Would you allow a Wish spell to merge a Magen and a Simulacrum together?

[Clistenes]

The Wish would basically merge the Simulacrum and the Magen creating a gestalt with all the hp and features of both creatures (the gestalt would keep the highest among each of the two ability scores).

Of course, you would risk the 33 % chance of never being able to cast Wish ever again...

Afterwards you could create a new Simulacrum without losing the merged creature since the latter is no longer a Simulacrum.

I see a few problems with this myself, mostly that, while Magen/Simulacra of spellcasters would be balanced by the fact that they couldn't refresh spells, Magen/Simulacra of warriors would be be too powerful: From the Magen side, they would get a ton of immunities and resistances plus enough hp to compensate for the Simulacrum's halved hp...

Basically, you either lose the ability to cast Wish ever again, or you get a powerful second character... It is either too good or too bad...

But on the other hand, you can create Iron Golems with the manuals, and Iron Golems are even more powerful...

So, maybe it would be better to allow the research of a 9th level spell that does the merging but which has outrageous material requirements... like, you would need the heart of Kraken or something...

[Pyrophilios]

Why not just wish for the iron golem then?

The answer is: It depends entirely on your DM. The wish might not even work at all, as officially there is no such thing as "Gestalt".
If you are capable of creating Simulacra and casting whish you have better options (like casting whish to cast component free simulacra who can cast wish themselves, who wouldn't get the 9th level slot back anyway, so they might wish for a better simulacrum from the start)

[Coidzor]

Once you've got Wish, you can just use it to cast Sansuri's Simulacrum anyway, allowing you to stock up on multiple copies of a particular creature. (But only that creature, IIRC)

So it's probably fine in terms of cost to get the simulacrum made permanent, the devil is in the details of the exact statblock you'd end up creating, though I'd probably give up a lot of the magen's mojo in exchange for the permanence. I'd need to refresh my memory of magen statblocks and the spell that creates them to say more, though.

Since we have at least 2 precedents for variants of Simulacrum in Storm King's Thunder and Waterdeep Dragon Heist, I'd probably allow a variant of Simulacrum that used a Magen's body to "anchor" a simulacrum of humanoid shape so that it wouldn't get replaced if Simulacrum is cast again, with no Wish middleman.

[Clistenes]

Would you put some limits on the Simulacrum spell, like, setting a max level to the duplicated creature?

[Angelalex242]

This sounds like the sort of thing the supervillain of your campaign would do.

"Sauron was once a normal wizard till he merged with his simulacrum, and now he doesn't like the world anymore."

(Yes, I know, Sauron is actually a Maia, but it's the general concept.)

[Clistenes]

I'm thinking more of a half-crazy wizard living surrounded by copies of long-gone people...

[follacchioso]

How would you word the Wish spell to achieve such a thing?

The DM can be very mean on this, as there are many ways to interpret it. After a campaign of at least 17 levels to get your first 9th level slot, you are finally giving them full license to mess up with you.

"I wish to merge this simulachrum and this magen into an unique, new creature" >> The DM could simply merge them together into a creature made of two bottom parts, and no heads.

"I want to create a new powerful creature by merging this simulachrum and this magen" >> you get a new creature with great physical strength but no magic powers.

[Clistenes]

How would you word the Wish spell to achieve such a thing?

The DM can be very mean on this, as there are many ways to interpret it. After a campaign of at least 17 levels to get your first 9th level slot, you are finally giving them full license to mess up with you.

"I wish to merge this simulachrum and this magen into an unique, new creature" >> The DM could simply merge them together into a creature made of two bottom parts, and no heads.

"I want to create a new powerful creature by merging this simulachrum and this magen" >> you get a new creature with great physical strength but no magic powers.

Hey, let me write fifty pages or so and I think I can word it well enough that there will be little room for misinterpretation... :p

[follacchioso]

Excellent. You're going to be entertained for a while, see you in one year :-)

[Tanarii]

Hey, let me write fifty pages or so and I think I can word it well enough that there will be little room for misinterpretation... :p
Remember you have to be able to state it in six seconds.

[JNAProductions]

In general, for a Wish, talk to your players openly and honestly. Out of character.

The caster is using the spell themself-they would have a reasonable idea of what would and wouldn't work.

Exceptions can be made if they're getting a wish from another being-a malicious genie or pit fiend, for instance.

[Clistenes]

Remember you have to be able to state it in six seconds.

Can my verbal expression of the Wish include "as described in the book I am holding in my hands..."?

[OvisCaedo]

Casting the Wish spell yourself is not a matter of legalese for whether it turns out well or not. It's an attempt to force your will onto the universe, and it responds... however it (the GM) feels like. You can't word it well enough to make the impossible possible or guarantee that the results won't go "eh, this is close enough!", but you also shouldn't need to try so hard and GMs shouldn't be looking for holes in the wording of an otherwise reasonable wish to screw the wisher over.

That's more appropriate for trying to GET a wish granted by a genie or demon or something.

[DarknessEternal]

Magen aren't copies of people in any way. I'm confused about the relevancy.

Are you just trying to wish some immunities onto a simulacrum?

[Clistenes]

Magen aren't copies of people in any way. I'm confused about the relevancy.

Are you just trying to wish some immunities onto a simulacrum?

Nope. I was thinking of a way to make a character surround themselves with a retinue of Simulacrums of different people... as I mentioned before, a crazy (probably immortal) wizard surrounded by copies of long dead people...

They create a Magen, then merges them with a Simulacrum, and the new being doesn't disappear when Simulacrum is cast again...

But I would like it to be something that isn't "this is a NPC thing only, you can't touch it" thing... Hence why I asked it you think it could be viable for players...

[Angelalex242]

Hence: Side effects may include Chaotic Evil, going off your rocker, flipping your lid, losing your mind, homicidal mania, and torturing people for lulz.