Goodman Games

Ok, so an Elf in the party I DM has a spell with the Mercurial effect #80, Dimensional Schism. (D7+1 temporal duplicates, lasts 1 round/level, 1% the caster leaves at the end and a duplicate stays instead.) Now the text states that they take hits for the caster (any attacks aimed at the caster hit a random one of them). Can the caster control them do to anything else, or do they just loiter around? At low levels, its not an issue, but I want to make sure I'm doing it consistently.

Two ways to look at it (that I see off the bat):

1) This is just a flavorful variant of ye olde Mirror Image spell, and they more or less do what the caster does, making them essentially indistinguishable from him.

B) They are independent people. The caster doesn't suddenly get 1d7+1 extra characters. If anything the GM gets 1d7+1 temporary NPCs. Have fun.

Under the rubric of "Make Magic Magical", I would suggest that you not only not worry about consistency, but that you make sure that the players are aware of the same.