothingness. 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.
Ever seen the movie about the monkey king starring Jackie Chan and Jet Lee? Jet Lee was a "simulacrum" of the monkey king the whole movie
1) you would still need an ice sculpture despite eschew materials, since this is where the simulacrum comes from.
2)No mention of memories, only class features.
3) i would rule that it can indeed use the spellbook, spellbook is a class feature of the wizard, if you happened to have the owner's spellbook, then yes.
4) I'm not really sure, but I would say yes, the spell energies were cast, applied the effect and left, leaving the result, (flesh to stone comes to mind)
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Oh I just love a good Sim thread!
James Jacobs was kind enough to answer a whole pile of simulacrum-related questions in this thread. And here as well.
Hope that answers some of your questions (and even some you didn't know you had).
But just in case, here are MY responses:
So I can cast this to create a simulacrum of anyone/anything with up to twice my caster level in HD. I don't even have to have anything from the target.
This means that from the time can cast this spell (Wizard 13) I can make my own copy of a 26HD creature -like the Jabberwock (but the copy will only have 13HD). At Wizard 15, I can make my own 15HD Tarrasque. Seems pretty broken...
Yes, exactly right. However, discuss this with your Gm before doing so, as they will be the final arbiter on what the sim's final stat break down is going to look like. Different GMs have different ideas as to what abilities are effected by the reduction of racial HD. What's more, some GMs find it prudent to add additional restrictions, such as requiring a piece of the creature to be simulated (a requirement of the old v3.5 version of the spell) or at least require you to be intimately familiar with the creature in question (a common house rule, generally requiring an investment in knowledge skills).
1) With Eschew Materials, I wouldn't need the ice sculpture, I'd just need the powdered rubies, right?
Yes, however you would still need to make a disguise check to determine how much like the original your sim appears.
2) Does the simulacrum share the knowledge of the original? Does it "know" enough to pass itself off as the original, or is it created clean slate (aside from class abilities)? Does it even know the languages of the original?
A sim can speak the languages of the original. It shares any knowledge the original has, as it pertains to being a member of its race and class. Whether or not it possesses any of the target's actual memories (whether or not it can tell you if the original was responsible for assassinating the king last Wednesday) is going to be one of those abstract things left wholly up to the GM.
3) If it has class levels - namely alchemist/magus/wizard, does that mean it can use the formula/spell book of the original, or does it need to spend time transcribing its original's spells?
I don't see why not. It is fully capable of using all of its class abilities. Note, however, that it does not start with any equipment of its own, so it will have to share resources, or get its own.
4) As an instantaneous effect, simulacrums cannot be subject to dispelling after casting, right? Do they persist within an antimagic field?
Sims cannot be dispelled precisely because they are instantaneous effects. They are creatures in every sense of the word.
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Just for the record: any GM worth his salt will rule that the simulacron of a Efreti will lose his ability to grant wishes with the loss of racial HD.
About the damantine golem, from the spell description:
"it has only half of the real creature’s levels or HD (and the appropriate hit points, feats, skill ranks, and special abilities for a creature of that level or HD). You can’t create a simulacrum of a creature whose HD or levels exceed twice your caster level."
It will go under 20 HD, so I would downgrade the DR and reduce its size. The reduction in size mean it would lose strength and the dices it use for its damage will go down, too.
Then there is the "little" problem that you aren't creating "an (generic) adamantine golem" but "a copy of the damantine golem that is defending the vault of .....". That mean that you will be coping the golem orders and programming too. No problem till you are in the area to give it orders, as your orders will supersede its programming, but if you aren't there its programming will dictate its behaviour.
Not as useful as it appear at first glance.
So a Wizard 15 wanting to defend his lair could use a simulacrum of an Adamantine Golem for a fraction of the cost of making a real golem. It's only going to have half the hit dice and the fast healing and indestructible abilities won't function (since it can only heal as specified for a simulacrum), but it's still immune to a great deal of magic and still has DR 15/epic. Seems pretty cost effective.
Actually, I think they would keep the fast healing.
In my games I make good use of troll sims with class levels as bodyguards.
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As for control, "at all times" is the key. Like any golem, you set the parameters once and it obeys faithfully.
Unless you give precise orders for each possible situation the simulacron will revert to the behaviour of the creature you copied.
"At all times" mean he can't disobey the order you have given him, but "No special telepathic link exists, so command must be exercised in some other manner. "No special telepathic link exists, so command must be exercised in some other manner." mean that every time he can choose he will chose based on his personality or programming (depending if he is a creature or a golem).
I don't know about most of what you discussed, but I do know that the simulacrum is the same size as the original and JJ has suggested not reducing ability scores for reduced racial HD.
Look the procedures for increasing/decreasing the HD of a creature. The spell say "half of the real creature’s levels or HD (and the appropriate hit points, feats, skill ranks, and special abilities for a creature of that level or HD)". Your GM will choose, but there is a good reason there to reduce the size of a creature when you halve his HD.
Simulacron is a spell that require a lot of evaluations by the GM.
I don't believe you should change a sim's size. That only causes more problem and unanswerable questions. What's more, I don't believe that was the intent behind the spell.
You are making a weaker version of the creature, not a younger/smaller one.
What's more, there is no relationship between HD and size like there was in v3.5. Creatures don't go up in size whenever they double or triple their hit dice. When you want a larger, tougher creature in Pathfinder, you generally add templates instead. Even if you do increase hit dice, size is unaffected.
As such, there is no logical reason for reducing a sim's size from that of the original creature. It is arbitrary and wholly unnecessary.
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Happy, my thinking goes this way:
1) a golem obey his creator orders absolutely (unless it is one of teh golems that can go berserker, and even then its creator is the only guy that can control it);
2) the simulacron copy something, orders and informations included (subject to GM ruling)
3) the simulacrorn obey the caster of the spell absolutely
4) we have a golem with 2 sets of absolute orders. When applicable the more recent set overwrite the older set, when the most recent set is silent the older set is used to decide what the golem will do.
To make an example:
old set: You will guard this location. You will kill anyone that is not me or is not wearing this pin. You will not leave the location.
new set. You will guard this location. You will kill intruders. I, Joe and Mike will be allowed to enter. You will not leave this location.
resulting set of orders: You will guard this location. You will kill intruders. I, Joe and Mike and anyone wearing this pin will be allowed to enter. You will not leave this location.
As I don't know what orders were given to the golem I am copying with my simulacron spell it is almost sure I will incur in this kind of problems.
Honestly I feel that a lot of problems will be resolved using a few of the old limitations:
- you can't copy unique creatures (tarrasque, jabbervock and so on)
- you can't copy outsiders
- you can't copy non living creatures.
I would add:
- to copy the memories of a creature you need a piece of the creature, if not you only get something copying the aspect of the creature but not his knowledge.
Honestly I feel that a lot of problems will be resolved using a few of the old limitations:
- you can't copy unique creatures (tarrasque, jabbervock and so on)
- you can't copy outsiders
- you can't copy non living creatures.I would add:
- to copy the memories of a creature you need a piece of the creature, if not you only get something copying the aspect of the creature but not his knowledge.
And I'd add:
- You can only make a Simularcrum of a specific creature you have personal knowledge of. No cracking open the Bestiaries, IC or OOC.
4) we have a golem with 2 sets of absolute orders. When applicable the more recent set overwrite the older set, when the most recent set is silent the older set is used to decide what the golem will do.
Easily fixed. You merely tell you Simulacra Golem after it is created that it is to forget and forgo any and all previous instructions it has ever received. Then you order it to do what you want it to do and how you want it to act.
Done. Since the Simulacra is totaly obedient it will totally wipe out any previous orders when asked to.
A little common sense goes a long way with this spell.
This is an Illusion spell.
-The Sim would behave, look, and sound like the caster expects the original to.
-The Sim wouldn't know anything about the original the caster doesn't already know. So personal memories could get really vague or specific depending on how close the caster is to the real target.
-I would say since the duplicate is an illusion made real, it would keep ALL of the appearance of the original (including size).
-Stats would be lower than the original by some amount. I reduce a sim's stats by 1 for every 4 HD lost. Keeping in step with the speed creatures gain those bonus stat points. As a GM I would remove them from the stats I as the GM felt like removing them from.
As a player I have had some fun using this spell. First to create a set of personal assistants (my own lower level adventuring party) out of a group of adventurers the GM was using at the time as a rival group. That let me do all manner of tricks and the rivals would be blamed. And the other use was to create a set of personal bodyguards out of some incredibly powerful monsters the GM used against us once (some kind of custom built super cats). Oh and I also found it handy to make sims of myself to use in running my Merchant enterprise. That way I could directly market stuff like magical treasures at full value (the GM decided how long it took to sell each item). And since I was a skilled jeweler and dress maker, the shops also carried a full line of fancy attire complete with matching jewelry. The perfect little shops for the upper class gala's and having a limited selection of magical gear and trinkets also attracted adventurers.
Also check with your Gm in case said august personage has had experiences (usually bad) with Ss before. Often, they will have house rules concerning such that are not written down. I dumped the ice and snow bit over 30 years ago, requiring one of a variety of other 'bodies', allowing the creation of a number of unique beings. I was running a game for kids that were (and still are) up on the Oz series, so straw stuffed, hollow metal and porcelain constructs made regular appearances.
Currently, a sponsoring Wizard uses one to contact the party. They have yet to notice he never eats or drinks with them.