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Something you said here is an idea I have toyed with, and so far all my players think it's really fun. While you are at it, throw a few neutral NPCs or even foes into the players' laps. I have had fights where my 4 or 5 players encounterd 3 dozen orcs (for example). Rather than have all my...

LOL, I don't even know how to talk to you. I don't mean that as an insult. You have your way and I have mine. I am not saying either way is better or worse. All I am saying is that your way and my way are so different that we don't share a common point of reference. For me, if I want to throw...

That's a great idea. But from a game mechanics standpoint, it is self defeating. If you won't use the book, won't even glance sidelong at the book, then why did you buy the book? If the book itself tells you to not use the book, then why did the writer write the book, why was it published...

Why isn't this player more engaged in the game? Why is he only engaged when he is rolling dice for his own character? Can he not find enjoyment by observing the actions of his fellow players, sharing his observations and suggestions, maybe even offering to handle part of that menagerie so the...

Yes. Sometimes. But defense won't win the battle. Summoning a wall to stand there and take all your actions while the wall gets beat down only means that once that wall is breached, the enemy will be in your face again and nothing will have changed. If the creature cannot take actions to win...

Since it can be planned for, and encounters balanced for it, why limit it to 1. "Hear me o citizens of FantasyTown. A small army of trolls is approaching. We probably need about 50 men to hold the bridge against this army, but there are only 5 of us, so we can only take 5 of you. The bridge...

But it is interesting. A fun movie, The Beastmaster, came out in 1982: http://imdb.com/title/tt0083630/ A TV series of the same name, BeastMaster, shares a similar concept and produced 66 episodes beginning in 1999: http://imdb.com/title/tt0215392/ Apparently, some people like the concept and...

In that case, we agree. This would be a great application for summon spells.

Why doesn't this further the discussion? To me, those comments serve to show that some players are all right with the current 3.5 implementation of cohorts (etc.). It seems perfectly germaine to this discussion to bring up this fact. Maybe it's just different strokes for different folks -...

Agreed. I tell players right up front when they first bring it up in the discussion: "You're all people. Just because that one guy is played by the DM and the rest are played by you players, doesn't mean that any of your characters see yourselves or your companions as more or less real, more or...

Yes, but we're talking a role-playing game here. This isn't checkers. The other 4 people are not penalized. They should be glad that their chances of survival just increased. The fighter looks at the pit fiend standing next to him, bashing away at the army of evil dragons, and should be...

That's a great idea. I'm all for it. But - the big caveat is that the summoned creature needs to adequately replace the summoner. If the summoner can do 25 HP of damage every round, consistently, using at-will powers, then the summoned creature needs to be able to do 25 HP of damage every...

Fantasy themes are filled with examples of summoned creatures. True, usually it's bad guys summoning demons or hordes of undead to attack the heroes. But it raises the question from the PCs "If the bad guy can summon demons, why can't we?" It's all or nothing. If the bad guys can do it, then...

So your solution so this is to let the druid decide between calling lightning on the bad guy, or having his badger go bite the bad guy for 3 points of damage (but it will probably miss anyway)? The druid will never say "OK, my badger attacks for a possible 3 HP because I don't want to actually...

As a DM, I have used many different methods for this. I often let the player with the simplest combat options control the NPCs. For example, the wizard's player has many decisions to make, spells to select, effects to consider. His turn can sometimes take quite a bit longer than the fighter...

So, you propose that my summoner should whip up a balor from the pits of hell so it can stand behind the encounter and say "Boo" to give my fighter friend combat advantage? My balor won't attack, won't engage. He just maneuvers to get behind our enemy? This kind of "Combat Advangage" is simply...

Giving up an action to replace that action with the action of a summoned creature means the summoned creature must be as effective with that action as you could have been with one of your own. If the summoned creature is going to make an attack roll, with a 50/50 chance of hit/miss, that does...

So, just to be clear. Your point is that if my wizard goes to town and hires Boris, the town tough guy, to come along on our adventures, then when I get into combat, Boris just stands there when I cast a spell, and I just stand there when Boris bashes an orc with his big hammer? "Hey, Boris...

Now this is the model that D&D has always used. If you have a party of 4 people and they get 1000 XP, then each one gets 250. If you brought along a mercenary, a hireling, a henchman, whatever, then you really have 5 people to split that 1000 XP so you each get 200. You "pay for" the extra...

Ouch. If you do that with D&D, then that elemental better be really powerful. Powerful enough that Skamos the Wizard would say "Well, I could cook those orcs with an At-Will fireball spell, or I could move my elemental over there and let the elemental cook them. Eh, it's sixes. I'll get about...