Simulacrum - A construct?

[Torben Raibeart]

The title says it all, but I have found that I as an GM am not sure about this. The thing is that I want my players to meet and fight the BBEG, but as he is near level 15 while they are closer to level 6, doing so would be suicide. Therefore, I decided to have the BBEG make a simulacrum of himself to do some of the less important preparations for his plan, and let the players fight this (much weaker) copy, so that their enemy gets a face.

Initially, I planned to just let the simulacrum be BBEG as he would have been if he was level 7, but the fact that a simulacrum is made of snow, can only be healed by repairing and dies at 0 hp suggest that a simulacrum is a construct. Which would give it construct traits and immunities. Which would make the options of the sorcerer who foucuses on mind-affecting spells rather narrow.

The fact that it is an "illusory duplicate" does not exactly make things clearer. Any thoughts?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

From Rules of the Game: Constructs (Part One) (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050809a):

Artificial Beings: An object animated with the animate objectspell is a construct. So are most creatures that are built through some artificial means rather than bred, cloned, sprouted, or created through any natural process.

Not all artificial creatures are constructs. Spells such as animate dead and create undead produce undead creatures, not constructs. The simulacrum spell creates a duplicate of some other creature and the duplicate has the same creature type as the original. In general, a construct is a unique kind of creature, not a previously existing creature brought back from death or an attempt to copy another creature. A construct also usually is built up, piece by piece (except in the case of an animated object) from inert materials.

[Torben Raibeart]

Ah, thanks :smallsmile: that cleared that up nice and easy. Did not realise that WotC had webpages to clearify creature-types, but should probably have guessed. :smallredface: Again, thanks a lot, should make the sorcerer happy that he can contribute the way he wants to contribute.

[Jack_Simth]

The fact that it is an "illusory duplicate" does not exactly make things clearer. Any thoughts?
You're the DM. The rules exactly as they're written seem unclear to you. This will come up a lot. The general advice is to pick what seems good for the fun of the gaming group, look at it for a little bit to make sure there aren't any glaringly obvious exploits, and then run with it.