First things first, you need to click through this link to Goblin Punch and read the blog post there:
Okay? Done? Good. Because this next bit isn’t going to make any sense unless you know what I’m talking about.
Let’s start with a random rules check: Summoning spells physically bring the creature or object from some other place, they don’t create them out of whole cloth.
I’m not sure if that simplifies the ethical implications of this concept or makes it much, much worse: Are these actually versions of Catherine from alternate dimensions? If so, does the Catherine of this dimension actually deserve any recompense for their labors of her other-dimensional “siblings”? They’re effectively immortal while here and if they’re actually returned to the same place and time as the one that they left, are they actually being exploited? What if people start disappearing from this dimension and it’s determined that it’s a result of people summoning them?
Not all of these issues actually require “Catherine” to show up in your setting: The summon monster spells already allow spellcasters to summon intelligent beings to come and do their bidding. There’s a really tremendous ethical mire lurking there. “Catherine” just brings it into sharper focus and puts it center stage.
And even if you’re not interested in the ethical conundrums presented by this particular “what if”, consider all the immediate fantasy plots that fall out of it: You’ve got wizards fighting to gain (or protect) arcane secrets. You’ve got the wizard’s guild encroaching on the whore business. You’ve got mobsters trying to get their hands on the spell (and wizards possibly trying to stop them because they’re uncomfortable with that sort of thing). You’ve got people obsessed with the summoned/created Catherines trying to stalk or kidnap the “real deal”.
If you can’t find at least a half dozen potential scenarios in all of that, then you’re not really trying.
(In a modern setting with magic I’m imagining a similar scenario also resulting in organ donor scams. The PCs get called in when recent transplant recipients start dropping dead because their new organs have vanished inside them. Although I suppose it doesn’t take much imagination to imagine angry diabolists hunting down an arcanist because their human sacrifice retroactively vanished and their demonic patron is unhappy about it.)
Summons don’t bring real creatures; we know this because their corpses vanish when they die. Otherwise Summon Nature’s Ally would also be Create Food.
Gate brings in real creatures, but there’s no ethical dilemma there: you either negotiate for their services or enslave them because you’re evil. Planar Binding is also ethics free: you’re supposed to enslave them.
If all you want is carnal pleasure, gate in a succubus. Toss her a Hat of Disguise and she’ll look like anybody you want.
So I don’t think there’s much to this spell that wasn’t already there. Although in a GURPS game I did introduce a similar spell, and the resultant chaos caused by the ladies amongst the PC’s sailors convinced them it was a bad idea pretty quickly. 😀
Edit: also, anybody who can cast spells can already afford to hire a prostitute every night, so really… what’s the deal here?
As I mentioned on the other thread, Jack Vance brought this up in one of the Rialto books. And Stanislaw Lem’s “Solaris” deals pretty heavily with constructed people and their feelings about it.
Yahzi wrote: “Summons don’t bring real creatures…”
Incorrect. Both calling spells (like gate) and summoning spells (like summon monster) physically bring creatures from some other location. The difference is that called creatures “actually die when they are killed; they do not disappear and reform, as do those brought by summoning spells”.
What you’re thinking of is a creation spell.
So a Summon spell reproduces Gate and Resurrection? And either the target is incredibly traumatized, or the spell also adds in False Memories. Also, nobody notices the original creature missing due to Summons spell, so now it’s Clone too!
That seems like a lot of magic for a 1st level spell. Whereas assuming it’s just some kind of force/illusion effect seems a lot more economical, especially since it acts exactly like that. Although the moral implications are different if you’re torturing a real creature for a brief moment before all effects and memory of it are erased, than if you’re just messing around with an illusion.
Another method would be to treat it like a temporary Simulacra; but again, that is created creature, not a real one (although presumably the Simulacra has 51% to 60% of the original’s moral agency).
I realize the original intent of the spell was to actually summon creatures from the nearby area, and if there weren’t any, you didn’t get anything; but that version was dropped a long time ago (sadly). I guess this is just another example of D&D not making even the slightest attempt to model consistency outside of a combat turn.