New Magic Spells: Effigy

EFFIGY

Spell Level: Magic-User, 5th Level

Range: Referee's Discretion

Duration: Permanent

An Effigy, is a copy of a living being, but not an exact duplicate. It does not possess the memories, mannerisms, or skills of the original. It must be taught how to speak, care for itself, and perform tasks, however it will learn at a rate of days, instead of months. Under no circumstances can an Effigy learn to cast spells of any sort.

Effigies are magical constructs, not actual living beings, and will be detected by a Detect Magic spell. The creature will obey its creator, unless it goes insane.

The creation of an Effigy requires a sample taken from the being to be duplicated, and placed within a wax sculpture (or other appropriate process the DM decides upon). The creation will possess nearly similar Statistics as the original, but with a -1 to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, since they neither possess life experience, or extensive personalities.

For the purposes of combat abilities, treat an Effigy as a generic "monster" with 1 Hit Die per level of the caster above 8th. Their artificial nature improves their armor class by two steps, in or out of ant armor worn. Unarmed, an Effigy has two hand attacks, for 1d6 damage apiece.

Effigies have the uncanny ability to stay absolutely still, appearing as life-like wax statues. When moving, they look, sound, and feel almost indistinguishable from living people. They do not need to eat, drink, breath, or sleep, but imitate such behaviors in an effort to seem normal.

Like similar spells, such as Simulacrum, and Clone, if an Effigy becomes aware of the person it is replicated from, it will become extremely curious about where it comes from, and will desire to search out clues about the original. A high likelihood of insanity is not uncommon, with murder-suicide often resulting.

-----------------------------------------------------

The creation and possession of Effigies is highly illegal in most civilized lands (causing fears of impersonation), but very lucrative in the specialty slave market!