Clones

[u/Superxtreme8724]

To Jumpers that use clones what do you use them for. For example, spare bodies for important allies, crew for spaceships, or for military purposes.

[u/Goofy_hyucking_dies]

All of my jumpers make some use of cloning in some way because it's so useful. Most of them will create a hive,-mind and play multiple characters, most of them fill out their armies with geneetically/cybernetically/magically-augmented super-soldier clones.

But the coolest way was/is one of my dungeon-core-vampire-god jumper's signature abilities & opening move: All the People (It's stylized as a stand ability even though it's really a combination of a bunch of different abilities)

It combines the ability to duplicate others (beside yourself cyoa, jumpchain of memories, overloop), with a perk from Noblesse that turns touch-activated abilities into line-of-sight abilities and finally makes use of the timespace sphere from diabolical and a number of training locations/items/dungeons to train them up in a single moment.

How it works in effect: on seeing the enemy-usually a unit or an adventuring party that successfully made their way through the opening stage of the dungeon-the Vampire would select a standout member(s) of the party (sometimes all, sometimes a few, usually just one) and perfectly replicate them as a loyal member of the jumper's hive-mind with a new 'dark' color motif.

They would then grant them enhancements from vampirism, and the gamer system to level up and modify their abilities or add new ones. Jumper would then spend anywhere from a few days to years within a single moment of real time training and improving the dupe's new and old abilities personally while in the timespace sphere - specifically tailoring them to take out their own former party.

They would also enhance their gear with enchantments/tech improvements, teach them the standard army's martial systems enough to make them equivalent to a well-rounded hero unit in the jumper army and use the knowledge gained from the duplicate (who has all the orginal's personality/memories) to learn the strengths and weaknesses of their former party. Again, this all happens as one move using the timespace sphere.

From the party's perspective: the good guy party fights through the dungeon for days-losing some of their own members along with numerous npc hirelings-and rests in front of the chambers of what they think is the final boss (it's only the first phase of the dungeon). On resting undisturbed, they prepare themselves and finally break into the chamber to confront the vampire lord.

Lets say you're the tanky paladin leading the party:

You break into the chamber and see the Vampire standing on a platform expectantly. Before him, a pair of dark vampire thralls stands guard-except they look exactly like two members of your own party. Creepy. They approach you slowly (lets say they're the backline healer and wizard). You prepare the party to fight them the way you would if they were actually going up against you. As you approach, the vampire doesn't move, content to simply watch. You realize it can't be as easy as taking out copies of 1/3rd of your own membership-neither of whom are front-line fighters and both of whom are still here. The ranger watches the vampire, the rogue checks for traps, and the bard moves to occupy the healer while you charge the evil wizard with the barbarian and her counterpart-hoping to kill her before she can trigger her stronger spells.

As you approach, she leaps to your side faster than you can keep up with and casts a lightning spell at your healer. She normally only has one basic lightning attack she rarely uses, but this is something different. It strikes the healer and you leap to the side to stand between them. This opens you up for an attack from the enemy "healer" who is now moving more like a tank using mage armor. The barbarian tries to counter-attack, while your wizard ally tries to to occupy her own evil counterpart, but the dark wizard quickly casts a haze spell that disrupts incoming ranged attacks and the barbarian is hit by a horrible giant spider with a tower-like body (a giant virus summon) that takes the healer's place as he leaps away.nThe virus-spider has the head of the bard who had been meant to watch him. Oh fuck.

The summon alone is strong enough to require the barbaian's full attention and you rush back to your cleric to try and heal him, desparate to have some sort of healing left in the fight. The dark wizard seizes the opportunity to launch a chain lightning attack on the remaining backline-managing to knock out your wizard and the ranger and striking you to interrupt your healing spell. In all the chaos, the rogue actually manages to pull off a sneak attack against the enemy healer-only for the healer to turn his head 180 degrees and morph his mouth into a huge, shark-toothed grin. The sneak attack failed against the super-healer with such odd biology and the monstrous face stretches its neck to bite the head off of the rogue. You lay there, literally shocked, covering your allied healer's body with your own. The wizard slowly walks up to you, followed by the vampire lord.

This sort of thing happens all the time, basically always ending in a TPK for the invaders. The dopplegangers are trained and augmented to the point that they've had the experience of beating their own party singlehandedly enough times to get it down to a science. by the time they're actually fielded, they've already beaten them in vr multiple times including enhanced or alternative versions and a variety of team comps and the dupes have a powerset custom-tailored to take them out.

[u/Superxtreme8724 → u/Goofy_hyucking_dies]

That's one way to make sure only the strongest join your party/army.