This spell grows an inert duplicate of a living creature as a safeguard against death. This clone forms inside the vessel used in the spell’s casting and grows to full size and maturity after 120 days; you can also choose to have the clone be a younger version of the same creature. It remains inert and endures indefinitely, as long as its vessel remains undisturbed.
At any time after the clone matures, if the original creature dies, its soul transfers to the clone, provided that the soul is free and willing to return. The clone is physically identical to the original and has the same personality, memories, and abilities, but none of the original's equipment. The original creature's physical remains, if they still exist, become inert and can't thereafter be restored to life, since the creature's soul is elsewhere.
* - (a diamond worth at least 1,000 gp and at least 1 cubic inch of flesh of the creature that is to be cloned, which the spell consumes, and a vessel worth at least 2,000 gp that has a sealable lid and is large enough to hold the creature being cloned, such as a huge urn, coffin, mud- filled cyst in the ground, or crystal container filled with salt water)
could it be posible to safe gaurd your soul from that magic
tip over an eight
mabey lichs are idiots or like to destroy souls
yes but your flesh would start to rot (eww) and stop egisting also you have to rob your own grave
depnds if you start with all your spells slots or need to take a long rest
if only you could twin spell
The spell text seems to be assuming only one clone is in existence at a time, so it's up to the DM to decide what happens if multiple clones of a creature are created. That said, someone mentioned Manshoon earlier in the comments, and his story should be a cautionary tale for anyone who wants to try that. In the Forgotten Realms at least, it's a very real possibility that all the clones will activate upon the death of the original, each getting part of the soul, and each one will instinctively know that there is a copy of them (or several) out there somewhere, and that it has to die.
Does the clone have the memories of the original when the spell is cast or does it gain the current memories from the soul entering it? If it is the former, then you wouldn't know what killed you.
Yes. The Clone knows everything that happen. I recommend Zee Bashew's Animated Spellbook Episode on Clone to see how a powerful Necromancer uses it. Though if you are interested in the minor lore in that series you start with Components then help action.
I mean nothing is stopping someone or something from possessing the inert remains after healing the body of the damage that originally killed it, which would basically be a wolf in sheep's clothing. who's to say some demon or devil needs a new skin suit to walk around in and in doing so beesmerch the player's reputation enough that the player in question needs to find them and put an end to it before something worse happens. just a thought.
the clone only becomes active when the soul enters it, meaning the clone is inert until such a time as the soul is free and able to enter it. your question is moot and answered. as for the ring of mind shielding since your soul would be closest to the ring and not the clone the ring's power would take effect first, trapping the soul in the ring until the soul is ready to leave for the afterlife. but if the ring is destroyed it is safe to assume the soul is freed to continue what it wants, in which case it would be shunted to the clone body able to house it or go to the afterlife. the ring doesn't state the target can willingly leave it, just that the target can leave to go to the afterlife. anything else is up to DM discretion.
why go through all that when you can cast simulacrum and true polymorph to make working functioning clones of yourself that can aid you in combat? also each cast requires a cubic chunk of flesh from your body, which will cause damage and if you're not careful when you do it, or how often you do it, can kill you. you'd have to space it out over time to give your body a chance to heal from the damage unless you have a cleric on hand to heal you (or in this case regenerate lost tissue) to replace what you've been using to cast the spell. and no, you couldn't use a true polymorphed simulacrum to do their either because it would have to be the vessel that currently contains your soul. you would either eventually kill yourself giving yourself infinite lives or you would instead leave your body scarred horribly.
keep in mind clone is a relatively new spell in D&D compared to liches, liches have been around forever and the thought of cloning a character repeatedly to survive "mistakes" made by players or DMs is relatively fresh. usually if you wanted to be immortal you had to become a lich
I'd say that the reason liches exist is probably that it's an easier path to immortality; instead of having to become powerful enough to cast Clone, you become a lich first and become more powerful later. It's worth keeping in mind that player characters are intended to be exceptional; not every wizard is progressing at the same speed that they do, so some are absolutely going to look for a faster path to immortality.
Regarding how many clones can you create; my answer would be one, though it's very much in DM ruling territory. The way the spell is worded your soul enters "the" clone, not "the nearest" or "the most recently created" or such, so unless you want to go into questions of what happens when your soul attempts to enter multiple clones at once, then I think you're limited to only a single clone in practice, though nothing prevents you from creating a new one once you've been reborn (and if you can get back to your original body you can probably use a chunk of that rather than having to heal your new body 😉).
Protecting it should be fairly easy though as others have pointed out; you don't need to be on the same plane of existence as the clone, so Demiplane could be used to safely store your clone along with a full set of backup gear. You might need a long rest before you can leave the demiplane (to prepare the spell if you don't normally use it), but you'll be good to go witho no need to worry about finding guards you can trust etc.
One interesting note regarding immortality via cloning is that you may have to commit suicide for it to work; resurrection spells don't seem to work if you die of old age, so something about that must function differently. Your DM could potentially rule that if your soul is old enough it can't transfer, but then who plays a campaign long enough for old age to become an issue?
Reasons why this spell is NOT broken:
- but none of the original's equipment.
and since only wizards can cast this spell... Congratulations, you managed to survive, but you are now a wizard without a spellbook and the only spells at your disposal are the spells you had prepared before, but you also don't have a magic focus nor component pouch, so good luck casting spells :)
Actually, nothing in the wording of the spell stops you from:
A. Casting this spell once on every member of your party, as long as you can afford the diamonds and the vessels. The hardest part could be finding either of those things, because that diamond for sure won't be for sale anywhere.
B. Place all the vessels in the same demiplane created by the spell of the same name, which you can conveniently get at the very same level.
C. Having a copy of your spellbook right next to your clone. Creating one takes more time than casting the Clone spell, but even with a 17 level character's 28 spells learned (if you didn't lose your spellbook but didn't learn them from any other source than leveling up) it is still cheaper, plus it can also be useful if you lose your spellbook without dying. A spellcastinc focus typically costs less than 100 gold coins even if your DM makes them insanely expensive, so you can have one as well.
OK, silly question. What if the target was polymorphed as, say, an adult dragon when the spell was cast. Would the clone be of the original body or the dragon?
Interesting question, to which I'm sure a DM would love to give an interesting answer via experimentation. :)
The spell says a Medium creature, so an adult dragon is out. But there are plenty of medium monsters including dragon wyrmlings.
No. Because a lich is not a living creature.
Who has seen Clone actually cast in a game, and how did they get the flesh?