Creating New Life

[frogglesmash]

What methods, if any, are there for creating living beings in pathfinder (i.e. neither undead, nor constructs)? The only one I can currently think of is the "Craft Ooze" feat.

[unseenmage]

The Simulacrum spell creates an illusory duplicate of the chosen creature which includes that creature's type line, which happens to be where whether that creature is alive or not is located.
Traction may vary from table to table as some groups prefer to emphasize the 'illusory' over the 'duplicate' for effect and house rule them as Constructs instead.

A Waxwork, Tromp L'oeil, or Alter Ego of Drakainia would, though not alive itself, still birth live offspring because magic.

I'm pretty sure the spells that can inflict disease upon one's enemies can give them Rot Grubs. Which is awful. Just awful.

Raise Dead and True Ressurrection arguably recreate the living. Reincarnate explicitly does.
True Ressurection used on an undead certainly does as well.

Plants are usually considered objects by the game while also being alive so certain conjuration magics can create seeds at least.
Feather Token Tree definitely creates a living tree.

[daryen]

Assuming you mean creating sentient life, there is the Awaken spell when used on plants. While they cannot directly procreate more sentient creatures, they can earn class levels and use Awaken themselves to further their pseudo-species. Especially on the plants they themselves produce.

Not something to be done quickly, but something that can snowball over time.

[ElFi]

It's possible to grow new Leshy creatures with the specialized rituals in their descriptions- Vine Leshies are even explicitly designed to advance by class level, so you can basically grow your own adventurers. Doing so is time-consuming and not guaranteed to work, though.

The Alchemist's Tumor Familiar discovery (and by extension, the Aberrant Tumor feat) technically qualifies, though the resulting creature is technically a part of the alchemist themselves. RAW is also unclear on what happens to the tumor should you die.

If you're willing to dabble in third-party material, the Spheres of Power rules have a couple ways to go about it. Hedgewitches with the Transmuter tradition can transform objects into animals and eventually humanoids (and vice versa, though that version isn't permanent). The Bestow Life advanced talent enables this in a few different ways, including creating new people out of corpses (or pseudo-corpses, if you have help from the Creation sphere) and granting sentience to magic items.

That's what I've got so far. I'll pop back in if I think of more.

[Falontani]

I don't usually use pathfinder, but iirc everything from 3.5 has a place in PF, so craft construct + the Incarnate Construct spell turns a humanshape construct into a humanoid or giant (depending on size), theoretically this magic allows them to reproduce normally (by DND logic)

[unseenmage]

Polymorph Any Object a rock into a creature into another creature should work, though PF might've patched that one.

Stone to Flesh on an anatomically correctly carved statue could work. Especially if its correct inside and out.

[Castilonium]

unseenmage mentioned Drakainias, and that's right. But if you want something less squicky, you can make yourself an Elohim. Because what wizard wouldn't want to brag about having a pet Judeo-Christian creation deity?

[unseenmage]

unseenmage mentioned Drakainias, and that's right. But if you want something less squicky, you can make yourself an Elohim. Because what wizard wouldn't want to brag about having a pet Judeo-Christian creation deity?

Ah! I knew there was another one just couldn't remember what it was.

[Nifft]

What methods, if any, are there for creating living beings in pathfinder (i.e. neither undead, nor constructs)? The only one I can currently think of is the "Craft Ooze" feat.

"When a mommy owl and a daddy bear love each other very much..."

[Quarian Rex]

The Alchemical Simulacrum and Greater Alchemical Simulacrum discoveries are great for this. All the versatility of Simulacrum, none of the Illusory baggage as the, "created simulacrum is a creature, not a supernatural effect". Granted, the exact implications of that last bit are rather poorly defined, but it does provide quite a bit to work with, both as a player and as a DM.

[noob]

So if I understood greater alchemical simulacrum you spend 12 hours to cast it then the body grows over 24 hours and it is a 100% real illusory creature that is a creature made of flesh and you spend 500 gp of ruby and 100 gp of alchemical materials per hit dice of the creature and you also need a sculpture made of ice of the target.

[Faily]

"When a mommy owl and a daddy bear love each other very much..."

Beat me to saying "the god old-fashioned way". Sure, it will take some years before this new sentient life reaches full potential, and the cost is rather high... but on the bright side, if the new creation becomes an adventurer, there could potentially be a lot more income? (if they live past the scary first levels)

[rferries]

Polymorph Any Object a rock into a creature into another creature should work, though PF might've patched that one.

Stone to Flesh on an anatomically correctly carved statue could work. Especially if its correct inside and out.

Or Craft Ooze to create a living ooze, then polymorph any object x2 to turn it into the creature you desire. Flavourful in the sense that the base ooze is essentially a protoplasmic embryo.

[noob]

You can make trompe l'oeuils of a wizard able to make trompe l'oeuils then they will reproduce indefinitely as long as they can get enough money from adventuring until the world runs out of adventures then they will start unraveling everything for making more high quality pigments until there is nothing left in the universe but trompe l'oeuils of a wizard.

[unseenmage]

"When a mommy owl and a daddy bear love each other very much..."

That said, there are plenty of creatures whose fluff text supports the ideas both of magical breeding programs (another use for Diplomacy, or the ONLY use?) but also of alchemical or even ritual based creature creation.

The Gelatinous Cube and Mimic both have 'a wizard did it' flavor text IIRC.

My current PF character is an Amalgam of a Mimic and a Doppelganger who was put away in stasis before/during the ancient war that created the Mana Wastes.

[HouseRules]

Though it takes several years for most races, natural reproduction is the natural way to create new life.

[Ruethgar]

PF prestidigitation still has the ability to make permanent objects like in 3.5, including fertilized eggs and seeds. However there it the matter of fragility, you could get around it with Nurturing Seeds in 3.5, but PF doesn’t have an analog to that.

[Calthropstu]

I recall there being a spell to turn trees into treants.

As was mentioned earlier, PAO can do this, but I disagree with the chain effect as the wording suggests it should go off the base, not the polymorph of the polymorph. But not really an argument for this thread. However, there is always permanency, dm allowing. So it still works either way. Also, you can use polymorph any object on astral constructs shaped in the likeness of that which you want to create and get enough bonuses to make it permanent.

Create undead, undeath to death then true ressurection would be an interesting try.

A pit fiend has the ability to create other pit fiends.

There is also the normal method of baby making.

Clone.

Time travel can technically achieve this.

Schism shenanigans.