What happens if a Vampire bites an inert clone?


Rules Questions


Can the inert clone become a sentient vampiric replica of the person the clone was created from?


Interesting. As with everything, this really depends on how undeath, souls and Clone work in your game.

Off hand I would say you cannot make undead out of inert objects. There is no life there to corrupt.

Even assuming that the clone body is a valid target, does vampirism need a soul to corrupt or will a living but soulless body work? It would be fun to have mindless ravening vampires from corrupted clones but if you assume vampirism is a curse as much as a disease I wouldn't think it would work without a soul to attach to.

Assuming 3.x Clone I might possibly allow the clone to be a vampire if the soul tries to transfer to it. Equally possiblly I would rule that the clone is ruined as a host for the soul. Depends on how dickish I'm feeling at the moment and what would be best for the story. Assuming pre-3.x Clone it would absolutely work.


I am pretty sure that nothing would happen. I am presuming you are referring to a vampire's create spawn ability that triggers if a creature is slain by their energy drain or blood drain ability (which happens when they bite a creature).

I assume that if the clone is inert, that means the original template creature hasn't died yet, so it has no soul in it. It would likely have the same hit points as the original body (at least, based on the time the flesh sample was collected, in case some time had passed).

I would say that an inert clone is more or less just like a slab of meat, like casting stone to flesh on a boulder (although the clone is more than just flesh, it would be bone, blood, muscle, brain matter, etc).

So I'd say a vampire could drink the blood from the clone, and if the Constitution loss from that would reduce the clone to 0, the clone would 'die', though just basically meaning it's ruined and wouldn't work if the original died. Its soul wouldn't go into the clone.

Since vampires are intelligent undead, and they typically are creatures that had souls and its pretty determined that intelligent undead have lifeforces (just negative), I would likely rule that an inert clone couldn't become a vampire. It would just be a soulless hunk of meat that rots away (unless preserved). I would allow such a corpse from a inert clone to be animated as a skeleton or zombie or other suitable undead if it were 'killed'. Since animating mindless undead typically involves animating them with an elemental spirit or something, not the spirit of the original creature.


I don’t think that a soulless bit of inert flesh has a type. Create Spawn only works on a creature of the same type of the vampire creating it. The clone also has no CON or HD to be drained. Without those the vampire cannot use energy or blood drain on it to kill it.

In Pathfinder Create Spawn is an ability that the Vampire has to deliberately use. You don't become a vampire or even a vampire spawn just by being bit by the vampire.


As it is inert, the vampire can't really kill it as it isn't truly alive, and IIRC the text says that making it into a vampire or vampire spawn requires killing it.

Going away from RAW, I'd be inclined to say that they could potentially make vampire spawn without a soul to corrupt, but making a fully fledged vampire out of an inert clone would require some kind of shenanigans, like how carving off soul fragments is necessary to make Soulbound Dolls and Soulboun Mannequins or the Enlightened Construct template's artificial soul.


This may be how "Bloody Mary", the first Killer Tomato got her start...

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