Taking another stab at improving Invoke Duplicity - the double is real

[Segev]

Invoke Duplicity

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to duplicate yourself. As an action, you mark your current location. Six seconds later, at the start of your turn, a copy of you appears there. This duplicate remains for 1 minute, or until you dismiss it. You are effectively in both places at once. Both of you can move independently with your own movement speeds. Hit points, concentration, spell slots, and other such resources are shared by both of you, and you still only have one action, bonus action, and reaction per round between your duplicates, though you may take them from either location. If either of them is about to take damage, you may end the effect and cause that one to vanish before the damage is dealt. Otherwise, you take the damage normally when either is hit (though only once from a single instance of damage, such as if both of you are caught in a fireball). Conditions are tracked independently for the two of you, so even if one becomes incapacitated or unconscious, the other may still act.

When the effect ends, you choose which duplicate vanishes, and which remains as the real you.



The idea here is to prevent actual teleportation by making it require you to actually have been where the double appears, but otherwise to make this a fully-useful tool for being in two places at once.

[Mastikator]

I like this idea, it's one of those that scales with player creativity. I'd like to add one addendum: both must be on the same plane of existence, if one leaves the plane of existence the effect ends.

Also I'd like to know how it interacts with concentration, if one casts a spell are both concentrating on the same spell?

[Segev]

I like this idea, it's one of those that scales with player creativity. I'd like to add one addendum: both must be on the same plane of existence, if one leaves the plane of existence the effect ends.

Also I'd like to know how it interacts with concentration, if one casts a spell are both concentrating on the same spell?

Not sure referencing planar travel is needed; it only lasts 1 minute. As to concentration, I would argue that it falls under shared resources, but it could be explicitly stated, I suppose, in the list of things, along with hp and spell slots. (Ki points, uses of Lucky, and other such things also would be shared.)

[Mastikator]

The reason I brought up planar travel was due to information. Do they share information, do they see, know, hear what the others hear? If they are separated does both know what the other are experiencing, if your duplicate is killed outside of your field of view (and reach of sound, etc) do you know what "killed" it?

[Segev]

The reason I brought up planar travel was due to information. Do they share information, do they see, know, hear what the others hear? If they are separated does both know what the other are experiencing, if your duplicate is killed outside of your field of view (and reach of sound, etc) do you know what "killed" it?

My intent is that they're both you. You are aware of what both are doing.

[Foolwise]

Prevent teleportation? Nothing about Invoke Duplicity involves teleportation. I do not understand why you are trying to prevent a problem that does not actually exist.

This rework seems extremely overpowered for a 2nd level feature. What was once a powerful illusion that still had most of the trappings that come with being an illusion (cannot physically interact with the world being chief among them) is now replaced with a flesh and blood clone of the PC if I am reading this correctly. The clone shares everything with the PC, except for movement curiously. So the PC's movement is effectively doubled for a full minute, where every other class needs to use their action or bonus action to Dash each turn. But in this case, the PC can go in two different directions with their doubled movement. So if the party is presented with a fork in the road/cavern/dungeon, this PC can Invoke Duplicity take both forks for up to 300ft (give or take depending on the PC's build) and after a minute dismiss the one in the least desirable path. So in order to prevent teleportation... you are giving it teleportation???

You said Concentration is shared between the two, but the original class feature required Concentration to begin with, and that phrasing sounds like you are eliminating that requirement while also giving the ability a serious buff. What happens when the clone or PC is hit with an attack and the player doesn't dismiss it? Will the player need to roll a concentration check? The player must dismiss the clone before damage is rolled. What happens if the player doesn't dismiss the clone and it takes lethal damage? Wait you said if one becomes incapacitated or unconscious the other can still act... so maybe hit points aren't shared and the clone has its own supply of HP along with movement?

Regardless, what you have presented here is far too overpowered for a 2nd level feature. If you had presented this as a rework of the Trickery Cleric's capstone, Improved Duplicity, I might be more inclined to accept it. But even then I think Concentration should still be a requirement as you are basically asking the character's mind to inhabit two places at same time. And still function optimally, I presume. But with that thought it is probably still too OP at level 17 when you compare it to Astral Projection which renders your main body in suspended animation while your clone is active on the Astral plane.

Just think about that. How is the character's mind able to process both sets of stimuli that it receives when the clone is active? I think it is reasonable to expect that such action would result in a mental breakdown for that character, especially since the clone will most likely only be called upon in the most stressful of encounters. And that could be interesting to play. With each use of the clone, the character's mind shatters. To cope, it develops a split personality for the clone. Eventually, the clone's personality grows strong enough that it becomes the dominant personality once the minute ends. Perhaps the clone's personality is paranoid of being put back into the Sunken Place again and swears to not Invoke Duplicity to prevent the OG personality from regaining control. Or perhaps the character's mind created multiple personalities to shield it from the psychic onslaught that Invoke Duplicity unleashes on it, so every time the character creates a clone, a new personality emerges.

There is a reason the RAW text states that the cleric must use its own senses to cast spells via the ID illusion. Because there is no teleportation in play. "You can cast spells as though you were in the illusion's space, but you must use your own senses." Key phrases there are- 'as though you were' followed by 'but you must use your own senses'. If the cleric was able to divinely teleport into the illusion's space to cast a spell, the text would simply say, "You can cast spells in the illusion's space." Honestly, I don't understand why it is generally accepted that you can't see/hear/smell/taste through the illusion, but somehow it is accepted you can cast touch spells? You can see/hear/smell targets from afar... taste and touch not so much.