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So a magic-user goes ahead and creates a clone of themselves using the Clone spell. They then take the clone to safe place and hide it in a closet.

Years later, a group of adventures are exploring the safe place and find the clone in the closet. They chop it up with axes and set it on fire, then feed what's left to some carrion crawlers.

Is the magic-user aware that their clone has been destroyed? The spell description doesn't specify one way or the other.

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    \$\begingroup\$ "The spell description doesn't specify one way or the other." uhm, it absolutely specifies that the caster is not aware because of the "no secret rules" principle. By not saying anything "either way" the spell description is very very clearly stating that they are not aware, why would they? \$\endgroup\$
    – Hobbamok
    Commented Mar 6 at 14:16
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    \$\begingroup\$ One important thing: Anyone who makes a clone would likely use the Alarm spell, or a glyph of warding to protect their clone, so even if they don't know if a clone died specifically, high level spellcasters are usually privy to tampering with their experiments. \$\endgroup\$
    – tuskiomi
    Commented Mar 6 at 17:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ @tuskiomi: Alarm isn't particularly useful, since the duration is just 8 hours, and the range on the mental ping is just 1 mile, with no option for upcasting. Glyph of Warding is rather limited due to the capped spell level and the fact that any triggered spell has to target the person who triggered it, or the area around them, so it's not great for alerting at a distance w/o some magical Rube Goldberg machine to make it turn into something useful for long distance communication. Really, the solution is to wait a couple levels, then put your Clone in a Demiplane you share with no one. \$\endgroup\$
    – ShadowRanger
    Commented Mar 6 at 22:00
  • \$\begingroup\$ Just make sure to leave a copy of your spellbook and a Plane Shift tuning fork for your home plane in there, or whatever you need to cast Banishment, or your clone could potentially end up trapped there since Demiplane isn't explicitly able to let you out of your Demiplane once the door closes. \$\endgroup\$
    – ShadowRanger
    Commented Mar 6 at 22:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ShadowRanger it's not hard to get a golem to activate a scroll every 8 hours :) level 1 spells are in excess \$\endgroup\$
    – tuskiomi
    Commented Mar 20 at 20:46

2 Answers 2

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With no statement in the spell description that the caster would be notified of the clone's destruction, there is no reason to believe that the caster would be notified.

This goes along with the standard of "there are no secret rules".

As, perhaps, some anecdotal evidence for how it was meant to be used, there are references in old Forgotten Realms novels to Manshoon's clones being destroyed by rivals to prevent his oft repeated revivals from recurring. Manshoon was unaware of the destruction of the clones. He did have a special version of the spell that allowed multiple existing clones, but I believe that was the only difference between the versions.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Does the current version of Clone disallow having multiple clones? \$\endgroup\$
    – Honey Battery
    Commented Mar 5 at 22:02
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    \$\begingroup\$ @HoneyBattery Just that it refers to the soul as a singular, "the soul transfers to the clone". There's no mechanics given for which clone would receive the soul in the case of multiple clones and there is no mention in the rules that souls could be split or duplicated. DM adjudication is definitely needed. I believe that previous editions specifically called out that only the most recent clone was used. \$\endgroup\$
    – Michael Richardson
    Commented Mar 5 at 22:18
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    \$\begingroup\$ I think this is the right answer. The duration of the spell is 'instantaneous', so it's not a case where the spell is ongoing and the caster would know if the spell ended. \$\endgroup\$
    – tuskiomi
    Commented Mar 6 at 17:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ With all of this said - if you're any form of competent spellcaster, you should put some form of magical trap to warn you if your clone was ever destroyed. That Manshoon didn't do it is, honestly, quite annoying. \$\endgroup\$
    – T. Sar
    Commented Mar 7 at 11:52
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    \$\begingroup\$ My gut says this is correct take on the spell given the description. Since there is no mention that the creator gets "status updates" on the clone after it's created ("no secret rule"), then the creator is in the dark to anything that happens to the clone(s). I'm going to accept this answer. Also, good call referring to Manshoon's lore about his clones. \$\endgroup\$
    – DMfiend
    Commented Mar 7 at 15:51
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Manshoon is a good example of casters being unaware of the condition of their clones. Nothing in the Ruins of Zhentil Keep the AD&D 2E sourcebook or Shadows of Doom the novel indicates that Manshoon has any idea if his stasis clones are destroyed. In Ruins of Zhentil Keep the stasis clone spell used by Manshoon is detailed on page 124:

Manshoon's stasis clones are obvious targets for those who wish him dead, permanently. Several time his enemies or his rivals in the Inner Circle of the Zhentarim have gone to a great deal of trouble to kill him and destroy all of his stasis clones, only to find that Manshoon had squirreled away one or two they had missed.

In Shadows of Doom the activated Manshoon clone is unaware of the status of any other clones, on page 302:

Manshoon strode steadily across the city towards the Tower High. This long walk in dusty garments meant that his enemies—accursed Elminster doubtless among them—had won. Again.

The black-robed, dark-eyed Lord Archmage of Zhentil Keep checked then, half turning to look back. Had there been other bodies—more waiting Manshoons—lying in the crypt beside him? How many times had he made this walk?

The description of stasis clone is very close to the 5E clone spell, much closer than the AD&D 1E-2E clone spell. The stasis clone spell takes nearly a full page, and covers many details, including how the caster can update the clones memories, but nothing about what the caster is aware of. Therefore it seems the caster is unaware of what happens to his or her clones once the spell is cast. Despite the age of the sources Manshoon is the best source of information about the clone spell as his source of near immortality is the stasis clone spell.

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