Ye Compleat Simulacrum

Here are the rules I developed in order for Gary to play Smokelight, a Simulacrum of Mordenkainen, in my Black Hart campaign.

Unless stated otherwise, a Simulacrum character will behave/react as per the type of creature he is a Simulacrum of.

1) Mind - A Simulacrum has a mind, and is therefore affected by fear, mind-altering or affecting magic, illusions and phantasms, and psionics.

2) Body - At the end of its creation process, the Simulacrum consists of real flesh and blood, held together by Phantasmal magic. If this magic is succesfully dispelled, the flesh and blood reverts to its original form (ie snow and ice) and the Simulacrum is no more.

3) Soul - Casting Reincarnation summons a soul/spirit to the living form. The nature of this soul/spirit can be determined by rolling on the Druids' Reincarnation table. This is not to say that the Simulacrum's nature will _be_ that of the Reincarnated soul/spirit, but it will 'influence' the personality of the original creature being simulated, and thus the 'personality differences' mentioned in the PHB arise.

A caster may deliberately influence this process by including the material of another (recently dead) creature to the 'elixir' used in the creation of the Simulacrum. This may also happen accidentally if such material is accidentally included in any of the components of the creation process.

4) Immunities/Resistances - A Simalucrum is not, however, a normal 'flesh and blood' creature, and due to the magical element of its constitution it is not affected by sleep, charm, or hold spells, or poison or paralysation of any sort, magical or not. The only exception to the poison ruling is the effect of alcohol, which is particularly effective on, and especially addictive to Simulacrums.

Also, a Simulacrum is not affected by disease. It is affected by creatures which eat flesh, such as Green Slime, or parasites such as Rot Grubs, and for those purposes the spell 'Cure Disease' will take effect (as the spell affects the creatures, not the Simulacrum).

5) Breathing - A Simulacrum must breathe, and it can drown or suffocate, but as all monster attack gases (such as dragon's breath weapons) are a form of poison, they are immune to the effects of these providing they are not exposed to the gas without breathable air for long enough for them to suffocate.

6) Healing - a Simulacrum does not regain hit points as normal by rest. It is almost completely unaffected by normal Clerical healing spells and healing potions. The exceptions to this are the Regenerate spell, which acts as normal, and the Restoration spell, which also acts as normal. Although a Simulacrum cannot advance in levels, it is affected by level drain and therefore can also be Restored in levels.

There are three main methods of 'healing' a Simulacrum:

a) Alchemical repair - this involves an expensive solution, basically the elixir originally used in the creation of the Simulacrum, which contains powdered ruby. The cost of such a preparation is 8,000gp in materials alone, and its effect is as per a Heal spell. However, all of this 'elixir' is not used in this process, and 2-8 potions of the 'elixir' may be kept and used by the Simulacrum at a later date.

Provided they are used within 6 months of manufacture they will act as a Cure Critical Wounds spell. Between 3 and 12 months the potion will act as a Cure Light Wounds spell, and thereafter it will be inert.

b) Physical repair - this is not a means of healing, but a temporary measure by which a Simulacrum may reduce the damage to his body until a full alchemical repair can be carried out. With a good needle and surgical thread a Simulacrum may stitch any physical wounds, repairing up to half its total hit points in this fashion before it can repair no more.

Obviously, a note must be kept of all damage so repaired. Such wounds still cause pain to the Simulacrum as though they were unhealed, and it is often necessary for a Simulacrum in such a position to take alcohol or drugs to mask this pain. Once the total damage so 'repaired' exceeds 25% of total hit points these 'repairs' will become noticeable to those frequently around the Simulacrum.

c) Polymorph Spells - due to the magics holding a Simulacrum together in that form, if someone tries to 'polymorph other' a Simulacrum, or that Simulacrum tries to Polymorph Self, into another form, the Simulacrum assumes the new form for one round, and then reverts to its regular form. On returning to its regular form the Simulacrum regains 1-12 hit points of damage. This applies to Polymorph potions and all spell-effects such as a Wand of Polymorph, but does not apply to illusion magic such as Change Self.

In addition to these methods, a Ring of Regeneration does work as normal with a Simulacrum.

7) Exorcism - as the soul of a Simulacrum is not natural to its host body, an Exorcise spell would force the soul out of its body, and the resultant creature would be as a Simulacrum that has not had Reincarnate and Limited Wish cast thereon. It is reversible by recasting these spells, if done within 1 week per level of the Simulacrum.

8) Quest/Geas - To determine if a Quest/Geas spell overrides the Simulacrum's master's commands, compare the spellcaster's level to that of the Simulacrum's master in the same manner as a Dispel Magic to determine the level of success. If a Quest/Geas would not conflict with its orders then no roll is necessary.

10) Awareness of abilities - A Simulacrum will not generally be aware of all these facts, and although some are well-documented facts (such as the inability to 'heal'), they are still so rarely used in magical circles as not to be fully understood.

Check out Smokelight the Scion, and the tale of his creation, Firstborn.