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For this question, I'll pose it in the form of an example since it gets confusing otherwise

Say I am playing a level 17-20 wizard who wants to use the Clone spell to become immortal, but want a safe place to hide the clones. In line with this, I decide to use the Demiplane spell to create a demiplane, and create a clone inside of the demiplane (using wish to avoid dealing with the duration of demiplane). I then leave the demiplane, and eventually die at some point after the clone has matured.

At this point, my clone activates, and my wizard's soul re-enters it. At this point, while the wizard's soul is native to the plane they were born on, their body was created in the demiplane. As such, for the purposes of such spells and effects as Banishment that vary in effects depending on a creature's native plane, is the wizard native to the plane that it's soul comes from, or to the demiplane that it's body was created in?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I am curious about wish and duration. What does wish do? What duration are you trying to avoid? \$\endgroup\$
    – SeriousBri
    Nov 20, 2021 at 19:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ Wish allows one to cast any spell of level 8 or lower instantly. Since the door created with demiplane closes after 1 hour, and clone takes 1 hour to cast, if one were to cast clone normally while inside the demiplane it would close before they were out, while casting it with wish lets a person leave the demiplane normally \$\endgroup\$
    – Smart_TJ
    Nov 20, 2021 at 21:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Smart_TJ, point of note, the demiplane spell just controls a door. So the wizard can cast it, enter the demiplane,, and stay there for more than an hour. The door goes away, but the wizard can use Plane Shift (or similar magic) to get back to Prime without running the risk of losing wish forever. \$\endgroup\$
    – MivaScott
    Nov 20, 2021 at 23:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ Editions before 5th (especially 2nd) deal a lot more in planar mechanics. I don’t know if there is any information out there about this, but I’m friends with a noted 2e-3e Planescape expert—would you be interested in his answer if he has one based on that older material? \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    Nov 21, 2021 at 2:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MivaScott yes, I do recognize that, I just wanted to address it in advance to avoid dilution of the answers that I received (I didn't want people to focus on the overlapping durations in the example instead of the question itself). I appreciate the comment regardless, however \$\endgroup\$
    – Smart_TJ
    Nov 21, 2021 at 2:52

3 Answers 3

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It’s up to the DM.

This gets into the realm of metaphysics that simply isn’t addressed in the spell description or lore. “Native plane” isn’t given a precise definition, and so there is just no clear answer here. So it’s up to the DM to make this call when it comes into play.

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No, because clone creates a duplicate.

If the clone were different in any meaningful way, it would not be a clone.

The spell clone reads:

This spell grows an inert duplicate of a living, Medium creature as a safeguard against death.... The clone is physically identical to the original and has the same personality, memories, and abilities

Note also that clone specifically calls out the only way the clone can be different from the caster:

... you can also choose to have the clone be a younger version of the same creature.

Your native plane is a property that the game cares about (per banishment). Because all other relevant properties are transferred to the clone (aside from impossible property duplications, like location - you can't both be in the same place), native plane is also.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I do not believe that the text of the spell establishes that "all other relevant properties are transferred to the clone". The creature's native plane is not an aspect of its personality, memories, or abilities, and it is not clear that it's a physical property either. \$\endgroup\$
    – ApproachingDarknessFish
    Nov 21, 2021 at 10:08
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    \$\begingroup\$ @ApproachingDarknessFish Since "native plane" affects some spells, in a predictable, mechanically objective way, this means that in DnD, it is a physical property. \$\endgroup\$
    – ivan_pozdeev
    Nov 21, 2021 at 18:10
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ApproachingDarknessFish It's just a common-sense reading of the spell. A duplicate is a duplicate is a duplicate. If a player came to me claiming otherwise I would immediately accuse them of rules lawyering. \$\endgroup\$
    – order
    Nov 22, 2021 at 0:49
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No, because there's no rule that says "native plane is the one you were born on".

The rules tells us that regular creatures are from the Prime Material Plane, and that's it. Not very satisfying, but that's what we've got. They don't say the rule is because they were born there. If you kidnap a pregnant woman so she has her baby on another plane and invoke the "native plane is where you were born" rule -- there's no such rule. The only rule we have says that the human baby is native to the PMP since it just is.

Now, maybe "born there == native to there" is obvious so needs no ruling. After all, babies born in the United States can automatically be "native" (as in citizens), but that's an exception. Most other countries don't have that rule. In other words, it's not common sense that you're native to where you were born. For a more emotional argument, when a polar bear gives birth in a zoo we wouldn't say the cub is native to Florida.

So that leaves us with a Clone having the same nativity as the original since there's no reason (no rule, and no plain-meaning reading) to think it would change merely by being born somewhere else.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I follow you here. Under this, what do you think defines where a creature is native to? You state that a creature born in a demiplane isn't native to there because being born somewhere doesn't make you native to it, but if that's the case, then what does determine where someone or something is native to? What defines what place the original is native to? \$\endgroup\$
    – Smart_TJ
    Nov 22, 2021 at 1:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Smart_TJ That's the point -- we're never told the rules. I'm saying where you're born is irrelevant since we're never told that's a rule. All we're left with is "clone has same native plane since there's no rule saying otherwise". Maybe I can edit to make that more clear. \$\endgroup\$
    – Owen Reynolds
    Nov 22, 2021 at 2:03
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    \$\begingroup\$ "it's not common sense that you're native to where you were born."--that's literally what the word native means, though? "nato" means "born". "native" means "of or relating to the process of birth". \$\endgroup\$
    – Nick Matteo
    Nov 22, 2021 at 6:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ @NickMatteo But "native" has plenty of definitions, right? and besides, we're looking for "native plane". The obvious D&D one seems to involve being indigenous -- the plane your body was meant to function in (like the Florida polar bear). \$\endgroup\$
    – Owen Reynolds
    Nov 22, 2021 at 14:45

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