Can a Simulacrum reproduce?

Question

The spell Simulacrum begins as follows:

You shape an illusory duplicate of one beast or humanoid that is within range for the entire casting time of the spell. The duplicate is a creature, partially real and formed from ice or snow, and it can take actions and otherwise be affected as a normal creature. It appears to be the same as the original, but it has half the creature's hit point maximum and is formed without any equipment. Otherwise, the illusion uses all the statistics of the creature it duplicates, except that it is a construct.

As far as I know, the Simulacrum is treated exactly as the original creature aside from the exceptions listed in the spell. The spell furthermore specifies it as a creature. Would the Simulacrum retain the original creature's reproductive abilities?

As a DM, I imagined a wizard who runs a business creating Simulacra of rich women to act as surrogates - for a hefty profit. I wanted to know the RAW interpretation of this issue to know better if or what I would be house ruling if I did.

My current conclusion is that it is possible, but I wanted to make sure I hadn't overlooked something.

Answer 1

The rules aren't perfectly clear on whether or not simulacrum can reproduce.

Players Handbook pg 276

The duplicate is a creature, partially real and formed from ice or snow, and it can take actions and otherwise be affected as a normal creature.

RAW, it seems to imply that if that the original could get pregnant, then the simulacrum would get pregnant.

The rules as written do not give a firm statement either way.

Answer 2

No

I'm in agreement with NeutralVax's answer that the rules aren't exactly clear, but I don't think it should be capable. Emphasis mine:

You shape an illusory duplicate ...

The word illusion means "a deceptive appearance or impression" or "a false idea or belief".

False, deceptive - so it's not really a human. (I'm assuming humans for the sake of argument for this answer.)

The duplicate is a creature, partially real and formed from ice or snow...

Much like Pinocchio, it's not a real boy/girl. Also, Ice and Snow don't have the ability to reproduce sexually.

It appears to be the same as the original

"Appears to be" does not mean "is".

...illusion uses all the statistics of the creature it duplicates

Nail in the coffin. Yes, it uses the statistics of the real thing, but it doesn't imply any physical equivalence to the level required for reproduction.

Errata says a simulacrum is a construct instead of humanoid/beast:

[New] Simulacrum (p. 276). The following text is added to the final sentence of the first paragraph: ", except that it is a construct."

This messes up the same-species requirement.

However...

Your depraved wizard can off course still run his simulacrum whorehouse imitating the queen, her daughter, and whoever else he wants. After all, sex doesn't have to be about reproduction. So unless you had plans for the offspring, I don't think you'd need to change much.

Answer 3

To extend off of Gloweye's answer, there are two crucial aspects of the Simulacrum that would make reproduction with a human unlikely:

The Simulacrum is a Construct

One major requirement for reproductive compatibility is that the participants must be the same species (or similar enough for the DNA to be compatible). The Simulacrum appears to be human, but RAW explicitly states that the Simulacrum is a construct. As such, any human mating with a Simulacrum would not be the same species, thus rendering true reproduction impossible.

The Simulacrum is an Illusion

This I feel is the bigger issue here. No matter how human the Simulacra appear to be, at the end of the day they are effectively just animated ice/snow sculptures. Depending on the depth of the illusion, they could appear to have functioning reproductive organs, and even go so far as to appear to get pregnant and give birth. However, the fact remains that it is nothing but an illusion - the Simulacrum will not have biologically functioning reproductive organs but instead strategically positioned channels and voids where biological parts are supposed to be. No amount of illusion magic can change the fact that any baby produced will be a product of an illusion, not of human sperm.

Furthermore, the baby will arguably be part of the same illusion as what gives the Simulacrum its form, which would mean that when the Simulacrum spell is recast and the original Simulacrum is dispelled, the baby would be dispelled as well.

(In fact, since the Simulacrum being human is an illusion, the reality of them being comprised of ice and/or snow would get readily noticed by anyone who frequents a brothel populated by Simulacra; they will feel like they are having a good time, only to later realize they had gotten frostbite in a very unpleasant location.)

Answer 4

No, as constructs are made, not born

Generally creature types have no own rules. The Monster Manual however describes constructs on page 6 like this:

Constructs are made, not born. Some are programmed by their creators to follow a simple set of instructions, while others are imbued with sentience and capable of independent thought. Golems are the iconic constructs. Many creatures native to the outer plane of Mechanus, such as modrons, are constructs shaped from the raw material of the plane by the will of more powerful creatures.

When creatures procreate, their offspring is of the same type as they are. Constructs however are made, not born, so a construct cannot be the child of anything. Consequently, a construct also cannot give birth to a child. Since the simulacrum has been errataed to be a construct, it cannot give birth.

This is in line with several of the other answers as the reason this would not work. I think it still is helpful to have an answer with actual cited rules support why constructs cannot give birth.

Answer 5

" The duplicate is a creature, partially real and formed from ice or snow, and it can take actions and otherwise be affected as a normal creature "

Getting a brothels worth of high level mages to agree to use up their one simulacrum casting for a questionable source of income would be nigh impossible, but forstbite shouldn't be an issue.
A partially real human shouldn't be able to support a fetus. 'Course, you could cast true polymorph on the sim and get a permanently loyal henchman while minimizing the risk to those expensive HP that the sim has. My question is; can you use healing potions on something that can "otherwise be affected as a normal creature"