Duplication Casting

You can create illusory duplicates of yourself.¹⁾ Used by assassins, spies, and trickster gods, duplication casting allows you to appear in multiple places at once.

Requirements

Concentration
You must use concentration to maintain the existence of your duplicates. If your concentration is interrupted, any of your duplicates currently in existence cease to exist. You do not need to concentrate on each duplicate, just one concentration stream is enough to maintain any and all duplicates' existences.

Line of Sight
If a duplicate falls out of your line of sight, it ceases to exist.

Number of Duplicates
You cannot have more duplicates in existence than twice your ranks in 'Duplication Casting'. For example, if you have two ranks in Duplication Casting, you may have no more than four duplicates in existence at a time.

Primary Spell

Create Duplicate
As an action, you create an illusory duplicate of yourself. The duplicate appears in any unoccupied space within 3 meters (10 feet) of you. You can control this duplicate, dictating its movement, speech, and actions. These duplicates are almost indistinguishable from your genuine self, the only distinction being that they are immaterial, allowing objects to pass through them as if they were made of air. Thus, whatever actions a duplicate takes are purely illusory in nature, and cannot manipulate objects in the world. You can, at any time, choose to end a duplicate's existence. If anything were to significantly change your appearance after a duplicate has been created, such as changing clothes, falling into mud, suffering an injury, your duplicate does not automatically change its appearance to fit; instead, you must end that duplicate's existence and cast this spell again to re-create a duplicate with an updated appearance. If your concentration on this spell is interrupted, any of your duplicates currently in existence cease to exist. If you cast this spell while you have a duplicate already in existence, you may choose to create an additional duplicate. You cannot have more duplicates than twice your ranks in 'Duplication Casting'.

Perks

Each time you gain ranks in Duplication Casting, you may also gain your choice of one of the following perks:

Helping Hands
Your duplicates can act as a staff of servants, and they are now allowed to interact with physical objects. However, as a cost, your duplicates cease to exist while you are in combat.²⁾

Long-range
When you create a duplicate, you may have it appear in any unoccupied space within 30 meters (100 feet) of you (line of sight may still be required), instead of the usual 3 meters (10 feet). You may take this perk multiple times. If you do, the range at which you can summon a duplicate is multiplied by 10; To 300 meters (1,000 feet) when taken twice; To 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) when taken three times, etc.

Merge Memories
When you choose to end a duplicate's existence, if that duplicate is within your reach, you may choose to gain the memories of that duplicate's experiences as if you had lived them yourself. If you also have the 'Swap Places' perk, you can choose to merge memories with a duplicate with which you have swapped places.³⁾

Myriad
There is no limit to the number of duplicates you can have in existence, removing the limitation of the 'Number of Duplicates' requirement.

Omniscience
You no longer have to maintain line of sight to maintain a duplicate's existence. The 'Line of Sight' requirement is removed as a requirement for your Duplication Casting.⁴⁾

Quick Change
If your appearance is significantly changed while you have duplicates in existence, you may choose to have those duplicates automatically change their appearance to match you.

Simulacrum
You are allowed to have one duplicate in existence even when you do not meet the requirements 'Concentration', and/or 'Line of Sight'. You may take this perk multiple times, each time the number of duplicates to which this perk applies increases by one.

Summon Reinforcements
When you use the spell 'Create Duplicate', you may instead choose to double the number of your duplicates currently existing.

Swap Places
You can, at any time, swap places with one of your illusory duplicates. However, to do so, you must end the existence of one of your duplicates.

GM Notes

Curses

A duplicate becomes an independent adversary
A duplicate becomes an independent individual that does not want to re-merge
Re-merging with a duplicate that has gained individual will leads to mental illness - multiple personalities?
A duplicate is actually an illusory hologram projected by an adversary
Re-merging with a duplicate that has undergone trauma inflicts that pain on the original

¹⁾

GM Note: Duplication Casting ability allows combat opponents to suffer penalties from being flanked (if they believe the duplicates are a threat), or be more easily fooled into believing feints.

²⁾

Limiting the 'Helping Hands' perk to non-combat situations is a means of circumventing the difficult task of balancing this ability with combat. However, it may be an imperfect solution worthy of revisiting.

³⁾

Dev Note on Merge Memories: If this perk is not powerful enough, OR if managing a player's ability to compartmentalize their character's and their duplicate's experiences becomes too difficult, then this perk can be changed to: “When the existence of any of your duplicates ends, you gain the memories of their experiences as if you had lived them yourself.”

⁴⁾

If a duplicate exists outside of the controlling player's senses, they can still control it, but only in vague terms, such as “my duplicate continues to spy on the duchess”.

Amaranthum

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