Stasis Clone

This spell creates a duplicate of a human, demihuman, or humanoid creature from any scrap of bone, hair, tissue, or at least six drops of blood from that being. If the caster is not the being to be duplicated, that living creature must touch the duplicate body, as it forms, to give it life.

This clone is identical to the original being in memories, skills, experience level, and appearance at the time the organic tissue was obtained. It has one less point of Constitution than the original being, and it cannot form at all if the original being has a current Constitution of 1. All other ability scores are identical.

Unlike duplicates created by the 8th-level wizard spell clone, the copy of the being is not aware of the existence of the original. It remains in magical stasis and is mentally unreachable (with a sole exception noted hereafter). It does not age, decay, or need air, water, food, or other essentials that other living things require. A stasis clone can be stored in a coffin or other confined space, and is not awakened by handling. It can be damaged or even destroyed by weapons, fire, crushing blows, and other forces that would harm its living counterpart. Once activated, the clone cannot be dispelled or disjoined; for all purposes, the clone is the caster's body.

A stasis clone holds the pose it was last placed in by living hands. Thus, it can be dressed and clothed to be used as a decoy or to fool others into thinking they are seeing the original being in a state of rest or sitting absorbed in study.

Whenever the original being touches the stasis clone, the clone's memories, skills, and experience levels are updated to match the original beings. The clone does not mirror purely physical changes, such as aging, a wound, or an amputation suffered by the original being. The stasis is normally lifted only when the original being dies, though up to two contingency spells can be applied to any stasis clone to modify when and how it activates. (Note that a stasis clone confined in an airtight or flooded space may perish shortly after awakening.)

Multiple stasis clones can be created by repeated castings of this spell. These stasis clones can even be linked to each other by custom-devised transferal spells mated to contingency spells so that the death of the first clone awakens only the second, its death in turn activates just the third, and so on.

Manshoon has used this spell both to escape a final death and to remain young. As he ages, he can update his stasis clone, get himself slain (usually in a reckless attack that destroys an enemy, such as a powerful Red Wizard), and return as a physically younger clone. Several wizards have offered him fantastic sums for a copy of this spell and reportedly have been refused. Others (including apprentices) have perished quite messily at Manshoon's hands when they attempted to steal the spell.

Manshoon's stasis clones are obvious targets for those who wish him dead, permanently. Several times his enemies or his rivals in the Inner Circle of the Zhentarim have gone to a great deal of trouble to kill him and destroy all of his stasis clones, only to find that Manshoon had squirreled away one or two they had missed. One reason that Manshoon has not advanced to a higher level as a wizard is undoubtedly the cumulative loss of a great deal of experience because of the lag between newly activated clones that had not been recently updated and previous, now dead Manshoon incarnations.