How to make cloning-power not over-powered.

I have a few characters who have super-strenght, fast healing and resistance to a lot of damage, they can on top of that create a few magical doubles, all with the same powers as the original. The copies and the original have kind of an "hive-mind".

Any ideas for how their "cloning-power" should be made not too overpowered?

From the top of my head:

1. Have the clones be weaker than the original user
2. Have the clones become progressively weaker the more there are of them
3. Have there be a limit to how many clones can exist at a time
4. Have there be a limit to how many clones can be controlled at a time
5. Have the cloning ability be taxing for the user by consuming a lot of energy/mental strength
6. Have the clones be unstable "shadow clones" that disappear after taking a (number of) hit(s)

edited 28th Dec '15 11:59:51 AM by Paradisesnake

Here's some ideas, presented as rhetorical questions.

Why do the clones need to have the same powers as the original? Can all of the clones use those powers at the same level of effectiveness as the original, or is there not enough brainpower to keep them all under control- like if someone makes a few clones to help them crack a bunch of eggs, but some of them forget about the super strength and end up breaking eggs when they go to pick them up.

What does it cost to clone oneself? Does the original become weaker with every clone they make? Is it harder to keep up with controlling each clone the longer they exist?

Do they all have to be within a certain distance from each other, or else they'll disconnect from the hive? What happens when a clone is killed, is there 'mind whiplash' as the Hive Mind gets redistributed across fewer bodies? What happens if the original is killed, does it stop all clones, or can the Hive Mind live on normally in just a clone body or bodies?

How well is the Hive Mind able to control each body? Can the bodies, say, work together to accomplish a multipart task, such as infiltrating a building, doing different chores, or assembling a large Lego kit? Or are they all stuck doing the same action, such as using the same attack (maybe even on the same target), or trying to all do the same chore at the same time? How complex can each task be- if the uncloned original is able to do some kind of complex math by themselves, if you gave a bunch of clones different math problems in the same field, would they have enough brainpower to solve them?

You can also have a story where lots of super-strong super-durable clones don't instantly solve the plot.

If your plot revolves around fighting, that might be hard. But overpowered doesn't exist in a story, only in games. A character cant have an "overpowered" ability in a story because that's relative. I mean, there's literally an anime about a guy named One Punch Man who trivially overcomes all forms of physical conflict with a single punch, but the anime just doesn't focus on that as the primary problem of the plot.

What matters is if the power is a story breaker. It's hard to have a mystery with a mind reader, or a fighting tournament with superman- so you have to tailor abilities to events.