Take Willing Creature

You lay hands upon a willing creature, speaking words of surrender in a dead tongue. The creature’s soul is immediately sent screaming into Vel Korrim, the Taken City, bound in service to Emek-Thal, He Who Takes. In its place remains a perfect duplicate. A hollow construct that straddles the border of reality and the Shadowfell, flickering in and out of phase.

The duplicate is perfectly obedient to you and has the following properties:

• It retains the Challenge Rating equal to or less than the target’s (or the target’s level if it does not have a CR).
• Its type becomes Undead.
• It cannot disobey the caster’s direct commands, though it may interpret vague orders literally.
• Its body constantly shifts between reality and shadow. It has advantage on all Stealth checks while in dim light or darker.
• The target must be willing and aware of the true consequences. If the target is unwilling, or is deceived about the nature of the spell, the spell automatically fails.
• A creature taken in this way cannot be restored by revivify, raise dead, or similar magic. Only a wish or direct divine intervention can return the original soul from Vel Korrim.

On Death. When the duplicate is destroyed, the caster regains hit points equal to half the duplicate’s maximum hit points (rounded down) and recovers a total of three spell levels, distributed however they wish (e.g., three 1st-level slots, one 3rd-level slot).