Evil Summons
Everyone loves a good summons. Poofing an ally onto the battlefield is one of the most effective tactics out there. Whether you’re calling for a dire rat at level one or a fearsome barbed devil at fifteen, summons are an amazing value for a single action. Of course, the raw mechanical power on offer is often overshadowed by all the unanswered questions.
Where does the creature go when it dies? Is there a celestial or infernal waiting room somewhere full of creatures waiting to get summoned? Is taking a turn in that room like community service for extraplanar creatures?
In 3.X D&D, the magic chapter tells us that, “When the spell ends or is dispelled, a summoned creature is instantly sent back to where it came from… A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or if its hit points drop to 0 or lower, but it is not really dead. It takes 24 hours for the creature to reform, during which time it can’t be summoned again.” So I guess it’s not really the creature you summon, but a transdimensional projection? But then why would the creature take time to reform? And what’s this bit about “during which time it can’t be summoned again?” Does that mean I can request Broseidon the Celestial Dolphin every time I cast summon monster? I sure hope not, because that means Broseidon is in for a VERY long night of trap finding.
How about the rest of you guys? How do you conceptualize summoning? And how do you live with yourself knowing that you’re putting all those cute little critters in harm’s way?
ARE YOU AN IMPATIENT GAMER? If so, you should check out the “Henchman” reward level over on The Handbook of Heroes Patreon. For just one buck a month, you can get each and every Handbook of Heroes comic a day earlier than the rest of your party members. That’s bragging rights right there!
we live with it by not dying of the thing we summoned it to handle… in wednesday’s case, surprise young green dragon. at level 3. with two players. i brought out the npc uber druid they were there to talk to, and a passing cleric (also lvl 3) that was also there seeking knowledge from the Great Reidoth (how to bake at high altitudes)
And that is the tale of how 1d4+1 valiant giant skunks gave their lives so that the party might live.
I’ve never lost any sleep over summoned outsiders bleeding out once they poof back home. There’s whole abyss full of them! I mean heaven full. Honestly though, I’m always a little scared to use summon spells. If anyone can tell what your casting it guarantees every enemy who can is gonna charge at you next turn. I’m a caster not a pin-cushion.
What!? You mean to say you’re not spending all your time at the table agonizing over moral quandaries? You Sir are having bad wrong fun! 😛
The full round action is a big deal, but I always thought the old standby of invisible + summons made it viable as a strategy.
I says summon on the tin, so I always assumed it was a summoning of a real creature. A real creature that was just going about it’s business and then BAM, somewhere completely different and magically compelled to do this random weirdos bidding. It’s super alarming for the few seconds it takes them to remember that story of the same thing happening that everyone hears happened to their friend’s brother’s uncle’s roommate. Then it’s just aggravating.
As a summoner, I imagine you’ve already decided that whatever you’re summoning is either A) too stupid to hold a grudge, B) is evil and hates you for existing already so whatever, C) is too celestial to actually hold a grudge, D) is too fey to not think it was a good time can we please go again only faster and with more blood, glitter, and mixed drinks this time?
In the end the moral justification is that pain and an inconveniently timed drafting into this random joker’s personal army is temporary and death is… well also temporary in many cases but still not a lot of fun and a much bigger inconvenience. And a thing that happens to you.
I wonder if the average extraplanar creature believes in all these summoning stories, or if they just get dismissed as urban myths.
Not D&D/PF, but this bit of TES lore seems apropriate: https://www.imperial-library.info/content/i-was-summoned-mortal
Hey, this ain’t no D&D/PF comic. It just happens to look a lot like one most days. Elder Scrolls is on point, and that bit of fic was perfect. Given that a lot of people seem to think that summoned creatures are somehow not quite alive, it’s nice to see one with a fully realized personality.
I just imagined the “Average Extraplanar Creature”: A hexagonal prism shaped half-metallic, one eight each fire, water, air, and earth elemental with a barbed devil tail, faerie wings, and a halo. Thanks for that.
If you ever manifest a talent for sorcery, I’m sure you will find that you’ve got some modron blood. That’s the only explanation for that degree of literalness. 😛
Yes, but it will probably be because I killed and ate an Average Extraplanar Creature. I’ll have all sorts of blood in me. The perfect recipe for becoming a sorcerer! =P
I do love playing me some Summoners. It’s my favorite class in PF. With Summon Monster being left open to interpretation, you’ve got a fun blank slate that you can fill in based on your character’s own viewpoints.
Xallis the Conjurer is a Chelaxian merchant’s son who struck out with the Pathfinder Society because he wanted to practice his innate talents without the oversight of an invasive church state. His Eidolon is built like a Rogue, and is often used to find traps. Summons are used as shock troops and, when his Eidolon is unable to perform her services, trap detectors as depicted in the comic above.
In his backstory, he gained his powers (and his Eidolon) from a Mother-of-monsters style broodmother that spawns these creatures specifically to serve him. It might be true, but he might be crazy. Considering it’s Pathfinder Society, I doubt that distinction will (or even could) be clarified.
While I was going for a bit of a Vaarsuvius (Order of the Stick) vibe, these days I can’t help but notice he has just a little Calvin Candy (D’jango Unchained) in him. I could have a lot of fun with that.
Wait a minute. What do you mean, “His Eidolon is built like a Rogue?” I thought Eidolons were all required to have seven tentacles, five butts, and a minimum of 29 natural attacks?
It’s almost as if the old Eidolons were perfectly capable of being interesting entities with depth and movitations, just as involved in the game world as any other PC, all without being forced into restrictive subtypes! Fancy that.
Oh well. Unchained is really fun, but I can’t help but feel some condescension coming off of the Paizo staff every time Summoners were ever brought up in conversation.
Naw, I feel ya. Eidolons are an invitation for the player to do something interesting with cosmology. For example, I remember hearing one player talking about his PC’s dead brother fighting through the afterlife to win the right to become a guardian spirit, returning to the prime material as an eidolon. That’s good stuff. It’s just that, because they’re so easy to optimized (e.g. “29 natural attacks”), they became the poster boys for min-maxing.
The longer I play, however, the more value I see in a balanced character vs. one focused on high damage output. It’s not just about combat, but about contributing in social situations and having something interesting to do during downtime and exploration. I try to tick all those boxes with my characters, and 6-level casters like the Summoner are especially well-suited to the style.
“His Eidolon was built like a Rogue”? Was this the inspiration for Summoner and Rouge?
Naw. I remember getting into some conversation about “most inappropriate eidolon,” and the groupthink eventually settled on building one based off of another party member and then making it your waifu.
I had a DM who ran a game where we would randomly get pulled to another dimension by some Elemental Sorcerer who had discovered the spell “Summon Adventurers”. It was a hoot.
That is amazing and I’m stealing the crap out of the concept.
Have you ever read Prince Caspian? That’s the only story I can think of off the top of my head that runs with that concept.
You know, that would actually be a really great premise for a one-shot, or a series of connected one-shots. You have some weird one-eyed, two-tongued, three-legged alien wizard who’s discovered a “Summon Adventurers” spell and keeps using it to summon your PCs to run errands for him. No need for any plot or explanation beyond “I have summoned you, here is the thing I want you to kill/steal/rescue, get to it”, players can swap out characters between sessions or drop out or show up at will (since every session is a new summoning), and as summons you don’t die if killed so you can play the same character again next week. Absolutely perfect for the casual gamer just looking to have fun and kill things.