The Campaign: He Only Needs To Copy Once To Copy Forever

"I don't like fantasy in my sci-fi."

My brother in Christ, go read the Magic-User spell list. From pp. 89-90 of the Player's Handbook:

Clone (Necromantic)

Level: 8
Range: Touch
Duration: Permanent
Area of Effect: Special
Components: V, S, M.
Casting Time: 1 turn
Saving Throw: None

Explation/Description: This spell creates a duplicate of a person. This clone is in all respects the duplicate of the individual, complete to the level of experience, memories, etc. However, the duplicate is the poerson, so that if the original and a duplicate exist at the same time, each knows of the other's existence; and the original person and the clone will each desire to do away with the other, for such an alter ego is unbearable to both. (...)

Man, I wonder what could possibly go wrong with someone having access to such a spell.

A very differnt sort of Clone War was an ongoing element in the Forgotten Realms for years due to just one high-level Magic-User using this spell and then screwing up the clone management problem, further complicated with Simulacra of the same character also running around- and no, it wasn't Elminster.

"But that's a high-level spell. Only a few characters will ever have it."

That's true. It's an 8th level spell; such a Magic-User able to memorize and cast that spell are going to be rare. That said, such Magic-Users are also going to be able to learn and use Enchant An Item and thus turn the need to repeatedly spend hours memorizing that spell to make use of it into needing only to do so for a limited time before he can shelve that volume of his spellbook collection entirely.

Why? Go look at that picture again. What do you see?

"Cloning vats."

Yes, prepared vessels enchanted to execute Clone on command.

That, Anon, is technology. I don't need to lean on rare adventure modules, old Dragon articles, or anything outside the core rules to create a staple of weird fiction and fantastic adventure tales. Of all the high-level Magic-Users that are or were, it only takes one to succeed at doing this to render him immortal for all intents and purposes- all the benefits of becoming an undead lich without any of the costs. He only needs to make the item once and like himself what he created he can replicate indefinitely- though he will want to invent workarounds for the risks.

That Magic-User can also use that same enchanted item to make duplicates of anyone else he fancies- and sell that as a service to others. But of course no precedent for that-

There is no spoiler protection for a book older than I am.

Not Chuck Testa. That's the work of the Bene Tleilax, the cloners of Dune Messiah. Have gold, get clone.

Yes, this one spell can also open the door for all sorts of gene-splicing shenanigans and the existence of the Chimera alone implies that it happened before. Other monsters such as the Griffin, the Hippogryph, and the many variations of Dragons strengthen that implication. So does the Otyugh, Mimic, and other weird monsters like Pircers.

Again, it only takes one Magic-User to learn both Enchant An Item and Clone to make this happen- but once he does, it's as permanent as he is and he is nigh-immortal so long as he can keep clones in stock and under control. So is every living thing that he cares to keep around.

Think about how this impacts a campaign milieu. This may start out being something to keep The Wizard King around, but in time it will become the means by which The Wizard King keeps an immortal cohort of unbreakably loyal Praetorians to be his voice and fist when he can't do his own wetwork- and the prize he dangles in front of would-be rivals or threats because even Elves fear death in AD&D1e.

Imagine being the player who is so good at playing the game that you pull it off. Imagine being the adventurer that finds a disused cloning facility.

Imagine finding that cloning facility linked to an automated manufacturing facility. Imagine being the player that pulls that off.

This should not be confined to Things Referees Dream Up As Opposition. This should be the sort of things that players strive to accomplish. Why? Because doing so forces the campaign into a direction and at a pace that you control- you have the initative in this grand wargame campaign that is AD&D1e. What will you do with it?

That's far more interesting than "How Can The Referee Use This?"

If you think that's too long in the future, consider that you can build up to it with making Polymorph items as precursors to said cloning vats. Shove a thing into the chamber, pick options, see if it works, collect results. It beats a certain sorcerer-scientist's decoy golems.

One last time: it only has to succeed once to be a winning play.