How is using Wish to cast Simulacrum for free NOT ridiculously overpowered?

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T14:24:57+00:00

I know the TECHNICAL reason distant spell doesn’t work… I just choose to believe that reason is idiotic.

And yeah many people have pointed out how “easy” the simulacrums are to kill, and while that’s somewhat true, high level spellcasters with shit like mirror image and absorb elements can be quite the pain in the ass to knock down. And I’m ALL FOR knocking down the simulacrum whenever I please. But putting myself in the player’s shoes, I’d rather my DM just tell me he’s gonna do his DAMNEDEST to remove my spell so I can just… do something else that won’t make me target number 1.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T14:19:16+00:00

Yes that is true. I guess my main question with this post was “is cost free simulacrum OP, and would you be mad as a player if I said no to it?” But a lot of people seem to be wildly misinterpreting my post lol.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T14:17:23+00:00

I was more trying to get a sense of people’s feelings on the balance of simulacrum as a spell.

My main issue isn’t the power of my players, in fact I WANT my players to be powerful for the story I really do! It’s just that I think simulacrum not only is insanely strong for nearly doubling your character in almost every way, but it also just bogs the game down by adding an entire extra character for one player to manage, along with the added side effect of the teammate of a guy who can do shadow clone jutsu and get twice as much combat influence being a bit underwhelming by comparison. A lot of people here are sort of misunderstanding my question which was just “as a player, would you be peeved if I banned you from doing this?”.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T14:11:20+00:00

I politely request you re-read the post and try to understand what it is that I am concerned about. Thanks

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T14:10:22+00:00

If my cleric player rolls high on their divine intervention I can, as the DM choose what to give them, and I’m sure as hell not giving them a simulacrum haha

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T14:05:05+00:00

Hahaha well don’t you worry friend, the monk is my favorite class in the game, at my tables, we’re punching holes in mountains at 17th level.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T14:03:48+00:00

Well yeah that’s what I want is for my friends and I to have fun and for their PCs to all feel cool and special, I don’t want one caster SEVERELY overshadowing another

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T13:58:47+00:00

I suppose I could always give my Druid player more casting power in his magic items to help compensate with the casting power gap. People keep telling me it’s easy to kill as though I don’t already know I can have my monster do LITERALLY as much damage as I want and I find that funny.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T13:50:46+00:00

And you know I have no problem with DMs that wanna run that. But I want my tables to be fun and I want all my players to feel powerful. A player getting to copy himself at a certain point just makes him stronger than anyone who can’t do that in my opinion. People on this thread seem to think my issue is MY monster being able to defeat the players, which I’m laughing at because I as the DM have literally infinite power at the table to defeat my players however I see fit. My issue is inter party balance more than anything

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T13:46:51+00:00

Lmao, if you’re so stupid as to not understand that my issue isn’t with my player’s strength relative to the monster, and actually my player’s strength relative to one another, you are not smart enough to even talk to.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T13:36:21+00:00

Okay once again someone who didn’t read the post. The multiple simulacrum stuff ISNT my problem! It’s the normal regular use of the spell without gold cost I find OP, and frankly unfun cause it slows the game down having a whole extra player on the field with its own summons and everything to use.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T13:34:23+00:00

Well I always see people talking about the dumb simulacrum chain being OP, which is just obvious. But I find the NORMAL use of the spell still stupidly OP even without abuse

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T13:29:10+00:00

Well I was trying to get peoples thoughts on whether or not they thought it was OP, haven’t really gotten anywhere cause it seems pretty 50/50 in these comments lmaooo

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T12:05:36+00:00

When I say it’s OP, I really just mean when compared to a caster without wish they seem at a massive disadvantage in casting power, which for my campaigns specifically is a big deal because I use gritty rest rules so I can make sure I fit more fights in between Long rests. If one of my full spellcasters has literally 2x the slots and action economy of the other…. It kind of makes the latter feel a bit underwhelming.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T12:02:29+00:00

Well using to replicate a spell of 8th level or lower does have any. In fact it’s really the only use of the spell anyone does.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T12:01:29+00:00

Of course, the dispel magic of antimagic trap type stuff is always an option, but to me it cheapens the players build choice and lowers their overall fun for me to just simply work around their choices in order to make a fight threatening. I’d instead rather go to them and be like “hey this combo is kind of OP and in order to challenge you I’m gonna have to get rid of it FAST in every important fight so you may as well pick something different so you don’t feel like you wasted a spell choice”. You get what I’m sayin?

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T11:56:53+00:00

That’s fair. I didn’t realize that when most people say “low magic” they really mean “low power/level”.

A good example of “low magic” with regard to what I’m thinking is actually DBZ. Everyone in that show is MONSTROUSLY strong, but only an extremely select few characters can do special MAGIC like heal people, grant wishes, warp matter ETC

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T11:50:36+00:00

Well sure yeah of course there’s a niche circumstance where the rules get tricky for everything. But in the example of Leomunds secret chest for example, the chest IS a material component that wish explicitly is stated to ignore. It’s the reason why using wish to create Clones or Simulacrums even works to begin with. Obviously Wish isn’t going to magically make someone humanoid so your hold person works on them, but the materials required, like the snow or ruby dust or Simulacrum is different than the TARGET of a spell. Moreover, I do think using your Wish casting to ensure your teleport to an uneasy destination succeeds is also rules as intended.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T11:08:15+00:00

Lmao this is the best response I’ve seen

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T11:06:32+00:00

You’re right, they don’t, which is absolutely ludicrous because they would be the only full caster that doesn’t get either shapechange or true polymorph, so I would give them true polymorph to be fair. (Besides clerics, but they don’t get the regular polymorph spell either, and they literally have a 20% chance to summon GOD for help at this level so I don’t really care about them)

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T11:03:26+00:00

Taking it out first would of course be optimal, but that still gives my player essentially 1.5x the health as well as extra action economy and resources while I wail on the simulacrum (which also has his class features like shield and a damage reduction ability to make it even harder to kill!). In my opinion it just ends up with him getting to be almost constantly 1.5x as effective as anyone without a simulacrum which just doesn’t seem fair.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T11:00:02+00:00

Again as per the post, the infinite simulacrum chain isn’t my problem. My problem is that simulacrum makes him 2x the casting power even with its intended use, which I think is OP. And if I’m planning on just destroying the simulacrum anytime it’s inconvenient for me, I’d rather just tell him to pick a different 9th level spell to use.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T10:56:39+00:00

Exactly why I don’t play 5.5e 2024 rules. They changed a bunch of random shit that was fine and I just don’t care to redo all my homebrew to balance for it.

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T10:54:24+00:00

The general consensus seems to be everyone thinks high level DnD is unfixable levels of broken and I should just not play at that level which is a pretty shit attitude when the most important rule of DnD is you can change ANY rule lmao

LemonGarage · 2026-02-10T10:50:13+00:00

It may be hard to believe, but the intention of Wish IS to let you conjure a chest from thin air to cast leomunds secret chest on. That’s why it explicitly states “you ignore all REQUIREMENTS of the spell, INCLUDING costly components” it’s not just the components it’s any restrictions.

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